This fan theory also led to a production mistake in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode “ In a Mirror Darkly” where we see what happens to the lost USS Defiant that first appeared in the original series episode “The Tholian Web”. There is a fan theory that each ship has its own unique insignia and that Starfleet only universally adopted the delta symbol in honor of the Enterprise returning from its very successful five year mission. Unfortunately, this single production mistake has caused much confusion within the fan community, as well as another production mistake decades later. Going forward, the delta symbol remained consistent for all starship personnel, as we see in “ Court Martial” and “ The Tholian Web”. The memo then went on to clarify that the different insignia seen in the episode “ Charlie X” was a designation for merchant marines or freighter personnel. It was too late in production to fix the mistake, but Bob sent out a very friendly memo pointing out the error, stating that going forward all starship personnel are to wear the delta insignia. Bob consulted with Gene Roddenberry who clarified that all starship personnel are to wear the delta insignia as seen on the Enterprise crew uniform. Before the episode aired, Bob Justman (producer) was reviewing footage from the episode and noticed the costume anomaly. As this was so early in Star Trek’s production, Theiss understandably interpreted the different insignia as meaning that every individual starship had its own insignia and created a unique design for the USS Exeter, in the episode “ The Omega Glory”.
The costume designer, William Theiss, had noticed that in previous episodes there were personnel from another ship who wore unique insignia. Indeed, this confusion led to a production mistake very early on in the show’s first season. The rank, and specifically the various insignia in TOS has caused much confusion. These more closely follow the naval officer pattern, with gold pips equating to a whole stripe and black pips equating to a half stripe. In most later television series, ranks are indicated by varying numbers of gold or black dots (“pips”) or bars worn on the uniform collar.
These are unique symbols for each rank like those worn universally by officers in all branches of the U.S. In later movies based on The Original Series, ranks are indicated by pins on a shoulder strap and the left sleeve. Thus a Starfleet captain’s insignia resembles that of a naval lieutenant commander, a Commander’s insignia resembles a naval lieutenant, and so forth, down to an ensign who wears no sleeve insignia. Navy and Coast Guard model, to avoid an overly flashy or militaristic look the pattern was modified. While these were originally planned to follow the U.S. In Star Trek: The Original Series ( TOS) and Star Trek: The Motion Picture, ranks are indicated by sleeve stripes. The rank system of the Star Trek universe resembles that of the United States Navy and many Commonwealth of Nations navies, in contrast to other science fiction franchises that use an army ranking system. 6.2 Star Trek Into Darkness (2013 film).4.5 Movies from Star Trek: First Contact on and later DS9 seasons.