Yellow alert

A yellow alert or condition yellow was the second highest alert signal status on Starfleet vessels and starbases, one stage below red alert. It designated a ship-wide state of increased preparedness for possible crisis situations.

Usage Edit



Notable usesEdit

Capt chair control

A yellow alert light highlighted in the armrest controls of a Constitution-class command chair

Galaxy alert status indicators



Yellow alert displayed on a Crossfield-class viewscreen


Yellow alert was not typically ordered in the Earth Spacedock. However, in 2285, such an order was given aboard the USS Excelsior when Admiral Kirk was stealing the Enterprise. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)

In 2286, after the USS Saratoga lost power when the Whale Probe transmitted a call on an amplification wave of immense power at the starship, the vessel's captain ordered a yellow alert. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)





That same year, in the wake of the Borg threat, William T. Riker ordered a standing yellow alert on the Enterprise-D. (TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds")

In 2369, Commander Benjamin Sisko ordered yellow alert when an alien vessel from the Gamma Quadrant arrived via the Bajoran wormhole. (DS9: "Captive Pursuit")

The same year, Commander Sisko ordered yellow alert when the imaginations of the people aboard Deep Space 9 became reality. (DS9: "If Wishes Were Horses")

In 2372, Captain Benjamin Sisko told Major Kira Nerys to keep Deep Space 9 on yellow alert as he embarked on a mission to Cardassian territory on the USS Defiant with several other members of the station's crew. (DS9: "The Way of the Warrior")

The next year, Captain Sisko put DS9 on yellow alert after learning the Dominion was about to invade the Alpha Quadrant. (DS9: "In Purgatory's Shadow")

The first references to "yellow alert" were in TOS: "Court Martial". In that episode's final draft script, however, those references were instead to "red alert". The term "yellow alert" was included when the revised final draft of the installment's teleplay was written, at which time pre-existing references to "double-red alert" were similarly changed to "red alert". Thus, these changes allowed for the invention of yellow alert, despite still making it clear that the references to that alert status were less urgent than red alert.