Why are there only three colors.

[Autistoid]

Seriously for much of star trek there have been only three colors.


Most confusingly tactical and engineering were combined by ops.

Medicine-Science by blue.

And command was by itself.

What I don't get is, why weren't tactical officers covered under command.


It makes sense that we have one color for support(engineering), one for research, and one for the more directly military roles.

 

[T'Girl]

In the second pilot there were five. There were four people (iirc) in gold-green, then light-sand, blue, red and green.

In later shows the color costume a actor appeared in was in part determine by simply which color they looked better in.

 

[BillJ]

I never saw a need for more than three.

Yellow = Command/Support
Red = Engineering/Security
Blue = Science/Medical

Sometimes keeping it simple is the right move.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Seriously for much of star trek there have been only three colors.


Most confusingly tactical and engineering were combined by ops.

Medicine-Science by blue.

And command was by itself.

What I don't get is, why weren't tactical officers covered under command.


It makes sense that we have one color for support(engineering), one for research, and one for the more directly military roles.

If you go by TOS (Arena) each division/color has tactical officers. Sulu and Chekov both doubled as tactical officers on the bridge.

When tactical was combined with security the color became the operations color. Which makes some sense since there is a crossover between weapons and engineering.

s

 

[Nerys Myk]

In the second pilot there were five. There were four people (iirc) in gold-green, then light-sand, blue, red and green.

In later shows the color costume a actor appeared in was in part determine by simply which color they looked better in.

The red and green jumpsuits were probably intended to match the green-gold and light sand shirts.

 

[Mojochi]

Command track has a color. Science track has a color, and all other duty has a color. Seems practical to me, and more off... uncomplicated, which is what it wouldn't be if we started having a color for each subdivision. I do think some sort of insignia, in the TNG era, to signify subdivisions could have been useful, varied combadges or pip design or something

 

[Autistoid]

Command track has a color. Science track has a color, and all other duty has a color. Seems practical to me, and more off... uncomplicated, which is what it wouldn't be if we started having a color for each subdivision. I do think some sort of insignia, in the TNG era, to signify subdivisions could have been useful, varied combadges or pip design or something

I think it'd make alot more sense if tactical had the same color as command.

What does command actually do, one could argue if senior level science and ops crew are allowed to be senior staff, only a very small number of people on ship should be wearing command colors.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Command track has a color. Science track has a color, and all other duty has a color. Seems practical to me, and more off... uncomplicated, which is what it wouldn't be if we started having a color for each subdivision. I do think some sort of insignia, in the TNG era, to signify subdivisions could have been useful, varied combadges or pip design or something

I think it'd make alot more sense if tactical had the same color as command.

What does command actually do, one could argue if senior level science and ops crew are allowed to be senior staff, only a very small number of people on ship should be wearing command colors.

I don't think everyone in the command division is actually part of the chain of command. The senior staff is usually the department heads, but not all are in the chain of command.

Positions usually in the Command Division are the Admiralty, the Commanding Officer, the First Officer, Helmsmen and Navigators and in the 23rd Century ordinance personnel. So yeah its probably not a big division.

 

[bbjeg]

Though there were three divisions, the were multiple colors displayed in them during Trek's run.

 

[Albertese]

The monster maroons from ST2-6 have a variety of collar/strap colors in order to denote specific departments. I forget exactly, but there were like six or so different colors.

--Alex

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Simple and easy to follow I'd say, otherwise you'd end up with a few dozen: Command, Administration, Diplomacy, Intelligence, Helm, Navigation, Shuttle Ops, Cargo Management, Transporter Control...

As for tactical not being under the "command" colour, in TOS is was, ordnance officers were in gold. Whilst the TOS movies had ordnance/tactical/weapons in the mustard colour and security in dark green. TNG blended tactical and security, which makes sense to me since both are responsible for the safety and preservation of ship and crew.

 

[Lance]

The simple and boring real-life answer is that William Ware Theiss obviously based the color scheme around the three 'primary colors' of the spectrum:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_color

Any particular choice for a given set of primary colors is derived from the spectral sensitivity of each of the human cone photoreceptors; three colors that fall within each of the sensitivity ranges of each of the human cone cells are red, green, and blue.

It's worth noting that Theiss' costumes were indeed Red, Green and Blue; although the greens came out more like Mustard on film (which is perfectly okay, because Red-Yellow-Blue is an alternative three primary color scheme as the Wikipedia article explains).

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

The monster maroons from ST2-6 have a variety of collar/strap colors in order to denote specific departments. I forget exactly, but there were like six or so different colors.

Correct. White was worn by the command division. Yellow was worn by engineering and helm specialists, whereas gray was worn by science, communication and security. Red/orange was worn by cadets, and green was worn by medical personnel. Light blue was worn by civilians. I don't recall seeing any other colors during this era.

--Sran

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

TMP - Insignia Badge Colour
White = Command
Orange = Science
Red = Engineering
Grey = Security, Weapons
Yellow = Communications, Helm, Navigation
Green = Medical

TWOK+
White = Command
Mustard = Engineering, Helm, Weapons
Grey = Communications, Navigation, Science
Light Green = Medical
Dark Green = Security
Light Blue = Services (cooks, stewards, etc)
Dark Blue = Marines (?)
Red = Cadets

 

[CorporalCaptain]

My alternate reality multi-colored scheme for TNG, an evolution and diversification of the TOS scheme, was not well received on the board:

Too many colors was one complaint. It overall works for me, although I think it could probably still use a little tweaking.

Here is what Spock might have looked like in TMP with blue for science:

Also works for me.

 

[Elder Knight]

They should probably reserve one color for civilians on board who need a change of clothes.

I recall that Kirk assigned Khan a red shirt -- probably a death wish on his part, subconcious or not.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

This is a case of choosing what looks good on TV over what made practical sense. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[Albertese]

I like this one .... except for Picard. The Kirk Casual Green doesn't work for me.

--Alex

 

[CorporalCaptain]

^ Thanks!

 

[Lance]

This is a case of choosing what looks good on TV over what made practical sense. Nothing wrong with that.

Ware Theiss was clearly working from the science of primary colors. The human eye basically perceives everything in life through the prisim of Red-Green-Blue, and various combinations thereof. Even in nature, the sky is blue, the grass is green and the soil is a pigment of red. As a species we're wired to be naturally attracted to those three primary colors, which is why so much art and design revolves around them.

If there were other colors, or if there were a fourth or fifth uniform color, then it would seem unbalanced. The three primary colors work in harmony.