How would the look of TOS have adapted to the 1970s?

[JonnyQuest037]

Idle thought for today: If TOS had gotten renewed for a 4th or 5th season, the look of the show would have likely changed. The more conservative mainstream styles of the 60s were rapidly changing into the freakier 70s, and we probably would've seen that reflected more in the costume and hair designs. Take a look at how the looks of Mission: Impossible and Mad Men evolved to get an idea of what I mean.

Kirk's and Sulu's hairstyles were already getting a bit shaggier by the end of the run. Can you imagine Captain Kirk with Shatner's 70s muttonchops? Sulu or Chekov with a mustache? More pronounced bellbottoms and butterfly collars on the costumes? Uhura with an afro before TMP? Would the transporter room have gotten a more psychedelic background? Could we have seen more olive greens and oranges in the backgrounds, or a rec room with shag carpeting?

What do you folks think? Would TOS have worked with 70s styles, or would it have just not felt the same as what we got from 1966-69?*

*For the purposes of this discussion, let's assume that the writing bounced back from what we got in the 3rd season, and TOS was producing shows of a similar quality to the 1st and 2nd, just with a 1970s visual aesthetic. Would it have worked as well?

 

[Kor]

There is test footage of "Phase II" stuff included with ST:TMP-DE that gives some indication of the way it might have been. I think the interior sets are aesthetically quite similar to TOS. The hair and some of the clothing are more obviously '70s.

I prefer a '60s aesthetic, myself. I'd rather not see Kirk and Spock with shaggy hair and pornstaches. Of course, TMP already gave us Disco McCoy...

Kor

 

[BillJ]

...gave us Disco McCoy...

Disco Bones is iconic!

 

[RAMA]

Like this: http://ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/designing-the-twenty-third-century-anew/

 

[Redfern]

Discussions like this always remind me how the male performers' hairstyles evolved on "The Brady Bunch". When it debuted in 1969, Robert Reed and the boys all had relatively straight hair parted upon one side. By the time the series wrapped production, Reed, Barry Williams and Christopher Knight were practically sporting Afros! That, in turn, reminds me that for a while in the 70s, Walter Koenig wore a thick "porn 'tache" and George Takei's hair was so full and covering his ears as to resemble the late Jackie' O (or "Dr. Girlfriend" from the Venture Bros for our younger members here). Even Jimmy Doohan had a full "salt and pepper" mustache and beard for a while and a series of professional art pieces depicted Scotty with the same facial growth. If you open a copy of either "The Making of the Trouble with Tribbles" or "The World of Star Trek" by David Gerrold, you can see George and Walter's "mod" looks, though Doohan is depicted clean shaven. His 'tache and beard (and the art print ads) I remember from an early issue of StarLog.

 

[Poltargyst]

Picture the skin-tight body suits of Buck Rodgers...

Nah, it probably wouldn't have been all that different.

 

[HIjol]

Probably vests over jumpsuit-y like uniforms for the men and big utility belt-like strap belts for the women

The Nacelles would almost certainly have sported a more tied dye look, and the deflector dish, well...

 

[Shaw]

I've spent quite a bit of time documenting what the Star Trek II television series would have looked like had it made it to air (based on what was being built for the show before it became Star Trek: The Motion Picture).

... the real question here is are you guys truly interested in what was going to happen or are you guys just wanting to make fun of the 70's?

If you guys are just wanting to play pin the cliché on the show, then there isn't any point in me wasting my time trying to present an accurate picture of what we missed out on.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I've spent quite a bit of time documenting what the Star Trek II television series would have looked like had it made it to air (based on what was being built for the show before it became Star Trek: The Motion Picture).

Well, that's not what I was asking, Shaw. Yes, we have information on what the Phase II show would've looked like. I was asking how the look of TOS would've evolved if it had continued uninterrupted. Not the same thing.

 

[Shaw]

Yes, we have information on what the Phase II show would've looked like.

You think so... okay, no point in wasting my time here.

Thanks!

 

[BillJ]

... the real question here is are you guys truly interested in what was going to happen or are you guys just wanting to make fun of the 70's?

I am interested in what the show would've looked like.

 

[Nightowl1701]

C'mon, seriously... we're talking 1971 at most. Ed Sullivan, The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, My Three Sons, Bewitched were all still on the air until that year. Things would not have changed that much.

Shatner's hair would be all the way dark (with a throwaway line to the effect that Kirk dyed his hair to look more mature or cover some gray), Nimoy (assuming he hadn't quit by then) would still be in his Vulcan bowlcut, Kelley and Doohan would be unchanged, maybe an understated afro on Nichols (I can't find any pictures of her from that year). Other than that, they're still playing characters from a Navy of the future, and no one in the US Navy of '71 was sporting long hair, so Takei and Koenig would be told to get a haircut or take a walk. Sets, models, props wouldn't be that different either; sheer studio economics would demand things only be altered when absolutely necessary, and the interior of the Enterprise was plenty colorful enough. Maybe the Romulans would have a new ship of their own, but that's it.

Now that said, the guest stars (non-Starfleet/Klingon/Romulan characters, that is) would be going full glorious 70's style....

 

[Push The Button]

Eventually we would have seen some real CRT displays, probably green or amber, with some wireframe graphics. The original Battlestar Galactica series had them.

 

[Masao]

The 1960s TOS still looks to me like the future, but a 1970s TOS would probably look like the 1970s. But I could dig uniforms being leisure suits of Avocado and Burnt Orange! Pet Rocks instead of Tribbles! The Enterprise resembling an AMC Gremlin!

 

[JonnyQuest037]

...no one in the US Navy of '71 was sporting long hair, so Takei and Koenig would be told to get a haircut or take a walk.

Both actors had significantly longer hair in S3 than they'd had in prior seasons. No reason to think that wouldn't have continued. Especially to conform with Navy regulations.

 

[In_Correct]

Sorry but I can't bear to watch an episode of Star Trek with Tye Dye corridors. The walls were all ready purple, with red doors during the first season.

I'd hope that if they made it into the 1970s, they would try to make the series more future-looking, instead of a product of its time period. Such as reverting it back to the pilot episode's style or Phase II.

Which reminds me ... Xon has long hair which makes me think that if Star Trek had a 4th season, the character might have changed their hair styles.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I'd hope that if they made it into the 1970s, they would try to make the series more future-looking, instead of a product of its time period. Such as reverting it back to the pilot episode's style or Phase II.

But television shows and movies are always inevitably products of their times, even when they're trying not to be. The Great Gatsby was made into movies in 1949, 1974, and 2013, and I bet you'd have no problem telling which one was made when, even though all three are taking place in the same year. I'm talking more about TOS unconsciously reflecting the 1970s, rather than actively trying to make it look like the present day.

Which reminds me ... Xon has long hair which makes me think that if Star Trek had a 4th season, the character might have changed their hair styles.

The way an actor styled his hair for a screen test in 1977/78 makes you think that other actors might have changed their hair in 1970/71?

 

[johnnybear]

Shorter skirts and lower dresses for the lovely Yeomans?
JB

 

[johnnybear]

There is an actual scene with William Shatner and Robert Reed out there on the net taken from Phase II in it's early days! shame that and Persis's head shaving moments weren't put on the DVD back in the early 2000s!
JB

 

[urbandefault]

There is an actual scene with William Shatner and Robert Reed out there on the net taken from Phase II in it's early days! shame that and Persis's head shaving moments weren't put on the DVD back in the early 2000s!
JB

I think the Shatner/Reed scene you're referring to is from a TV movie called Pray for the Wildcats.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072024/

Not Phase 2 footage.