From My Star Trek Scrapbook blog, a 1980 interview with Robert Fletcher who designed the uniforms and civilian costumes for TMP (and later TWOK-TVH).
Old Bob Fletcher Interview on TMP costumes
- Thread starter Ryan Thomas Riddle
- Start date
Great find! I wish I'd read that article before I wrote my TMP-alien-heavy novel Ex Machina -- it would've given me a couple extra details to play with. (Like the name of the Rhaandarites' homeworld, for one. I called it Rhaandarel.)
What a cool article! I knew that the bio-sensors seen in the new movie had their origins in TMP.
I love the background on the alien races too. It's so annoying that subsequent writers felt the need to just keep inventing bland race after bland race. Any one of these races could and should have been developed further. I'd have been very happy if Betazoids had never supplanted Deltans and if K'tarians had been K'normians.
I think Ex Machina covered a lot of this background very well. I always thought that Betelgeusians looked very interesting physically and culturally. The early background was that they were space dwellers after their planet was destroyed. RPG notes gave them a complicated caste system based upon emulating legendary figures (Darmok anybody?). I was also very annoyed when Andorians were pretty much dumped from Starfleet after TMP.
I love the background on the alien races too. It's so annoying that subsequent writers felt the need to just keep inventing bland race after bland race. Any one of these races could and should have been developed further. I'd have been very happy if Betazoids had never supplanted Deltans and if K'tarians had been K'normians.
I think Ex Machina covered a lot of this background very well. I always thought that Betelgeusians looked very interesting physically and culturally. The early background was that they were space dwellers after their planet was destroyed. RPG notes gave them a complicated caste system based upon emulating legendary figures (Darmok anybody?). I was also very annoyed when Andorians were pretty much dumped from Starfleet after TMP.
Huh? What bio-sensors in the new movie?
That's an interesting coincidence. It wasn't part of the Robert Fletcher notes I had access to; I just made them space dwellers because Betelgeuse is too young a star to have habitable planets, so I figured they should just be from the sector of Betelgeuse without having a specific planet of their own. (Plus I just generally like to explore non-planet-based cultures in my SF.)
Where is that from, Last Unicorn or the Decipher? As far as I know while FASA covered the aliens in TVH, none of their RPG books dealt with the TMP aliens.
Pretty neat. I never knew the little buckle thingies on the shirts were supposed to be bio-readers. Makes sense...
But I gotta say, I really hate the uniforms in TMP. They're so distracting that they actually take me out of the movie.
But Fletcher more than made up for it with the uniforms he designed for TWOK (and on)....Excellent!
But I gotta say, I really hate the uniforms in TMP. They're so distracting that they actually take me out of the movie.
But Fletcher more than made up for it with the uniforms he designed for TWOK (and on)....Excellent!
^I feel just the opposite. The TMP uniforms, while a bit drab, were plausibly functional and futuristic at the same time. Fletcher was certainly onto something with the wide range of different uniform options. The TWOK uniforms were rather ridiculous. As formal dress uniforms, maybe they would've worked, but as everyday uniforms they were just pretentious, impractical, anachronistic, and silly. What they should've done was use the jacket only on dress occasions and otherwise just use the turtleneck undershirt, like the pilot uniforms.
In the Kelvin sequence, Robau is being [URL="http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/xihd/trekxihd0101.jpg"]monitored from the bridge [/URL]when he boards the Narada. The HUD display of his life functions notes Robau's elevated heart rate as he exits the shuttle. Subsequently, the HUD display goes into alert mode once Robau is killed.
Later in the movie, the Away Team is likewise being monitored on the HUD display with Olsen's blip blinking out once he gets redshirted.
So there is some bio-sensor being used in the new movie. However, it's not explicitly shown to be something worn on the uniforms ala the bio-buckle or the TNG communicators.
Last edited:
I can't actually remember which rpg supplement it was... in was in a book on aliens though. Also had the Zaranites and Saurians in. Maybe if you google Zaranites it will show up. I was researching information to use an amalgam TMP Trek/B5/Farscape universe for Thousand Suns. I left out the TMP races for whom there was little information but I might consider adding them back in with this article...
The Beltelgeuse stuff is inconsistent. Early background said thier star went nova. The RPG bacground lists a home planet. And your research shows Betelgeuse as a young star. I compromised by saying their original home went nova, many dwell in space, some colonised a planet near Betelgeuse!
I also ike the TMP uniforms, although I found te vast array and illogical colour scheme to be a bit irritating. Still, it makes sense that Starfleet with its lax discipline would relaxed dress codes. His colour scheme in the article is wrong though as gold is for ops and grey is for security.
