Branch colors

[Fred]

Hi,
This might sound like a silly question, but I like to be able to tell my players what branch colors the NPC officers wear.
So, since the security/tactical branch collor is yellow, would all staff from Starfleet Security (the organization)wear yellow? Including command etc? Or would they also differentiate by area, with red for command (Chief of Starfleet Security) and blue for science/medical?
Thanks!

------------------
"As long as you can laugh, you are not
defeated."

–- Jack Vance

[Dr. Jonas Bashir]

All the admirals have been wearing red for a long time.

Captains most likely wear red despite their branch, too.

The thing goes fuzzier concerning Commanders and Lt. Commanders. If they have been in a Command position (first officers, station commanders, administrative and desk jobs, etc) they would wear red. If not, they were their branch color.

Anyone below will wear their respective color according to their function.

------------------
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide, No escape from reality

[Cmdr Powers]

Fuzzier yet.

Onboard a starship you see the CO and the XO wearing red, tactical, conn, ops, engineering and other support wearing mustard, and science/medical wearing teal.

...except when conn wears red and when the director feels a particular actor looks better in teal or red. For example: Worf wore red at tactical during the 1st season and then wore mustard after that. He didn't get to wear red again until DS9 where he was the strategic ops officer. For that matter, Dax continued to wear teal even when she was the captain of the Defiant!

Fuzzy for sure!

------------------
"The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank" -Montgomery Scott

[Howlin' Mad Mark]

Personally, I'd prefer to have Jadzia in nothing just to see if the spots go all the way down!

But, getting back on topic, while swabbing the drool off the deck, Command characters wear red in the TNG timeframe, yellow in TOS.

Operations/Engineering/Security wore red in TOS and yellow(mustard or whatever the heck they call the color) in TNG.

The Sciences (Medical, Science, and Counselor) at least didn't change, they wear blue/teal/whatever.

Department directors, Flag Officers, etc, wear command colors. Why? Ask Paramount, or at least the episode directors.

Hope this helped, but probably confused more.



------------------
In Craziness
Howlin' Mad Mark

[qerlin]

For the TNG/DS9/Voy stuff, we assume that command personnel wear the red (I include the operations officer, but that's more because I consider them command staff; personal opinion and REALLY not canon). Anybody doing security, operations/engineering work is in yellow. Science is teal, though I've been keeping medical blue, to separate the two out. Once again...not canon.

I liked the boys on the Intrepid site (all good Scots, I might add!) take on the uniforms: that the black/grey jumpsuits are the equivalent of the US 'BDU'; your workaday uniform. The black/color jumpsuit is an older version but still authorized. The old TNG crop jacket with color/black shoulders is a duty uniform (the equivalent of the US class B/A uniform). The dress uniform is the new whitesh replace the way ugly tents they wore in TNG.

Personally...I still prefer the red uniforms for the early flicks.

[Paul]

Generally, I think branch colouring works like this:

Command (includes yeomans, etc...) - Red
Operations (includes Engineering, Security, etc...) - Yellow (mustard)
Sciences (includes Medical) - Teal (blue)

Of course, YMMV...

------------------
Diagonally parked in a Parallel Dimension...

[J.Ramirez]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Howlin' Mad Mark:
[B]Personally, I'd prefer to have Jadzia in nothing just to see if the spots go all the way down!

Trust me...I've known a few Trills at conventions....and you'd be surprised at just where those spots can go!
<wink, wink -- nudge nudge>

------------------
"Now then, pendejo, let's see what kind of swordsman you've become." -- Juan Sanchez Villalobos Ramirez

[CaptainGonzalez]

Originally posted by qerlin:

I liked the boys on the Intrepid site (all good Scots, I might add!) take on the uniforms: that the black/grey jumpsuits are the equivalent of the US 'BDU'; your workaday uniform. The black/color jumpsuit is an older version but still authorized. The old TNG crop jacket with color/black shoulders is a duty uniform (the equivalent of the US class B/A uniform). The dress uniform is the new whitesh replace the way ugly tents they wore in TNG.

In my campaign a player dug up U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine regulations regarding uniforms and together with another player came up with a final uniform code for our game.

The standard duty uniform is the black/gray shouldered jumpsuit with a branch color strip near the sleeves and a branch colored high-collar undershirt. Which is worn while on duty or attending official Starfleet business on station, on board a starship or planetside. Used by JAG and dipolmatic officers all the time unless missions require another uniform. Flag officers wear a similar uniform but it has a black/gray shouldered jacket with gold piping on lapels and sleeves and a command red stripe near the sleeves and a command red undershirt. A belt with a buckle bearing the UFP emblem circles the waist.

The alternate duty uniform is a black/branch color shouldered jumpsuit with gray high-collared undershirt made of lightweight fabric. It is similar to the early DS9/current Voyager uniform except that the shoulders have the quit-like stitching like that of the standard duty uniform. It may be worn during duty watches by officers and enlisted men when on station or on board a starship unless the mission calls for a more formal apperance. It may not be worn planetside unless traveling to or from a starship or starbase or when duty watches require an officer to be planetside for a mission. (See the cadet uniform in "The Valiant" for a good idea of what this uniform looks like)

The casual duty uniform is a gray/black shouldered shirt with gray pants. It may be worn by officers and crewmen on station or onboard a starship with the permission of the commanding officer. If worn planetside a branch color/black shouldered open jacket must worn over it at all times.

