What Is the Significance of Uniform Colors in ‘Star Trek’?

While Gene Roddenberry envisioned an ideal future through Star Trek, certain aspects of his creation were deeply influenced by reality—particularly the structure and roles of the Enterprise crew.

Roddenberry and the show’s producers drew significant inspiration from the United States Navy, incorporating its ranking system into the series. This included a captain leading a team of commanders, lieutenant commanders, lieutenants, and other supporting roles. However, the true narrative of the Enterprise’s functionality is conveyed through the distinct colors of the Starfleet uniforms.

Decoding the Symbolism of Star Trek’s Uniform Colors

Fans are familiar with the basics: the bridge of the ship is filled with crew members wearing blue, red, and gold shirts in every episode. These colors weren’t chosen randomly for visual variety; they represent the different service roles aboard the ship:

• Gold shirts are designated for the command division, featuring characters like Captain Kirk, Lieutenant Sulu, and Pavel Chekov.
• Red uniforms are assigned to the engineering and communications teams, including Chief Engineer Scotty and Communications Officer Uhura.
• Blue shirts are worn by the science and medical staff, such as McCoy and Spock.

The Fate of the Red Shirts

However, as with many elements of Star Trek, the story is more nuanced. Beyond engineering and communications, red shirts are also worn by the security division.

What role does the security division play on the Enterprise? Typically, they are the supporting characters who meet their demise whenever the crew encounters a new threat. This has become an inside joke among fans, as the appearance of a “Red Shirt” often signals their impending doom, making it clear they’re not destined to survive.

Evolution of Uniform Colors

Interestingly, the iconic gold shirts worn by Kirk and his team might not have been intended to be gold. In a discussion with Star Trek’s costume designer, William Theiss, it was revealed that the original plan was for the uniforms to be red, blue, and green. On set, Kirk’s uniform appeared to be a shade of avocado or lime green, but the final result under studio lighting turned out differently.

“It was a quirk of the film stock,” Theiss explained, “the shirts photographed as burnt orange or gold, but in reality, they were green—specifically the command shirts.”

This revelation might astonish Trek enthusiasts, though it’s worth noting that Kirk did occasionally wear green, such as during formal events and in his rare alternate green uniform, as seen in the clip below.

These alternative uniforms matched the exact green shade Theiss described, but they were crafted from a different fabric than the standard Enterprise attire, allowing them to maintain their true color under set lighting. While the gold tone may have been an unintended result of production, it has since become a defining feature of the Trek universe, solidifying Kirk’s association with the color. However, in reality, the Enterprise bridge was envisioned with a completely different color scheme.

Uniform Colors Across Various Series

The color scheme becomes even more perplexing when examining later Star Trek series, such as The Next Generation, where the command team wore red and operations personnel donned yellow—essentially flipping the original series’ palette. Additionally, the films frequently altered uniforms and colors, including the infamous powder blue outfits featured in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Roddenberry’s meticulous attention to detail was groundbreaking for sci-fi television, with every element of the Enterprise serving a distinct purpose. Despite occasional production errors, questionable redesigns, and later inconsistencies, the colors of Starfleet’s uniforms weave a narrative that many fans might have overlooked.