II thru VII uniforms....what would you change?

[Christopher]

While TOS Kirk obviously wore yellow (though I believe there were behind-the-scenes reasons for the color selection of the day), on the big screen I just can't imagine him wandering around in a yellow uniform.

Actually it was originally an avocado green velour that photographed as gold under the bright stage lights. Basically it was the same color as the wraparound green tunics Kirk sometimes wore, which were of a different material so their real color was more evident. I think that in season 3 they replaced the velour with a different material, but made them gold to match what the old tunics had looked like onscreen.

 

[Jose Tyler]

While TOS Kirk obviously wore yellow (though I believe there were behind-the-scenes reasons for the color selection of the day), on the big screen I just can't imagine him wandering around in a yellow uniform.

Actually it was originally an avocado green velour that photographed as gold under the bright stage lights. Basically it was the same color as the wraparound green tunics Kirk sometimes wore, which were of a different material so their real color was more evident. I think that in season 3 they replaced the velour with a different material, but made them gold to match what the old tunics had looked like onscreen.

Yup, avacado green...

 

[TrickyDickie]

The gold, light cobalt blue, and red could be adjusted for style, weight, comfort, etc, but....the colors themselves are not very practical for away team missions. Particularly when there is vegetation on a planet to consider. When most of what is around you is in shades of green, those colors all stick out like sore thumbs.

Here's another issue. The necklace that Khan is wearing in the image below. Where can we logically say that it came from? My theory always was that it was something that Marla had given to him....from a belt or other item of clothing that existed in the TOS era that we simply didn't see on screen in the series. Maybe a belt that was seldom used then but incorporated as a regular item into the later uniforms?

It's also my theory that Khan deliberately took a piece out of the rim as a statement that in leading Marla away, he broke the circle of Kirk's loyal crew.

Thoughts? :

 

[DonIago]

According to, "To Reign in Hell", it was a gift from the Enterprise crew to Marla before they left Ceti Alpha, which Khan took for himself as a memento after she died...unless I'm remembering incorrectly.

 

[Christopher]

The gold, light cobalt blue, and red could be adjusted for style, weight, comfort, etc, but....the colors themselves are not very practical for away team missions. Particularly when there is vegetation on a planet to consider. When most of what is around you is in shades of green, those colors all stick out like sore thumbs.

If you assume that alien vegetation would be green, yes. Scientifically, there's no reason it has to be. There are various colors of photosynthetic pigment. And I think we've seen TOS episodes where alien vegetation had odd colors.

And point of order: They didn't have "away team missions" in the 23rd century. They had landing parties.

Here's another issue. The necklace that Khan is wearing in the image below. Where can we logically say that it came from? My theory always was that it was something that Marla had given to him....from a belt or other item of clothing that existed in the TOS era that we simply didn't see on screen in the series. Maybe a belt that was seldom used then but incorporated as a regular item into the later uniforms?

I just consider it a continuity error by the filmmakers, analogous to seeing a movie-era medical console in the Botany Bay compound. Frankly, TWOK played really fast and loose with continuity -- retconning Chekov into "Space Seed," saying Kirk had "never faced death" despite Edith and Sam and Aurelan and Miramanee (and his own unborn child!), portraying Khan's followers as a bunch of racially uniform Nordic types instead of the ethnically diverse band they were originally (and making them far too young to have been stranded as adults 15 years earlier), etc. I wouldn't say it was made before Trek fans became as obsessive about continuity as they are today, because they've always been so to an extent; but it was made before filmmakers became aware of how obsessive fans were about continuity, so Bennett and Meyer felt free to make tweaks to serve their story or budget needs and not worry about whether it fit perfectly with some TV episode from a decade and a half earlier.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Nice work on the colour adjustments Ian Keldon. I think the TMP uniforms in particular benefitted from it.

 

[TrickyDickie]

If you assume that alien vegetation would be green, yes. Scientifically, there's no reason it has to be. There are various colors of photosynthetic pigment. And I think we've seen TOS episodes where alien vegetation had odd colors.

I was going on a percentage basis of what planetary vegetations would likely be encountered. However, your comment does bring up an interesting possibility: what about technology for changing the colors in an instant, like the girl's fingernails in 'Total Recall?'

And point of order: They didn't have "away team missions" in the 23rd century. They had landing parties.

Right, but I was using it in a general way to encompass all of Trek.

 

[F. King Daniel]

And point of order: They didn't have "away team missions" in the 23rd century. They had landing parties.

"Away team is entering the atmosphere, sir!" - Chekov, 2258

 

[The Castellan]

The TMP-era unis look good in the tri-color scheme too

I like those. I'd have gone that way, too. I do not like the ST2 uniforms, they look way too military for my tastes (hell, they even had a cadet going, "YES SIR!" in the military tone, ugh), not to mention not every comfortable, especially when in a warm place....could see Starfleet ships and stations dialing down the temperature a few degrees because of those uniforms, I think only Vulcans might be fine with them, since they prefer being hotter, too. If I go with the Phase 2 route I originally planned for my comics, I'll do just that.

these show what I had in mind, also, I could see TOS uniforms still being used while the newer uniforms were being taken care of, since it would take time to get them all over to the ships.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I really liked that they kept the sleeve rank in the first movie and I would have preferred that stay. I still don't clearly understand who is what with the pins on the strip.

The jackets were too heavy for standard everyday wear, they shoul dhave been dress uniforms as others have said.

