From the Co-Lord of Sourcebooks, Jason L. Miles!
Thread on google here:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22st ... com&rnum=1
Reposted for your benefit:
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From: Jason L. Miles (seaquestst@cox.net)
Date: 2003-01-23 00:59:02 PST
In TNG Era Star Trek, Starfleet personel wear three different
variations on the duty uniform, each one is a different color, and the
colors are supposed to represent departments on the ship. The colors,
and the divisions they represent are:
Maroon: Command
Yellow: Security/Support Services
Blue: Science/Medical
The problem is: Three major crew groupings is simply not enough if
your goal is to ease specialty identification (Not to mention avoidinf
viewer confusion). If that isn't the goal, why use different uniforms
at all? To illustrate my point, I'm going to list the specializations
that I think would be common (or at least needed) onboard a Starfleet
Ship.
Command - Personel whose entire duties fall into the realm of
commanding one or more ships.
Administrative - Personelle who perform the various full time
administrative tasks that any large group of people need. Examples are
logistics and human resources.
Services - People who function in service capacities. Examples would
be bartenders, barbers, and other such positions.
Medical - Member's of the ship's practicing medical staff.
Sciences - Members of the ship's scientific research staff.
Propulsion - Members of the crew involved in the maintnance and
operation of the ship's propulsion systems.
Maintnance and Operations - Crewmembers whose responsibility lies in
the maintnance and operations of the ship's non-propulsive equipment.
Astrogation and Piloting - Navigators and pilots, both for shuttles
and for the ship itself.
Tactical - Crewmembers involved in the operation of the ships tactical
systems, such as weapons, sensors, communications, and jamming.
Information Technology - Crewmembers who are responsible for
maintaining the ships computer systems, examples are LAN and database
admins.
Diplomatic/Civillian - People who serve in a diplomatic or civillian
capacity, advisors.
Security/Marines - Members of the ship's internal and external
security forces.
Trainees/Cadets - People who have not yet completed specialty
training.
The Starfleet system lumps these together in this fashion:
Command (Purple Uniforms):
Command, Administrative, and Trainees/Cadets
Security/Support Services (Yellow Uniforms):
Propulsion, Maintnance and Operations, Astrogation and Piloting,
Tactical, Information Technology, Services, and Security/Marines
Science/Medical (Blue Uniforms):
Medical and Sciences
No Uniforms:
Diplomatic/Civillian
While a person could have very general knowledge of all the areas in
thier division (color), it would seem nearly impossible that they
could be as proficient as a specialist.
Another problem is that Starfleet does not appear to recognize the
difference between these sub-groups.
Worf and Tasha had to operate as both security personel and tactical
personel. These are vary diverse jobs, one of them is vary physical,
the other is a much more cerebral. I can recall at least one occasion
where Worf was asked to provide technical consultation on the weapons
as well.
Geordi is established as a propulsion engineer, he is portrayed as one
of the most capable warp engine operators in Starfleet that kind of
specialization indicates a life's persuit. On the other hand, we see
Geordi doing everything from repairing transporters, replicators,
weapons, sensors, and even computers, and every time he is portrayed
as a person who is incredibly skilled at doing whatever job he is
given. It seems highly unlikely that anyone could attain such
expertise in such a broad range of fields.
Data is the one member of the crew that I can accept as being an
expert in diverse fields. He has direct access to the ships computer,
which would give him an incredible edge in troubleshooting and in
research.
The clincher of the fact that Starfleet does not seem to care what its
people are trained for is the times we have seen Geordi as part of a
security detail.
Any and all comments will be appreciated.
P.S.
Why havn't we seen any LAN admins on the show, I can think of at least
two dozen times an admin would be useful, and they act like they don't
exist.
--
"This is Grand Moff Miles, Lord Vader, I am heading to the Milky Way
with my 95,089 ship Oversector Group, I don't expect much
resistance. Don't worry about sending Death Stars as support."
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I replied with a post adding additional commentary and information:
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Good rant. It's at times like this, I feel inadequate
as a denizen, as I've never had a good articulate rant
like you just did.
I did some research on my own, and using google
and a book I have had since a child (copyright 1945!),
to supplement your rant.
Here are the results of my research for you:
The US Navy DOES use a similar system to the Feds,
with color coded enlisted mens' stripes:
US Navy Color Coding
http://www2.powercom.net/~rokats/usnavy.html
White Stripes:
Deck, Administration, Medical, Dental Group
Red Stripes
Engineering, Hull Group
Blue Stripes
Construction Group (Sea Bees)
Green Stripes
Aviation Group
To indicate the branch of service further, there
are specialty badges:
(Scanned from my circa 1945 book on insignas)
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/MKSheppar ... signa1.jpg
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/MKSheppar ... signa2.jpg
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/MKSheppar ... signa3.jpg
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/MKSheppar ... signa4.jpg
The last 2 pages are of GREAT interest, showing the different job
insigna/badges/emblems. These are from the 1945 US Navy,
so a lot of stuff has changed since then...
The US army also uses emblem badges, too:
US ARMY Badges
http://www2.powercom.net/~rokats/todaybadges.html
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DISCUSS!
