Daedalus Era Uniforms

[Tarek71]

Regarding the Daedalus-era uniforms, have you considered trying them in more Kelvin-like colors, or hybrid colors of some sort?

I have. Im not sure what to make of the Kelvin uniforms, or the the ST XI uniforms in general. I think these ones Ive put up here work best as the bridge between Enterprise and TOS eras. I also wanted it to make some sense as pre-Kelvin.

When I first saw the movie and saw some kind of blue as the color worn by the Captain and Kirk Sr., I immediately thought of TMP, where you also see command officers wearing blue (sometimes). Later in ST XI you see Pike wearing one Admiral Kirks TMP uniforms.

Blue was not the command color in TMP, but It seemed like it was in 2233. In fact the TMP colors and designs seemed to have some surprising influence in Trek XI. In addition to the blue for the Kelvin, you also had some copper or rusty toned as well. This also seemed TMP inspired. With a generous helping of elbow grease one can make a transition from 2161->2233->2258 uniforms. But I think whats put above is a better bridge, while still not completely clashing with the Kelvin era in terms of style.

Somewhere along the line, blue became Command and then went back to Gold again. I dont know what happened there. For all we know the Kelvin uniforms, like the TMP uniforms, had a fairly short shelf life, and then they went right back to the familiar departmental colors. Hard to say with just a little sliver of time to go by.

 

[Kaziarl]

Regarding the Daedalus-era uniforms, have you considered trying them in more Kelvin-like colors, or hybrid colors of some sort?

I have. Im not sure what to make of the Kelvin uniforms, or the the ST XI uniforms in general. I think these ones Ive put up here work best as the bridge between Enterprise and TOS eras. I also wanted it to make some sense as pre-Kelvin.

When I first saw the movie and saw some kind of blue as the color worn by the Captain and Kirk Sr., I immediately thought of TMP, where you also see command officers wearing blue (sometimes). Later in ST XI you see Pike wearing one Admiral Kirks TMP uniforms.

Blue was not the command color in TMP, but It seemed like it was in 2233. In fact the TMP colors and designs seemed to have some surprising influence in Trek XI. In addition to the blue for the Kelvin, you also had some copper or rusty toned as well. This also seemed TMP inspired. With a generous helping of elbow grease one can make a transition from 2161->2233->2258 uniforms. But I think whats put above is a better bridge, while still not completely clashing with the Kelvin era.

Actually I thought the Kelvin uniforms worked just fine as an in between. The Enterprise uniforms were a blue jumpsuit, so the Kelvin uniforms could have been more of a two piece uniform like we see in TOS, but prior to them using the separate departmental colors. And considering the lighting, I suppose they might have had the colors shown somehow, like we see with the Enterprise jumpsuits. But it was hard to see.

With that being said, I think you've done a great job here.

 

[Quantum_Penguin]

Somewhere along the line, blue became Command and then went back to Gold again. I dont know what happened there. For all we know the Kelvin uniforms, like the TMP uniforms, had a fairly short shelf life, and then they went right back to the familiar departmental colors. Hard to say with just a little sliver of time to go by.

I remember a thread on here a while back where it was suggested that the reason red became the command color in TNG is because the red movie era uniforms were so closely associated with Starfleet. Indeed, they appear to have been in use for nearly fifty years before the advent of the TNG uniforms. So if you were a non-aligned species and you'd heard of Starfleet, you'd probably heard they all ran around in these red uniforms, so the brass decided that command officers, especially captains, should be immediately recognizable as Starfleet.

So, perhaps the ENT blue jumpsuit was so closely associated with Earth Starfleet in the minds of Federation member species that the newly minted UFP Starfleet initially adopted the department colors as the main color of the uniform to seem more inclusive. However, just like with the monster maroons, the association with blue and humans remained in the minds of non-member species. Perhaps ambassadors, having heard that these "Earthmen" wear blue, thought the actual captain was with some other group and would treat the science officer as the captain. To avoid confusion but keep the practical use of department color uniforms, sometime prior to 2233 the command color became blue.

This would actually dovetail nicely with the blue-grey field jackets and blue dress uniform cap in Pike's quarters from "The Cage". Perhaps Starfleet of the 2250's switched to a kind of "dress blue" which they normally wore when encountering a new species for the first time and this eventually evolved back into the original scheme as Starfleet and the Federation became more widely known.

