Uniform badge question

[jgdst]

Hi everyone, sorry if this has been asked before, but from the threads I looked at, nothing jumped out at me.

I've been re-watching the series recently (I say re-watching, it's been over 10 years since I last watched them so it's like I'm seeing them for the first time... It feels good ). I noticed in the episode What Are Little Girls Made Of? that Nurse Chapel's badge has a first aid red cross in it, but McCoy wears the standard sciences badge, with the globe in the middle.

Is there any canon reason for the difference in badge? Is a CMO considered to be more involved in research than a nurse, and so is recognised as a more generic science officer? Does anyone else have any thoughts?

 

[Timo]

No particular rationale has been given on screen. But yeah, one might argue that McCoy would be intimately involved in research, including research outside the realm of health-preserving or health-restoring medical work.

OTOH, when Chapel was introduced, it was also said that she had given up a promising career in bio-research. So she might have "deserved" a sciences logo just as much as McCoy, skills-wise, she just opted not to wear that hat, that is, badge.

Hell, perhaps she customized her own badge to emphasize what she had sacrificed.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[jgdst]

Oh yeah, I forgot she'd given up the research career! (Shows how much attention I was paying )

I'd hope it would be a personal choice on her part, rather than Starfleet issuing a badge that wasn't truly reflective of her skills. I think it would fit well with the character to focus on the first aid part, and therefore wear her own specialised badge.

I'll have to watch later episodes to see if she eventually wears the standard sciences badge. She does in TAS, but I'm never really sure whether to take that as canon or not - everybody seems to have their own opinion

 

[GSchnitzer]

A close up shot from "The Naked Time" shows that Christine Chapel's patch is a sciences patch with a red cross superimposed on it.

Those who have seen the costume in person will tell you that the red cross is simply made of two thin strips of red felt, crossed over each other and glued to the standard sciences patch.

Greg Schnitzer
Star Trek Phase II

Hi everyone, sorry if this has been asked before, but from the threads I looked at, nothing jumped out at me.

I've been re-watching the series recently (I say re-watching, it's been over 10 years since I last watched them so it's like I'm seeing them for the first time... It feels good ). I noticed in the episode What Are Little Girls Made Of? that Nurse Chapel's badge has a first aid red cross in it, but McCoy wears the standard sciences badge, with the globe in the middle.

Is there any canon reason for the difference in badge? Is a CMO considered to be more involved in research than a nurse, and so is recognised as a more generic science officer? Does anyone else have any thoughts?