Hey, I never noticed that before....

Indeed! The episode Miri showed both McCoy and Kirk walking around in an "unzipped" fashion

http://www.trekcore.com/tos/hd/albums/1x08hd/mirihd285.jpg

 

I always thought that the black neck area was a black T-shirt underneath! I mean we see Spock in one during his examination during The Naked Time and yet at other times Kirk's ripped yellow top reveals nothing underneath!
JB

 

Well, the above pic also shows McCoy wearing lots of black underneath, and Kirk wearing nothing.

Kinda makes one want to believe in futuristic materials that split open (along seams, tears or whatnot) exactly as one wishes, either just the top layer or then all layers at once. So Kirk is wearing a black T-shirt just like anybody else, but this won't stop the skin from showing...

Timo Saloniemi

 

That's the angle the JJ-verse took in 2009 as well, probably based on that exact same scene in TNT!

Going by the backstage photos; Shatner usually wore a vest under his uniform top, but regardless of the actors' preferences, the visible black collar is very much a part of the outer garment

 

Conversely, it would be fun to think that the TOS outer shirt is what is peeking from underneath the jackets of ST2 through 6, only with a slightly more substantial collar. And that similar jackets would always have been available to Kirk in TOS already, much as they were to Pike. But, you know, too hot to wear that much.

Timo Saloniemi

 

The black neck area was the black t-shirt underneath. Kirk is far too manly to wear a black t-shirt underneath.

 

And Theiss was unhappy with that. He felt it best they not show how the uniforms opened and closed.

 

And I totally agree. As I suggested in the Production Order Rewatch thread, I can imagine the directorial intention - in classic 1950s monster movies, the scientists all work in the lab to discover the solution. To show the situation is serious, gentlemen would loosen their neckties or even (gasp) remove their suit jackets

In Star Trek, all they could do in order to make the men's clothing more casual was to unzip the collars; so that's what they did, regardless of how silly it looked.

I'm glad they never did it again

 

I'm glad, too, but it does give them a "falling apart" look without ripping up their clothes which would be another problem.

 

I honestly think that the unzipped collars were an attempt to show that their clothes were "ripped" without actually ripping up the costumes.

 

Spock's uniform however remained firmly zipped - this matches better with Kirk & McCoy being stressed and dishevelled IMO, since Spock would retain his composure

 

^ That's my headcanon.

 

Those medical beds in McCoy's sickbay look like spinal decompression tables. https://www.google.ca/search?rlz=1C...4.img..0.1.81...0j0i30k1j0i24k1.0.s4yPALOGREA

 

Yeah, I've had this thought recently too. Both the Cage and TMP have jackets, there needs to be a TOS version to fill in the gap. I saw someone do something inspired be Kirk's wrap around that had potential.

 

Does there, though? We see in "Spock's Brain" that the TOS crew can adjust their uniforms for warmth. Kind of defeats the purpose of jackets.

 

It's not as if cold would have been a factor when Pike's landing party donned their jackets, or when the TOS movie folks wore theirs. If anything, the movie heroes seemed to suffer from excess heat when jacketed, yet never considered removing the jackets...

Either the purpose of the garment is decorative, or then it's there mainly to keep out dust or rain or radiative heat or other such random challenges Nature may throw at landing parties. Except the movie heroes don't do landing parties all that much, and then choose to change clothes anyway.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Yet another reason why that ep is an unsung gem.

 

Things can always go wrong. I would never neglect to supply a ship with jackets on the assumption that the heating whatever in the shirts won't ever break down.

 

Yes. The music is enduring, very playable on the La La Land release. The women's costumes are dazzlingly kitsch and now iconic.

As a tech comment, I'd add: when Kirk says "Suit temperatures to seventy two," he's referring to a skin-tight body suit worn under their uniforms. Something akin to this, except it can be used for warming as well. They would wear it only on certain landing party missions.

I don't see the visible uniform they wear all the time as something that contains temperature control machinery, which would be needed very seldom. That would be wasteful and uncomfortable.

 

You know what I hated about the "suit temperatures" thing? He's telling them all what temperature to make it. I don't know about you, but i prefer 68.

Having said that, I never thought they meant it was a body suit underneath it. I guess that makes sense, since they never said "suit" when referring to the uniforms. I always thought he said "set" but I mishear a lot. I didn't check the cc but Star Trek Transcripts say it, so I'll believe it.