The earlier gray version of these uniforms reminded me of the so-called bellhop uniforms from the B5 follow-up Crusade. (The episodes that were filmed first but aired later.) I wasn’t a fan of them then, and they didn’t grow on me.
There’s a glaring thing you’re missing. The pips on the collar and shoulders are only for captains. I’ve been seeing the same shoulders on people of very different rank but there’s one thing even more fucking bizarre. Everyone’s collars open and you see that the badge on it is attached on side and hooks on the other. Except for a single crewman. Jett Reno. For some inexplicable reason, hers splits directly in the center and I cannot figure out why. She’s wearing the same fuckin uniform. It’s not even an engineering thing because other engineers have the other badge.
I do not fuckin get it. I love the colors but that’s about it
And FUCK THAT BADGE. It’s just an ugly goddamn circle.
You’re the quartermaster and a snarky engineer from 800 years ago is complaining that she likes to wear her jacket open. Do you get into a long drawn out fight you’re probably going to lose, or go, “Right Commander Reno, let me go ahead and replicate the J rank variant for you.”
But the thing that throws me is everyone else wears it open too. There are tons of shots of it open. It’s just bizarre that they have such a noticeable uniform change for a single character and never mention it.
This meme was made by someone who didn’t serve in the military. Many times did I salute someone who i shouldn’t have because their rank insignia was too small to see at a distance or too similar to another branch’s rank insignia. Having it everywhere makes sense.
And the rank on the back? Genius. I’d know that person was a captain so i could sneak off to buffer time while they weren’t looking as opposed to having to go in front of them to rank check for 21st century uniforms.
Because the chain of command needs to be embedded enough into your psyche to override your fight/flight response. Same reason we spend our entire careers in the military practicing war. When it’s real, you can’t freeze up or get flustered…your job also has to be so well practiced that you can do it instinctively, because when you’re getting shot at, instinct is sometimes all you’ve got left.
That and because it used to be a literal class divide and the officers were genetically better than you and chosen by Gawd, you peasant filth, get back in the spear line.
I don’t know if I should upvote you because they actually act like this or downvote because you reminded me of having to deal with it, even as a civilian.
My grandfather was in a WWI German prison camp as a child (his father was British and all British subjects in the UK were put in prison camps when the war broke out). It was largely autonomous, and when POWs started arriving, the enlisted acted as indentured servants to the officers.
This is how you get all your officers killed in the battlefield.
Colonial sharpshooters were already excellent at picking off Redcoat officers in 1774.
Then both Union and Confederate officers were picked off at a high rate. Look at how garish Grant’s uniform is compared to Stormin’ Norman.
Finally we learned. WW2 officers had ornamentations removed or covered, even far from the battlefield. When the Indianapolis was hit, no one could locate Admiral Spruance. They thought he might have died. Nope, there was a guy wearing just khakis and no ornamentation helping fight the fires— turned out it was Spruance. No one recognized him because he only recently transferred his flag over.
This isn’t the uniform they would wear for actual boots on the ground warfare. These people are the equivalent to the navy not the army or marines. Snipers arent picking Admirals off regularly on their own ships. If they went “ashore” it would make sense to have different uniforms unless they were knowingly doing a diplomatic mission on that particular plant at that time. Then you wear a dress uniform. There’s a reason dress uniforms look different from ACUs.
Field uniforms are different than dress uniforms. This is a dress uniform and it is used to show off your accomplishments and affiliations. Field uniforms would be more like Major Hayes from Enterprise. His uniform is drab and you can’t easily tell the difference between him and his subordinates.
In the 32rd century, people still need visual cues in order to know who is who and what rank they are? Inside a ship they spend all their time in with 300 other people?
You’d think by then people would be more intellectually developed to know the difference. And if they didn’t, there would be mobile miniature holo emitters or visual displays that would tell you if you weren’t sure. Or some kind of targeted audio alarm that only you could hear that would tell you to stand straight, salute and stay at attention because you’re talking to the captain.
Maybe it could be for the psychological benefit of the person wearing the uniform? Like, if youve got a post scarcity utopian society where people dont need to work, but youve got some job that needs doing that can be a bit dangerous or tedious at times and therefore might be inherently unattractive to many, like ship’s crew, and you cant just pay people a bunch to do it because you’ve done away with money, one incentive you might have to offer is social status and a sense of personal achievement. In which case, you might use bright flashy displays of rank, because it gives the person that has attained it a bright flashy reminder of “hey look at you, you’ve achieved this fancy rank that everyone that didnt join the fleet or didnt get as far as you yet doesnt have”, and gives any regular civilian that sees you a blatant reminder of “hey, this could be you, if you’re willing to put in the work for it”
You literally can’t! Or underthink it, lol. If that’s the meaning you take from the work, that’s what it means to you.
More or better evidence of the meaning might strengthen your position but viewer response as an idea is inherently individualistic.
Does that mean that, say, Starship Troopers is just about squashing bugs? Well, not really, but it doesn’t mean those people didn’t enjoy an simple action movie, no notes.
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