Why do they never take their uniforms off?

[Santa Kang]

Ah, the Boonie hat. My Uncle, a Marine, brought some back from his tour in Vietnam and gave them to us kids.

My dad, who was in the USAF, always seemed to be in uniform ( usually tans). Though I'm sure that on vacations and family outings he wore civvies.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

My dad was an officer in the Air Force, and when he got home and was off duty, he generally did change into civilian clothes.

 

[nightwind1]

Any of you military/Navy people want to weigh in on this? What’s the dress policy for general duty, off-duty hours, shore leave, et cetera?

In the US Coast Guard (I was a PO3), if you were on the ship working (or on base working), you were in uniform. Usually for us (a buoy tender/ice breaker), it was usually the dark blue "work uniform" with ballcap.

You could wear civvies if you were coming or going from leave or liberty.

No civvies while the ship was underway.

Semper Paratus

 

[nightwind1]

Kirk was in gym togs once, and he lost his shirt a lot. So did Spock, once. And there were lots of coveralls in TOS.

Gym togs would be considered uniforms, much like our P.T. gear in the USCG. Plus, Kirk's had a logo on it, IIRC (I could be wrong.).

Coveralls definitely are considered uniforms. Our snipes (engineering crew) wore coveralls as their daily uniform.

 

[T'Girl]

In southern Tacoma, near the combined Air Force/Army base (bases?), it very common to see men and women in BDU uniform, at gas stations, grocery stores, casual restaurants, movie theaters, etc. going about their business.

Even in Seattle, some distance away, it not too uncommon.

 

[Unionized Elf]

Working a job which requires a uniform, sometimes I just don't feel like changing my clothes after work.

Though in Star Trek, I'm sure it might have something to do with Starfleet uniforms actually looking better than most civilian outfits.

 

[Star Wolf]

In southern Tacoma, near the combined Air Force/Army base (bases?), it very common to see men and women in BDU uniform, at gas stations, grocery stores, casual restaurants, movie theaters, etc. going about their business.

Even in Seattle, some distance away, it not too uncommon.

One base now as most of McChord's functions moved to Fort Lewis. BDUs was the uniform of my era they are gone now replaced by ACUs and ABUs.

Maybe civilian clothes off base was just a 1st Infantry Division policy? Back then the only shooting enemy were terrorist, it was around the time of the Berlin Disco bombing and the US Navy divers being pulled off of a hijacked airplane for special treatment. They also recommended travelling with a passport and not our military ID cards.

 

[Starbreaker]

Voyager's crew had a legitimate excuse. They had replicator rations.

 

[Timo]

Exactly. Plus, Starfleeters had come prepared for a short mission, while the Maquis were refugees-on-short-notice, twice over: first fleeing Gul Evek, then hopping over to Janeway's ship when their own bit dust. Both sets of characters would thus have an excuse for a shortage of civilian attire.

Holo-clothing might be quite popular, then, given how holodecks appear to provide such things "for free", without major energy costs or anything. Did we see whether our folks at Sandrine's wore "real" period clothing (as is customary elsewhere), or something that would disappear and be replaced by uniforms when the program was turned off?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Unionized Elf]

On Voyager they wore actual clothes on the holodeck. We see Tom Paris and Harry Kim frequently wallking around the ship in their Captain Proton costumes.

The holographic costume over actual clothes thing was first introducedon the Enterprise E in First Contact, and then got retro-actively added to the Enterprise D in TATV.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Voyager's crew had a legitimate excuse. They had replicator rations.

Yet in the episode when Kim falls in love with the 'hologram', Paris tells the computer exactly what he wants Kim to wear without checking for replicator rations or being told he can't, etc.

It also never stopped the likes of Neelix, Kes or Seven from having a varied wardrobe.

I do think that more needed to be done in Trek when the crew were enjoying their down time. Though the uniforms are designed to be suitable to many environments (according to Worf when on Risa), surely they need to take them off every once in a while and let loose.

 

[Timo]

Holodeck attire can be holographic until the replicators get repaired; e.g. Captain Proton is from the later seasons when there no longer was scarcity. Seven got her three pieces of clothing after the ship had re-achieved full operational status, too.

