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Forums > Home› Star Trek Online General Discussion

Why do ST tv Captains wear red?

malazancommandermalazancommander Member Posts: 0 Arc User
edited May 2014 in Star Trek Online General Discussion
I noticed that Captains Sisko, Picard and Janeway (I am sure the other Captains too) are always wearing the colour red. Is it because they are all Tactical Officers promoted as Captains OR because it's merely the colours of Higher Ups? Please, no tv show spoilers about why or how it came to be (I am watching DS9, and don't want any spoilers related to any ST shows). All I want to know is why their uniforms are always red.


EDIT:

For anyone else who has that same question, I will post my favourite quote from the answers below :)


centersolace wrote: »
TOS:

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


TOS Movies:

Everyone=Red


TNG Onward:

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


STO:

Tactical/Security=Red
Medical/Science=Blue
Engineering=Yellow
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Post edited by malazancommander on
«13

Comments

  • aloishammeraloishammer Member Posts: 3,294 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    malazancommander wrote: »
    Please, no tv show spoilers about why or how it came to be (I am watching DS9, and don't want any spoilers related to any ST shows). All I want to know is why their uniforms are always red.

    You've got a choice to make, then. Either you really don't mind "tv show spoilers," or you don't really want your question answered.

    I'll give you this much: The colors were juggled around for the game to wrap itself around the MMO trinity "DPS, Tank, Healer."

    While you're at it, you might contemplate how often Captain Kirk was seen in red. :P
  • flash525flash525 Member Posts: 5,441 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    It's a command thing. Officers in command wore Red. The STO dynamics of uniform colour have changed.

    The exception is obviously the era that is TOS, cause officers in that era wore Gold or (as with the JJ films) Black.
    attachment.php?attachmentid=42556&d=1518094222
  • artan42artan42 Member Posts: 10,450 Bug Hunter
    edited May 2014
    malazancommander wrote: »
    I noticed that Captains Sisko, Picard and Janeway (I am sure the other Captains too) are always wearing the colour red. Is it because they are all Tactical Officers promoted as Captains OR because it's merely the colours of Higher Ups? Please, no tv show spoilers about why or how it came to be (I am watching DS9, and don't want any spoilers related to any ST shows). All I want to know is why their uniforms are always red.

    24th century colour codes are:

    Red- Command and tactical
    Yellow- Engineering and Operations
    Blue- Science
    Green- Medical

    Picard was a helmsman, Janeway a science officer, and Sisko an engineer before becoming commanders where they joined the command department and wore red.
    22762792376_ac7c992b7c_o.png
    Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though.
    JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
    #TASforSTO


    '...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
    'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
    'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
    '...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
    'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
    '...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek

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  • flash525flash525 Member Posts: 5,441 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    artan42 wrote: »
    24th century colour codes are:

    Red- Command and tactical
    Yellow- Engineering and Operations
    Blue- Science
    Green- Medical
    Pretty much bang on, although there are exceptions here such as Tuvok being a Tactical Officer and wearing Yellow.
    attachment.php?attachmentid=42556&d=1518094222
  • artan42artan42 Member Posts: 10,450 Bug Hunter
    edited May 2014
    flash525 wrote: »
    Pretty much bang on, although there are exceptions here such as Tuvok being a Tactical Officer and wearing Yellow.

    He was a security officer who ended up being tac officer as well due to crew deaths. I thing he was still mainly named as ship security officer.
    22762792376_ac7c992b7c_o.png
    Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though.
    JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
    #TASforSTO


    '...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
    'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
    'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
    '...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
    'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
    '...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek

    Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
  • stf65stf65 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    Tuvok, Worf, and Yar were security officers. Security is part of operations, so they wear yellow.
  • nikkojtnikkojt Member Posts: 372 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    flash525 wrote: »
    Pretty much bang on, although there are exceptions here such as Tuvok being a Tactical Officer and wearing Yellow.

    I thought Tactical and Operations were much the same in the 24th century. Worf wore gold as the Enterprise's tactical officer, and security teams were always in gold. Red was Command-only.
    Also, the colour distinction between science and medical was inconsistent at best. The EMH and Bashir wore blue.
    I am NikkoJT, Foundry author and terrible player. Follow me!
    There used to be a picture here, but they changed signatures and I can't be bothered to replace it.
  • flash525flash525 Member Posts: 5,441 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    nikkojt wrote: »
    Also, the colour distinction between science and medical was inconsistent at best. The EMH and Bashir wore blue.
    I don't know about the EMH, but there were episodes of DS9 where Bashir clearly wore Green.