Oh andon the big "winter coat" the landing parties used in Tresk II and III, I would have omitted the big gold block with the insignia chisled on it. I mean, what was the point of that?

And point of order: They didn't have "away team missions" in the 23rd century. They had landing parties.

"Away team is entering the atmosphere, sir!" - Chekov, 2258

and Klingon warbirds. Damn that Nero!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The 'Starfleet Marines' fan club has a design that is the same as the ST II unis, but in black. I thought that was pretty cool.

Here is a link. (Scroll down to where it says 'Monster Blacks')

 

[Nerys Myk]

The TMP-era unis look good in the tri-color scheme too

Not a fan of that cut or the "crewneck" cut. I prefer the "V-neck" worn by Kirk, Sulu, Uhura and Chekov in the early bridge scenes. Both the short and long sleeve versions.

 

[Christopher]

Personally I'm not crazy about the idea of reverting the TMP uniforms to the "whole thing being department color" style, especially if you make the pants match the shirts. Robert Fletcher chose to change it to a system where the overall color was fairly standard (blue-gray for command officers, beige for junior officers, brown and white for enlisted, more or less) and the department color was signified on the insignia patch, epaulets, and the like. I think that's an approach that makes sense in principle; after all, one would expect uniforms to have a certain uniformity. And we've seen a similar approach in the ENT uniforms, and to an extent in the DS9 fatigues and TNG-movie uniforms (though the latter followed the precedent of the TWOK uniforms in having the whole undershirt be department color).

I also like the way Fletcher doubled the number of department colors, so you didn't have so many different departments lumped together under the same color. Although I would've kept sciences blue rather than switching it to orange.

 

[The Castellan]

I really liked that they kept the sleeve rank in the first movie and I would have preferred that stay. I still don't clearly understand who is what with the pins on the strip.

The jackets were too heavy for standard everyday wear, they shoul dhave been dress uniforms as others have said.

Oh andon the big "winter coat" the landing parties used in Tresk II and III, I would have omitted the big gold block with the insignia chisled on it. I mean, what was the point of that?

And point of order: They didn't have "away team missions" in the 23rd century. They had landing parties.

"Away team is entering the atmosphere, sir!" - Chekov, 2258

and Klingon warbirds. Damn that Nero!

-Butt-Head voice- Huh huh huh, Nero sucks, uh huh huh huh.

 

[Mysterion]

Leave them as-is, but reserve them for use only as a "dress uniform" for formal situations. Day-to-day uniforms would be more along the lines of the short-sleeve duty uniform seen in TMP.

And point of order: They didn't have "away team missions" in the 23rd century. They had landing parties.

Potato, potato.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

While TOS Kirk obviously wore yellow (though I believe there were behind-the-scenes reasons for the color selection of the day), on the big screen I just can't imagine him wandering around in a yellow uniform.

Actually it was originally an avocado green velour that photographed as gold under the bright stage lights. Basically it was the same color as the wraparound green tunics Kirk sometimes wore, which were of a different material so their real color was more evident. I think that in season 3 they replaced the velour with a different material, but made them gold to match what the old tunics had looked like onscreen.

The double-knit was also made of an "avocado green" or "lime green" color, which could be seen in the double-knit uniform sold off during the Christie's auction.

Although, there is some debate among the folks doing the fan film STAR TREK: PHASE II/NEW VOYAGES, who state that the velour was gold. However, interviews of those working on the show at the time maintain that it was a greenish color, including William Ware Theiss and Nichelle Nichols, who wrote in her autobiography that her original uniform was a drab green. Moreover, it's obvious in the HD/remastered footage that the velour command uniforms have a greenish-tint to them.

 

[Christopher]

Avocado green is kind of an odd choice when you think about it. I think I've read they made the color choices partly based on whether the different hues would register differently on black-and-white sets.

 

[Cyke101]

The gold, light cobalt blue, and red could be adjusted for style, weight, comfort, etc, but....the colors themselves are not very practical for away team missions.

I thought about that the first time I watched Journey's End. Picard, Worf, and Troi are standing stoically in front of the big, bad, dark, militaristic Cardassians, and I couldn't help but think that the standard Starfleet uniforms looked kind of silly in comparison, esp. with the political context and cultural subtext of the episode.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The gold, light cobalt blue, and red could be adjusted for style, weight, comfort, etc, but....the colors themselves are not very practical for away team missions.

Wouldn't that depend on the nature of the mission?

 

[Christopher]

That's another strength of the TMP uniforms -- they had so many more variants for different specialized purposes. In addition to all the one-piece/two-piece and long-sleeve/short-sleeve variants, they had the beige field jackets for away missions, the radiation suits for engineers, the helmets and armor for security, etc. It really frustrates me that TNG and its successors abandoned the security armor idea. Why in the world would Starfleet stop using safety gear? (Ditto on the chair arms that folded down into seat restraints.) If there had been more movies using the TMP uniforms -- and with a comparable wardrobe budget -- we might've seen more variants for other specific functions. Although TWOK did introduce the parkas for landing parties. And in ST V, they did have special combat gear that was less colorful and more functional than the normal uniforms. So that's something.

Then again, "Spock's Brain" established that standard Starfleet uniforms had built-in thermal controls that could be set to keep people warm even in Arctic conditions. So they really shouldn't have needed the parkas. True, that was a compensation for a lack of wardrobe budget, but it was a nicely futuristic idea and it's a shame it was forgotten. We're already on the verge of having intelligent clothing with special functions built into it, so 23rd- or 24th-century clothing should certainly be more than just inert cloth.