I’ve never seen Star Trek TOS so I don’t know for sure if this is explained anywhere. Does anyone know why they made the switch from red shirts to yellow shirts between commanding officers and security between TOS and TNG?

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26 points

because

In reality there isn’t an in-universe explanation but out of universe it might have been because of colors looking better on people (all from skimming this)

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28 points
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Yeah, it was largely Patrick looked better in red. Likewise under the new system Data was supposed to be in red, but it clashed with his makeup so they put him in gold.

It’s acknowledged in universe but they’ve never said why. Just “back then it was the other way around”.

No doubt fans back then were angry at the unexplained canon change.

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15 points

I’ve heard that Data was originally going to be a science officer and the blue uniform didn’t work with his makeup, but I don’t know whether or not it was true.

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