Starfleet's Divisions (Science/Operations/Command)
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- čas přidán 3. 04. 2021
- This is a quick lore breakdown of the different divisions of Starfleet and what they encompass. There's actually way more than 3, but this small primer covers the sciences, operations and command divisions most commonly seen in the multiple series and movies.
Music from bensound.com, purple-planet.com and freesfx.co.uk
Star Trek Online developed by Cryptic Studios and Perfect World.
Star Trek, Star Trek Enterprise/Voyager/Deep Space Nine/Discovery/Lower Decks/Picard and The Next Generation are all owned and distributed by CBS.
Star Trek Films are owned and distributed by Paramount Pictures
This Video is for critical purposes with commentary. - Hry
Weapons Operators and security seem to be something that need their own division. You see a gold shirt and he could just be cleaning the warp conduits or he could be on the bridge saying "captain please let me target their warp core. I have been VERY good this month."
I was thinking the same thing. I guess it's part of the whole "we aren't a military force, we're an exploration institution which happens to do military things when necessary," thing. I understand the reasoning, but somthing is a little off. A for effort, C- for execution.
That's mostly why in films 2-6 the ribbed shirt had more specific colors to denote division
Great Lower Decks reference snuck in there.
Salty
They should be Gray.
I think the most extreme example of the differences in these divisions is when the Doctor activated his Emergency Command Subroutine and went from wearing a blue-shouldered uniform with no pips on his collar to a red-shouldered uniform with a full four pips on the collar.
*Tactical Holographic Security Detail...super stealth personal cloaking devices...and programmed with witty and ironic one liners when firing their phasers set on either frag or splatter settings*
Presumably he gets a command uniform in the event he has to hail someone, they'll know he's in charge.
@ShoeUnited your mother
@ShoeUnited gotta look your best to approach the borg
@@ShoeUnited I think it's just part of his ego. He wanted that function so he changes himself to look like it, red uniform and Captain level pips to accomadate.
The job that would get you in all three is Emergency Command Hologram. Justification for Ops/Engineering being that he was doing a decent job fixing up a battered Voyager just by himself when everyone else abandoned it temporarily.
I love when you see background actors in different division colors in different episodes.
Why do you love this? If you merely liked it, it should be enough.
Wayne Marvin What?
@@cocofilms5524 I believe Wayne is expressing that love is too hyperbolic for such a thing, and merely liking it is effective enough. I'm sure he's not telling Kevin or anyone else how to feel, only posing the question as something for Kevin to think about.
@@dinkledankle oh wow I didn’t really want an explanation but thanks
Yes!! In addition to the Lower Decks episode where they explain that one can change divisions if they want it felt very good, it is in accordance with the Federation's policy of encouraging individual freedom.
I always loved episodes that centered around lesser known Starfleet Jobs/Careers like Steller Cartography or Hydroponics.
*let's not forget the valuable/essential services provided by Waste Extraction Engineers*
@@scottmantooth8785 *jiggles handle on sonic toilet to stop it from running*
Then you would love StarTrek: Below Deck
@@Corbomite_Meatballs *now THAT"S funny*
@Ugo Eze - Lower* Decks.
It feels like Starfleet needs more than three divisions to me.
They tried to do that with the TOS Movies. There were about six different badge colors with the TMP uniform each one denoting a different division. They tried it again with the Wrath of Khan uniforms where there were again a bunch of different colors for the turtleneck and over the shoulder strap that would denote different division.
I think at least four-five would make sense. Separate out medical at least and perhaps tactical.
Don't forget...for a TV show, you need to keep track of all that wardrobe, design it, maintain it, etc. For movies, you have more budget to do things.
I think that may be the main reason, along with keeping it visually simple for the casual viewer: dude in center seat is wearing red, guy yelling about a plasma fire is in gold, woman trying to patch up a burned crew person is in blue.
The problem with this is, where does it stop? You can have three that encompass all, or you can have thousands upon thousands upon thousands. This is going to take some brain power and concentration on your part, but imagine how your phone, just your simple average everyday smart phone, ended up in your possession.
