[Fifthrate]

He didn't look so hot in the red uniform either.

[Livingston]

Originally Posted by Botany Bay

I allways assumed it had to do with the movie uniforms. It seems to have associated red with Starfleet. So, they made red the colour of the command branch.

Whatever the real reasons, I just can speculate it had far more to do with what actor looked good in what colour then with a real reasoning in terms of canonicity and in-universe logic.

Take Data as an example: He performed everything Spock did in TOS. But did they give him a blue uniform? Nope. They invented the OPS-station. Wouldnt it be somewhat logical that operations is a position for the command branch? Nope. Data has to wear gold. He just has to. He is a robot. Robots are somewhat golden. C3PO was golden. You see?

C3PO! I always wondered why Data was in gold. That makes perfect sense!

[1THGfan]

Why was Geordi's uniform in S1 red? He wasn't in command.

[Livingston]

It changed from red to gold when he became chief engineer didn't it? I thought he had the red uniform only for the 1st season when he was at helm. Some other's at his station had red too where as at Data's station they wore gold. I'm not sure. Ensign Ro had red, she was at that station.

[Yagami Crewman]

Geordi was in the command track before he became Chief Engineer... Heck He even took command of the Ship in one episode. And of course according to Voyager he is also or was also destined for a Starship command Captaining the USS Challenger.

[Zardoz]

Good points!

[1THGfan]

Originally Posted by Yagami Crewman

Geordi was in the command track before he became Chief Engineer... Heck He even took command of the Ship in one episode. And of course according to Voyager he is also or was also destined for a Starship command Captaining the USS Challenger.

Yeah, but the pins on his neck indicated quite a low rank.

[TrekkieTechie]

The "command color cycle" became complete when Captain Braxton wore blue in Future's End Part II and Relativity.

As a side note, here's a fun page detailing many of the various uniform errors and inconsistencies throughout the series and movies.