Command division

Captain Archer wore command gold in 2151
2151:	Captain Archer of NX-01 wearing command gold.
Commodore Wesley wore command gold in 2268
2268:	Commodore Wesley wearing command gold.
2280s:	Captain insignia on command white uniform patch.

The command division is the corps of officers within Starfleet who specialize in command and control functions on starbases, aboard starships, and at Starfleet Command. Members of the command division are trained in leadership and have tactical training allowing them to decisively take action in organizing and mobilizing Starfleet crews to perform missions. Command officers include most all of the admiralty, captains, executives, adjutants, pilots and flight controller (or helmsman). Command division personnel also fill posts as tactical officers and sometimes in ordnance departments.

Officers who belongs to the command division sometimes wear the division color of another department which they specialize in, if said command officer were to become a security chief, engineer, or command a science department.

In the Earth's Starfleet of the 2140s and 2150s, line officers of command division wore gold division stripes on their uniforms.

Gold was still the color of the command division throughout the 2250s and 2260s, worn by line officers and flag officers of this division.

By the 2270s, new uniforms showed different division colors, the command division was signified by white backing their Starfleet badge, and also on uniform bands and epaulets. This continued onto the 2280s uniforms, and the insignia used gave the officer the option of wearing command division white uniform insignia, with another department color banded across, or the opposite, with department color insignia with command white banded across.

By the uniforms used from 2350s onward, red had become the command division color, and this has continued through several uniform styles.

During The Original Star Trek, command gold was regularly worn by the captains, admirals, helm and navigation officers, but was also seen on phaser room ordnance crews. Communications Officer Uhura briefly wore command gold, as did Executive Officer Spock, but they switched over to other department colors over the course of the series.

In the movie era, Saavik wore command white despite having a dual position as science specialist (as did Spock, but he was a captain at this point). The costume department had planned to give her uniform a science department color swatch also, but in an error, it was never seen on film. The schemes and insignia of the Star Trek Movies era uniforms were designed by Robert Fletcher.

The purpose of the colors was only obvious through inference, but in DS9:"Trials and Tribble-ations," gold was established in dialogue as the "old" style command color (and red as the "new" command color). The decision to switch the meaning of the colors between the TOS and TNG uniform styles was made in pre-production of "Encounter at Farpoint."

Most often, in the Federation Starfleet, all captains and admirals wear command division colors, however there are exceptions which prove that this is not a requirement. In TOS, two commodores, Stone and Stocker, wore red operations division uniforms, and Captain Krasnowsky wore sciences division blue. In the movie era, Scotty switched back and forth from command white to engineering yellow after recieving his captain's bars. In TNG era productions, DS9:"The Die is Cast" had an admiral named Toddman wore operations division yellow, despite every other Starfleet captain and admiral ever seen in this era wearing command colors.