Sorry, that was long, but that's my two cents

On that matter, are you planning to also do field and dress uniforms of some kind?

 

[Tarek71]

On that matter, are you planning to also do field and dress uniforms of some kind?

Yes indeed. Right now Im trying to make an Admiral Archer uniform. Im looking at the uniform of Admiral Forrest for inspiration. Maybe Commodore Archer first. I like that rank, and we dont have to eliminate it because the US Navy did. Rear Admiral "Lower Half"? Never did like that much. Anyway, its the Flag Officer uniform.

In addition, yes, the field and dress uniforms as well and others besides. I dont see much reason to change some things, like the spacesuits. This is supposed to be 2161, weeks or months after the Federation is formed, so things should still look very much like they did up until then.

 

[Tarek71]

Continuing from the Pre-Federation starfleet design, a little bridge-gapping. With very meagre graphic skills, here is the first attempt. The Command and Medical uniforms. Science and Engineering not finished yet. I havent added any insignia to the medical uniform yet. The free hand drawn breast patch looks wonky, but gives you an idea. May still have a shoulder patch at some point.

These are pretty cool, but maybe a little too much too soon? I think a more gradual bridging would work better in this early stage of Starfleet's development. Maybe instead of making the whole top gold for command, red for engineering, etc., maybe they still wear a blue jacket (with black pants) with the colored shoulder piping, and then instead of the black undershirt they wore in ENT, maybe the undershirt is gold/red/blue/green based on their department?

Thats a possibility. There are certainly other ways to go about this. But I think this isnt too dramatic. Its basically making the border color black and the tunic into the old border colors plus the breast patches. I dont think thats too jarring. Its also two separate pieces instead of a jumper.

Aside from that, they should still resemble the previous uniform. And of course, I picture the rest of the uniform set as likewise sharing a close relationship. The field jackets will be the same style, the spacesuits the same. And of course I picture the interiors, control surfaces, etc of the Daedalus as strongly resembing the NX-types.

Taken together, I think if you saw them in these uniforms and in that sort of environment, I think it would make a fairly smooth transition from the Enterprise era.

 

[Maurice]

Well, as I posted a while back, I'd done some pre-TOS concepts for a proposed Trek videogame back in the 90s:

Below are some of the concept drawings for the game, which had the working title:

...

I did sketches of uniforms that were a little more severe than the TOS ones, and borrowed the "belt" from Kirk's first TOS wraparound shirt that ended with a sideways delta, and adapted that as a uniform motif for the UESPA forces, using the "boomerang" shape seen on the Enterprise pennants. I repeated this on the bindings for the boots, with the boomerangs acting as buckles.

.....

Found some more uniform sketches. This was a dress uniform variant. I had the idea of using the little triangular ribbons from the TOS dress uniforms arranged to imply the later delta insignia. There's another communicator, and a Jefferies-proportioned Daedalus doodle as well.
​

Click for larger image.
​

 

[Kaziarl]

I dunno, that UESPA uniform looks more like it would be a lead in between TMP and TWOK.

 

[Solarbaby]

I love these uniforms, Perfect progression between Ent and TOS

 

[Ensign Ro-]

Very, very nice work. I'm designing a new motion comic that I plan to write and produce. I also tried to create a transition uniform. My design is a blend of the TOS and movie era uniforms.

 

[Ensign Ro-]

I don't know why, but I have the hardest time posting images on this site. Anyway, here's a link to the designs I mentioned above...

http://browse.deviantart.com/?order=5&q=my%20uniform%20designs#/d3bxbg3

 

[Tarek71]

Okay. Added some breast patches on the engineering and science uniforms. Still looking wonky, but they still give the basic idea. I slapped an Enterprise patch on the science uniform. I havent designed a Daedalus patch yet. Not sure what I think of the patch on there. It looks ok, but havent decided whether thats still part of the uniform in this era.

 

[Wingsley]

I like the execution on this uniform, but I think it needs a little more of Archer's "There Are the Voyages..." special uniform in it. Maybe it's just me, but when I think of pre-TOS, I can't help but to think of turtlenecks. I like how Archer's speech uniform captured just a slight hint of Pike.

 

[Maurice]

I dunno, that UESPA uniform looks more like it would be a lead in between TMP and TWOK.

Which would be funny since it was based on the TOS dress uniforms and the belt off the 2nd season wraparound tunic.

