Leonard McCoy and some of his medical staff wearing various sciences division uniforms in 2266
Sciences lieutenant on Epsilon IX station, early 2270s
The sciences division was the corps of officers within Starfleet who specialized in both scientific and medical research and control functions on starbases, aboard starships, and at Starfleet Command. Members of the sciences division may have specialized in sensors, research, theoretical and physical laboratory work, biological studies, and also as technicians, medics, and surgeons.
Officers who belonged to the sciences division sometimes wore the division color of a department other than that which they specialize in. For example, if a science officer were to become a department head, he might wear the colors of command division, or if he has a dual specialty in an operations division department, an alternate color might be worn.
Beginning with the Earth Starfleet of the 2140s and 2150s, line officers and noncoms of science division wore blue division stripes on their uniforms. This use of blue continued through several uniform styles until 2260s. On starships, such as the USS Enterprise, science division crewmembers had a specialty insignia in their insignia patch, a circle with two longitudinal lines dividing it.
By the 2270s, new uniforms showed different division colors, with the sciences division signified by two differing colors. Science research and technical staff wore orange behind their Starfleet badge, on uniform bands, accessories, and epaulets. Medical crew now wore green badge backings and accessories.
The sciences division was changed again with the 2280s uniforms, with green continuing to represent medical personnel, but science and technical staff now wore gray colors (which was a style shared by services personnel of operations division). The insignia used gave the officer the option of wearing command division white uniform insignia, with another department color like sciences' banded across, or the opposite, with department color insignia (green or grey, in this case) with command white banded across.
The uniforms used from 2350s onward, blue had again become the sciences division color.
The second variant of the 2371 uniform, while still referred to as blue, was actually a shade of green, jungle green. The color was later be applied to the 2373 uniforms as well.
Gallery
![Commander Spock of the alternate reality USS Enterprise[!] in sciences blue, 2258](/wiki/File:Spock_(alternate_reality).jpg "Spock (alternate reality).jpg (71 KB)")
| Starfleet uniform sciences division colors: | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2140s-Early 2160s | Mid 2160s | 2230s | Late 2230s-2250s | ||||||
| Sciences | Sciences | Sciences | Sciences | Sciences | |||||
| Medical | Medical | ||||||||
| 2250s-Early 2270s | Mid 2270s | Late 2270s-2350s | 2350s-2370s | ||||||
| Sciences | Sciences | Sciences | Sciences | Sciences | |||||
| Medical | Medical | Medical | |||||||
| Late 2360s-Early 2370s | 2370s | Early 2380s | Mid 2380s | Late 2390s-Early 2400s | |||||
| Sciences | Sciences | Sciences | Sciences | Sciences | |||||
| Late 2800s | Late 3180s | Early 3190s | |||||||
| Sciences | Sciences | Sciences | |||||||
| Medical | Medical | ||||||||
Subdivisions
- Planetary geosciences division
See also
Background
- During the original Star Trek, sciences blue first appeared in TOS: "The Cage" and was regularly worn by the science station officers, medical personnel, and security personnel who later wore red after 2265. ("The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before") Science Officer Spock wore sciences blue, although he briefly wore command gold for his dual position as executive officer. ("Where No Man Has Gone Before") Some scientists (like astrobiologist Ann Mulhall and historian Marla McGivers) even wore operations red, suggesting they had more operational primary duties. The work coveralls were muted variations in the pilots from the duty uniforms and were light blue in color. Later they matched the blue of the standard duty uniform.
- Apparently officers with degrees of scientific or technical training held positions in other departments than just science and medical. Extra characters in blue uniforms were often seen occupying posts normally occupied by command or operations division personnel, up to and including captaincy. One notable example is Hoshi Sato who performed the role of an operations communications officer, while wearing the department color of a exolinguist.
- In the movie era, Star Trek: The Motion Picture featured Spock wearing orange bands and McCoy wearing green. By the Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan uniforms, McCoy continued to wear green, but science officers wore grey, according to schemes and insignia of the later movie-era uniforms by Robert Fletcher.
- The decision to switch the meaning of the colors for command and ops divisions between the TOS and TNG uniform styles was made in pre-production of "Encounter at Farpoint". However, the TOS blue was kept as the sciences division color.
- Most often, in the Federation Starfleet, all captains and admirals wear command division colors; however there are exceptions, which proves that this is not a requirement. In TOS, Captain Krasnovsky wore a science blue dress uniform, the only captain in Trek to ever do so.