Nitpicking Star Trek – Starfleet Was Revising Command Hierarchy

Out of Universe – Every fan of Star Trek knows that “Where No Man Has Gone Before” S1 Ep3 was the second pilot produced and second episode of Star Trek ever filmed. NBC aired it third.

The show was in its infancy, characters were still being added, characterizations were still being honed. Many things (like Starfleet itself) had not yet been incorporated into the mythos. The Corbomite Maneuver was the first episode filmed after the second pilot and aired in the tenth slot. Mudd’s Women although filmed immediately after The Corbomite Maneuver actually aired as the sixth episode.

After two episodes in the can, Gene Roddenberry decided that Nichelle Nichols looked better in red and switched her uniform color. With the episodes airing out of production order, it appeared that Uhura’s uniform colors were changing back and forth. Now it is up to the Guild to explain the discrepancy in Universe…

Ahem

Starfleet was in the process of changing uniforms when the Enterprise left on its five-year mission. The Gary Mitchell incident was actually Kirk’s first (as far as we know) mission in command.

Shortly after the Mitchell incident Starfleet changed it’s uniform division colors and the Enterprise was able to comply with the new regulation from ship’s stores.

However as wee can plainly see from the above, Communications was assigned to Command and not Services. This new color scheme was in affect from the Blalok incident and first Mudd incident. Thus Uhura’s uniform color was in compliance at the time. After the Mudd incident, Starfleet transferred Communications to the Services division.

The Enterprise transmitted its log entries back to Starfleet in the linear order that they occurred (including Uhura’s uniform changes). Do to the effects of time dilation from warp travel, distance from subspace buoys and Starfleet bureaucracy, the missions were released for public consumption out of the chronological order that they occurred. Thus it appeared to Federation citizens that Uhura’s uniform changed color not once, but twice.

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