Kirk's Tunic Color?

[GSchnitzer]

Kirk wore gold. Shatner wore green.

Here's what you do to answer that question once and for all:

1. Take some film of Shatner under studio lights on the bridge set and develop the film and look at the color of his costume.

2. Take the exact same camera and the exact same lights onto the bridge of the Starship U.S.S. Enterprise and get some film using the exact same film stock of Captain Kirk in his uniform. Then develop that film, bring it back and compare the two pieces of film. (In this little experiment, we control for film stock and lighting and film stock and we make sure we are looking at the two garments in the exact same manner--comparing apples to apples--being careful not to introduce a variability that exists when we look at one garment but not the other. We need to try to control all the variables we can.)

My hunch is that Kirk's uniform in the bridge of the Enterprise would need to be the exact same color as Shatner's costume at Desilu/Paramount in order for our two garments to match when we control for the lighting and the film stock. But that just seems logical to me.

 

[Captain Robert April]

It seems the color is about the same as an old naugahide sofa we used to have in the 70's.

 

[plynch]

It seems the color is about the same as an old naugahide sofa we used to have in the 70's.

HA! I just saw a ratty velour? one at St. Vinny's today. The color of the smiley that rolls its eyes to the right of the text box I am writing in is close to the tunic color I saw in Detroit. I will insert it here, I hope, though I am not rolling my eyes at anyone:

EDIT: Hey - I just went looking for colors on wiki. The chartreuse on the right is what I saw at the exhibit. Not "green," but greenish. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartreuse_(color)#Chartreuse_.28traditional.29_.28chartreuse_yellow.29

 

[Captain Robert April]

Yeah, that seems close. Just a tad darker.

 

[Red Ranger]

So were there red and blue versions of the wraparound tunic for operations and sciences crewmembers? -- RR

 

[Captain Robert April]

Don't see why there wouldn't be, unless that particular design is strictly for command level officers. Even then, there are certainly folks of that rank in the different divisions, so, sure, there have got to be some red and blue wraparound tunics out there somewhere.

 

[Orcus]

It seems the color is about the same as an old naugahide sofa we used to have in the 70's.

HA! I just saw a ratty velour? one at St. Vinny's today. The color of the smiley that rolls its eyes to the right of the text box I am writing in is close to the tunic color I saw in Detroit. I will insert it here, I hope, though I am not rolling my eyes at anyone:

EDIT: Hey - I just went looking for colors on wiki. The chartreuse on the right is what I saw at the exhibit. Not "green," but greenish. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartreuse_(color)#Chartreuse_.28traditional.29_.28chartreuse_yellow.29

That chartreuse is a nice colour. It certainly looks a lot 'cleaner' than the tatty, dirty gold colour we were led to believe we were seeing on the telly. For my money, chartreuse looks more 'right' as the Starfleet command colour than gold - which tends to look orange on occassion.

Hmmm... TV orange/gold = fool's gold? Real-life chartruese/gold = authentic gold?

 

[CaptainKen]

Well, the Chartreuse colour seems to be moving in the right direction. It's fascinating how by thinking that Kirk's tunic is "gold" that I came to believe it. Now, by thinking it's "avocado/greenish/chartresuse," I think I'm beginning to see more and more that way!

That naugahide sofa comment reminded me of one more version of the wraparound that we saw. Charlie Evans wore it (Charlie X); it looked kinda like suede. In my opinion, it was pretty cool!

Charlie's tunic seems to be brown (suedish brown), but please note: he's wearing a Green mock shirt underneath! Anyone else like this tunic?

 

[Orcus]

Yeah, I think it looks pretty cool too...

 

[plynch]

Design-wise, that's pretty close to Kirk's first wraparound ("Enemy Within"); note the point at about belt-buckle level.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Well, the Chartreuse colour seems to be moving in the right direction. It's fascinating how by thinking that Kirk's tunic is "gold" that I came to believe it. Now, by thinking it's "avocado/greenish/chartresuse," I think I'm beginning to see more and more that way!

That naugahide sofa comment reminded me of one more version of the wraparound that we saw. Charlie Evans wore it (Charlie X); it looked kinda like suede. In my opinion, it was pretty cool!

Charlie's tunic seems to be brown (suedish brown), but please note: he's wearing a Green mock shirt underneath! Anyone else like this tunic?

While the green with scrambled-eggs on the shoulder is my all-time favorite uniform (I own a replica!), Charlie's is pretty cool too. Some sources -- The Star Trek Compendium -- state this was an early version of "The Enemy Within" wrap, made for Shatner but readjusted to fit Walker for "Charlie X".