OTOH, Neelix is justified in having a proper wardrobe, as he is not stranded the way the Starfleet and Maquis characters are. For all we know, he also cherished clothing for Kes in his ship during the long wait.

Agreed in spirit, though: one would expect to see civilian clothing. Or naked rampages for that matter. Perhaps Janeway imposed a strict dress code as part of her attempt to keep the ship from descending into a mere vehicle of survival and sustenance? Allowing Neelix and Kes to take liberties would just hammer the point home all the better.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Or naked rampages for that matter.

I second that!

 

[Unionized Elf]

Holodeck attire can be holographic until the replicators get repaired; e.g. Captain Proton is from the later seasons when there no longer was scarcity. Seven got her three pieces of clothing after the ship had re-achieved full operational status, too.

Even in the first season, they wore actual clothes in the holodeck. Janeway roamed the corridors in the costume she wore for that period piece she played in the holodeck.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

I'm guessing that Janeway already had that dress before getting to the Delta Quadrant. They didn't come up with holographic clothes until the movie First Contact but we could assume that they were using it on Voyager. Besides I think it was only in seasons one and two where they gave aby thought to the rations idea. After that they pretty much ignored it.

 

[Timo]

Yup - "Meld" appears to be the last time they are mentioned. After that, they probably got enough replicator capacity repaired, or decided they had sufficient other sources for supplies.

Even during the early seasons, the rations probably were more a tool of discipline than an actual logistics concern. In normal circumstances, Federation citizens and Starfleeters probably are used to abundance, and might have difficulty coping. And it might be a good idea to keep the Maquis from replicating too many artillery pieces until they prove their trustworthiness, too.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Anji]

I have two friends that served in the US Military, one in the Army and the other in the Navy...both in Iraq. They don't wear their uniforms everywhere but they do wear their jackets all the time. And the jackets are decorated with patches saying they were associated in such and such a unit or campaign.

I think it's a matter of pride for them.

As far as TNG is concerned, I don't think you see many officers in civilian clothes because they had to save on costumes.

 

[SchwEnt]

I don't buy the wardrobe budget as the excuse for lack of civilian clothing.

All TV shows have wardrobe budgets and we don't see tons of shows with the characters wearing the same outfits all the time. In most every other show, the characters change clothes like, you know, real people.

I can't believe ST's wardrobe budget was so much less than other shows that they couldn't afford more than one outfit per actor.

Plus, ST has a long history of adapting current off-the-shelf product to serve as 24th stuff. Not every piece of 24th century clothing has to be specially-designed futuristic garb. I'm sure some modern-day clothing could be used as ST civilian clothing, as seen in some of the photos posted here already.

No, I can't believe it was a production budget reason.
Gotta be some in-universe reason, which is even harder to justify when there are replicators.

 

[Santa Kang]

I don't buy the wardrobe budget as the excuse for lack of civilian clothing.

All TV shows have wardrobe budgets and we don't see tons of shows with the characters wearing the same outfits all the time. In most every other show, the characters change clothes like, you know, real people.

I can't believe ST's wardrobe budget was so much less than other shows that they couldn't afford more than one outfit per actor.

Plus, ST has a long history of adapting current off-the-shelf product to serve as 24th stuff. Not every piece of 24th century clothing has to be specially-designed futuristic garb. I'm sure some modern-day clothing could be used as ST civilian clothing, as seen in some of the photos posted here already.

No, I can't believe it was a production budget reason.
Gotta be some in-universe reason, which is even harder to justify when there are replicators.

I think most of the budget would be spent on AOTW. I doubt the creators gave any thought to an in-universe reason beyond they're in the military.

 

[T'Girl]

It also never stopped the likes of Neelix, Kes or Seven from having a varied wardrobe.

The impression I had is that Neelix's clothing were on his ship when he came aboard. Certainly they were similar in cut and style to the clothing of other Talaxians we saw in the show.

Seven didn't seem to have too many outfits (loved her shoes), she changed her costume every other season it seemed.