I have been thinking recently about the operations aboard Federation Starships, specifically Starfleet vessels. A topic recently discussed on another message board concerned crew hierarchies and departments.

One question on my mind was this: Why do different departments share uniform colors? (for example, security and engineering both wear gold.) What possible links do two same-colored departments share?

So you have budget concerns. There really isn't enough money to produce different colored uniforms for every department seen on-screen. Budgets aside, I tried to use my imagination.

What are your thoughts on this?

Additionally, what departments have been mentioned on-screen, in any series? I have compiled a list of major departments seen so far, and if you have any additonal canon departments or sub-departments, please include them in your response.

• Command (red)
• Navigation (red)
• Security (gold)
• Engineering (gold)
• Operations (gold)
• Medical (teal)
• Science (teal)
• Stellar Cartography (teal)
• Tactical (depends, see below)

I included Stel. Cart. because it is described as a specific department in the Encyclopedia. It may be included within the Sciences division, however Medical may also be included in the Science division. Further, the Engineering dept. may be included in the Operations division, however Engineering (La Forge, Torres, Scotty) and Operations (Data, O'Brien, Kim) each have their own dept. head, just as Medical (Crusher, McCoy, Dr. Lense of the Nebula-Class Lexington) and Stel. Cart. (Neela Darren) each have their own dept. heads.

I do have some additional instances to inquire to. One is the instance of Lt. Cmdr. Shelby in "The Best of Both Worlds". She was part of Starfleet Tactical, yet wore a red uniform. Again, budget concerns aside, what do you think of this instance?

The second is the instance in "The Die is Cast" of Vice Admiral Toddman, who wore a gold admiral's uniform. What possible explaination would you come-up with on this instance?

What do you all think? I am possibly going to start a web-page concerning the inner workings of Starfleet. It'll be nit-picky, but I want your guy's opinions.

[ October 13, 2001: Message edited by: Colonel Lovok ]

[ October 13, 2001: Message edited by: Colonel Lovok ]

quote:

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And after the power structure of DS9 was shaken up by
Sisko leaving, Starfleet would specifically assigned their Starfleet liaison (station first officer) as commander of the Defiant (basically combining Worf
and Kira's jobs into one) first with Cmdr. Tiris Jast and then with Cmdr. Elias Vaughn.

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quote:

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During the TOS era movies, didn't different departents have different colors?

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Yes, 6 different colors during TMP and 8 different colours during ST2-7.

TMP
Command (White)
Science (Orange)
Engineering (Red)
Helm, Navigation, Communications (Yellow)
Tactical (Gray)
Medical (Olive)

TWOK-Generations
Command (White)
Science, Communications, Navigation (Bluish Gray)
Engineering, Helm (Mustard Gold)
Medical (Olive)
Officer cadets & enlisted trainees (Flame Red)
Security (Windsor Green)
Special Services (Sky Blue)
probably Marines (dark blue)

IIRC a Lt. Cmdr. was captain of the SS Ariel.

[ October 14, 2001: Message edited by: Spike ]

The DS9 novel series is being taken very seriously by the licensing office as the 'real' continuation of the DS9 saga. But i wasnt using that as my sole reference, just pointing out thats what was happening there. And why do you say she kept her Starfleet commission and command of the Defiant? That's not canon! you just made it up, its what you assume would happen.

The skipper of the Ariel was named Tom Markel. He was a very animated fellow.

On the subject of department colors, i think that he 'command' color is imparted on those who are part of some chain of command that gives them the right to wear it. It also seems to be a variable, for example Spock wearing yellow in the pilot (which befit his position as first officer) or wearing blue (due to being science officer) even though he held both positions. Another example is Scotty from the movies. After he was promoted to Captain (in ST:III) He spent every other movie wearing yellow for engineering (ST:IV, ST:VII) and then white for command the rest of the time (ST:V, ST:VI, 'Relics'). It could be something of a matter of choice for command level officers, but it also seems likely that it depends on your level of training. If you have graduated from command tests (like Troi had to do to get her command rank & become a 'bridge officer' or line officer as i assume it), then you have the option of wearing command colors. This would explain how Commodore Stocker, an operations-shirt wearing senior administrator, could be a commodore but obviously posess none of the military experience necessary for him to command a starship.

[ October 14, 2001: Message edited by: CaptainMike ]

$$$ - Tiny Spoiler about Enterprise

Going back to the original post...

Here's a few of my thoughts on the colors and departments for the TNG-era uniforms and Starfleet (and these are purely my opinions based on what I've seen -- your mileage may vary). First, I think that there are three divisions and three colors for the general personnel of Starfleet. There's Command with its crimson color, Services with its mustard color, and Sciences with its teal color. Some say that there are varying shades of mustard and teal; I think that this is just due to use and washing.

