Swapping department colours
- Thread starter retroenzo
- Start date
Because the security dept. union demanded it. It's the leader that's supposed to be the obvious target, not the minions.
Plus, this way any time Riker got into serious trouble, he could call for his red shirt.
But in all seriousness, I'm fairly certain it was never mentioned (at least on screen).
ETA: I suppose one theory could be it happened because the TOSMovie uniforms put the captains (along with everyone else) in red and someone decided that looked good, so they wanted to keep it even after the service returned to departmental colors.
Plus, this way any time Riker got into serious trouble, he could call for his red shirt.
But in all seriousness, I'm fairly certain it was never mentioned (at least on screen).
ETA: I suppose one theory could be it happened because the TOSMovie uniforms put the captains (along with everyone else) in red and someone decided that looked good, so they wanted to keep it even after the service returned to departmental colors.
"In-universe", two things pertain:
1) There are further swaps. ENT has the same colors as TOS, but Starfleet went for a different permutation in the 2230s as seen in the 2009 movie, and then came up with the third permutation in TNG.
2) We have no real idea what the colors actually mean. Might be departments. Might not be, as we have seen practically every sort of job conducted in practically every sort of uniform color. For all we know, the colors just denote the three shifts, and Captain Robau's A team was the Blue Shift, Kirk's was the Gold Shift, and Picard's was the Red Shift, with a few leftovers and specialists from other shifts partaking whenever appropriate.
Timo Saloniemi
1) There are further swaps. ENT has the same colors as TOS, but Starfleet went for a different permutation in the 2230s as seen in the 2009 movie, and then came up with the third permutation in TNG.
2) We have no real idea what the colors actually mean. Might be departments. Might not be, as we have seen practically every sort of job conducted in practically every sort of uniform color. For all we know, the colors just denote the three shifts, and Captain Robau's A team was the Blue Shift, Kirk's was the Gold Shift, and Picard's was the Red Shift, with a few leftovers and specialists from other shifts partaking whenever appropriate.
Timo Saloniemi
Except, then you have DS9. In Trials and Tribble-Ations when Bashir remarks about Sisko and O'Brien wearing the wrong colours Sisko explains in the 23rd century "command wore gold, operations wore red."
They do not talk about it with outsiders.
...but a small winged creature from Delta Vega told me, that after the alliance with the Klingons, the federation found out that red had a symbolic meaning for 'he is to die with honour' whereas gold meant 'has no honour but can be killed if you like' and blue meant 'really probably not worth killing much, unless you are a romulan or something'. Further study later revealed this to be common throughout the universe, but no one had ever told humanity. The Vulcans said that this was because we had never asked, the Andorians just assumed we knew and found it an insulting tradition, the Trill refused to talk about it and the Denobulans were too busy working on a colour code system that was extremely complicated and revolved around whether a thing was safe to eat, safe to have sex with, or both. The Deltans were busy with hair bands that day. (No one ever asked the Tellarites about anything, ever.)
Having now realised why their security officers were dying in such vast numbers, and why their captains were so reviled by antagonistic species, but mainly Klingons, and realising that Klingons were definitely a burgeoning market for the export of classical music by The Cure, as well as opening Hot Topic stores on Qo'Nos, Starfleet decided its captains were better off being seen as honourable and of worth.
Discussions for further changes when Voyager returned home from the Delta Quadrant with both one intact Harry Kim and Neelixs spare wardrobe.
...but a small winged creature from Delta Vega told me, that after the alliance with the Klingons, the federation found out that red had a symbolic meaning for 'he is to die with honour' whereas gold meant 'has no honour but can be killed if you like' and blue meant 'really probably not worth killing much, unless you are a romulan or something'. Further study later revealed this to be common throughout the universe, but no one had ever told humanity. The Vulcans said that this was because we had never asked, the Andorians just assumed we knew and found it an insulting tradition, the Trill refused to talk about it and the Denobulans were too busy working on a colour code system that was extremely complicated and revolved around whether a thing was safe to eat, safe to have sex with, or both. The Deltans were busy with hair bands that day. (No one ever asked the Tellarites about anything, ever.)
Having now realised why their security officers were dying in such vast numbers, and why their captains were so reviled by antagonistic species, but mainly Klingons, and realising that Klingons were definitely a burgeoning market for the export of classical music by The Cure, as well as opening Hot Topic stores on Qo'Nos, Starfleet decided its captains were better off being seen as honourable and of worth.
Discussions for further changes when Voyager returned home from the Delta Quadrant with both one intact Harry Kim and Neelixs spare wardrobe.
That's a shame, the Tellarites are a great source of wisdom. But I suppose it does get a bit tiring that all their parables, legends, myths and even their religious texts all involve fat guys mud wrestling. Hell, fat guys mud wrestling is even a crucial part in how they developed warp drive.
I think one of the novels explained it as Starfleet's way of putting a stop to the redshirt/death stigma that had evolved in the 23rd century.
