Anyone know why they switched uni colours?
- Thread starter Yeffrey
- Start date
Patrick Stewart looked bad in gold. It's the same reason Data was an Operations Officer instead of a Science officer (Spiner's makeup looked bad in blue). I don't think there's any bigger reason than that (although the movies had red for everyone, so seeing someone in command with red wasn't that unorthodox by that point).
My understanding is that TNG originally went with the TOS coloring of uniforms but the yellow/gold didn't look good on Patrick Stewart so they switched it.
Funny.
I'd assumed that red was the color of command because the movies had established that red had become the main color of Starfleet uniforms, and when there was the return to the three color system, red remained in place as the main color, being used now for command (as gold had been previously), blue was again for science/medicine, and by default gold became Ship'sServices/Ops.
It is interesting, tho', that Nichelle Nichols was originally in gold, but quickly put into red.
Notice that on TNG both Dorn and Burton ended up in the TNG version of red...and they just happen to both have the same skin coloring as Nichols.
Also interesting is that when both were switched to gold, something didn't quite look the same. (Ha ha....I mean aside from the uniform color itself).
Them in gold didn't look quite the same as them in red.
I can accept the idea that the red becoming the command color was because of PS's not looking good in gold, still, there is something to be said about the movie uniforms being taken into account as well...
I'd assumed that red was the color of command because the movies had established that red had become the main color of Starfleet uniforms, and when there was the return to the three color system, red remained in place as the main color, being used now for command (as gold had been previously), blue was again for science/medicine, and by default gold became Ship'sServices/Ops.
It is interesting, tho', that Nichelle Nichols was originally in gold, but quickly put into red.
Notice that on TNG both Dorn and Burton ended up in the TNG version of red...and they just happen to both have the same skin coloring as Nichols.
Also interesting is that when both were switched to gold, something didn't quite look the same. (Ha ha....I mean aside from the uniform color itself).
Them in gold didn't look quite the same as them in red.
I can accept the idea that the red becoming the command color was because of PS's not looking good in gold, still, there is something to be said about the movie uniforms being taken into account as well...
Someone tried that last week.
All it did was mess with the replicators and ruin all the pretzels on movie night.
Not if they were going to put them in gold originally. If anything, the only earlier uniforms that might have been taken into account was probably TOS with the return of the red, gold, and blue scheme as major in-yer-face elements...
But then, we could always say that Starfleet got tired of all the redshirt=cannon fodder jokes and switched 'em to shut everybody up...
Since Miss Nichols stated she originally wore "drab green", why do the yellow freaks keep insisting otherwise?
I heared the reason for that was quite simple: since O'hura was usually in the frame behind Kirk, they wanted her in a colour that contrasted Kirk's gold.
And a fine Irish lass she is.
See, now, if TNG had used those uniforms from the very beginning, rather than the tighter, collarless ones they started with, I think the colors wouldn't have switched. Stewart and Frakes look fine in gold there, as does Spiner in blue.I got bored
That was "Tapestry," and Picard wore a blue uniform, not a gold one. I remember how he even got chewed out by Riker for never taking any risks or distinguishing himself. 
It was a combination. Your assumption has been confirmed in interviews with the costuming staff. The TOS movies II-IV (at the time of TNG's embyonic stage) had established wine red (an off-red) as the new colour associated with Kirk, so they figured putting Picard in that colour. Not only was it a better colour for Stewart/Picard, the off-red colour also distanced the new show from tired old "redshirt" gags.
The TOS science blue went to a blue/green to avoid the solid blue colour of bluescreens, which weren't known during TOS. The gold of TOS was similarly skewed along the colour scale, becoming a mustard.
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