Here are the notes I stitched together, but most of it is from Wiki searches and Memory Alpha (and a bit from Ex Machina):
The Arcturians are a humanoid species native to Arcturus IV in the Arcturus star system. They possess tough, chalk-white or reddish-gray skin, which forms heavy folds on their bodies. They have large earlobes and small amounts of platinum hair. The Arcturians are genetically stable and are able to procreate by way of cloning. As such they often look alike and the only way that outsiders can tell them apart is the colouring and symbols on their uniforms. Arcturian native dress includes a leather-and-fur tunic.
The Arcturians are associate members of the United Federation of Planets. Their society is very militaristic but it is somewhat anarchical, lacking any strong government. They have over 100 billion inhabitants spread across the system. Most Arcturans lack a formal education, although the majority speaks numerous languages, including Klingonese, Romulan, and Federation Standard, albeit with their own unique pidgin grammar. It has been said that wealth is the language that they understand best. Arturians are not particularly aggressive but they love a good war. They regard Klingons, Humans, and Romulans with equal contempt, although they understand the usefulness of belonging to the Federation. Similarly, they are a useful asset to the Federation as they can provide the backbone of the Federation infantry not least because, if needed, they could clone billions of new soldiers all of whom would be willing and anxious to serve. Some Arcturians do join Starfleet, often as security officers or marines.
The Betelgeusians are a race of tall, thin, humanoid avians. As their sun was entering the latter stages of its life, the Betelgeusians left their homeworld, and most of the species has now spread to space stations, starships, and colony worlds. Their largest colony is on Betelgeuse IV or Hav’a’halar. Despite their seemingly transient situation, they dislike change, and look to the past in order to resolve life’s condundrums.
Having evolved from a race of avian predators, Betelgeusians walk upright, standing over two metres tall, with a bone structure similar to that of an Earth condor. Their skin is greyish-blue in colour, ranging from pale to cerulean. Their eyes are deep-set and they lack both hair and noses (their nostrils are set just behind their ears). They have two mouths, one for speaking, and the other for eating.
Betelgeusians look fragile but this is deceptive and they have extremely strong skeletons. They also have powerful claws but retain decent manual dexterity. They are carnivores who retain a strong hunting drive, which they sublimate with both sports and other forms of competition. They are very strong, athletic, fast, and highly competitive. Some describe them as a mixture of an eagle and a leopard.
Betelgeusian culture is curious in that they do not distinguish between history and myth. Their history begins with the Age of Heroes when gods walked among them. As they grow up, they are taught the myths and encouraged to join Naccords, tightly organised groups affiliated to one particular mythical individual. They are then taught to adopt the ethos, profession, and even personality quirks associated with their particular hero. This leads to them possessing an affinity for the skills and abilities associated with their hero but an aversion to using other skills and abilities that are not associated with them. When they meet, Betegeusians are expected to adopt the appropriate role associated with their Naccord even where that has nothing to do with their current activities.
Betelgeusians became full members of the United Federation of Planets in 2270, after a prolonged period of observation and consideration.
The Rhaandarites are a gregarious, long-lived humanoid race distinguishable by their prominent foreheads. They have extremely organised, analytical minds, which has led to their society maintaining a very complex social structure whose hierarchy can seem baffling to other races. Males and females are of equal height and strength, and they dress alike, regardless of age. Generally the only way to distinguish a female Rhaandarite is by the jewellery that she wears, typically a small black and silver disc worn on the forehead.
Their brain structure means that they possess enhanced reaction time, which makes them well-suited for taking orders. However, their tendency to over-analyse their own decisions makes them less well suited to command roles. Rhaandarites have a lifespan of several centuries and are not considered mature until they reach the age of 150. They do not reach their full height of well over two meters tall until the age of 200. Younger individuals aged around 80 are considered teenagers.
A career in Starfleet is not considered to be a prestigious choice by Rhaandarite society. While not well-known, most Rhaandarites in Starfleet service are considered slow learners or problem cases on their homeworld, and are thought to benefit from Starfleet's ‘simple’ hierarchy. However, they do make excellent scientists, and some excel as junior security officers.
The Saurians are a reptilian species from the planet Sauria. They are best known for Saurian brandy, one of the most popular and infamous alcoholic drinks in known space. It is even exported to Romulan territory.
Saurians are completely hairless, with finely scaled purple, red, or green skin and large, bulging yellow-orange eyes. Their eyes are a clue to their nocturnal nature. Saurians also possess a second set of eyelids which offer them infrared vision.
