Old Bob Fletcher Interview on TMP costumes
- Thread starter Ryan Thomas Riddle
- Start date
Why can't future clothes have invisible seams? In fact, "Ensign Ro" pretty much canonized that idea; when Ro removed her uniform jacket to give it to a refugee child, she opened it in the front even though the actual uniform had no zipper there. And the TOS uniforms made it implicit from the start by hiding the zippers underneath the shoulder seams.
I liked the TMP costumes, but then I've always been fond of the so-called 'pyjama' look (these, and early TNG). They look like uniforms that might be feasible when the technology had developed to that point, but hell I just like how they look chiefly.
Well, there's a turn of phrase I never expected to see. Apt, though.
Well, there's a turn of phrase I never expected to see. Apt, though.
They still need to do in the 23rd, though, so your observant urine comment is entirely beside the point.
While they're not my favorites, I actually prefer the TMP uniforms over the TOS ones--I always felt they were a bit garish and ill-fitting myself. There were so many different variants of the TMP uniform (Kirk probably wore a formal uniform in the beginning of the movie), and I actually liked the footcoverings built into the uniform trousers which probably aren't too much different than the trouser stirrups worn in the TNG and VOY uniforms really...
I've seen it referred to as a Class-A dress uniform and an admiral's uniform.
Yeah, from what I've seen (of the costumes on display in museum exhibits), they were pretty much the same aside from color and some slight differences in cut.
I find it interesting that in 1980, Fletcher felt that the "science" of bio-rhythms was blossoming and would be as much a part of medicine as a thermometer by the 23rd century. That's sure panned out thus far.
Still, the idea of a portable medical monitor worn on the body was certainly plausible, and there are such things in real life now.
Thanks for that.
Thanks, that was interesting. I have always been a fan of the TMP uniforms, conceptually if not so much aesthetically. The longer shoulder straps in the Kirk Class A sketch look kind of like a precursor to the single right-side strap of the ST2+ jackets.
I find it interesting that in 1980, Fletcher felt that the "science" of bio-rhythms was blossoming and would be as much a part of medicine as a thermometer by the 23rd century. That's sure panned out thus far.
Yeah, that's a real '70s give away, there. At least they didn't say it on screen. The term "turbo-lasers" in Star Wars still makes me chuckle.
--Justin
In another Robert Fletcher interview (from Starlog), there was a pencil sketch of that particular uniform which had the notation "formal dress" and listed both Kirk and Scotty as the characters who would need the uniform for the film.
trevanian
Rear Admiral
I find it interesting that in 1980, Fletcher felt that the "science" of bio-rhythms was blossoming and would be as much a part of medicine as a thermometer by the 23rd century. That's sure panned out thus far.
Shoot, the Dallas Cowboys were running biorhythm stuff on their players in the 70s, it WAS in real use at that point.
Of course, mood rings were aplenty as well ...
A second one, with captains rank insignia, was seen on screen worn in the SanFran scene in TMP...
Man, I love this uniform discussion. Great article as well! I really couldn't get into the sloppiness of the Enterprise uniforms in the new movie. The boots looked like overly modified wellies, something I could pick up at a department store. And were those trousers right off the rack from Sears? The cadet/commander uniforms were much better looking in that they were fitted. Why didn't that extend to the uniforms aboard the vessel? Even the officers on the Kelvin looked sharp. I admit, as crazy and impractical as some of the uniforms looked throughout the franchise, they did not look floppy, as far as I can remember.
I second that. I'm pretty sure that The God Thing has quoted that article on more than one occasion, but it's the first occasion on which I have had the opportunity to read it. Many thanks to the OP.
I hear you.
Those Kelvin uniforms are the best: sleek, cut, and a stylistic throwback (or throwforward) to the DS9 jumpsuits. Maybe it's just the Robauness of Robau, but he seems rather dashing in that blue uniform, I think. The fabric clings tightly to his body and accentuates his natural contours. Apply that to the other Kelvin folk. A flattering set of uniforms that give their wearers a striking, acrobatic visage.
Then you have the cadet uniforms, which look a little neater (in some respects, I suppose that that's the point) than the main Enterprise duty uniforms. But the cadet uniforms are also anachronistic, especially in having epaulettes, which seems flagrantly militaristic, and anti-ST. It helps none that Abrams even has the cadets standing to attention at several points in the movie.
Also, as you correctly state, the main duty uniforms appear somewhat "floppy", or messy, in any case. Note, for example, how awkward Kirk looks in one of the final shots of the film, just after getting his officer threads? In my opinion, he looks a little scruffy. The hem of his top has also (accidentally, I presume) been creased into a fold, and messily sticks up, making him look like a schoolboy who runs around and refuses to tuck his shirt in. I'm surprised that they didn't immediately do another take: http://reboot.trekcaps.net/caps/Star_Trek/ariane179254_StarTrek_8467.jpg
Starfleet was plenty militaristic in the Harve Bennett-produced movies, and Robert Fletcher's uniforms for those movies were very anachronistic and militaristic.
Not to mention that Fletcher's TMP uniforms had epaulets as well.
Operative words: "in the Harve Bennett-produced movies". Some of us don't recognize those movies as "Star Trek".
The epaulettes are more prominent on the cadet uniforms of "Star Trek" (2009) than on the dress/duty uniforms of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979). In the older film, the epaulettes are on the edge of the wearer's upper torso, discreetly curving back over the arch of the shoulder. In the newer film, they are more elevated from the cut of the fabric and they run parallel to the full length of the shoulder, stopping only where the collar takes over. The former situation presents a militaristic adornment in an evolved, vestigial sense; the epaulettes have lost some of their visual ostentacity, and the wearer looks less imperious and overbearing, yet retains a moderate sense of decorum. The latter situation kind of regresses things; the epaulettes have a primacy that is suggestive of an outmoded emphasis on rank and authority, and all the heady nonsense that goes with it. Again, I maintain that this is Abrams either not getting Star Trek and/or consciously dumbing it down. Granted, it's not as bad as the Horatio Hornblower monstrosity of Harve Bennett's universe, but it still has an air of contrition/cliche/contemptibleness that causes more than a few involuntary eye-rolls, in persons so (dis)inclined.
Huh?
Considering that audiences attending ST:TMP on premiere night in 1979 saw a James T Kirk in his very military, crisp, new Admiral's uniform - with quite prominent admiral's stars and epaulets on the shoulders - when they'd last seen him wearing a comfy old gold velour shirt in TOS and TAS repeats - I'd say that many old-time fans were a little shocked that this movie was making statements about Starfleet they hadn't expected.
In fact, I know several fans who still refuse to acknowledge TMP as even being the same universe as TOS.