The glass, the plastic, the wires, the operating system, the apps, the copper, gold, platinum, the computer chips, the miscellaneous other components inside... Now, someone has to mine and drill for the raw materials. Someone has to refine them. Someone has to ship them. Someone has to receive them. Someone has to assemble them. Then it all must be shipped again. And keep in mind, this is the short version. There are workers and bosses, payroll, banking, financing, machinery and all of these things have their own supply lines.
To be honest, just getting your *_ONE_* cellular phone into your hands was a miracle of human engineering.
Now, apply that same thinking but on an entire fleet-wide scale, for everything. There are so many jobs that you could probably think up millions and millions of job designations, departments and more.
Or you can go the other way and just do your best to keep it simple.
Also, try to keep in mind that the shows and movies, and most of the books and other media, really only ever focus on just a handful of characters. You are really only getting a superficial look into the workings of Starfleet.
@@danielduncan6806 My god, I didn't mean to start an existential crisis.
Barber. You think they're just a civilian, but they wear the blue as a therapist, the yellow/gold as the engineer of your hair/personal grooming design, and the red for command and tactics with those scissors. This is why Mot was the most highly qualified officer on the Enterprise.
*on board Stylist and Xeno Fashion Consultant...a vitally important role/position especially during diplomatic functions and potential first contact situations when anthropologist might otherwise be occupied or on extended vacation/leave/sabbatical or Risa*
Barber may be top on my list of jobs aboard a ship. Simply due to their extremely low casualty rate.
Mot was the best i wish he was inds9
Captain Picard was an astrophysicist before being offered (and accepting) the command of the U.S.S. Stargazer.
In the episode, Tapestry, we see an alternate version of Jean-Luc Picard in an alternate reality who wears a science uniform and works as a down-on-his-luck junior lieutenant...
I remember that episode. That was the alternate Picard who didn't get ran through by the Nausicaan.
I believe Picard was actually the first officer of the USS stargazer and then he became captain of the stargazer
He was a helmsman. He was promoted quickly due to deaths on the Stargazer. It's implied that he had a wide range of classes while in the academy, though xenoanthropology is the one that comes up the most in TNG.
*cough* Section 31 *cough* - muffled phaser discharge in distance *thud*
Move along... nothing to see here.
I always figured it was a hidden department of Starfleet intelligence, which isn't a common position on every Starfleet ship. This is what justified them having their own convert designs, so if they were spotted, they wouldn't be linked/traced back to the federation. compartmentalization at play in Starfleet command.
@@IN-tm8mw Hello my Greek friend. My name is Sloan. Here, step into this airlock for me - I'll be with you shortly...
@@A407RAC hahahahhaa
@@IN-tm8mw Crewman Nelson looks out a viewport. He notes the recent visitor ΣIN floating past, apparently laughing as his body pales. Turning to the com panel, Nelson sees a dark figure leaning alongside it. He decides that today is *not* a good day to die, resuming his duties as if nothing ever happened...
To be able to wear all colour uniforms... Experimental Weapons Division, High Energy Physics (Science), Ship Engineering (Operations), and Tactical Systems -> Captaincy(Command).
Swap the first two and there you go
Sounds a little like Sisko's path.
Fun fact, the Lego astronauts had color coded functions too.
White: Pilot
Red: Soldier/Explorer
Yellow: Science
Blue: Police
Black: Spy
Wow very cool fact, thank you!
Separate fun fact: NASA astronauts have embellishments on their suits to indicate their positions.
What about the new colours space man figs, like green, orange and pink?
Chief Engineer would have allowed you to have worn every major color.
It would be a good grounding for an engineer since the nature of their job touches everyone else. Everything needs repairs eventually, although that level could be seen as technician, not engineer.
@@brodriguez11000
As a progression of career, a Chief Engineer would have been a Technician or working sciences at some point early in.
@@brodriguez11000 It's not just that, in some organisations, the chief engineer is also the ships second or third officer. So if the C.O. and the X.O. are both unable to carry out thier duties, the chief engineer will take up the role of C.O.
@@leeowen4989 could be worse. You could end up with a half betazoid junior grade lieutenant counsellor being the highest remaining ranked officer. If I was an ensign that day I'd have mutinied.