    Edit: Turquoise being a variation on Green. ;)
    attachment.php?attachmentid=42556&d=1518094222
  • stf65stf65 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    Their teal uniforms can be blue or green depending on the lighting.
  • aloishammeraloishammer Member Posts: 3,294 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    flash525 wrote: »
    I don't know about the EMH, but there were episodes of DS9 where Bashir clearly wore Green.

    I don't recall any...now mind you it's been 3 months since I watched DS9 beginning to end, but I don't recall him wearing green unless it was out-of-uniform.
  • zulisvelzulisvel Member Posts: 518 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    Lorewise Starfleet changed uniforms and division colors in the time period between the TOS movies and the start of The Next Generation. Behind the scenes during TNG's preproduction they found that Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes just looked better in red then in yellow. Likewise they originally tested Brent Spiner in blue, but with the Data makeup they found he looked better in yellow. Thus the TNG color scheme was born: Red = Command, Tactical, & Navigation; Yellow = Engineering, Operations, and Security; Blue = Sciences and Medical (which latter changed to more of a blue-green).
  • shadowwraith77shadowwraith77 Member Posts: 6,395 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    They may have devised the teal green, to better signify the difference between the two fields (blue science/teal medical), but this is only speculation IMO.
    tumblr_nq9ec3BSAy1qj6sk2o2_500_zpspkqw0mmk.gif


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  • flash525flash525 Member Posts: 5,441 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    stf65 wrote: »
    Their teal uniforms can be blue or green depending on the lighting.
    aloishammer wrote: »
    I don't recall any...now mind you it's been 3 months since I watched DS9 beginning to end, but I don't recall him wearing green unless it was out-of-uniform.
    I remember episodes where he was in scenes with Dax, her clearly wearing Blue, him clearly wearing Teal. That said, it's possible (as mentioned above) that it was just the lighting in play, but to me there seemed to be a significant colour difference, not something that would be that drastic of a change due to lighting.
    shadowwraith77 wrote: »
    They may have devised the teal green, to better signify the difference between the two fields (blue science/teal medical), but this is only speculation IMO.
    It's fair speculation.
    attachment.php?attachmentid=42556&d=1518094222
  • malazancommandermalazancommander Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    Oh wow, so many responses after 15 minutes XD

    I had no idea what ranks any of them were before before Captains. In any case, it's good to know it's because red is a command colour :)
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • flash525flash525 Member Posts: 5,441 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    malazancommander wrote: »
    I had no idea what ranks any of them were before before Captains. In any case, it's good to know it's because red is a command colour :)
    It used to be. In the STO universe, it no longer is. :P
    attachment.php?attachmentid=42556&d=1518094222
  • stf65stf65 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    Look at our colors in game. They can look 6 different hues depending on the lighting. In some zones my white-skinned ship looks white, in other blue, in others dark gray. Same with my uniforms.
  • zulisvelzulisvel Member Posts: 518 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    shadowwraith77 wrote: »
    They may have devised the teal green, to better signify the difference between the two fields (blue science/teal medical), but this is only speculation IMO.

    Yeah, in season one Dr. Crusher and in season two Dr. Pulaski were wearing solid blue uniforms. I think it was around season 5 that medical got the greener color (and Picard got his neat coat uniform variant).
  • tekehdtekehd Member Posts: 2,032 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    malazancommander wrote: »
    I noticed that Captains Sisko, Picard and Janeway (I am sure the other Captains too) are always wearing the colour red. Is it because they are all Tactical Officers promoted as Captains OR because it's merely the colours of Higher Ups? Please, no tv show spoilers about why or how it came to be (I am watching DS9, and don't want any spoilers related to any ST shows). All I want to know is why their uniforms are always red.

    You should note that generally peoples uniform colors are based upon department rather than field. People's uniform color changes with their department.... red signifies command.
  • shadowwraith77shadowwraith77 Member Posts: 6,395 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    zulisvel wrote: »
    Yeah, in season one Dr. Crusher and in season two Dr. Pulaski were wearing solid blue uniforms. I think it was around season 5 that medical got the greener color (and Picard got his neat coat uniform variant).

    It was probably to better flesh out the character more, and aid in defining their roles.

    Starfleet has always baffled me, with their continuous changing to uniforms in the first place, they are worse than a woman deciding what to wear, and/or buy for clothing.
    tumblr_nq9ec3BSAy1qj6sk2o2_500_zpspkqw0mmk.gif


    Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!

