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

[Phoenix219]

I've always felt that, from a culture standpoint, the decades run from midpoint to midpoint. What we think of as the 60s music and style really stated in 55 and went to 65. What we think of as the 70s really went from 65 to 75, etc...

Of course, this isn't entirely accurate, either. The truth of the matter is that taste, culture, style, fashion, etc... aren't rigidly bound by the year but grow organically over time. 1969 wasn't much different from 1971. It's not like everyone goes "It's 1970! Quick, let's remodel completely!"

I completely agree.... the early 80s fit more with the late 70s, and the late 80s melds into the 90s pretty seemlessly. I've always considered "my" era to have been 85-95 (age 7-17) as growing up... neither an 80s kid or a 90s kid. Half the things that are considered "80s" I did not know nor care about at such a formative age lol.

 

[spockboy]

Probably a lot like this...

Spockboy

 

[GSchnitzer]

In our STNV episode "Bread and Savagery," we return to planet 892-IV. Since four or five years have passed since the events of "Bread and Circuses," we figured that planet will look about four or five years later than it looked when we visited it in 1967.

Here are our Kirk, Spock, and McCoy dressed appropriately to blend in with the locals of planet 892-IV. (Costumes were selected to resemble what Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley were wearing back in the early 1970s.)

 

[plynch]

Sounds glorious.

 

[Kor]

My curiosity is piqued.

Kor

 

[Commander Richard]

the early 80s fit more with the late 70s, and the late 80s melds into the 90s pretty seemlessly.

I've not found that to be the case. The early 80s didn't feel like the late 70s and 1992-93 didn't feel like the late 80s. There was some bleed-over but not much and not to the mid decade point. Music and clothing styles for example had a similar feel from 1988 to 1991ish but even that's pushing it and none of that carried over to the mid 90s.

 

[The Old Mixer]

^This, plus I think that @Shawnster was identifying the decades with the wrong groups of years. The early part of a new decade often in hindsight feels more like the decade before than what the new decade became...but what one thinks of as a particular decade would tend to be the mid-to-late part of that decade, not half of the previous decade! The mid-to-late '50s is the quintessential part of the '50s...the mid-to-late '60s is the quintessential part of the '60s...etc.

I like to think that my 1970 playlist feels more like the end of the '60s than my 1969 playlist does.

 

[mos6507]

The sixties had wood paneling too. Just look at Pike's TV in "The Cage."

Plus the woodgrain on the TOS captain's chair.

I've not found that to be the case. The early 80s didn't feel like the late 70s

There's more bleedover from 70s to 80s than you think. For instance, disco "died" by around 1981 and yet there's a lot of vestiges of Disco in stuff like Thriller or Blondie Heart of Glass or early Duran Duran. What the 80s added that the 70s didn't was synthesizers, drum machines, and the gated-reverb snare drum sound. In other areas, 1977-1983 represented the rise of videogames and home computers. 1983-1984 was the videogame "crash" and after that was the dawn of the Mac and the PC era. 1977 is a real inflection point beause it's Star Wars (FX blockbuster era), Saturday Night Fever (disco), Punk rock, computers, videogames.

There's really a big difference in the world before and after 1977, sort of like the difference before and after the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, the internet, or smart-phones. The early 70s are really just 60s fashion gone mainstream. The big bands from the 60s, Stones, Zeppelin, Who, all peaked in the early 70s. Star Wars really drove a nail in the coffin of 70s Vietnam/Watergate malaise. From that point onward everyone really started to get obsessed with consumer electronics and the fruits of Moore's Law, something that has continued pretty steadily to this day.

 

[J.T.B.]

For instance, disco "died" by around 1981 and yet there's a lot of vestiges of Disco in stuff like Thriller or Blondie Heart of Glass or early Duran Duran.

I would think so for "Heart of Glass" since it came out in '78, the year of Saturday Night Fever.

I agree about the bleedover, though; in the late '70s the bright leisure suits and plaid pants of the early decade were gone and there was more of a subdued and "classic" look coming in, more like the preppy style people associate with the early '80s. Bailey on WKRP comes to mind.

And check out the skinny ties in '78:

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I really love this picture.

 

[Maurice]

Disco was pretty dead by 1981. I went into high school in 1977 to disco and exited in 1981 in a totally different musical environment. Disco was already dead in the "in" places by the time it peaked in the mainstream.

 

[johnnybear]

Is that Trek video on YouTube at the moment?
JB

 

[johnnybear]

I've always found it difficult to know if there are more than three teams working on these videos at any given time or if each team follows another!
JB

 

[GSchnitzer]

Is that Trek video on YouTube at the moment?
JB

Assuming you are talking to me, no, our Star Trek New Voyages episode "Bread and Savagery" where we return to Planet 892-IV to check on the "Children of the Son" (hint: things are not going swimmingly) is still in post-production and hasn't been released yet.

Not to be a commercial for our production, but our Star Trek New Voyages full-length episodes that have been released are (in order):

1. "Come What May" (2004)
2. "In Harm's Way" (2004)
3. "To Serve All My Days" (2006)
4. "World Enough and Time" (2007)
5. "Blood and Fire, Part 1" (2008)
6. "Blood and Fire, Part 2" (2009)
7. "Enemy: Starfleet!" (2011)
8. "The Child" (2012)
9. "Kitumba" (2013)
10. "Mind-Sifter" (2014)
11. "The Holiest Thing" (2016)

 

[johnnybear]

James Frawley was the first new Kirk, followed by Vic Mignona but although I have seen the other guy before I don't know his name!
JB

 

[Maurice]

Cawley.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Now imagine William Frawley as Kirk!!

 

[CrazyMatt]

Three Dog Night!

 

[Richard Baker]

I don't see this fascination for hair styles which has consumed 3/4 of this thread- Roddenberry wanted a pseudo-military look with the triangular sideburns and who knows what the future preferences might be, to me it really doesn't matter that much.

If Trek had continued I think the sets would still look mostly the same due to the cost of changing. Props and other set decorations would have probably gotten fancier gradually and we might have seen some new areas of the ship.

I think the episodes would continue to reflect with metaphors what might be currently happening in the real world at the time. SFX technology would not be that much different until the innovations from Star Wars spread and like BSG would still be used sparingly to keep costs down.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I don't see this fascination for hair styles which has consumed 3/4 of this thread- Roddenberry wanted a pseudo-military look with the triangular sideburns and who knows what the future preferences might be, to me it really doesn't matter that much.

I think it's just a reflection of what actually happened on TOS. The actors' looks in the third season are definitely a bit shaggier than they were in the first. It's only natural to wonder if that trend might have continued if the show went on.