@@eddyblackmore2834 That a reference to a specific episode of TNG? You sound like you're specifically talking about Deanna Troi.
A role that would put you in all three divisions: being the 'crew' of a small (one-two) person craft eg. a runabout
Or being a captain which is all three and then some
Only if the Runabout was a test frame, meaning you're the flight engineer, operator and chief scientist on location. If you're just operating a runabout- you're just a pilot because no runabout is a sole command. A perfect example was Tom Paris on Cochran 1.
Experimental division would have all 3, ships crew have colours but they dont usually switch colours.
Stamets qualifies with his work on the spore drive and mycelial network. He's a researcher of the basic science, help build the engine, and is the pilot.
The dislikes are from Ferengis. There aren’t any economics division.
A post-scarcity society has little need for economic theory
@@marinuswillett6147 They had to relearn that right quick when faced with a total war scenario against The Dominion.
@@theevilascotcompany9255 why? Did the Dominion really destroy enough Federation Resources to bring an end to their post-scarcity society?
@@marinuswillett6147 Look at one of the best DS9 episodes, "Treachery, Faith and the Great River." In one of the best subplots in Star Trek history, Nog teaches O'Brien about the "Great Material Continuum," which to us is just basic common sense and basic human economics. But it serves to illustrate that O'Brien, born and raised in the utopian Federation, has no concept of want, until he needs a stabilizer that is in short supply because of the war. And he's woefully unequipped to understand the concept of shortages, and needs to be taught that by a race that humans have generally despised.
While I know it's for MMO purposes, I like the STO breakdown of Engineering, Sciences, and Tactical, with "command" possible for all three, being a leadership track you can move into as appropriate.
Interesting note about Data - He is the only character than can choose any of the 3 uniform colors at any point, even changing colors daily, and still be legit.
Allow me to explain.
Red-Command: He is the 2nd officer and spends just as much time in command as he does anything else.
Blue-Science: He is on record as being the Chief Science Officer on Ent D and E.
Gold-Operations: He is the Chief of Operations on Ent D and E.
It would have been in character for him to randomly change it for the purposes of gauging the reactions of the crew as part of his study of humanity.
I'm captaining the shakedown cruise of a brand new class of medical vessel. What to wear, what to wear. (PS- I really like the graphic for representing the changes to uniforms on a timeline. That's extremely slick.)
I love how you gave the uniform overview! If I had choose a command division, it's operations for me! Oh to answer you last query to us...Section 31
" _it's not as glorious as it sounds. You could end up in the Helm!_ "
The Dream, THE DREAAAAAM !!
The timeline was a nice addition to the explanation. Well done!
Point of order - Science officers wore Grey with the 2280s uniform - mint green was just medical officers, and Security officers wore Dark Green rather than ochre.
And this is without getting into the various Ops officers who wore grey too under that uniform scheme such as Communications or Transporter operations.
Dude what. I was wondering why videos about SF divisions weren't more common while editing my BOFFs' uniforms in STO and here we are. Nice.
Tried to emulate the new Enterprise uniforms we see in Discovery as best I could but I hope they get released in the game soon.
I actually like using the NX Enterprise uniform.
@@MandalorV7 Yea, I really like the more utilitarian look pre-UFP. Good choice :)
If you're talking about Pike's style ones, here's hoping when the new series comes out there is some cross-promotion.
I know people have listed more clever roles for all colors but... Being a Q. Q tends to pick whatever uniform he likes
Although Q was able to be an admiral, Captain Picard was uncomfortable with Q's first choice of an admiral's uniform, causing Q to dial it back to a captain's uniform...
Now mentioning Q is just cheating :)
red shirts had such a glow up
They just turned yellow
You forgot to mention the most prized of all career path endpoints, ship's counselor. Because who else gets to wear a dress on the bridge?
On a related note, the post-TOS era saw a significant drop off in what had formerly been seen as a vital role, the cross-disciplinary "eye candy" division that was so important for enhancing ratings. The retirement of those short skirts and go-go boot uniforms was bad enough, but you hardly ever saw Picard or Riker or Sisko going topless, leaving the later eras almost completely devoid of beefcake. There was a brief and informal revival of the concept during Janeway's Voyager excursion courtesy of Seven of Nine, although the much earlier Enterprise era might have been the peak of the franchise's experiments with the idea.