In general, I believe that admirals wear the crimson color. This reflects their status as being in command of their areas in Starfleet. However, I also think that the admiral may have some lattitude in choosing the color they wear. If an admiral has extensive experience in a field that he oversees, he may elect to wear the color reflective of its place in Starfleet. I think that the admiral running ASDB or a construction yard may wear a mustard color if he has extensive engineering experience. Likewise, a longtime physician may wear a teal color if he heads up Starfleet Medical.

Going to starship personnel:

Command This is obviously where all persons are placed if they are on the track to command. Assuming this, we see everyone who pilots a ship wearing crimson. We can assume that a flight control or navigation department falls under the Command Division. This makes sense as a vital part of commanding the ship is controlling where she goes. It seems that a lot of flight controllers do go on to command: Sulu was helmsman and became CO of Excelsior, Chekov was navigator and became Second Officer (my guess) of Enterprise, and Picard hints at a past stint as a helmsman. In addition, Wesley Crusher wanted to command a ship and he started off in a crimson uniform at Conn.

Extending that, I also believe that junior officers on the command track float between departments to gain experience in each area of a starship. LaForge and Worf both wore crimson uniforms in TNG Season 1. LaForge frequently dealt with engineering issues, and Worf would also many times assume Tactical. Add to that, both occasionally manned Ops. Wesley Crusher also spent a good deal of time in Engineering.

Services This division deals with ensuring the safety, health, and proper use of the ship and its equipment, and they all wear a mustard color to reflect that. When it comes to Engineering and Operations, the distinction is definitely muddy. I see Engineering as being those responsible for the upkeep of the equipment while I see Operations as being those running the equipment. An engineer will fix the transporter while an operator will run it. This is incredibly simplistic because even an operator would have a solid knowledge of the engineering basics behind his equipment. I picture O'Brien as transporter chief being under Operations. He controlled the units, but he also knew enough about them to fix them (usually with another mustard-uniformed crew members who I'd bet was an engineer).

When it comes to Security/Tactical, the line is a bit clearer. I say Security/Tactical because Worf (on TNG) and Tuvok performed the same the same job, but Worf was Chief Security Officer while Tuvok was Chief Tactical Officer. Either there was a position name change (unlikely as Eddington was Chief Security Officer of Defiant), or the person heading up the department picks the name to best reflect his talents. Tuvok may choose to highlight his intellect in running tactical while Worf may choose to highlight is warrior prowess in running security.

Sciences When it comes to the Sciences Division, what I see is a Science department that branchs off into sub-departments (such as Stellar Cartography and Geosciences) and a Medical department (that has its specialties such as counseling, cardiology, etc). We haven't actually seen a Chief Science Officer since Spock, but I continue to believe there is one in order to streamline the Sciences Division a bit.

Medical deals with ensuring the safety and health of the crew, so we include counseling as a subdepartment of it. I think it's the CO's preference as to whether the ship's counselor is a senior staff position. Voyager initially had a counselor (as the Doctor said once), but it seems that he/she wasn't a senior officer (since Janeway didn't try to replace him/her). A cut scene from Insurrection showed a librarian. This woman wore a teal uniform, and I think it makes sense to include librarians under either Science or Medical. I choose Medical since I consider the library a form of recreation and that helps the crew's well-being.

Miscellaneous

For the most part, my thoughts work well overall. However, there is a monkeywrench that I've had to think through. I would consider communications to be a unit of Operations; however, Lt. Uhnari was a comm officer and wore teal. In addition, Sato wears teal on Enterprise. What I theorize here is that those communications specialists who are linguistics experts wear teal (since I can see that being considered a science) while those operating the equipment may be in Operations (Lt. Rocha wore mustard in his personnel file photo). This could also explain why Uhura wore Services red in TOS.

[ October 15, 2001: Message edited by: Siegfried ]

Two explanations offer themselves. First, Yar, Worf and Tuvok were all Security personnel in addition to manning the Tactical station - perhaps they could pick Security colors over Tactical ones when holding a double proficiency. We did see Worf in red in the early seasons, eagerly firing the ship's guns whenever necessary - perhaps he was the ship's Tactical Officer when Tasha was the Security Chief?

Another obvious explanation is that Tactical has two different meanings - there could be a Tactical Planning Office back on Earth, with red uniforms for the paper-pushers, and a Tactical Action Department aboard starships that has little or nothing to do with the planet-bound office.