Star Trek Phase II: Origins

[TrekkieMonster]

I've often wondered if the arrowhead were for ComSol, not Starfleet. Other ships might be operating under different authorities, ComEridani, ComTellar, etc. Therefore they'd have different patches.

Sort of like the old 3rd Army and 7th Army had different patches.

Then after TMP, everyone's one big happy Starfleet with one patch,

I quite like that idea.

It fits the observed data better than the "every ship has its own insignia" conclusion did.

Agreed. I like this idea a lot, and agree with Dennis' point. I'm surprised I've never seen it posited before (not to say that it hasn't, mind you.)

Personally I think we're getting a little too hung up on such a minute detail, but if it works, it works

Are you forgetting who you're talking to? It's what we do!

 

[Captain Robert April]

I don't think the pic changes the thrust of my argument. The emblems are not ship specific. If you want to use 1st Fleet, 2nd Fleet, etc., instead of ComSol, ComEridani, etc. that's fine. But they're clearly not ship specific.

1st Fleet, etc., fits with similar dialogue we've heard on DS9 during the Dominion War. And if there's one thing the military loves, it's tradition.

So, under this scheme, we've got the starburst pin representing Starfleet Command itself, the silver variant for the Academy, and four specific Starfleet insignia for starship personnel:

We've got the traditional arrowhead, the rectangle that we saw on the Exeter, the curly-Q one on Commodore Decker, and the boomerang on the crew of the Defiant (btw, on my 27" television, you could just barely make out that the dead redshirt in the Defiant's sickbay even had an insignia, and I think it's pretty certain that a mid-60's Zenith 19" console set would be even less distinct, so I'd give them a pass in this instance; they tried to obscure the insignias and for the most part they did a damn good job. If that's not good enough, let's just say he was a recent transfer and hadn't gotten around to switching all his uniforms yet).

So, the argument can be made for at least four designated fleets. For the sake of argument, we'll say the Enterprise is assigned to First Fleet, with Starbase 11 as their local command base, hence why so many others are running around with that same insignia while not being assigned to the Enterprise.

That work for everyone?

 

[Data Holmes]

I don't think the pic changes the thrust of my argument. The emblems are not ship specific. If you want to use 1st Fleet, 2nd Fleet, etc., instead of ComSol, ComEridani, etc. that's fine. But they're clearly not ship specific.

1st Fleet, etc., fits with similar dialogue we've heard on DS9 during the Dominion War. And if there's one thing the military loves, it's tradition.

So, under this scheme, we've got the starburst pin representing Starfleet Command itself, the silver variant for the Academy, and four specific Starfleet insignia for starship personnel:

We've got the traditional arrowhead, the rectangle that we saw on the Exeter, the curly-Q one on Commodore Decker, and the boomerang on the crew of the Defiant (btw, on my 27" television, you could just barely make out that the dead redshirt in the Defiant's sickbay even had an insignia, and I think it's pretty certain that a mid-60's Zenith 19" console set would be even less distinct, so I'd give them a pass in this instance; they tried to obscure the insignias and for the most part they did a damn good job. If that's not good enough, let's just say he was a recent transfer and hadn't gotten around to switching all his uniforms yet).

So, the argument can be made for at least four designated fleets. For the sake of argument, we'll say the Enterprise is assigned to First Fleet, with Starbase 11 as their local command base, hence why so many others are running around with that same insignia while not being assigned to the Enterprise.

That work for everyone?

Fine with me... It's honestly the way I handled it for some time myself. When it came to the Academy, I followed the structure of the USNA, tweaked a little. I'm one of the followers of multiple academy campuses myself, so I put the silver starburst as the single insignia for the entire cadet corps. Each academy campus has one brigade of midshipman, divided into four regiments which each has a "parent fleet" who's insignia they wear on their day to day uniform. When a midshipman hits their second year they do a three month "base tour" and in their third year at the academy they go on a three month "cadet cruise" to an active ship in the fleet, the "parent fleet" of their regiment is where they will serve that cruise. This was why we saw cadets in the station during the bar fight in Trouble with Tribbles, and why cadets were serving on the ship that had the accident that injured Pike.

 

[Captain Robert April]

I was about to say that's the continuity window that allows Ensign Kirk to serve on the Republic while being able to say the Farragut was his first assignment after leaving the Academy, but Kirk never said that. He said that Captain Garrovick was his commanding officer from the day he left the Academy. Not the same thing; Garrovick could just as easily have been commanding the Republic at the time, then transferred to the Farragut and taken some key officers with him, like young Jim Kirk.

 

[TIN_MAN]

What about the Antares crew? What fleet do they represent?

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

What about the Antares crew? What fleet do they represent?

The Merchant Fleet.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Merchant Marines, certainly.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The Antares is with the Salvation Army.

 

[Captain Robert April]

Better than the Salvation Navy, I suppose...

 

[Barbreader]

The Antares is with the Salvation Army.

Now, having the Salvation Army show up in Trek... that would be fun!

 

[Gagarin]

Comsol is a name of a person, though.