T'Pol's Clothing

[Silverbullet]

Wasn't Spock a Federation Officer assigned to a Federation Starship as First Officer and Science Officer so he could pretty much choose what color he wore. Where as T'Pol was first offered the Science Officers job and probably just continued to wear that color.

[aadarshinah]

Isn't he sans bumpy forehead during that book?

Yes, but I've always found ears and noses to be particularly hard to do realistically in photoshop, but that just may be a personal issue.

one based on whatever colour a XO would normally wear...

I point you to the Command Division article on Memory Alpha where it states:

An officer who belongs to the command division sometimes wears the division color of another department which they specialized in if said command officer were to become a security chief, engineer, or command a science department.

Which tracks with my belief she would wear the blue of sciences, not the gold of command division. I'm pretty sure they've never established exactly what color an XO would wear since, apart from Spock & T'Pol, the XO position has always been a full-time one, not one that can be used in conjunction with Science Officer... With how they were intentionally trying to have her be Spock's predecessor (science officer-slash-first officer), it's again only logical to presume she'd wear that kind of piping (although I do concede that it could simply be a "wow. Gold looks ugly on this catsuit" decision as well.)

I saw this too, and hit upon the sometimes myself. Semantically, this would imply that such was not usually the case, meaning that XO's usually wore the colour of command, though I fully stipulate that, as the XO position does not appear to have become a full-time one until some point between TOS and TNG, an XO would be considered Head of his/her department first and act only in a command position when called upon to do so, and therefore wear the respective piping of his/her department.

Though, on a completly unrelated topic, if Enterprise and its NX sisters were always meant to be ships of exploration, why didn't Archer have a science officer lined up by "Broken Bow"? Science seems a particularly important part of space exploration, what with all the strange planets, pathogens, life forms, anomalies, and whatnot they seem to come across, and you would think that the best and brightest of Starfleet's sciences department would be clambering all over themselves for the post. On that note, with how large the science department is on the ship (at least, according to the calculations at The Enterprise Project), you would think that someone would insist on making the science officer XO as well... or, at least, have someone other than Trip, who they've said once or twice was awfully young to be a CoE, be XO...

Great. Now I've something else to obsess over.

[Silverbullet]

Why was Trip awfullly young. In cease fire he was an excellent Captain. In the forge again he was an excellent Captain probably stopping a wr between the Andornas and Vulcans. He was in charge of Engineering probably the largest and most important department on the Enterprise. He commanded that. It is not age but ability.

An example of our near past in WwII there wa a Brigadier General "James Gavin" (Jumping Jim) who was 31 when he made General. That was Young but it was his ability that won him the Brigadier star.


Trip was an outstanding Officer and when in command of Entrprise proved he was fully capable of being Captain so XO would be a pece of cake for him. The argument that being Chief Engineer would interfere. T'Pol was head of the Science department but she managed the Xo job too. Besides, Trip as chief engineer should have had an excellent crew in engineering who could take care of the day to day routine, scheduling of shifts, testing maintenence etc. Leaving him time to be XO.

[aadarshinah]

I couldn't concur more; his actions in the Kir'shara arc more than prove his ability. That doesn't mean some people wouldn't have a problem with it though... Don't shoot the devil's advocate.

[Aikiweezie]

So, why was Trip tucker left off the cover?

Probably no one wanted to go in and photoshop a picture of him as a Romulan...

Back when the Star Trek movie came out "cheez-it" had a "Trek Yourself" feature where you could upload pictures and turn yourself into a Vulcan, a Romulan or Uhura (?). After I "Trekked" myself and my whole family, even the dogs, boy was that weird, I "Trekked" Trip into a Vulcan to see what he would look like undercover. Unfortunately they took the website down. He looked okay. I just don't like the Vulcan hair do on anyone.

[Rigil Kent]

though I fully stipulate that, as the XO position does not appear to have become a full-time one until some point between TOS and TNG, an XO would be considered Head of his/her department first and act only in a command position when called upon to do so, and therefore wear the respective piping of his/her department.

That tracks with my thought processes.

Though, on a completly unrelated topic, if Enterprise and its NX sisters were always meant to be ships of exploration, why didn't Archer have a science officer lined up by "Broken Bow"?

He also didn't have a CMO, but neither can really be blamed on him, but rather SF itself.

you would think that someone would insist on making the science officer XO as well... or, at least, have someone other than Trip, who they've said once or twice was awfully young to be a CoE, be XO...

Truthfully, I'd rather they had someone whose sole job was first officer so he/she wouldn't divide their time as the SCI or ChEng. But that's just me.

[Silverbullet]

Rigel, that was always wierd. No assigned XO. all of the other sereies had one: Spock, Riker, Kira (although she was backdoored by being a Bajoran Major assigned as second in command of the Deep space Nine) Chakoty in Voyager. Only Enterprise did not have one.

Enterprise did not have any Lt. Commanders either or Lt JG's. I thought that Phlox was CMO

since I am baring my soul. In al of the other series the Commanding Officer did not and could not interfere in the operation of the medical unit. The CMO is always in charge there as the commanding Officer does not have medical training or is a Doctor. It is the CMO's who makes the final deicsion on treatment.Yet in Sim Archer says he has not decided whether or not Phlox can create a clone. It was NOT Archers decision.

Picky, Picky

SB

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

(although I do concede that it could simply be a "wow. Gold looks ugly on this catsuit" decision as well.)

I wouldn't put that past them. After all, that's why we have the gold-red switch between command and ship's services from TOS to TNG. Data's makeup didn't look good with a red shirt so they had him (and everyone else in those departments) wear gold, or rather mustard yellow. Then all the rest of the new Treks were stuck with that decision.

[aadarshinah]

After all, that's why we have the gold-red switch between command and ship's services from TOS to TNG.

True. But at least it got the security teams out of those red shirts. Probably a worse idea to put your commanders in it, but at lest your average security grunt became less of a target.