Different Generations uniforms?

[los2188]

I just read about uniforms that were supposed to be used in the movie Generations, but were not. Does anyone know why? Are there any pictures of those uniforms?? Learn something new everyday...wow.

[ScottDS]

You can see an illustration of them here. The Generations action figures also featured the crew wearing these uniforms (most likely due to the long lead time when it comes to merchandise).

I've heard a couple of reasons for why these weren't used. As the caption on the second photo says, Rick Berman and Co. were concerned about introducing too many new elements at once. On the other hand, Ron Moore mentions on the DVD commentary that costume designer Robert Blackman was concerned about how the series uniforms would hold up on the big screen.

[sbk1234]

Personally, I'm glad they didn't go this way. I love the First Contact uniforms much more. Although I think they would have made pretty good dress uniforms.

[Therin of Andor]

ScottDS wrote:

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(most likely due to the long lead time when it comes to merchandise).

Exactly why.


Playmates uniform comparison by Therin of Andor, on Flickr
Worf in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Seasons 3-7 uniform, Data and LaForge in the unused "Generations" movie uniforms and O'Brien in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" uniform.

The chest flap was supposed to be reminiscent, for movie audiences, of the chest flap seen on the 23rd century maroon uniforms of the "Generations" prologue.

[C.E. Evans]

Ironically, those uniforms had elements from both TOS (lower sleeve rank stripes) and TNG (rank pips)

[JoeZhang]

Therin of Andor wrote:

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Exactly why.


Playmates uniform comparison by Therin of Andor, on Flickr
Worf in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Seasons 3-7 uniform, Data and LaForge in the unused "Generations" movie uniforms and O'Brien in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" uniform.

The chest flap was supposed to be reminiscent, for movie audiences, of the chest flap seen on the 23rd century maroon uniforms of the "Generations" prologue.

Are Worf's trousers slightly different at the bottom to the other two Generations figures or is that just a trick of the light?

[Dream]

They should have just used the TNG series uniforms for GEN, and debuted the new grey uniforms in FC.

Having them mix TNG and DS9 uniforms in GEN was very distracting.

[SonicRanger]

I've also heard a rumour that the GEN uniforms were stolen.

[StewMc]

I believe the aborted uniforms were used for one day of filming, infact possibly the first day of filming (at least the first where someone in a 24th century Starfleet uniform appeared), see below



All though the quality is horrendous in places, you can clearly see La Forge wearing the uniform 17 seconds in. One could theorise that this particular scene was cut because they never went back and reshot it with Geordi in the normal uniform.

There is one other place where I believe the uniform pops up (albeit slightly modified): in the Voyager episode "Coda" as the uniform of Janeway's "father". In this case the collar has been removed, and it actually works quite well as a transition uniform between the modified movie-era uniforms seen in "Yesterday's Enterprise" and the uniforms of TNG Season 1. Shame they got the comm badge wrong though!

[Allyn Gibson]

Dream wrote:

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They should have just used the TNG series uniforms for GEN, and debuted the new grey uniforms in FC.

They really couldn't use the TNG uniforms on screen because they were five years old and were very worn. (For similar reasons, that's why the sets were lit so darkly -- that hid how worn down the sets were.)

StewMc wrote:

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I believe the aborted uniforms were used for one day of filming, infact possibly the first day of filming (at least the first where someone in a 24th century Starfleet uniform appeared)

Not the first day of filming. The first two weeks of filming were the Enterprise-B scenes, the filming of which overlapped with "All Good Things..." and a week break for the TNG cast. Otherwise, yes, the new uniforms were used for at least a day on set.

[Dream]

Allyn Gibson wrote:

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They really couldn't use the TNG uniforms on screen because they were five years old and were very worn. (For similar reasons, that's why the sets were lit so darkly -- that hid how worn down the sets were.)

They could only afford to make new DS9 style uniforms for Picard and Data. Frakes had to borrow Avery Brooks' uniform which is why it looked too small for him, and LeVar Burton had to wear Colm Meaney's uniform.

Worf, Troi, and Crusher all wore the TNG series uniforms for the entire movie. They looked fine. They actually asked Dorn which uniform he wanted to wear in GEN and he picked the series version.

[sbk1234]

For what it's worth, I had no problem with them wearing both uniforms in that film at the same time. In the real military there are multiple uniforms being used at once. It brought another layer which - in my humble opinion - added to the "reality" of the film.

[los2188]

I think that's silly. Another one of those..."The Star Trek fans are too stupid or too demanding to accept changes.." moments. It's a shame they didn't use the new uniforms then. I kind of like them, but I will admit that I like the grey uniforms much more. I wish I could see what they looked like on one of them where the video quality isn't crappy.

[Kronos]

They look good, from what one can gather, certainly better then the grey uniforms that look like they would be hot even in the dead of winter.

[Rarewolf]

JoeZhang wrote:

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Are Worf's trousers slightly different at the bottom to the other two Generations figures or is that just a trick of the light?

It says 'Worf in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Seasons 3-7 uniform' so yes it is different.

los2188 wrote:

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I think that's silly. Another one of those..."The Star Trek fans are too stupid or too demanding to accept changes.." moments. It's a shame they didn't use the new uniforms then. I kind of like them, but I will admit that I like the grey uniforms much more.

I would have thought at the time they were making changes for changes sake, and that it would have seemed a step backwards towards the earlier movies. Its less likely the grey uniforms would have been needed had they been used, the DS9 uniforms were only temporary.

I suppose you have to wonder if they'd have carried over to Voyager (as the then current uniforms), or been bought in to DS9 (as the greys were later)