24th Century department division color switch...
- Thread starter Gepard
- Start date
I wish they would have just kept the TWOK-TUC movie uniforms for TNG.
God, no. I was so glad to see those overdone 19th century outfits dumped for TNG!
Actually, the TNG equivalent of the gold color wasn't greenish at all. It was much more brown.
Theiss consulted with a well-known fashion/color consultant to come up with the exact shades used for TNG. He wanted to keep the original three divisions, but make them as flattering as possible.
Wait, I thought the operations uniforms were green. They just looked gold on TV!
Actually, the TNG equivalent of the gold color wasn't greenish at all. It was much more brown.
Theiss consulted with a well-known fashion/color consultant to come up with the exact shades used for TNG. He wanted to keep the original three divisions, but make them as flattering as possible.
That was the intention. What the Trek "reality" is would depend on what we choose to believe in.
For example, orange as Sciences color is a sudden and brief departure in ST:TMP: it's blue in TOS and bluish in ST2-6 and again blue in TNG. So we could just plain ignore the "backstage suggestion" and instead say that orange in TMP was for visitors. After all, only Spock is ever really shown wearing this color.
Timo Saloniemi
No, Sonak was also wearing orange. And Spock wasn't a visitor, he was logged in as a crew member.
I believe the behind-the-scenes explanation was that they wanted something to contrast with the blue-gray uniforms worn by much of the cast. Something similar could be the fictional explanation for the temporary variation from the more traditional science blue.
--Justin
But both Sonak and Spock were late additions to the crew, from the looks of it. Sonak only learned of his assignment moments before meeting Kirk, and wasn't expecting to come aboard for 20 more hours; he could still be in "visitor" colors. And inserting a new crew member into the records might not be quite that trivial... Even if Kirk insisted on it, Spock might insist on sticking to protocol.
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
That's really, really stretching things for an explanation. Besides, other people wore orange, including the Ensign who granted Kirk permission to come aboard.
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tmp/themotionpicture0221.jpg
Now, why would a visitor grant permission for another "visitor?" As far as the ensign knew, at the time, Kirk was only a visitor and not the commanding officer for the V'Ger mission. His orders were being transmitted at that exact moment and we, the audience, learn moments later that they just came through when Kirk goes to the bridge.
Also, in the Rec Room scene, many members of the crew are wearing the science orange:
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tmp/themotionpicture0310.jpg
(The Chief in obscured in the background; her shoulder tabs are showing and are orange. The female in the foreground.)
We would visitors, even if they were overseeing the final construction of the ship, be included on the mission brief. They probably would be off-loaded before the ship left dock.
The evidence is more in favor of the costumer's original intentions than your explanation. Hell, Starfleet is fond of switching their uniforms so much, it's not a stretch to say they switch their department colors just as frequently.
Robert Fletcher's explanation of the orange science division logo was because he thought a shade of blue would bleed with the blue screen effects and cause problems with rotoscoping in post-production, especially for a character as prominant as Spock. IIRC, this is in his interview in the TMP "making of" book.
Theiss, iirc, also stated that he wanted to go with a darker color value with the original TOS colors for TNG.
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