Do people realize there were three uniform colors in the pilots

I have had many people forever tell me that there are only two colors of uniforms in the TOS pilots... but I insist there are three. Am I alone in my view?

 

There are FOUR lights!!!!

 

So can you identify the three colors, smart guy? -- RR

 

Blue, Greenish/avacado something, tan. If I remember correctly...

 

The three colors were blue, gold, and salmon.

Mmmmm..... salmon....

 

Command = greenish gold
Sciences = blue
Services = tan

Tan was changed to red because it was so damned hard to tell it from command gold, especially on black and white sets.

 

Odd observation after looking at some screen caps.

Was the "salmon" color supposed to indicate enlisted personnel in "The Cage"? Only Yeoman Colt and CPO Garrison seem to be wearing that color. Transporter Chief Pitcairn and his associate might be as well, but its hard to tell since they are in jumpsuits.

Of course by "WNMHGB" this must have changed as Kelso, Mitchell and Scott are all in salmon.

Any production notes about the color scheme?

 

Good answer and correct!!!!

 

Well, this was what I sorta got out of where they seemed to be going with the uniforms in WNMHGB... which was quite different than what they settled on for the rest of the series.

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But that is just a guess at best.

 

Glad they got more rank specific braids for the cuff.

 

I just finished watching WNMHGB in HD at the CBS startrek.com website.
The three colors are avacado green for command (?), blue for sciences (including Sulu in the AstroScience department) and tan for everything else.
So, yes, there are 3 colors in the second pilot.

 

Kirk and Spock weren't the only ones to wear avocado green with the "command" patch. Some unnamed lower-level crewmember (with no braid) who was helping Lee Kelso on Delta Vega also wore avocado with a command patch:



Greg Schnitzer
Gaithersburg, Maryland
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3033/2723624532_23b78393df_m.jpg

 

Aren't we all glad they switched to better colors? Yikes! -- RR

 

KELSO: Try and look busy! The Captain is giving us the evil eye!

 

Kelso: "Wait a minute! If you're the captain, then who's that guy?"

 

KELSO: Speed it up. The Captain needs this whole room avocado green by 1800 and it took us half the day just to paint this doohickey!!!

 

I've always been able to see that there were three different colors in both The Cage and WNMHGB. It has always irritated me that people would argue with me that there were only two. How blind can you be?

I haven't watch WNMHGB in a few months. IIRC only Kirk, Spock, and Yeoman "Smithsir" wore the avocado green on the bridge. There also were the avocado crewmen in Kelso's scavenger party.

The great thing about the red shirts is that you know who will die before the first commercial break.

 

I FULLY agree now that a careful viewing of the eps reveals that there are indeed three uniform colors (and that's how I voted). I was mistaken (as it seems were most fans) when the only evidence was Nth-Gen re-runs. But the current DVDs clearly show the error. I learned my lesson a few years ago, via DVD.

It's still a bit subtle on the DVD (contrasted with the clear yellow-green/red split of seasons 1-3), but the "Where No Man" pilot shows a definite difference in the Command and Engineering colors. While Engineering is the Salmon side of "tan", Command is the "Greenish" side. However, I must state that in earlier airings on TV, the difference was nowhere near as clear: the "Engineering tan" looked a *whole* lot like the "Command green" back then. Really. No, really - a whole lot.

This is from the 3-set DVD from the early 2000s, not the TOS-R HD set (I've left the color balance completely alone - it's not quite as strong as in the example above):



While they're clearly different now, I can certainly accept those who saw the "green" and the "salmon" as the same shade back in the day. I did, too. *NOW* I see them as different, so I call them as different. But, back then, given the TV prints we looked at, they were essentially the same. So please allow some understanding for the past....

 

I guess what influenced me the most was the old photonovels. My copy of the WNMHGB episode clearly showed the difference.

The best contrasted scenes of the non-HD DVDs are the two transporter room scenes and the Kirk-Mitchell fight scenes. To me, the lighting of those two sets cause the contrast to be noticed more.

On another note, I'm the only person who believes that the color for security during the two pilots was blue. In The Cage, the sergeant-at-arms wears a blue tunic. In WNMHGB, Eddie Paskey's character (who is seen manhandling a drugged Mitchell after transporting down to Delta Vega) is wearing blue. Yes, Paskey could be a medical orderly; however, no other WNMHGB medical personnel (Piper or Dehner) wears a sidearm.

What isn't clear is the fact that apparently some engineering bridge crew members in WNMHGB also wear blue. We do see some engineers in TOS later wear blue such as Lt Masters in The Alternative Factor. There is also a blue jumpsuited technician exiting the Jefferies Tube in Charlie X.

Communications is tan/salmon in The Cage, but blue in WNMHGB. Then again, in TOS Season 1, both gold and red are seen used by Communications: 1) Farrell (gold) mans the station in Miri, 2) Riley (gold) is said to be in Communications in Conscience of the King, and 3) Uhura wears both red and gold (Corbomite Maneuver)