Of course I speak for everyone when I mourn the unfortunate lack of appreciable eye candy on TAS, which was aimed at a younger audience (at least in theory). While Caitian catgirl fantasies weren't really much of a thing in the 70s, we all have to regret the decision to keep Lt. Arex fully clothed at all times. A little Edosian fan service would undoubtedly have gotten them another full season all on its own. :)
i like how you use clips from star trek online which to this day i'm still playing and is F amazing!
These are great videos! I liked the one about Starfleet ranks, too!
Just wanted to compliment the graphics of this video! The uniform artwork you did was superb. :)
Very informitive.
Thank you.
Learnt a lot from that.
Thank you Rick I really enjoy your content I have embarked on the journey of creating a fan fiction comic series set in a Kelvin Timeline 2270s ( no brown biege or Greys but solid division colors as jumpsuits) and breaking down these divisions really help with my original characters and the divisions they held throughout their career. I'm putting that much thought work into it down to starship designs as well.
All 3 the captain of a science vessel installing new technology you designed
So, basically most of the jobs on an SCE ship?
It’s a small ship like the uss raven
I sort of preferred the Support/Tactical/Operations
But we could also have Green, Orange, and Purple uniform.
Also lets not forget the Federation Diplomatic Corps which is on par with Star Fleet. With the Federation being dependent on member states there is much internal negations as much as there is contact with external parties.
man just place me in tactical cause i'd be too dumb to do any other job
Every ship and base needs at least one meat shield. It's an important job.
Love the little uniform graphics. Fun episode.
Forgot communications is also red. And then there was MACO, the ground installations. Remember the tan shirts in "Arena" and "Balance of Terror"?
I understand Desilu didn't want to blow a ton of money on uniforms, but it would have made a little more sense if they'd used the Army as a guide to non-naval positions - orange for commo, red for gunnery, deep blue for pilots, green for security, burnt orange for transport, etc., with gold for the naval types (Chekov, Sulu).
Gonna use the colors of ENT, since it's one of the few series, where he is prominent.
The chef of NX-01 wore white, because they couldn't give him a mishmash of all 3 division colors.
He functioned as a councilor and therapist, while taking care of nutritional health, which placed him in Blue Medical.
He also had to study new recipes from other cultures and experiment - ie research - which would put him in Blue Science, with a hint of (then) Command/Diplomatic Burgundy/White (Flag-officers of the time).
His position was vital to the operations of the ship, so he's deffo in the Red Operations.
As it was a practical job with high level of skill, which quite possibly included the knowhow of his tools, so it also makes him a Red Technician.
Lastly, the chef was often the only one in the department, where there was rarely referred to any cook's assistant, so by default, he was also head of a department, which entails administrating the storage and economy of said department and was crucial in planning the length of a voyage, hence Gold Administration with a hint of Gold Command.
As known now, USS Voyager (NCC-74656) had to ration their energy during their voyage back home to Alpha Quadrant, o they re-instated the position of chef to Neelix, who actually choose to have a mishmash of colors, during his 7 year tenure.
Granted, he already had experience as a trader/pilot/captain/technician/engineer/diplomat/strategic planner/weapons office when he had his own ship.
The extensive lore you provide is awesome.
Many thanks.
Then STO added black for Intelligence and dark blue for MACO
Black for intelligence makes sense in universe, if your intelligence operatives and S31 wear the same colour its harder to tell them apart
Dark Blue was added in Enterprise not STO, black was added by Discovery, again, not STO.
I was playing STO when Discovery introduced black.
Enterprise was around before STO.
@@axos0015 Sadly STO is not exactly canon (up for debate I guess, cause it is "on screen"), but for me STO is more like immersive Star Trek (as the player you can do stuff) instead of just watching
Black for intelligence and the temporal division was around in DS9 at least
@@elmajore4818 Not all of STOs content is cannon no, missions like the Vault came from the books but there is a lot of content that is cannon.
I know they need to get permission from Paramount if they want to bring out new federation ships.
Yea its on screen but not in the sense of the series.... its a 50/50 sort of thing.
