Poll Which TOS movie had the best overall costuming?

[JonnyQuest037]

Not just the Starfleet uniforms, but ALL the costumes seen in the movie. Which one of the TOS movies do you think did the best job of fleshing out the Star Trek universe? Which one had the best-looking outfits overall, and why? What costumes are your favorites out of the bunch?

I've listed a few of the costumes featured in each movie to jog your memories.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

My personal favorite movie in terms of costuming is STVI: TUC. I loved the new Klingon costumes, and I thought all the Rura Penthe and Khitomer aliens were very creative. I hate that they screwed up the color schemes from Robert Fletcher's STII Starfleet uniforms, though (Valeris' collar and shoulder strap don't match throughout the film).

 

[STEPhon IT]

The Voyage Home. Depicting the world of Vulcan culture: the costumes, the atmosphere, and then the 20th century: the costumes and clothing were accurate to it's time. Amanda, Spock's mother's fabric, gave her such grace.

One of the moments in the film was great in the bus scene where there was an obnoxious punk rocker. And it was funny because Californians were so blunt. From the setting at the glass company, to the Aquarium, to the Golden Gate Bridge, to the hospital, to the SS Enterprise, even the Italian restaurant the clothes and attire presented a wonderful community. It has made want to visit. For the crew, it was an alien world from there own.

Later back to the future where I got to see a vast of officials from the UFP. The variations from costumes from every member in the court room showed optimism, even the court room from bright and white. The reflections of that film was light-hearted and fun, optimistic and Utopian. The film was the perfect example of the best of Star Trek had to offer. I bet Gene Roddenberry must have been so pleased with the overall film. The costumes presented so much atmosphere and joy.

 

[2takesfrakes]

STAR TREK III: The Search for Spock

Nimoy took what liberties he could with the Starfleet uniforms to give some variety to them and, perhaps also, to give the actors a break. The Klingon uniform was given its first variant, with Kruge's open collar design with gold accents. The indispensable Klingon knife makes its first appearance. And, my god, Vulcan looks gorgeous! The costumes on that set are quite wonderful - works of Art, in fact. Sarek is even given an impressively detailed and bejeweled chestplate that really set Vulcanian costumes apart and looks otherworldly. Bob Fletcher's such a great costume designer; I just love what he did. And his work on The Motion Picture is nothing short of impressive, as well. It's like he came full circle, in STAR TREK III. After that, he just sort of disappears, and what a loss it is. The further movies really needed a costumer of his equal and never quite found it, again.

 

[Galileo7]

TUC, Starfleet and Klingons

 

[The Old Mixer]

STAR TREK III: The Search for Spock

You must not have noticed what Chekov was wearing....

 

[JonnyQuest037]

You must not have noticed what Chekov was wearing....

Chekov ditched the white collar halfway through the movie because Walter Koenig hated it so much. He said it made him look like the Little Dutch Boy.

 

[2takesfrakes]

The only time I really noticed Chekov's collar was at that pivotal moment when Kirk, et al, is about to commandeer the Enterprise. What Lenny was thinking of, when he suggested and/or OK'd that costume, I'll never know. But he did want everyone's outfits to be symbolic of their Nation of Origin, apparently ... and not simply garments. Like Kirk's red, white & blue jumpsuit. Bones' space cowboy outfit was from the last movie, so he was $aved from wearing something similar. Scotty never got to have civvies on, whilst Uhura and Sulu had cool costumes. Once Chekov's collar was removed, the outfit was acceptable. In the next movie, of course, he's wearing leather pants, like he was in an 8O's hair band. Maybe he was in his 2nd childhood, or something, by then ... again, Nimoy does Chekov wrong!

 

[JonnyQuest037]

What Lenny was thinking of, when he suggested and/or OK'd that costume, I'll never know. But he did want everyone's outfits to be symbolic of their Nation of Origin, apparently ... and not simply garments.

I believe I read in The Star Trek Interview Book that costumer designer Robert Fletcher based it upon a Russian artist who dressed that way.

 

[2takesfrakes]

That's interesting, thank you! I'll have to look that up, now, as I have no idea who he could be talking about ...

 

[Griffeytrek]

Hard to say best. But I think Chekov's amazingly bad ensemble in ST III may qualify as the single worst example of costuming in at least the movie Treks. (There may be some TNG era costumes involving making use of grandmas apolstry and drapes that exceed it in overall tackiness). Chekov's outfit plus whoever thought Mauve was a good interior design color for a Starship (Grissom) make me think someone involved in the production was both color blind, and had been violently assaulted as a child by members of the fashion industry.

 

[MANT!]

Hard to say best. But I think Chekov's amazingly bad ensemble in ST III may qualify as the single worst example of costuming in at least the movie Treks. (There may be some TNG era costumes involving making use of grandmas apolstry and drapes that exceed it in overall tackiness). Chekov's outfit plus whoever thought Mauve was a good interior design color for a Starship (Grissom) make me think someone involved in the production was both color blind, and had been violently assaulted as a child by members of the fashion industry.