Saurians are comfortable moving underwater, being adapted to tropical rainforest and swampland, and can also move at speed on their clawed feet. They are quite strong for their size and can breathe a wide variety of gases without harm. They possess four hearts and are generally difficult to defeat in combat.
Saurians speak a complex, musical language which is considered difficult to learn by non-Saurians, but they have no problem learning other languages. Because other races were always so eager to come to them for trade, the Saurians, whose civilization predates humanity, never had to advance very far into space. Since becoming members of the Federation in the mid-23rd century, however, many have joined Starfleet.
Zaranites are a species of humanoid native to the planet Zaran II, the second planet of the Zeb system. Their planet has a thin oxygen-argon-fluorine atmosphere and a cold, desert environment of metallic sands. As fluorine breathers, they must wear gas masks and fluorine tanks in oxygen-nitrogen environments.
Zaranites wear polarised lenses as part of their breathing aperatus. Their eyes are used to the dim light of their homeworld and they suffer great discomfort when exposed to higher levels of illumination. They have weak discriminatory eyesight but have exceptional spacial awareness. They can sense variations in pressure, gravity, electricity, and magnetism, and can spot moving objects extremely well.
They are a gregariaous people and find dscourse with other species to be fascinating. They possess a cultural fascination with numbers and numerology that surpasses the superstitious and borders on the religious. However, this makes them incomparable mathematicians, capable of performing complex calculations in their heads. They make excellent scientists, especially in the areas of mathematics, environmental science, and logistics but they can become belligerent when placed under pressure since fighting to change ones fate is not in their nature.
Led by a spiritual leader known as the Tattawanika, Zaranites practice a form of numerology that they call Psycho-history. This is used to understand past events and even predict the future. Zaranite mystics are renowned as seers who understand the fabric of the universe. Entire monasteries are given over to the production of mathematical equations with which to interpret past and future events. When the Tattwanika dies, a commission of mystics predicts the identity and location of his or her successor. Curiously, one can locate several different historical archives on Zaran based on various psycho-historical interpretations.
The Zaranite language conststs of a series of rapid, high-pitched clicks and trills that is difficult for others to replicate. Their names are not pronouncable by most other species so they tend to adopt simple pseudonyms, such as mathematical symbols. They wear simple brown robes along with the breathing aperatus that covers their eyes and mouths, revealing only their bald pates. The jewellery that they wear is made from the horns of the Berbbotjahaa; the top of the necklace indicates their family, while the bottom identifies each individual.
The Zaranites were originally contacted by the Federation in order to enter into a treaty to mine their dilithium deposits. Despite Klingon interference, the Zaranites became a Federation protectorate and eventually became a full Fedeation member.
The Beltelgeuse stuff is inconsistent. Early background said thier star went nova. The RPG bacground lists a home planet. And your research shows Betelgeuse as a young star. I compromised by saying their original home went nova, many dwell in space, some colonised a planet near Betelgeuse!
I also ike the TMP uniforms, although I found te vast array and illogical colour scheme to be a bit irritating. Still, it makes sense that Starfleet with its lax discipline would relaxed dress codes. His colour scheme in the article is wrong though as gold is for ops and grey is for security.
Here are the notes I stitched together, but most of it is from Wiki searches and Memory Alpha (and a bit from Ex Machina):
The Arcturians are a humanoid species native to Arcturus IV in the Arcturus star system. They possess tough, chalk-white or reddish-gray skin, which forms heavy folds on their bodies. They have large earlobes and small amounts of platinum hair. The Arcturians are genetically stable and are able to procreate by way of cloning. As such they often look alike and the only way that outsiders can tell them apart is the colouring and symbols on their uniforms. Arcturian native dress includes a leather-and-fur tunic.
The Arcturians are associate members of the United Federation of Planets. Their society is very militaristic but it is somewhat anarchical, lacking any strong government. They have over 100 billion inhabitants spread across the system. Most Arcturans lack a formal education, although the majority speaks numerous languages, including Klingonese, Romulan, and Federation Standard, albeit with their own unique pidgin grammar. It has been said that wealth is the language that they understand best. Arturians are not particularly aggressive but they love a good war. They regard Klingons, Humans, and Romulans with equal contempt, although they understand the usefulness of belonging to the Federation. Similarly, they are a useful asset to the Federation as they can provide the backbone of the Federation infantry not least because, if needed, they could clone billions of new soldiers all of whom would be willing and anxious to serve. Some Arcturians do join Starfleet, often as security officers or marines.
