What does Starfleet symbol represent???

[Red Ranger]

You can't quite make the same argument for TMP, because the space station personnel have a stylized uniform patch/badge. However, Kirk as Admiral has the Enterprise delta -- maybe because it's under his purview? Can be an inconsistency.

Really? Taking a look at the screencaps on TrekCore, it looks like the space station people have the delta as well.

He means Epsilon Nine. Note the different chest patch.

DS9Sega: Thanks for the clarification. I couldn't remember the name of the station and was too lazy to look it up on Memory Alpha! -- RR

 

[Gepard]

^AH. I see. Still, it does look like the Starfleet personnel stationed at Earth have the delta symbol, unless every person on the orbital office complex is also a member of the Enterprise crew.

 

[Timo]

Rather than say that each ship in the TOS era was supposed to have a different symbol (but production errors, realities and choices voided this idea and now require us to squint and pretend a lot), we could say that each Fleet or other sub-organization within Starfleet had a symbol of its own.

The 1st Fleet, the most prestigious one, would have the delta shield on the personnel operating its ships and installations, as well as possibly on the flag officers on Earth involved in operating that Fleet. Other Fleets would have the insignia seen on other TOS starships (as quite possibly there would be only one or two Constitutions per Fleet) but the ships docked at SB 11 would mostly come from the same Fleet as the Enterprise and would thus sport the same symbol in "Court Martial".

It would then be a relatively logical transition from many to one if Starfleet adopted the symbol of its 1st Fleet at some point - far preferable to the idea of them adopting the symbol of a single ship. After all,

a) Enterprise personnel never uniquely sported the delta
b) The delta is a fairly common symbol in real history and extremely unlikely to have been dedicated to a single vessel at any point
c) ENT nicely supports the idea that the delta saw general use just before the UFP Starfleet was founded
d) The upcoming movie will no doubt establish the broad use of the delta during Kirk's early years
e) We never learn that the Enterprise prior to TMP would have done anything so noteworthy as to deserve to have her symbol adopted as the general Starfleet logo.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[I am not Spock]

It could simply be an homage to the deeds of Captain Archer in the mid- 22nd Century (an arrow-head. Get it?)

 

[Red Ranger]

Rather than say that each ship in the TOS era was supposed to have a different symbol (but production errors, realities and choices voided this idea and now require us to squint and pretend a lot), we could say that each Fleet or other sub-organization within Starfleet had a symbol of its own.

The 1st Fleet, the most prestigious one, would have the delta shield on the personnel operating its ships and installations, as well as possibly on the flag officers on Earth involved in operating that Fleet. Other Fleets would have the insignia seen on other TOS starships (as quite possibly there would be only one or two Constitutions per Fleet) but the ships docked at SB 11 would mostly come from the same Fleet as the Enterprise and would thus sport the same symbol in "Court Martial".

It would then be a relatively logical transition from many to one if Starfleet adopted the symbol of its 1st Fleet at some point - far preferable to the idea of them adopting the symbol of a single ship. After all,

a) Enterprise personnel never uniquely sported the delta
b) The delta is a fairly common symbol in real history and extremely unlikely to have been dedicated to a single vessel at any point
c) ENT nicely supports the idea that the delta saw general use just before the UFP Starfleet was founded
d) The upcoming movie will no doubt establish the broad use of the delta during Kirk's early years
e) We never learn that the Enterprise prior to TMP would have done anything so noteworthy as to deserve to have her symbol adopted as the general Starfleet logo.

Timo Saloniemi

ney, J.J. Abrams! Hire Timo as your background/continuity chief! Your explanation makes a lot of sense. So if we follow your logic that ships of different fleets sport different assignment patches, that means the patches Ron Tracy, Matt Decker, Bob Wesley, the crew of the Defiant, and others wear also represent different groups of Starfleet ships.

I have to agree that in a Starfleet of at least dozens, if not hundreds, of ships, surely Enterprise isn't much more exceptional. I've heard it said that bringing the ship home intact after its five-year mission was the reason they adopted that delta symbol, but that always seemed a bit far-fetched.

I do remember there was one consistent emblem -- anyone assigned to a Starbase seemed to have a starburst symbol on their uniform shirts, like Commodore Mendez, Lieutenant Piper, Commodore Stone, and Commodore Stocker.
Red Ranger

 

[Timo]

On that latter point, it might be that the starburst/rosette is a general SF Command symbol, and that Kirk still wears it in TMP - on his epaulets. That is, the single rosette there doesn't indicate his rank (supposedly of two-star admiral) but is a generic symbol for the fact that he's part of the upper command structure.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Gepard]

Of course, another argument for the delta being a Starfleet-wide symbol by the time of TMP is that it's being used as a hull marking in place of the red-pinstriping-and-yellow-chevron markings of the pre-refit Enterprise.

 

[Timo]

...One then has to decide whether the asymmetric chevron and the asymmetric delta really are different symbols, or merely one and the same symbol drawn in two different styles.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Brian]

IMO retconning TOS with an Enterprise storyline is even worse than doing so with a Voyager storyline, but I read a theory once that the Enterprise mission patch (circle with a dorsal view of the ship, pointing up) could have been stylized into the delta symbol.

I prefer to think someone hired a graphic artist and said, "We need a symbol that evokes reaching for the stars. Go!"

 

[UssGlenn]

I read a theory once that the Enterprise mission patch (circle with a dorsal view of the ship, pointing up) could have been stylized into the delta symbol.

I like that theory in general but it works better if the patch in question isn't quite so round. I once designed a ship and insignia with precisely that evolution in mind. It was the other NX-01, the (real) Dauntless.

 

[Sector 7]

You can't quite make the same argument for TMP, because the space station personnel have a stylized uniform patch/badge. However, Kirk as Admiral has the Enterprise delta -- maybe because it's under his purview? Can be an inconsistency.

Really? Taking a look at the screencaps on TrekCore, it looks like the space station people have the delta as well.

He means Epsilon Nine. Note the different chest patch.

Those are all pajamas, so they don't count. I'm sure all the real duty uniforms have the delta symbol.
*hey its MY fantasy... don't take it away... it's all I have left... *

 

[AlanC9]

e) We never learn that the Enterprise prior to TMP would have done anything so noteworthy as to deserve to have her symbol adopted as the general Starfleet logo.

No single thing, I guess, but the ship's cumulative record is pretty good. I make it as two, maybe three major interstellar wars averted, and at least four massively destructive incursions by alien lifeforms and/or machines prevented. If the other ships in the fleet have done even half as much , the Federation's in an awful lot of danger, all the time.

Of course, many of these probably didn't become public knowledge. As opposed to, say, TMP and STIV, which were kind of.... conspicuous.