Forum: Story Ideas

Since Deana is Betazoid, her daughter wouldn't have any issues being nude. That's part of their marriage ritual, where both the bride and groom are nude.

IIRC, Nudity in general is very common on Betazed as well, so it isn't just at the weddings.

Something about being a planet full of telepaths, there is no point in trying to hide things.

Really, if Star Trek had been produced for HBO instead of broadcast television, you'd probably have at least a couple human colonies that would alternately be populated by either nudists or hedonists.... But well, you can't show that on television, and just discussing Betazoid culture in the 1990's was pushing limits.

That and well, everything about Gene Roddenberry reflects the matter that the guy was both a cad, and a "free love" kind of guy even into the 1990's. I still recall the interview where he lamented that he wasn't gay and thus unable to appreciate what that was like.

In TOS, if somebody in red entered your work area, you let them be because that was security

In TOS, red was operations, which included both security and engineering. Blue was sciences, including medical, and yellow/gold was command. TNG swapped colors between operations and command.

Through each iteration of Trek, the uniforms told a lot. Of course, Gene was a Navy vet so he understood that. As the decades went on, the uniforms got more "generic", but the old ones actually told a hell of a lot if you knew how to look at them.

Gene was Army.

And the Navy working uniforms actually divulge little more than rank. Of course, their telling you their rate will fill in a lot of blanks, but you'll need to be told that.

Of course, I only served on a ship with a crew of about 300 people(which would be about in line with Kirk-era Enterprise in TOS) and generally people working in a particular department within the ship would know of everyone else in it to a fair degree. At that kind of crew size most of the crew would also be aware of most other people on the ship's crew as well unless they were new. It's basically like living in a small town or attending a smallish secondary level school in a lot of ways. (For the school analogy just swap "department" with grade level and the rest mostly takes care of itself.)

And you don't need full body coverage, or even "naughty bit coverage" to have something on you that can communicate rank and/or function on the ship should you decide to have a uniform that does convey function.

And they actually do. I can tell the difference between an HM3, an AO3 and an QM3. Now I was never in the Navy, but as a Marine I worked closely with them and got to know quite a few of their ranks and ratings (and what the badges inside the rank meant). And even why some wear red chevrons, and others wear gold chevrons.

That is stuff you only see in their dress uniforms. Or the "working" equivalent of the dress uniform, something you'd only see Navy personnel wearing when working in an ("white collar") office billet where they're being image conscious.

On ship(excepting the quarterdeck watches or ceremonial functions), or most of the "working" (blue-collar) shore-duty posts they're going be in either their utility uniform(or whatever they call the BDU equivalent they started using after I got out) or in coveralls.

The Utility uniform only had "the Crow and chevrons" on it(plus any applicable warfare pins), and came in one color, black. If you were a "french fry" you didn't wear anything on your sleeve. E-7 and above were stuck in khakis though, but even for them, you'd only see their anchors on their collar, no indication of rating unless they were wearing a name-badge and you were close enough to read it.

If they were in coveralls, you had rank insignia on the collars for E-4 and above, but the french-fries are out of luck once more, no insignia. But in a change of pace, IIRC, they could have red or gold chevrons on the coveralls--it's been a number of years so memory is fogging up a bit over time on that part. Remembering which uniform items used pins, which ones had patches sewn on, etc.
(edit: I think Laz will allow this outside link, as I'm not linking another story site:
https://www.usamm.com/products/navy-coverall-collar-insig-rank
Yup, the above is a site with a catalogue for the Navy rank insignia for the Navy Coveralls. Notice the rating symbol is absent.)

Ostensibly, part of that is to make sure that in the event of an abandoned ship or a captured ship, it provides some obscurity as to what roles certain people performed on the ship(obviously more challenging on a ship capture).. As they'd likely be in either coveralls or the working uniform which doesn't have rating insignia, only rank. Which is where "Name, Rank, and serial number" becomes fun for the sailors, as their rate is only associated with their rank, but not the rank itself.

slightly above her nipple which functions as a combadge

Her nipple functions as a combadge?

Yeah, that's why I keep tapping it.

You shouldn't be trying to tap the Admiral's combadge.

Congratulations on becoming the first Starfleet Ensign to get keel hauled.

Congratulations on becoming the first Starfleet Ensign to get keel hauled.

Getting keel hauled on a starship just doesn't have the outcome, unless you're doing it without a suit, or atmosphere. Although that sounds lethal for another reason.

It was the combination of being forced underwater as they passed under the ship(risk of drowning), and rubbing against the barnacles on the hull of the ship(which would shred skin) that made it so terrifying. As your odds of surviving that still wasn't very good, probably wouldn't be very good even now, unless the hull had been cleaned reasonably recently.