Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Combadges

The Federation’s secret organisation Section 31 often gets access to powerful new technology before Starfleet does, one example of this being combadges.

During the first two seasons of Star Trek: Discovery, Starfleet officers all still used communicators, however in the episode Saints Of Imperfection, we saw Ash Tyler, now an agent of Section 31, tap his badge with his hand and speak into it to hail Leland. Pike was as surprised to see this as we were, and asked Tyler 'What the hell kind of communicator is that?'

The Section 31 combadges of this era looked exactly the same as the Starfleet badges, but with black colouring on one side. Some members of Starfleet recognised the black badges as a symbol of authority, but few knew their true meaning or that they doubled as communicators. So far, it's unknown why Section 31 decided to keep combadges secret for so long.