Well it was the 80s..

 

[Griffeytrek]

Well it was the 80s..

I lived through the 80's. Granted I was drunk through a substantial portion of it. But even in the 80's there was nothing to be seen that was THAT bad. Actual 80's fashion was at best a mix of "shabby and probably slept in" on the male side and "flourescent and possibly highly flammable" on the female. Chekov's outfit was more like the 70's Disco era as filtered through a Cargo Cult.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

whoever thought Mauve was a good interior design color for a Starship (Grissom)...

According to Nimoy's DVD commentary on STIII, that was very intentional. He wanted the Grissom crew to look like "pretenders to the throne."

 

[2takesfrakes]

I'm not much of a Googler, outside of looking for images. I couldn't find anything specific to the actual inspiration for Chekov's Russian-influenced outfit. Also, my damn computer keeps assuming I meant to spell his name as Chekhov, just to compound the search! What I mostly found was commentary on how vulgar and inappropriate his outfit was, I'm afraid.

However ... !!! .... I did find this rather nice article about Robert Fletcher posted in "Forgotten Trek:"

http://ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/668/

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I'm not much of a Googler, outside of looking for images. I couldn't find anything specific to the actual inspiration for Chekov's Russian-influenced outfit.

I just pulled my copy of Allan Asherman's The Star Trek Interview Book off the shelf, and after checking both the Walter Koenig and Robert Fletcher interviews, I realize that I must've read it in an issue of Cinefantastique. As I recall, they never mentioned the Russian artist by name. Walter Koenig didn't mention his dislike of it for a while as he was apparently having some other issues on that film which made him feel very disgruntled.

 

[2takesfrakes]

I can't imagine what Chekov's issues could've been with STAR TREK III, considering that he wasn't the one left behind, for most of the story. Maybe his meatier role within Wrath of Khan spoilt him. But thanks for letting me know further about the Russian they were trying to reference, it's just cool to think about, anyway, what goes behind creating a costume when everything's made up. Regardless of the era a story's set in, Art History - History itself, in fact - is what every designer must reference. It's just a knot I had to untie ...

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I can't imagine what Chekov's issues could've been with STAR TREK III, considering that he wasn't the one left behind, for most of the story. Maybe his meatier role within Wrath of Khan spoilt him.

Yeah, I think that was part of it, as I recall. Let me see if I can dig out that issue...

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Found it! It's the April 1992 issue on STIV. There's also a retrospective on the previous movies. Here's what Walter Koenig had to say in Mark Altman's article:

Koenig said he nearly passed on doing the film a bitter dispute with producer Harve Bennett. "Chekov was virtually nonexistent," noted Koenig. "I wasn't expecting that after STAR TREK II. Bennett asked me to see him after I read the script in his office, but my agent had to go because he had appointments and asked me if I minded leaving also. Since I was disappointed with the script anyway, I said okay. Bennett took inordinate umbrage that I did not come by his office and called up my agent and chewed him out. He said I had the worst Russian accent in Hollywood and if it were not for STAR TREK, I would never work and went on at great length, totally denigrating me, not to my face, but to my agent. I then received what I was told was a final offer to do the movie, a take it or leave it offer, and I demurred. It wasn't easy. I'm not such a strong character by nature, but I was angry at being so undeservedly demeaned by him. I thought that was the end of it, that I was no longer going to be in STAR TREK. I told them I was not going to accept the offer they gave me. I went home and told my family there was not going to be any more STAR TREK in out lives. Interestingly enough, they came back the next day with just enough more for me to be able to save face and accept it. I would not have called back and said I changed my mind. That set the tone for STAR TREK III."

According to Koenig, however, the biggest failing of STAR TREK III--discounting his lack of lines--was his outfit, a pink jumpsuit with a white collar. "I thought it was ridiculous looking, " said Koenig. "Robert Fletcher patterned it after some Russian artist who dressed that way, with a little dicky and everything. We had shot some footage with it and Michael Eisner [then head at Paramount] looked at the dailies and said he didn't like it. Leonard came up and said, 'We're going to take you out of the costume,' And I said, 'Thank God.' Leonard replied, 'Why didn't you say something?' and was a little bit irritated. I thought, 'Why the hell didn't I say something?' I was just so into this mindset that I was just the hired help and had no input. It never occurred to me that I might say, 'I don't like this.'"

So yeah, it doesn't sound like he had a very good time on that movie.

I also found a neat costuming tidbit in a 1987 issue: When they were doing STIII, they wanted to reuse the 12 Klingon outfits that had been made for TMP, but 6 of them were in very bad shape because they'd been used and altered for an episode of Mork & Mindy. The other six had been used in convention appearances and were also rather worn.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

TWOK: The new Starfleet uniforms--the militaristic / formal wear matched the harder-looking refit, instead of the goofy leisure wear of TMP, or Kirk's Love Boat Admiral formal costume.

TFF: The landing party field uniforms was another rational design, as it allowed flexibility, and eliminated the oversized jackets used by TWOK's landing party.