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» Flare Sci-Fi Forums » Star Trek » General Trek » Rank pips (Page 2)

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Author Topic: Rank pips
Spike
Pathetic Vampire
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I think stripes would look silly on these jumpsuit-uniforms.

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"Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, no matter what - never face the facts." - Ruth Gordon

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Tech Sergeant Chen
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Stripes or insignia on shoulder epaulets would have been nice and it wouldn't clash with the jumpsuits. After all, they use them on today's flight suits, which aren't too different. But Berman probably doesn't want to be accused of copying Babylon 5, which IIRC used epaulets.

Personally, among other things swiped from the later series, I wish they'd dumped the dark, cramped look of DS9 and Voyager. I miss the bright, spacious corridors and rooms of TOS.

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Dr Phlox
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What about the Promenade? Anyway Bright colors wouldn't work on tv today and Paramount is going for a film look.

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President Josiah Bartlet: Congratulations. So, who is da man on this one?

Communications Director Toby Ziegler: I think this time we're all collectively da man, sir.

Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn: I accidentally slept with a call girl.

Communications Director Toby Ziegler: Accidentally? Did you trip over something?
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Aban Rune
Former ascended being
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I think the other factor at work here with the uniforms is that, while they say they want to do something new with Trek, they also don't want people to have to work *too* hard to figure things out.

Stripes instead of pips:
Casual viewer 1: "What are those stripe thingies on his shoulder, there?"
Casual viewer 2: "How the hell should I know? Pikerd never wore anything like that."

Pips instead of stripes:
Casual viewer 1:"What are those suare looking thingies on his shoulder?"
Casual viewer 2: "Those are like them circles that Pikerd wore on that other Star Trek show. That means he's in charge...cause he has four."

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TSN
I'm... from Earth.
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I doubt the "casual viewer" would be like that. They'd recognize it as military insignia, and that's it. Ask a "casual viewer" how many rank pips a captain wears, and they'll say "Uh... I don't know.".

Basically, the "casual viewer" knows who the captain is because everyone calls him/her/it "captain".


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Tech Sergeant Chen
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quote:
Originally posted by Dr Phlox:
What about the Promenade? Anyway Bright colors wouldn't work on tv today and Paramount is going for a film look.

The Promenade was supposed to be big, but it never felt to me like it was very different from any of the multilevel engineering sets. Especially when they would keep it packed with people.

I'm not asking for the pastels of TOS, just a little more light. Besides, it's well known that colors have real, measurable effects on mood and it's illogical to stuff people on a starship for years on end with depressingly dark interiors. Nostromo and Galactica notwithstanding.

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Woodside Kid
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It's just as easy to say the pips are an homage to the old Navy stripe patterns. It's also simpler to have just one set of rank insignia to learn, rather than having to learn the meaning of the stripe patterns (which are Navy) as well as the rank pins (which it has in common with the other services). You make things too complicated and you run the risk of problems like the Air Force had in the early 90s. It decided to move all the rank insignia on the fatigue uniforms to a name pach on the left breast. The problem? You had to get about a foot and a half away from someone before you could tell whether or not to salute him.

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Obi Juan
Who's your master?
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quote:
You had to get about a foot and a half away from someone before you could tell whether or not to salute him.

Yeah, I hated khakis in the Navy for that reason. Every time you walk by somebody wearing them on the street you have to squint at the stupid pins to see if they're an officer or a chief.

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"Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It?s us. Only us."
Rorschach


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TSN
I'm... from Earth.
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'Course, if they weren't so hung up on something as petty as saluting, that wouldn't be a problem...
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Obi Juan
Who's your master?
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That reminds me. Has there been any indication that enlisted will have different uniforms?

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"Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It?s us. Only us."
Rorschach

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Sol System
two dollar pistol
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Or that they'll salute, for that matter.
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The_Tom
recently silent
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Well, (and perhaps this might have something to do with the fact we have two ensigns in the senior staff, which is a little more in-keeping with contemporary practices), the characters refer to the N.D. extras as "Crewman" in the Broken Bow script, as opposed to "Ensign" which was pretty standard during TNG. So it looks like TPTB are going to make an effort to have a more modern-navy-style setup with fewer officers and more enlistees. Whether that'll materialize into different uniforms or not is anyone's guess; I'm hoping that at the very least we get a decent rank pip system for them.

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"I was surprised by the matter-of-factness of Kafka's narration, and the subtle humor present as a result." (Sizer 2005)

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capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
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chevrons!!!!

CHEV-RONSSS!!

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"Are you worried that your thoughts are not quite.. clear?"


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OnToMars
Now on to the making of films!
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hehe.

I'm with you, CaptainMike. Chevrons would be phat.

(though unlikely)

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If God didn't want us to fly, he wouldn't have given us Bernoulli's Principle.


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capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
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I'm glad that after all the years of tripping around the issue, they finally put three chevron-looking things on O'Briens collar.

I follow a lot of military history and parlance, but im still not clear on what it means to go from 'warrant officer' (like obriens hollow pip indicated) to a master chief (which his chevrons work out to in most peoples reasoning) or if thats even likely.. anyone know?

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