In terms of the shirt colours, I havent seen anything in STO that isnt already established.... at least not with the federation, klingons and romulans seem to have more wiggle room.
I suppose if you were the captain of a ship that focused on both medicine and security (like enforcing quarantines), you could wear all three colors at once.
I never thought about how the distinction between engineering/ops and the sciences can be muddy
Great breakdown!!! Informative and interesting! Loved the uniform difference as well! I'd love to see one more in depth of examples of what branches of, say, Engineering there are. Like, nacelle specialists, or warp theory specialists who perhaps maintain the static warp field . Just examples but to give another one, like the difference between security roles. Starfleet needs to have a transition uniform. If I were to go from EPS manifold specialist in Engineering (gold) to gaseous energy specialist (blue) they need to have a hybrid uniform lol. Just a thought!
2280's: It wasn't a "red" phase. If you watch the TOS movies (STII - STVI) the colors (tunic, rank strap, rank band) denote the division a person is in: white is Command, green is Medical, etc. They also designed the rank band on the arm to have years-of-service markings (pips & bars).
(Yes, I'm someone who's seen TWOK at least 200+ times, because back before teh internetz, what else was there to do?)
Edit: Ric does detail this graphically during the video.
I never played star trek online.... this guy makes me want to try it.
5:28 ; Here are some of the few I could think of:
Combat Bioengineer; If the Federation ever lifts the ban of genetic engineering.
Tactical Cyberneticist; for multipurpose implants across various species.
Captain of a joint Science-Operations vessels; commanding a ship that is purely designed for the other two divisions.
Fascinating information of Star Trek history from the early 21st century.
I kind of wish the Klingons did something similar for the KDF military. In Star Trek Online, after the formation of the new Alliance, I treat my KDF captain as having huge respect for Starfleet to the point that she uses the same division colors for her crew uniforms. If the game had special Starfleet style Klingon uniforms (sort of like the Fed-aligned Romulans), I would use those.
I like these explantations.
"What job would end up placing you in all three divisions?"
Temporal Agent, Section 31 operative, Changeling, take your pick :P
That would be 3 different divisions again (not born yet, black, transparent)
Starfleet uniform phone station mean little, because you maybe required to take command if you are the most senior surviving officer in a battle. Chief O'Brien and Ensign Ro deferred to Counsellor Troi as commanding officer when the Enterprise D was disabled in space. She had the rank of Lieutenant Commander in Sciences and was the senior most officer on the bridge at the time, and the bridge watch officer was fatally injured.
An emergency battlefield paramedic with the rank of Commander. Pick a colour, any colour 😏
Red.😀
NO! WAIT!!!😧
Yeah, Starfleet doesn't have the most logical uniform policy
Perhaps a two-color system: The classic Red, Blue, Gold, and then a secondary color to designate the more specific department within the broader ones. 🤔
Lt. Jae must know every job under the sun. A jack of all trades, so to speak. She's worn red, gold and blue through out tng and the movies, yet never a promotion. You figure as close to Riker and Picard as she is she'd be the enterprises first officer lol
I would like to see a follow up about the times we see some science staff in teal vs blue. I think it was just a fabric vs lighting issue in DS9, but I remember Dax and Bashier having different colors.
No, it hails back to TNG. Gates McFadden got a custom uniform (not sure if during or after her pregnancy) and the differentiation between Science and Medical stuck (inconsistently).
The not-so-glamorous reasoning behind the colours in the first place was that RCA was one of the first sponsors of the original series and wanted to sell their new colour TVs to people. Thus, in order to show off the rich colours offered, the uniforms were changed from the mousy harvest gold and tan in the pilot to the bold red, blue, and gold...as well as the green of Kirk's alternate duty wrap.
