Icarus Phoenix's Design Notes

The following design notes are written by IcarusPhoenix regarding translation of the designs of "Abramsverse" of the new Star Trek to the time-period of Star Trek: Miranda, approximately 130 years later.
==Uniforms==
In designing the new uniforms, I wanted a look that remained true to the look of the First Contact uniforms that would be in use in 2387, but that were clearly part of the new universe. The answer lied in the fabric of Michael Kaplan's new-Trek design, which had a very subtle pattern; when one looked at the uniforms closely enough, the familiar Starfleet parabola was visible as a small and subtle repeated pattern weaved through the entire uniform. By combining that pattern in the body of the brightly-colored jacket with the somewhat more militaristic gray-padded shoulders of the First Contact uniforms, I was able to create a uniform that had a clear design lineage.
We also decided to keep a certain amount of simplicity in the uniforms; bright primary colors, reminiscent of Kirk's Enterprise and less of the dark blacks and grays so common to the Prime Universe's uniforms of this same era.
The other issue was one of color. While black (intelligence), white (starfighters), and green (marines) are perfectly common fandom colors for their respective branches, the problem came when I considered how to use gold and red. While I always thought Patrick Stewart looked good in a red uniform, it always bothered me that after Starfleet went back to the three-color system after moving off of the uniforms they had been using for eighty years, they seemed to have forgotten what the colors stood for, and reversed the two (something even the writers once made fun of in "Trials and Tribble-ations"). Therefore, we decided to keep the TOS color-scheme - which has the added bonus of allowing us to retain the word "Redshirt". Once this was decided, using TOS blue for sciences instead of TNG teal was only logical. A simple black undershirt and black slacks complete the uniform.
Flag officers' uniforms and enlisted uniforms have small variations that distinguish them from basic officers uniforms, something that (in the case of enlisted personnel) is not common in Trek, but is common in the real world and was something that we did in the original Star Trek: Miranda.
Dress uniforms are based on the TWOK uniforms, using the color scheme and details of the duty uniforms that I have designed. It should be noted that the uniforms we are using as dress uniforms were my original design for duty uniforms before we decided to go with a more simplified version. They are also very similar to the "Class A" uniforms of the original STM. The SFMC dress uniforms - at least those of warrant or commissioned officer rank - includes a buff white belt and a ceremonial sword.
Utility uniforms are really no different than the TNG ones, save the addition of rank stripes.
For marines, an additional uniform was made for combat, using a busy digital camouflage pattern that remained constant for all personnel, regardless of grade or rank. Chaplains also received special treatment, getting a Catholic-style collar on their undershirt and a ceremonial sash worn baldric-style. There are also special uniform additions for engineering officers (Scotty's vest), security personnel (based on the TMP armor), and medical officers (Dr. Crusher's smock).
Other special-duty uniforms (spacesuits, cold weather gear, desert gear, hazard suits, etc.) may eventually be forthcoming, though some of those - like the utility uniforms - are unlikely to vary much from the prime universe.
==Rank Insignia==
The biggest disadvantage of the rank insignia used in Enterprise, The Wrath of Khan, and TNG (in other words, the vast majority of Starfleet history) was that they were somewhat hard to see. It doesn't do to be holding a conversation with a new officer and have to squint at their neck or shoulder just to figure out how to address them. This is a common problem; try to find the rank on an American Army soldier wearing modern ACUs. While not advertising rank is certainly advantageous when dealing with ground combat, it is quite the opposite when in an insular environment like a starship, in which officers aren't running the risk of getting shot by a sniper (with the notable exception of a particular DS9 episode).
With the release of Enterprise it also made little sense that in the 2350's, Starfleet suddenly decided to go with rank insignia that were essentially the same as those used two-hundred years earlier. However, the advantage of the Enterprise/TNG system is one of simplicity. While hard to see, the progression of ranks was clear.
In an effort to maintain this clarity and make visible marks of rank - as well as to be true to both the era and the new universe, as discussed earlier - I decided to use a sleeve-stripe method that was easy to see, using the alternating gold and black that fans are familiar with.
Flag officer and enlisted insignia, by contrast, were more closely based on modern naval insignia.
For the Starfleet Marine Corps, fandom typically keeps a separate ranking system, analogous to modern ground forces. I retained this, but I did not retain the typical fandom insignia, deciding that the use of bars, leaves, and eagles was a tad too Amerocentric for what is supposedly a United Earth and a multi-species galaxy. With the rank names already retaining Earth (and primarily western) conventions, I felt something new was appropriate.
For enlisted personnel, I did retain the familiar chevrons, but chose an alternating silver-and-gold pattern rather than the inclusion of "rockers". For warrant officers, cadets, and officers, a system of arrowheads is used, emulating (somewhat) the "closed" and "open" style of TNG pips and the fleet stripes. Flag officers use a silver-and-gold star system.
Due to the fact that Marines are by nature close-combat personnel, their ranks are instead on the upper sleeve, by the shoulder (the location of modern-day unit patches), where they are less visible. Combat uniforms would use eliminated the metallic insignia and use embroidered insignia in more muted colors, replacing silver with beige, gold with brown, and retaining black.
And then I remembered that the non-combat officers uniforms have gray shoulders.
After I had already finished all of the insignia.
Suffice to say, I had to go back and redo them, lowering the ranks' positions on the upper sleeves (so as not to look odd in crossing over the threshold from gray to green) and matching those positions on the combat fatigues. While I was at it, I reversed the direction in which the enlisted chevrons were added to the uniform with increasing grades in order to maintain fidelity of position; Private and Private First Class looked far better in the top position than they did so far down the sleeve in the fourth position.
===Ratings and Staff Emblems===
In a complete (but logical) departure from canon, I have co-opted the modern system of enlisted ratings and staff designations and put together a system of insignia integrated into the rank stripes. In the case of staff officers (and staff warrant officers), there is a small set of nine insignia that covers the various tasks these officers perform, worn above the rank stripes; chaplains/religious service officers wear the insignia of their particular religion in the same spot.
Enlisted personnel wear any number of insignia underneath their stripes to indicate their duties. While this does make things more complicated (which is admittedly just the opposite of most of my other actions), I do feel that canon has never done the best job of fleshing out enlisted personnel, and using this particular Earth-tradition contributes towards that goal.
==Communicator Badges and Department Insignia==
The one major advantage that the TWOK uniforms had over all the others was that having more colors allowed for a more clear distinction between departments. In all the others, there is usually no immediate way to distinguish between a doctor and a scientist, a pilot and a commander, or a security guard and an engineer. The comm-badge presented a solution to this; rather than using three (or four, counting the rarely-used medical red cross) different insets on the parabola that were in no way more distinct than the three uniform colors, we used a different logo for each department, as well as a separate one for Starfleet Academy, then placed them on the Voyager comm-badge.
Category:Real World
Category:Notes