Purple uniforms?

[Mach5]

The main cast swapped from the original jumpsuits to the more pronounced blue ones in the ep Minefield. Spotted it right of the bat (total nerd).

Holy crap, you're right!

Carbon Creek

Minefield

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

Assuming this is the case: why, in ENT, is there no red?

Trick of the studio lights. The stripes photograph differently on the sets, depending on reflections.

For TNG, they deliberately colour-shifted all three designations. Red to a wine/cherry (since the movies were now using a similar tone for their uniform jackets), blue to a teal and gold to a mustard. Check out the "Enterprise" action figures: they used a red paint for the engineering stripes, not purple.

One reason for the avoidance of a straight blue dates back to TMP, to avoid it being the same blue as an original SPFX bluescreen of the late 70s. For TMP, sciences division was broken into two colours: orange for science and mint green for medical.

Also, I remember reading that when the new producers were planning the look of STII, they made a deliberate decision to go with "almost" but not quite primary colors -- hence maroon instead of red, teal instead of blue, etc.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Babel One

I own that costume in the middle.


Tellarite ambassadorial robes by Therin of Andor, on Flickr


Tellarite robes by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

 

[sojourner]

Cool, you never mentioned that before!

 

[doubleohfive]

Keep in mind also - wardrobe has to be washed every night after shooting. I'm sure that contributed to at least some of the color variation with some of these outfits.

Though I tend to agree - I never interpreted the engineer stripes as purple or magenta; I just assumed (based on the yellow and blue and red template previously established by the other series) that it was red.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Man I miss those old days of TOS in glorious black and white.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Also, I remember reading that when the new producers were planning the look of STII, they made a deliberate decision to go with "almost" but not quite primary colors

The same costume guy, Robert Fletcher of TMP, did the later movies too. He hated "straight" colours and used the same strategy in that first movie. Spock's black robe wasn't a true black, Kirk's admiral uniform was "loden green", but appeared grey to some, etc.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

^^ Fletcher, yes. Thank you. I liked his designs -- really nice lines. I also liked the move away from the "straight" bright primary colors of TOS to the more muted, off-primary colors. The seamstress in me appreciated the variety, I guess.