While you covered Divisions... there are Agencies you've not touched. Some examples:
- Starfleet Terraform Command
- Starfleet Intelligence
- Starfleet Judge Advocate General (aka like Judges Satie and Phillipa Louvois )
- Starfleet Temporal investigations (aka the two agents whom investigated Sisko in Trials and Tribulations)
- Starfleet Diplomatic Corps (Spock worked as one such during ST VI)
Job that would get you in all 3 divisions? Communications Officer. Xenolinguistics is Sciences. Control and maintenance of the various comms tech is Operations/Engineering. Establishing, maintaining and directing both internal and external shipboard communications is an essential part of the ship's/station's command and control functions making it part of Command/Helm/Flight Control/Administration. Note that Uhura initially wore Gold before wearing Red as her standard colour. Hoshi wore Sciences Blue. Given that a Comms Officer is likely equal parts Scientist, Engineer and Bridge Officer, the choice of which division to place it under is likely arbitrary.
I'd love to see you do a video on Starfleet Intelligence.
Back when I played STO, I gave certain Divisions tints.
Command - Medium Dark Red
Tactical - Medium Red Orange
Security - Medium Dark Red Orange with Grey
Engineering - Yellow Orange with Grey
Operations - Yellow Orange
Science - Basic Blue
Medical - Teal Blue
Cadet - Medium Grey
It bears noting that Starfleet Medical and Starfleet Corps of Engineers are self contained organizations within Starfleet that have their own command structure and their own projects that they pursue.
I was hoping you’d explain why red and gold were switched, and why white temporarily was executive staff in the original series movies.
Also, it would be nice to know why Starfleet so dramatically changes their uniforms so often. Seems like they must be some flamboyant admiral somewhere in San Francisco who has plenty of time to play fashion designer
I have always preferred the Monster Maroons, more utilitarian - and the practical side - Consider A bunch of "robust" mature senior actors wearing jump suits - not so much.
Nice graphics!
Shipbuilder, Captin are the two roles that come to mind that you could pick any color uniform you wanted.
Don't forget the Starfleet Corps of Engineers which were like the Army Corps of Engineers or like the Seabees in the Navy
And if your job is Humanities based you get to come to work in Civies.
That never made sense from an in-world perspective. They should wear blue
Is this why Troy wore regular clothes? (At least until she was reprimanded by Capt. Jellico.)
Going back to TOS those working Humanities based jobs would favor Purple in their Civilian clothing when on the job, perhaps it was the branch colour till it got folded in to the Sicence division around the time of TNG?
In the USN, line officers hold operational commands. Staff officers have non-combat specialties such as legal, medical, logistics and engineering and do not hold combat command positions. Starfleet is different in that if a staff officer passes the Starfleet Bridge Officer's Course, they can supervise bridge operations without a Command Division officer being present.
I'm ashamed to say that it was only a couple of days ago I realised that the Fed 2409 security and tactical BOFFs in STO are in red when most should be in yellow. But it has given me interest in figuring out some backstory and stuff for my crew. I guess that's why there's a bio section on all the BOFF's equipment page.
I have been pondering a video for some time covering the changes STO made to Starfleet in the lore. Admiral Quinn did a lot.
0:38 I think their division was noted by the undershirt and that thing going over the right shoulder:
Kirk: White
Uhura and Chekov: Blue
Rest: Gold
# What muddles is it up, is that the base uniform changes - including the parts of the uniform for designating the Divison.
In TNG the uniform was 1/3 Division, 2/3 Black.
While the example from 0:38 seems to be 90-95% Red & Black, with only 5-10% reserved for division (unless you start undressing).
In the Captian Kirk days it was yellow shirt for main character and red shirt for "you're probably gonna die". Then in the Picard days it is switched around.
I think security should include all three colors on the front of the tunic arranged in three concentric circles.
For the uniforms that were worn in Star Trek: the motion picture, the division or branch was not represented by the color of your uniform. It was represented by the color of the round patch behind the Starfleet insignia on the chest. Also on the shoulder tabs that displayed rank for the short sleeve uniforms.
Great video. Could you do a video to talk about the enlisted ranks? I've always felt that this is one area where Star Trek lore was lacking.
Heh, because Star Trek Canon is lacking!
Worf is one of the only in universe characters to change and have it be acknowledged in dialog when He goes from Security to Command on DS9 and O'brian tells Worf he looks good in Red.
24th century Starfleet Yellow is engineering and security, Blue is science and medical, Red is tactical and command, and this make sense
If I was put in charge of Trek I'd add purple and green. Red: security, Yellow: Engineering, Blue: Science, Green: Medical and Purple: Command.