The utility uniform is a branch colored jumpsuit with a deep v neck and a black undershirt. It is used when working in areas that may be hazardous or where keeping a clean uniform is difficult, such as cargo bays, jefferies tubes, shuttlebays, engineering or computer cores. A operations yellow working uniform may be given to those in a brig to identify them as incarcerated prisoners. A medical blue working uniform may be used by patients in sickbay while they are under medical supervision. (these were seen in a lot TOS and in TNG at various times and often by extras in the background)

The combat uniform is black jumpsuit with a branch colored stripe going across the chest and arms with a branch colored undershirt. It is made of an impact and energy resistant fabric much like other uniforms but of a thicker density to protect officers and enlisted men. It is worn during operations which require battle readiness or are environmentally hazardous such as relief or rescue efforts.

The dress uniform is a white jacket with a branch colored front panel and stripe near the sleeves. The CO and all flag officers wear an identical jacket but with a white front panel and branch colored stripe near the sleeves. Flag officers' jacket includes gold piping along the front panel and on the sleeves. This is worn at all formal functions and dinner parties as well as important ceremonial events.

In our campaign all command, administrative, JAG, diplomatic,intelligence and stragetic officers and crewmen wear red branch colors. Operations, security, engineering and tactical officers and crewmen wear yellow (mustard). All counsellors, medical and science officers and crewmen wear blue (teal).

Those of the rank of commander, captain or admiral who do not have command of a ship, starbase or sector wear the appropriate branch colors for their department. So a captain who is in charge of ship assembly wears yellow as does an admiral in charge of planetary security. A captain who supervises a Starfleet hospital would wear blue as would an admiral who is in charge of a scientific outpost.

[AslanC]

Well here's my campaign;s two cents worth.

We use the standard DS9/Insurrection Black & Grey with Colored undershirt uniform.

I have recently had Starfleet go back to a 23rd Century idea and break up the departments by the following catergories and colours...

Department Colours (2376)

Command - Royal Blue
Operations - Deep Purple
Flight Control - Red
Tactical - Dark Green
Engineering - Gold
Sciences - Light Blue
Medical/Counseling - Hospital Green

Now perhaps I have only done this since I am a big fan of the TOS Movies...but that said I think Starfleet needed some colour changes and hey, it is about time blue had a swat at command

[Howlin' Mad Mark]

[quote]Originally posted by J.Ramirez:
[b]

Originally posted by Howlin' Mad Mark:
Personally, I'd prefer to have Jadzia in nothing just to see if the spots go all the way down!

Trust me...I've known a few Trills at conventions....and you'd be surprised at just where those spots can go!
<wink, wink -- nudge nudge>

Woo Hoo!!

I like it! I like it! I like it!
I know what you mean!



------------------
In Craziness
Howlin' Mad Mark

[Lee T]

I think that when Sisko got Captain rank Eddington told him that you couldn't be captain wearing a gold uniform. So I suppose that you got to enter command branch to be captain one day (except for the too many exceptions to the rules you may find )

------------------
Hoping You'll understand all of this

[Aldaron]

That is the rule I use.
No doubt someone will find an exception , but I can't recall seeing anyone in the TNG era who was of captain's rank or above wearing anything but red.

Even Beverly, in All Good Things wore red; she was a doctor, on a medical/hospital ship, yet she was a Captain, wearing red.

My "ranking" system has no rank above Commander in any branch other than command. I have it that if, say, an Admiral was in command of Starfleet Medical (like Adm. McCoy), they would wear the standard Command-branch uniform (red undershirt), but opposite their rank insignia, they would wear a small Cadeucis (sp?) to indicate they were a medical specialist.

Also, IIRC, Janeway was a science officer prior to becoming captain. So she went from blue to red in order to take command.

Makes sense to me, and it also leaves the door open for some fun encounters with senior command officers.

Chief Engineer: "You see Admiral, this improved dilithium matrix improves the warp field efficiency by 12 percent --"

Admiral (fixing CEO with glare): "Don't patronise me, Lieutenant. Have a look at the name on the front of those specifications - you may find it familiar..."

Characters who assume a commander has always been a commander may be in for a shock!

Something just occurred to me, as well. Do we know what branch Picard was aboard the Stargazer before taking command? In Tapestry he appeared to be a Science officer (aboard the Enterprise, 30 yrs later, that is) - I was wondering if he might have been a junior Science officer on the Stargazer before he jumped into the Captain's chair.

Anyway...

------------------
"May I find you with peace, and leave you with hope."

[This message has been edited by Aldaron (edited 02-02-2001).]

[Sarge]

When Picard was talking to Riker about the "Picard Maneuver", Picard said, "I only did what any good helmsman would have done." My guess is that he spent most or all of his career in command branch and just dabbled in sciences as a hobby.

------------------

&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;

LUGTrek isn't really dead. Not as long as we remember it.

[USS Intrepid]

Actually, we have seen an admiral wearing a gold uniform on DS9. As I recall the episode was Improbable Cause/The Die is Cast. He was seen only on a viewscreen, but was (I think) the Commander of Starfleet Security. Don't recall the character's name, but the actor played the C in C of Starfleet Command in Undiscovered Country.

So Admirals could wear department colours.

------------------
Captain Daniel Hunter
CO NCC-73602, U.S.S. Intrepid
Star Trek: Intrepid

[Dan Gurden]

Originally posted by USS Intrepid:
Actually, we have seen an admiral wearing a gold uniform on DS9. As I recall the episode was Improbable Cause/The Die is Cast. He was seen only on a viewscreen, but was (I think) the Commander of Starfleet Security. Don't recall the character's name, but the actor played the C in C of Starfleet Command in Undiscovered Country.

So Admirals could wear department colours.

I thought that too as well. However when Admiral Todman is speaking it does indeed look like a mustard admirals jacket, which even goes with the branch.

Now this is open to interpretation, but I personally feel that this is an optical illusion caused by the lighting. If you look in the background there is a very low, very orange sun that tints everthing around the admiral in a shade of light not dis-similar to the gold of the uniform...

------------------
Dan.

"A couple of thoughts from a random mind!"