Generations Uniforms - in universe

[D Man]

I just watched the last scene in GEN where Picard has the TV uniform on and Riker has the DS9 uniform on, and it's weird. This has probably been discussed a few times over the years but hey let's do it again! We all know about the abandoned new uniforms for GEN, then they decided to sort of half use DS9 uniforms and half use TNG uniforms. So my question is, what's your best "In-Universe" explanation for the Enterprise-D crew wearing two different uniforms?

 

[CoveTom]

I wish I had an in-universe explanation for it, because it seems totally unique to the Enterprise in Generations. From the time DS9 started until the introduction of the First Contact uniforms, TNG and DS9 were both very consistent -- starship personnel (and Starfleeet back on Earth) wore the TNG style. We see that numerous times on DS9, where they interact with people from Starfleet Command or various starships and they are all wearing the TNG style. Heck, even when Sisko gets reassigned to Earth, he switches to the TNG style. Generations is the only example of "mixing and matching" that I can think of. So it really makes no sense.

 

[Tosk]

I wish I had an in-universe explanation for it, because it seems totally unique to the Enterprise in Generations. From the time DS9 started until the introduction of the First Contact uniforms, TNG and DS9 were both very consistent -- starship personnel (and Starfleeet back on Earth) wore the TNG style. We see that numerous times on DS9, where they interact with people from Starfleet Command or various starships and they are all wearing the TNG style. Heck, even when Sisko gets reassigned to Earth, he switches to the TNG style. Generations is the only example of "mixing and matching" that I can think of. So it really makes no sense.

I notice you left Voyager out of the equation.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Starfleet were like, TNG uniforms for ships and DS9 uniforms for Starbases.

But then, one day, they decided to make both available for each posting. And it probably lasted a week.

Imagine them in the conference lounge and Picard annouces they have a choice of uniform types.

 

[Akiraprise]

In GEN, to mix and match, the DS9/VOY uniforms could have been used for engineering or enlisted crew doing the manual labor of the ship reserving the more formal looking TNG type for officers. Then they could have had both types on screen if they were short better quality uniforms for all of the extras they had appear on the big screen. That would have made some sense rather than the hodgepodge they went with.

 

[David cgc]

If anything, this is a little easier to explain with PIC, PRO, and LDS all showing multiple styles of uniforms (and even badges) in use side-by-side on different ships and station. Even pretty similar ones, like the flashback in PIC season 3 showing a variant of the FC uniform at the same time LDS showed most crews were using the regular FC uniform.

Maybe Starfleet Command had just cleared the jumpsuits for starship use, and the Enterprise was transitioning from one to the other (it seems like they don’t just replicate a new uniform every day, so they could take their time cycling from one to the other).

 

[CoveTom]

I notice you left Voyager out of the equation.

True. However, even Voyager did not mix and match. They were entirely the DS9 style uniforms. Generations is the only time we saw them mixed like that.

 

[FormerLurker]

I notice you left Voyager out of the equation.

That's because adding Voyager makes 2+2=5 into 2+2=ting tang walla walla bing bang. He did say it makes no sense.

 

[Mage]

Then, in-universe, there was also the season 1-2 uniforms still being used during season 3. In the background. So mixing uniforms has happened before.

 

[CoveTom]

Then, in-universe, there was also the season 1-2 uniforms still being used during season 3. In the background. So mixing uniforms has happened before.

I always kinda took that as we are supposed to believe that they are the same uniform style.

 

[Mage]

I always kinda took that as we are supposed to believe that they are the same uniform style.

See but there's the thing... that's out of universe thinking. Now think in-universe, like OP asked in his first post.

 

[Tosk]

I always kinda took that as we are supposed to believe that they are the same uniform style.

I don't believe that's the case. They would go back to the 1-2 version when they wanted to show something set before season 1. Like the recording in Identity Crisis. Or the Farpoint sequences in All Good Things.

 

[Dukhat]

So I simply cannot come up with a logical reason why the uniform swap happened in GEN the way it did. It just doesn't make any sense. Adding to the fact that some characters kept their uniform throughout the entire movie (Worf, and he still had it when he came to DS9), some characters changed uniforms for no apparent reason (Geordi, Riker, Picard), and some changed uniforms and then changed back to the old uniform, again for no apparent reason (Picard), there was just a hodgepodge of nuttiness here.

I get that the plan was to have the entire crew use the aborted GEN uniforms as a way to segue to VOY, which didn't pan out. And obviously someone decided that the VOY crew would then use the DS9 uniforms instead, which then necessitated the transition in GEN for that. But the way that transition was done was sloppy and made no sense.