White

White rose

A white rose

For additional meanings of "White", please see White.

White was a color with the ability to reflect and scatter all the frequencies of visible light. The color occurred naturally in some plants and animals, and was considered the opposite of black (see black and white). It also had some symbolic significance in various narratives and mythologies.

Natural Occurrences

The Human body, when the water was removed, could be reduced to three or four pounds of chemicals that appeared as white crystals. (TOS: "The Omega Glory")

White matter was a type of organic tissue in the Human medial temporal lobe, and could be restructured by interactions with a spore drive. (DIS: "Into the Forest I Go", "The Wolf Inside") Leukocytes in Humans, some Human hybrids, and Teplans were also called "white blood cells" or "white corpuscles." (TOS: "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky", TAS: "Beyond the Farthest Star", TNG: "The Host", VOY: "Nothing Human", DS9: "The Quickening")

Members of the Cheron species had faces that were bisected with white on one side and black the other. The members of the "black on the right side" group considered themselves superior and had subjugated the "white on the right side" group. By 2268, only one member of each group survived, pursuing each other for over fifty thousand years. (TOS: "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield")

Albinism in Klingons produced white and translucent skin. Other Klingons considered individuals with such features pariahs. (DIS: "Will You Take My Hand?")

The feces of a physically and psychologically healthy Areore was oily and white. (LD: "A Mathematically Perfect Redemption"

Egg whites were considered part of a properly-balanced breakfast, specifically in a three-egg white burrito with black beans. (DIS: "Lethe")

Mice of Earth could be naturally white, as could grapes. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before", LD: "Grounded") Earth's white rhinoceros became extinct in the mid-22nd century. (TNG: "New Ground")

The leaves of the Menellen tree of the planet J'naii would turn pure white, then blue when the weather turned cold. TNG: "The Outcast")

Symbolic Occurrences

Trelane's flags

Trelane's historical flags

White was a common flag color on Earth. The United States of America featured red, white, and blue; and the flag of France featured the same colors, but in reverse order. The flag of Italy was green, white, and red. (TNG: "The Last Outpost")

The World War II holoprogram run aboard the USS Voyager in 2374, featured the Wehrmacht captain expounding upon the symbolic elements of the flag of Nazi Germany: the blazing white circle of the sun sanctifying the blood of Germans, represented by the red field. (VOY: "The Killing Game, Part II")

Furthermore, a white flag was a symbol on Earth of surrender or a method of communicating with the opposite side in a conflict that negotiation was desired. (ENT: "Twilight", VOY: "The Q and the Grey", DS9: "Statistical Probabilities")

To see things in terms of "black and white" was to not allow room for ambiguity, that is, "gray areas." (TOS: "Catspaw", VOY: "Bride of Chaotica!", DIS: "Rubicon")

Various Vulcan meditations involved picturing one's breath or memory as a white light. (VOY: "Basics, Part I", "Juggernaut")

Mindscapes were sometimes empty white spaces, as in Hoshi Sato's dream featuring Commander Tucker in an entirely white place or Sam Rutherford's mental confrontation with the stored personality of his younger self in a featureless white void. (ENT: "Affliction", LD: "Reflections")

In color coding, white was sometimes used to indicate areas of danger, such as forbidden areas on Rubicun III, or the morgue level of the Dinaali Hospital Ship 4-2. (TNG: "Justice", VOY: "Critical Care") White could also be used to indicate neutral areas, such as non-aligned territories on Federation star charts of the 23rd century. (SNW: "Strange New Worlds") The labeling system for isolinear rods on Deep Space 9 in 2370 included white for data on the engineering system controls. (DS9: "Shadowplay")

Literary Occurrences

"Black and white" could be a term for printed periodicals, like a newspaper. (DIS: "Terra Firma, Part 1")

Earth children's nursery rhymes and fairy tales often featured white animals. In "Mary Had a Little Lamb", Mary's lamb had a fleece as white as snow; and the White Rabbit character from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland wore white gloves and had white fur. (ENT: "Dawn", TOS: "Shore Leave", TAS: "Once Upon a Planet")

In the Earth novel Moby Dick, the captain Ahab hunted the titular white whale. (Star Trek: First Contact

In Takarian mythology, the Holy Sages lived upon white clouds. (VOY: "False Profits")

Specific Occurrences

The Earth game baseball featured white lines between which the player would attempt to hit a ball with a bat. (DS9: "Emissary")

Three-dimensional chess featured black and white playing pieces, one color for each player. (TOS: "Charlie X"; Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)

Tires on automobiles in the 20th century could have "white walls," wherein the entirety or portion of the sidewall was made of white rubber instead of the uniform black. (TNG: "Clues")

In 2053, the residents of Richmond, Indiana, gathered in the East Fork Presbyterian Church in their town to shelter from the destruction during Earth's World War III. After the building was removed to Terralysium, it was renamed the "White Church" for its color. (DIS: "New Eden")

Michael Burnham, on the day she graduated in 2249, wore a white dress. (DIS: "Perpetual Infinity")

In 2267, Captain James T. Kirk met a man named Lazarus who was in pursuit of a "terrible thing," that was "all white, black, and empty." They would later discover this thing was, in fact, Lazarus from an antimatter universe. (TOS: "The Alternative Factor") The USS Enterprise would be dragged into such a universe in 2270, where black stars shone in a white void. (TAS: "The Counter-Clock Incident")

That same year, the migrating flying parasites were discovered to be sensitive to light, inspiring Doctor Leonard McCoy to use a blinding white light in attempt to neutralize them. (TOS: "Operation -- Annihilate!")

In 2268, Steve O'Connel was upset to receive coconut and vanilla ice cream, because both were white. (TOS: "And the Children Shall Lead")

Clara Sutter's imaginary friend Isabella in 2368 wore a blue dress with white buttons. (TNG: "Imaginary Friend")

In 2381, Beckett Mariner noted that the Nova One, the starship designed and built by Nick Locarno, was "very white." (LD: "Old Friends, New Planets")

See Also

External links

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