  • eulifdaviseulifdavis Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    Actually, between TOS and TNG, Roddenberry became quite the outspoken pacifist. He came to loathe the "redshirt" trope, and wanted to squash it, because all those deaths didn't mesh with his new ideals. Hence, he put the most important characters (the Captains and Admiralty) in redshirt-red, and put the "disposable" security officers in what was previously command-gold.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • psiversepsiverse Member Posts: 14 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    Even when Data took over as acting XO, he changed to red in part 2 of Chain of Command.

    Kirk was the only tv icon captain not to wear red until the second movie. But with Kirk red was a very BAD color to wear outside of Scotty and Uhura. :)
    If you destroy your fleet by taking your ball and going home, why should the next group of people trust you will lead the fleet properly? Things that make you go hmmmm.
  • shadowwraith77shadowwraith77 Member Posts: 6,395 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    eulifdavis wrote: »
    Actually, between TOS and TNG, Roddenberry became quite the outspoken pacifist. He came to loathe the "redshirt" trope, and wanted to squash it, because all those deaths didn't mesh with his new ideals. Hence, he put the most important characters (the Captains and Admiralty) in redshirt-red, and put the "disposable" security officers in what was previously command-gold.

    Personally that I think was a conspiracy, between the no name redshirt's.

    They got together one day, and decided to change their colors to that of command to halt dying needlessly, but commanding officer's aren't so na
    tumblr_nq9ec3BSAy1qj6sk2o2_500_zpspkqw0mmk.gif


    Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!

  • jslynjslyn Member Posts: 1,788 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    shadowwraith77 wrote: »
    Personally that I think was a conspiracy, between the no name redshirt's.

    They got together one day, and decided to change their colors to that of command to halt dying needlessly, but commanding officer's aren't so na
  • centersolacecentersolace Member Posts: 11,178 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    TOS:

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


    TOS Movies:

    Everyone=Red


    TNG Onward:

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


    STO:

    Command/Security=Red
    Medical/Science=Blue
    Engineering=Yellow
  • malazancommandermalazancommander Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    Thanks guys for some of the explanations. I haven't seen all the episodes of every series, so I definitely don't know everything. I only started recently to watch Season 1 of DS9. Later on, I would like to pursue with Voyager.

    centersolace wrote: »
    TOS:

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


    TOS Movies:

    Everyone=Red


    TNG Onward:

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


    STO:

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



    I will quote this in the original post, to make it easier for anyone else looking for this. This is by far the most systematic explanation :)
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • flash525flash525 Member Posts: 5,441 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    centersolace wrote: »
    STO:

    Tactical/Security=Red
    Medical/Science=Blue
    Engineering=Yellow
    Fixed for you.

    Red doesn't relate to command at all in the STOverse
    attachment.php?attachmentid=42556&d=1518094222
  • artan42artan42 Member Posts: 10,450 Bug Hunter
    edited May 2014
    stf65 wrote: »
    Tuvok, Worf, and Yar were security officers. Security is part of operations, so they wear yellow.

    Security is separate to operations.
    22762792376_ac7c992b7c_o.png
    Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though.
    JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
    #TASforSTO


    '...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
    'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
    'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
    '...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
    'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
    '...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek

    Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
  • tekehdtekehd Member Posts: 2,032 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    centersolace wrote: »
    TOS:

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


    TOS Movies:

    Everyone=Red


    TNG Onward:

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


    STO:

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


    Actually in the TOS movies they were still color coded, it was just the color coding was by the undershirt and rank strap color. Much like how the color coding went to the undershirt in the later TNG movies.

    Command = white
    engineering = yellow
    science/medical = blue
  • organicmanfredorganicmanfred Member Posts: 3,236 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    If you have a few hours, you can look at this main page and then the sub-pages for each year :D


    http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Starfleet_uniform
  • warmaker001bwarmaker001b Member Posts: 9,205 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    centersolace wrote: »
    TOS:

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


    TOS Movies:

    Everyone=Red


    TNG Onward:

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


    STO:

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

    Incorrect on the TOS/TMP era movie division colors. The jackets that are well known are for Officers. But if you notice, there are a lot of division colors, a lot of devices. The uniforms and devices from this era of Star Trek are by far the most in depth.

    Link, specifically look under "Uniforms 2285" with some scans.

    Even the Jacket was different. Admirals had gold piping while other officers only had the black.
    XzRTofz.gif
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