Commanding the Argus Array would entitle you to wear all 3 uniforms. You're on a static ship, doing science experiments on a ship that is almost solely operated by yourself.
No you'd likely have a red or blue officer for that, operations training would be included but not likely for the colour since its classed as a station.
Scotty could probably wear any color he wanted, but we all know he's proud to be an engineer first and foremost. Also, I think most command officers could've worn any color, including Kirk who has shown he had the aptitude for operations and the sciences, but just never fully applied himself to anything other than command. I think that blurring of the lines between the divisions, while confusing, is one of Star Fleet's strengths. It's like they set it up so that everyone has a role to full-fill within the command structure, but the blurred lines means everyone is more likely to understand each other's jobs better.
My guess would be that the crossover is deliberate so that, as long as there are still functioning crew members, most stations can be filled regardless of who goes down.
Being the head of a ships design, construction, computer instillation and shakedown cruise would probably allow you to wear all three, although they were normally members of the admiralty who had a set uniform
Nurse Chapel wore a blue sciences uniform but had a red cross on her emblem to stand out as a member of the medical department. It makes me think that maybe there were plans to have other little emblems on uniforms to further separate the divisional colors.
I've never liked the name Command. In navies and civlian comercial vessels, what you get is a Deck Department that does all the most traditional sailory things. Sometimes a Captain thinks of themselves as part of the Deck department and sometimes they don't. That makes a lot more sense to me especially as Kirk sometimes wore green and hem and navigation/tactical were in the same department.
I like that in the Discovery period+32nd century we see ships medical staff wearing White so they're more easily identified.
You forgot the federation Naval patrol which is what Tom Paris wanted to be in but couldn't because his father Admiral Paris forbid him to, which is why Tom had so much resentment towards his dad in voyager. And there's MACO from Enterprise.
If Starfleet was only going to ever use three overarching divisions, I always felt like tactical officers should have been part of the Command division along with the conn (helm and navigation) roles and... well command personnel obviously. Helm/piloting, navigation, and tactical skills in particular seem like key things someone on the Command track should have a strong foundational grasp of since a Captain's job is to command their ship in and out of conflict which means making sure you reliably get from point A to point B during exploration or research missions _and_ that you can fight your ship if you need to.
Then you would have:
• Command Division (helm, navigation, tactical, leadership staff) for the officers tracked to actually be ship/station commanders from the jump and perhaps some junior officers that haven't found their niche yet.
• Operations Division (ops/comms, engineering, security, transporters, various administrative posts) for officers/crew specializing in more technical areas of internal ship operations and/or the general functioning of the vessal and its compliment.
• Sciences Division (medical, sensors, the various different scientific fields used in research and experiments on board for Starfleet missions) for the officers and crew with a medical or scientific focus which would definitely be enough for its own division since Starfleet is primarily supposed to be an exploration and research-focused organization anyway.
The divisions that I think there should be more expansive. Something like this.
Operations (Red): The people who run the ship. This includes command.
Engineering (Yellow): The people who fix, maintain, and improve the ship.
Navigation (Blue): The people who pilot the ship and map the stars. This includes helm.
Defense (Orange): The PC label for tactical or weapons stations crew. Nominally, their main purpose is point defense and mining of asteroids and the like.
Security (Green): The on-ship security. Mostly present to secure against outside forces, always present in away teams.
Civil (Black): The people who handle R&R services and internal investigations.
Medical (White): The people who run the medical center(s) on the ship. This includes psychology.
Diplomacy (Gray): Archeology, Anthropology, Linguistics, First Contact Specialists, etc. Applied Social Science.
Science (Violet): Research, experiments, and development of scientific theories and applications.
starfleet is a military so it really makes denying it isn't hard, but the federation is not a military, this is what causes most of the problem as most fans fail to see the dividing line between the two.
I still maintain that in TNG Dr. Crusher's jacket she sometimes wore was green, not blue, making me incorrectly believe that they had spun medical off from the other sciences.
I guess the official, non-fictional names that the costume designers used for the colors was teal, mustard, and wine.