 

[CaptainKen]

While the green with scrambled-eggs on the shoulder is my all-time favorite uniform (I own a replica!), Charlie's is pretty cool too. Some sources -- The Star Trek Compendium -- state this was an early version of "The Enemy Within" wrap, made for Shatner but readjusted to fit Walker for "Charlie X".

Good research! That is interesting. I kinda wish Kirk had worn it! It would be a cool uniform. There's quite a tradition of the Captain wearing a non-standard special uniform (think Kirk's velour coat in ST V or Picard's jacket in that metaphor-language episode).

 

[plynch]

It always bugged me that on the braid-shoulder wrap, the braids stop after a bit. OTOH, if they went all the way around the neck, it mighta been gaudy. The brown woulda looked cool on the capt., I agree.

 

[Captain Robert April]

Well, the Chartreuse colour seems to be moving in the right direction. It's fascinating how by thinking that Kirk's tunic is "gold" that I came to believe it. Now, by thinking it's "avocado/greenish/chartresuse," I think I'm beginning to see more and more that way!

That naugahide sofa comment reminded me of one more version of the wraparound that we saw. Charlie Evans wore it (Charlie X); it looked kinda like suede. In my opinion, it was pretty cool!

Charlie's tunic seems to be brown (suedish brown), but please note: he's wearing a Green mock shirt underneath! Anyone else like this tunic?

While the green with scrambled-eggs on the shoulder is my all-time favorite uniform (I own a replica!), Charlie's is pretty cool too. Some sources -- The Star Trek Compendium -- state this was an early version of "The Enemy Within" wrap, made for Shatner but readjusted to fit Walker for "Charlie X".

I'm not so sure they adjusted it all that much, by design.

Having it be a little large on him makes him look more like a kid.

 

[Red Ranger]

Well, the Chartreuse colour seems to be moving in the right direction. It's fascinating how by thinking that Kirk's tunic is "gold" that I came to believe it. Now, by thinking it's "avocado/greenish/chartresuse," I think I'm beginning to see more and more that way!

That naugahide sofa comment reminded me of one more version of the wraparound that we saw. Charlie Evans wore it (Charlie X); it looked kinda like suede. In my opinion, it was pretty cool!

Charlie's tunic seems to be brown (suedish brown), but please note: he's wearing a Green mock shirt underneath! Anyone else like this tunic?

While the green with scrambled-eggs on the shoulder is my all-time favorite uniform (I own a replica!), Charlie's is pretty cool too. Some sources -- The Star Trek Compendium -- state this was an early version of "The Enemy Within" wrap, made for Shatner but readjusted to fit Walker for "Charlie X".

I'm not so sure they adjusted it all that much, by design.

Having it be a little large on him makes him look more like a kid.

That's what I always thought. BTW, I think the only other person we saw wear McCoy's short-sleeved blue uniform shirt was Dr. M'Benga. I also wonder if there was a gold/green and red version of that shirt. -- RR

 

[Captain Robert April]

There were some intended for Phase II. James Cawley is sporting one in "Blood and Fire".

Meanwhile, I've taken another run at color correcting a publicity pic..

Comments?

 

[Green Shirt]

There were some intended for Phase II. James Cawley is sporting one in "Blood and Fire".

Meanwhile, I've taken another run at color correcting a publicity pic..

Comments?

I've done my share of color correcting these photos, and I find that some take the correction better than others. It depends on the source -- dvd screencaps (like those below) are better than using publicity photos. There aren't many publicity pics around that give a good example of the green without making Shatner's face look like he's ready to heave chunks.

 

[CaptainKen]

There were some intended for Phase II. James Cawley is sporting one in "Blood and Fire".

Meanwhile, I've taken another run at color correcting a publicity pic..

Comments?

It seems to me your just putting a layer of green over it, not actually recolouring it. I posted a similar pic a while ago where the colour is more accurate. No retouching. Not too gold, not exactly green.

 

[plynch]

There's a publicity shot that does capture it: Shat and Nimoy off set looking up at the camera. A tv guide cover? I can picture it, kinda blue-ish overall.

EDIT: don't know how to do pictures, so here's the link: http://www.hilaliya.com/youngkirk.JPG

 

[Doug Otte]

That's what I always thought. BTW, I think the only other person we saw wear McCoy's short-sleeved blue uniform shirt was Dr. M'Benga. I also wonder if there was a gold/green and red version of that shirt. -- RR

I always thought that tunic was used by McCoy in the lab or when treating patients because the slick fabric would allow easier cleaning of the schmutz (you know - blood, etc.). I never thought it would be used by other areas, but I guess it would. The engineers might want to wear it when they could get oil, transmission fluid, etc. on themselves).

BTW, I wonder if the actor playing Dr. M'Benga wore the same tunic that Kelley wore. He seemed to be about the same size, and I doubt they'd create a separate tunic for a guest actor.

Doug