Yes it sounds like he is the main focus of the episode.

Discovery had the metallic side panels to differentiate the departments. Command – gold, Science – silver, Engineering/ops – copper.

Well on Discovery in the 23rd century, every department was blue, so progress. ;)

Agreed, I have been waiting for pur captain!

Red is only command in TNG plus; during the TOS/SNW era, command is gold, and red is for engineering and ship’s services.

Well, of course it is. But this sort of thing is what discussion is for, y’know.

No thanks! Just wondering aloud. :-)

I don’t think the Data explanation is all that confusion or specifically tied to the makeup color. Technically, gold was Operations and Command, and Data fit to both of those categories over the course of the series. Science would have fit too on a level, but he was more involved with Operations with his role on the bridge.

Ortegas is a lot less clear. But, as someone else mentioned, Uhura wore red. I’m sure there was some sort of “official” explanation at one point, but I’d have to look.

I’ve taken it that they’re moving in the direction that Helm is in the Ops Division now. Red seems to be limited to command.

They did the same thing on Discovery with Detmer and Owo.

I also read somewhere that’s why Picard was in red instead of gold too, it just looked better on Stewart so that color became the command color.

On the Delta Flyers Podcast, Garret Wang said Seven was suppose to be in a gold Starfleet uniform the rare times she wore one, but Jeri Ryan hated the look on her and asked to be in the blue one and why we saw her in that color as well.

Also why Nichelle Nichols went from a red costume after having worn a gold (green) one in the first few TOS episodes. She just looked better in red.

Probably just that it looks better and makes them easier to differentiate on bridge shots. Similar to why Data was in gold in TNG, the gold/silver skin didn’t look good with blue.

I don’t know that everything needs some “in universe” explanation. In this case, why would that even matter?

Does it matter?

I’m guessing that answer is in watching the episode.

The Navigator finally got a line or two a couple of episodes ago and that’s when I really noticed that both were in red.

Want me to tell you? Because I’ve seen it. Once you see it, you won’t be asking those questions.

And wow, Kirsten Beyer help write this one. I don’t remember seeing any writing credits from her in a while and a first for SNW IIRC.