As for the question at the end, perhaps Deflector Control Officer (as in the person at the top of things to do with deflector usage) seen as it has a use in science, you're performing a job essential to the ship, so operations, and command for the delegation aspect of giving control to different departments?
"So just because a person is in a command uniform doesn't necessarily mean they're aiming for a ship command"
I really wonder who you were thinking of with that...
Hmm....maybe Will Riker? Even though he did get command of the Titan.
And for some reason Wesley Crusher got to wear all three colours at once during his courses on being told to shut up.
Wes never wore blue. He wore Red when he was acting ensign basically serving as the captain’s personal assistant and in Nemesis was in ops gold at the Riker/Troi wedding
@@slibertas1996 he wore grey with all 3 colours as stripes. So he wore all 3 colours at once, not as separate uniforms.
Head Chef is the position which allows you to wear any color.
Captains of medical/pure-research ships frequently wear blue since their still expected to do medical/science stuff. I believe that extends to the entire crew, so a helm officer on such a ship might be in-line to wear all 3 colors.
All the divisions, command crew on a weapons testing station with field testing as your focus.
Stamets would have been able to don whatever colour if the spore drive had taken off as a propulsion mechanism and he then got a command posting as a first officer or captain of a vessel.
Nobody would tell the inventor of a widespread propulsion form that he couldn't wear science colours, but then the spore drive would be part of the new normal working of a ship and he would be in a command role.
Don't forget the starfleet dental core! The bulwark of Admiral Leyton's attempted coup!
personally i would make the blue division a dark for medical and a light blue for research. for yellow i would do yellow for operations, orange for engneering, and maybe a different shadow of yellow or maybe even green for security maybe? and for reds i'm not sure. basicly i wish each section had their own color to make it easier to identify who does what
The last part of what you said about everyone crosstraining in different areas always got me with the EMH. I never understood why they didn't give him basic skills in other areas. They talk about 'extension courses' in DS9. Bashir bragged about taking an engineering course. Why couldn't the EMH have those skills and maybe some basic tactical subroutines? (i.e. how to fire a phaser, target acquisition, etc) It would have been easier to expand on those skills when Voyager developed the ECH.
Remember the "E" in EMH is for Emergency, and that he was never intended to run for long periods of time. Presumably other holograms were in development for other functions, and in order to keep "disk space" to a minimum, you'd only want the relevant parts "installed"...
Strategic Medical Engineer sounds like a job tittle that can wear all 3 colours. Possibly someone who develops cybernetic implants?
I wanted to point out that the frame used to separate the timeline of uniforms looks really sharp.
Nah, someone who designs planetary weather control systems. That's a big health concern, so...yeah...
The three divisions correspond to the three departments on real-world merchant ships - command is deck crew (diplomacy, logistics, security, away missions - keeping the ship on mission... although there's a suspicious lack of boatswains in trek, who should be in charge of away teams and shuttlecraft), operations is engineering (systems maintenance, taking care of the hardware and keeping the ship itself operational), science is stewardship (crew accommodations, food, hygiene, medicine, morale, making sure everyone's willing and able to do their job).
One thing I've never understood is why Deanna's catsuit is mauve instead of department-appropriate teal. Conceptually I do understand the catsuit as a service uniform option, there are situations where it could be useful - but 7/9's catsuit was stewardship department blue, why wasn't Deanna's?
Temproral affairs and enforcement prior to the signing of the Temporal Accords, particularly if you were expected to do a lot of "traveling".
I view the TNG era blue to mean health and environmental sciences. Health sciences would be medical and counseling, but also zoology and it's various subsets. Environmental sciences would include archaeology, botany, but also astrometrics/stellar cartography. I do agree with Maddox and cybernetics being blue. AI studies would be more experimental which makes it a blue science field, rather than an applied science.
It does seem like anyone who sets out to be Captain from day one often starts out as a pilot in Command. Picard was originally helm officer of the Stargazer. Riker also was noted as being an excellent pilot too as he started out as conn officer of the Pegasus and would have started in Command. He transferred to ops after that.
I do think there could be more colors used. The Orville uses 4 colors to split out tactical and engineering: navigation being lumped in with engineering as opposed to ST putting it with Command.