 

[Kaziarl]

I don't doubt thats the case. But I also see a similarity to the TWOK uniform, although I'm not sure if that was ever a full wraparound uniform or if it just had a flap in the front.

Just an observation, thats all. One that means little since with either intent, I still like the way it looks.

 

[Johnnymuffintop]

I like it, reminds me a lot of these: http://bunk2.deviantart.com/art/Trek-new-crew-68491852
And yeah, it would have been nice if the Kelvin uniforms had a hint of ENT flair to it, but I'll just have to enjoy some good concepts if I can't see it on screen.

 

[Tarek71]

I like it, reminds me a lot of these: http://bunk2.deviantart.com/art/Trek-new-crew-68491852
And yeah, it would have been nice if the Kelvin uniforms had a hint of ENT flair to it, but I'll just have to enjoy some good concepts if I can't see it on screen.

The Kelvin ones I just put to one side as far as the color schemes. For me it was enough that the styles arent completely clashing. The impression I got watching the movie was that the Kelvin colors were something like:

Blue = Command
Green = Engineering?
Copper?= Science? Not sure.
White= Medical (these werent just lab coats, they seemed to be wearing white uniforms. )

I think there were other colors, but it was hard to make out with the lighting, etc.

I wont even try to harmonize these with anything that came before or since. Again, I think the TMP influence was there in a general sense in terms of having things like command officers wearing blue (sometimes), and having colors you havent seen in any other incarnation of trek, like various browns, copper-y,rust-y colors, etc. Which is fine I guess, I just think the ones Ive designed here make a better bridge and certainly better for the 2160's to 2190's and maybe into the early 2200's. I would have had these as Captain April era uniforms as well, but I would stop short of 2233 in deference to the Kelvin uniforms.

 

[Cicero]

The colors were:

Blue (slightly teal): Command (including Tactical)
Gray: unknown (2nd picture)
Green/Gold/Brown: Engineering (and Security or Science?)
White: Medical

According to the Intel website for the movie, at least one gray-uniformed crew member was a security officer. Green/Gold/Brown and Blue uniforms in normal lighting.

 

[Tarek71]

The colors were:

Blue (slightly teal): Command (including Tactical)
Gray: unknown (2nd picture)
Green/gold/brown: Engineering (and Security or Science?)
White: Medical

According to the Intel website for the movie, at least one gray-uniformed crew member was a security officer. Green/gold/brown and Blue uniforms in normal lighting.

That seems about right. There are some apparent auction photos of some costumes as well. Also in better lighting. I read a Michael Kaplan (costume designer) explanation, and its not a good one.

He references wanting to give the audience a sense of the passage of time between the 2230's and the 2250's. He did this he said by doing research into 1950's science fiction movies, and giving the Kelvin uniforms a suitably retro treatment with those influences in mind.

Hmmmm.

Interesting as Forbidden Planet and other such fare are, I would not watch those to get an idea of what previous Trek uniforms would have looked like. Since there was Trek set earlier than 2233 that should have been the focus of the research, not Captain Video or Buck Rogers. Its not clear that Enterprise was even a consideration. How all this relates to the color choices is not clear. Why green for engineers? Did that seem retro, or was the color assignments just based on his random preferences? Did JJ tell him to change them around? I dont know.

For the other uniforms, obviously other research was done. The TOS uniforms were obviously very close to the orignals, and the TMP uniform for Kirk was used for Pike.

Beyond that, I think its best to assume in-universe that the Kelvin uniforms were a brief and inexplicable complete color switcheroo that occured only in the 2230's and were abandoned immediately after. That leaves the uniform evolution otherwise untouched and rational.

 

[T'Girl]

You know, the thing about these is that, while attractive in appearance, they don't look either comfortable or easy to move in. Perhaps you could make these something like a formal mess uniform?

Remember how Picard was always pulling down his uniform front?

Of all the various uniform seen, the TOS uniform always seem the easiest to move in, therefor the most practical
For hand to hand combat even the TOS mini's would be better than a tight jacket or a jumpsuit. Less constricting.

... the designs I mentioned ...

If these don't grab rating points for series six, nothing will.

 

[Ensign Ro-]

... the designs I mentioned ...

If these don't grab rating points for series six, nothing will.

[/QUOTE]


LOL. T-Girl...yeah, I designed those for a motion comic. I wanted to "sex it up" a bit. I guess I'll just have to make sure I map those motions tastefully. :-)