The Betelgeusians are a race of tall, thin, humanoid avians. As their sun was entering the latter stages of its life, the Betelgeusians left their homeworld, and most of the species has now spread to space stations, starships, and colony worlds. Their largest colony is on Betelgeuse IV or Hav’a’halar. Despite their seemingly transient situation, they dislike change, and look to the past in order to resolve life’s condundrums.
Having evolved from a race of avian predators, Betelgeusians walk upright, standing over two metres tall, with a bone structure similar to that of an Earth condor. Their skin is greyish-blue in colour, ranging from pale to cerulean. Their eyes are deep-set and they lack both hair and noses (their nostrils are set just behind their ears). They have two mouths, one for speaking, and the other for eating.
Betelgeusians look fragile but this is deceptive and they have extremely strong skeletons. They also have powerful claws but retain decent manual dexterity. They are carnivores who retain a strong hunting drive, which they sublimate with both sports and other forms of competition. They are very strong, athletic, fast, and highly competitive. Some describe them as a mixture of an eagle and a leopard.
Betelgeusian culture is curious in that they do not distinguish between history and myth. Their history begins with the Age of Heroes when gods walked among them. As they grow up, they are taught the myths and encouraged to join Naccords, tightly organised groups affiliated to one particular mythical individual. They are then taught to adopt the ethos, profession, and even personality quirks associated with their particular hero. This leads to them possessing an affinity for the skills and abilities associated with their hero but an aversion to using other skills and abilities that are not associated with them. When they meet, Betegeusians are expected to adopt the appropriate role associated with their Naccord even where that has nothing to do with their current activities.
Betelgeusians became full members of the United Federation of Planets in 2270, after a prolonged period of observation and consideration.
The Rhaandarites are a gregarious, long-lived humanoid race distinguishable by their prominent foreheads. They have extremely organised, analytical minds, which has led to their society maintaining a very complex social structure whose hierarchy can seem baffling to other races. Males and females are of equal height and strength, and they dress alike, regardless of age. Generally the only way to distinguish a female Rhaandarite is by the jewellery that she wears, typically a small black and silver disc worn on the forehead.
Their brain structure means that they possess enhanced reaction time, which makes them well-suited for taking orders. However, their tendency to over-analyse their own decisions makes them less well suited to command roles. Rhaandarites have a lifespan of several centuries and are not considered mature until they reach the age of 150. They do not reach their full height of well over two meters tall until the age of 200. Younger individuals aged around 80 are considered teenagers.
A career in Starfleet is not considered to be a prestigious choice by Rhaandarite society. While not well-known, most Rhaandarites in Starfleet service are considered slow learners or problem cases on their homeworld, and are thought to benefit from Starfleet's ‘simple’ hierarchy. However, they do make excellent scientists, and some excel as junior security officers.
The Saurians are a reptilian species from the planet Sauria. They are best known for Saurian brandy, one of the most popular and infamous alcoholic drinks in known space. It is even exported to Romulan territory.
Saurians are completely hairless, with finely scaled purple, red, or green skin and large, bulging yellow-orange eyes. Their eyes are a clue to their nocturnal nature. Saurians also possess a second set of eyelids which offer them infrared vision.
Saurians are comfortable moving underwater, being adapted to tropical rainforest and swampland, and can also move at speed on their clawed feet. They are quite strong for their size and can breathe a wide variety of gases without harm. They possess four hearts and are generally difficult to defeat in combat.
Saurians speak a complex, musical language which is considered difficult to learn by non-Saurians, but they have no problem learning other languages. Because other races were always so eager to come to them for trade, the Saurians, whose civilization predates humanity, never had to advance very far into space. Since becoming members of the Federation in the mid-23rd century, however, many have joined Starfleet.
Zaranites are a species of humanoid native to the planet Zaran II, the second planet of the Zeb system. Their planet has a thin oxygen-argon-fluorine atmosphere and a cold, desert environment of metallic sands. As fluorine breathers, they must wear gas masks and fluorine tanks in oxygen-nitrogen environments.
Zaranites wear polarised lenses as part of their breathing aperatus. Their eyes are used to the dim light of their homeworld and they suffer great discomfort when exposed to higher levels of illumination. They have weak discriminatory eyesight but have exceptional spacial awareness. They can sense variations in pressure, gravity, electricity, and magnetism, and can spot moving objects extremely well.
