Would TMP have been better had they used the TOS uniforms?

[CorporalCaptain]

Changing the uniforms wouldn't have helped the film, but the uniforms were indicative of a deeper problem: they were overthinking technical aspects of the production while neglecting the things needed to make a good movie.

But along with others, I loved the Admiral Kirk's uniform, and also Spock's robe and the engineering radiation suits. Ilia's bathrobe wasn't too bad either.

[Lance]

Didn't somebody on here a while back do a photoshop showing what the TMP uniforms might have looked like if they'd used TOS's color scheme instead of the dull pastels? I thought those photoshops looked amazing. So I don't object to the design of the uniforms, just with the colors that were used.

I think Bob Wise or somebody else later justified the decision by saying the TOS color sceme wouldn't have photographed well on the big screen, but Trek 2009 seems to have proven that wrong...

[Unicron]

CaptainMurdock wrote:

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Hmmm good point. Would have made it more watchable to you?

For myself, I think Kirk's admiralty uniform had a nice color scheme but the others could have been improved. For TMP as a whole, I think it could have used a stronger script and better development instead of using too many SFX shots. There were elements in the story that were really interesting, like V'Ger's quest to reach a new stage of evolution and the Decker/Ilia relationship, but I feel these weren't fleshed out very well.

[Lance]

Maybe the rest of the uniforms should have taken a leaf out of Kirk's uniform, and been two-tone in color? White up the middle, with divisional colors on the sides, arms and pants. One of the things that I think torpedoes the TMP uniforms is that most of them are one colour from head to toe.

I totally get what people are saying about them in some ways feeling like the most 'real' of the uniforms (certainly more than the TWOK ones, which are arguably over-dressed). But it's fiction, and the costumes need to be designed to be visually pleasing to the viewer, not necessarily with 'reality' or 'functionality' in mind. The TWOK uniforms have that eye-catching factor.

[C.E. Evans]

Lance wrote:

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Maybe the rest of the uniforms should have taken a leaf out of Kirk's uniform, and been two-tone in color? White up the middle, with divisional colors on the sides, arms and pants.

Kirk's uniform was supposedly the dress uniform for that era, with the greyish-green representing planet-bound personnel. Everyone else's dress uniform would have been identical with the white up the middle, but the rest would have been in the respective service colors of their standard duty uniforms.

[CorporalCaptain]

Lance wrote:

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Didn't somebody on here a while back do a photoshop showing what the TMP uniforms might have looked like if they'd used TOS's color scheme instead of the dull pastels? I thought those photoshops looked amazing. So I don't object to the design of the uniforms, just with the colors that were used.

I think Bob Wise or somebody else later justified the decision by saying the TOS color sceme wouldn't have photographed well on the big screen, but Trek 2009 seems to have proven that wrong...

Warped9 posted a revisionist take on TMP uniforms here. Looks pretty good, if you ask me.

For comparison, The Castellan posted a revisionist take on TWOK uniforms here. Also looks pretty good to me, certainly no worse than the "Mountie" uniforms we got.

[Maurice]

Who was arguing it was?

[CorporalCaptain]

Maurice wrote:

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Who was arguing it was?

I'm sorry, what's the question? Who was arguing what was what?

[Dream]

They needed to fail spectacularly with TMP's uniforms in order for them to realize that it was probably a good idea to have black pants on the uniforms.

[starburst]

Lance wrote:

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I think Bob Wise or somebody else later justified the decision by saying the TOS color sceme wouldn't have photographed well on the big screen, but Trek 2009 seems to have proven that wrong...

I would think this was partly down to the era it was filmed, most other scifi movies/shows from the time had a very similar colourscheme.

Lance wrote:

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Maybe the rest of the uniforms should have taken a leaf out of Kirk's uniform, and been two-tone in color? White up the middle, with divisional colors on the sides, arms and pants. One of the things that I think torpedoes the TMP uniforms is that most of them are one colour from head to toe.

Kirks Admiral Uniform was my second favourite regular uniform of the film, I always liked the metal Starfleet insignia (to focus in on one specific element). My favourite was another 2-tone, and another of Kirks, I always liked the look of the short sleeve white top he wore with a pair of the grey trousers. The 2 piece uniforms were also much better than the 1 piece.

TOS uniforms would have looked better, and I always wanted to see the TMP Bridge with the crew wearing a variation of the classic uniform.

It wouldnt have made the film any different though.

[Xaios]

Nothing much I can really add, except to reitate things that have already been said. Kirk's admiral uniform was actually quite nice, but the one-piece uniforms that the Enterprise crew wore looked terribly bland. A necessary evil though, as they indirectly lead to the creation of the uniforms we got for Wrath of Khan all the way through the early part of Generations, which is by far my favorite Trek uniform.

[dub]

I really enjoyed TMP the first time I watched it. It's a really tough one to re-watch though (for me), mainly because of the lengthy ride through v'ger as someone else mentioned.

The TMP uniforms do look dated. As someone else mentioned, they are the 1970s view of futuristic...which is now a retro view of futuristic. I'm sure at the time they were awesome.

The dark red uniforms that followed, on the other hand, hold up very well. Instead of trying to be futuristic, they're trying to be militaristic. I know Gene Roddenberry didn't like that direction, but to me it really worked well as a "look," regardless of the inspiration or the implied meaning Nicholas Meyer was going for. It's more unified and just worked better on film in my opinion.

[Lance]

CorporalCaptain wrote:

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Warped9 posted a revisionist take on TMP uniforms here. Looks pretty good, if you ask me.

Yup, those were the ones. I too think they look great. If Phase II had ever actually reached production as a series, I would have loved to have seen the crew wearing something like those (I know, the plan was apparently to use TOS uniforms in Phase II).

[CorporalCaptain]

Lance wrote:

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Yup, those were the ones. I too think they look great. If Phase II had ever actually reached production as a series, I would have loved to have seen the crew wearing something like those (I know, the plan was apparently to use TOS uniforms in Phase II).

If you notice, he also colorized the door in pastel red, which also works—at least in that particular frame.

[Nero's Shadow]

I liked the TMP uniforms but I think they should of kept the Department colours red blue and yellow the same as TOS and the star fleet Insignia the metal pin from kirks admiral uniform as standard. Never liked the colour coded system. Also they used two uniforms in TMP short sleeved with rank on the shoulders and the long sleeved ones both I liked but the beinge were so bland !!!

The wrap around jackets that we saw at the end of the movie I didn't like I much preferred the TWOK landing party jackets well cool !!!! Loved one of them for the winter months !!!