They are a gregariaous people and find dscourse with other species to be fascinating. They possess a cultural fascination with numbers and numerology that surpasses the superstitious and borders on the religious. However, this makes them incomparable mathematicians, capable of performing complex calculations in their heads. They make excellent scientists, especially in the areas of mathematics, environmental science, and logistics but they can become belligerent when placed under pressure since fighting to change ones fate is not in their nature.
Led by a spiritual leader known as the Tattawanika, Zaranites practice a form of numerology that they call Psycho-history. This is used to understand past events and even predict the future. Zaranite mystics are renowned as seers who understand the fabric of the universe. Entire monasteries are given over to the production of mathematical equations with which to interpret past and future events. When the Tattwanika dies, a commission of mystics predicts the identity and location of his or her successor. Curiously, one can locate several different historical archives on Zaran based on various psycho-historical interpretations.
The Zaranite language conststs of a series of rapid, high-pitched clicks and trills that is difficult for others to replicate. Their names are not pronouncable by most other species so they tend to adopt simple pseudonyms, such as mathematical symbols. They wear simple brown robes along with the breathing aperatus that covers their eyes and mouths, revealing only their bald pates. The jewellery that they wear is made from the horns of the Berbbotjahaa; the top of the necklace indicates their family, while the bottom identifies each individual.
The Zaranites were originally contacted by the Federation in order to enter into a treaty to mine their dilithium deposits. Despite Klingon interference, the Zaranites became a Federation protectorate and eventually became a full Fedeation member.
It's not just my research, it's a well-known astronomical fact. Betelgeuse is a red supergiant estimated to be about 8.5 million years old and already in its death throes. The biggest stars are the shortest-lived ones -- recall the saying "The light that burns brightest burns fastest" -- and so there's no inconsistency between it being young and being near supernova. It is actually possible that it could've gone supernova sometime in the past 600 years (since the light from such an event wouldn't have reached us yet) or that it might sometime in the next 250 years. (The closing shot of "Family" shows that Betelgeuse is still visible from Earth in 2367, but if it went nova more recently than 1727 (give or take about 140 years), that wouldn't be a problem.)
But because of Betelgeuse's extremely short lifespan, it's impossible for it to have an inhabited planet, or probably any fully formed planets at all.
(Also, a nova and a supernova are two completely different things. A nova is a periodic eruption in a binary system where one component is a white dwarf or neutron star. It's pretty much the exact process portrayed in TNG: "Evolution." The actual destruction of a star is a supernova.)
I said they were originally from "a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse" (like Ford Prefect), but chose to leave it once they became aware that Betelgeuse was near supernova. After all, such a supernova wouldn't just wipe out the Betelgeuse system itself, but would lethally irradiate star systems for dozens of parsecs around.
Lol - that's right - that reference didn't pass me by! Maybe it was a special type of supernova that threatened the whole universe?
They should offer you a consultory role on the next movie script. It would make more sense and watching it for genre references would be like watching an episode of Spaced!
They don't need me. The Abrams "Supreme Court" already includes a couple of people who know their science quite well, Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman. But in fiction, the story has to come first, and Abrams made a creative choice to bend the science for the sake of drama and clarity. Adding another science consultant would be redundant and have no real impact on the final product.
Very cool article! I have that issue somewhere in the basement, and can remember reading it back in 79. I was amazed at how much thought went into what Fletcher was trying to do! Here is one thing, if they had put as much brain power in the costuming for this latest film it would have been better visually. Outside of the Enterprise uniforms the costuming in the 09 movie sucked IMHO. The admirals costumes in the LA city council chambers shots look like some sort of monks robes and not starfleet admiral uniforms. Just awful!
I quite disagree. The last thing I want to do when I need to pee is find someone to help me out of my onesie.
Well bending science is what Trek is about. Dressing it up in clown pants less so. I think they give their scientists Chinese burns until they give in and concede that making red matter actually red makes it awesome enough to be plausible. Either that or they offer them green hookers.
What makes you think thats how interaction between the writers/producers and the science consultants work? Sorry to say, but consultant means they give advice. Advice that can be ignored if mucks up the story needing to be told. I've a feeling the question of red matter being red was never broached. Nor did any scientist ever bring it up.
LOL - yeah you may right. I bet they still asked for the green hookers though. In red wigs.
"Call me Kirk, baby."
Disgusting scientists.
Except in this case the science consultants were the writers. Orci and Kurtzman know their stuff, or certainly Orci does, at least. But Abrams is the man in charge, the one who got to do the final rewrites on the script and the final changes in editing, and he prefers a more visceral approach to storytelling. The screenwriters are collaborators in the process, and in movies the director has the final say.
seasons 1 and 2 of tng!
