Do you think Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Levar Burton and Michael Dorn were a little apprehensive at the beginning of TNG when they found out they were all wearing red shirts? 
Red Is The New Gold
- Thread starter Bry_Sinclair
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Probably not, they were classed senior staff and TOS fans knew that Uhura and Scotty both survived their show 
Didn't they decide to change the colors because they didn't think Stewart looked good in the gold (really more yellow in the TNG uniforms) and also that the red didn't mesh with Data's skin tone?
Me and my Dad would make jokes about it watching the reruns when I was a kid in the 90's. I'm pretty sure it's always been a thing within the fandom, maybe it became more known with the general public due to the internet.
Yeah, I'm sure it's been a thing for quite a while. But it really seems overused and cliche in this day and age. Maybe I just wasn't in the right group of Trekkies in the 90's.
Nah. But Data was the reason why they switched the command and ship's services/engineering uniform colours. Data in his makeup apparently did not look good in a red shirt (too much contrast or something). So command got red and engineering yellow.
I thought they changed it because Stewart didn't look good in gold?
^ I think I read about the switch in the TNG Compendium, but I'm too lazy to dig it up now.
My feeling was always that the switch was made as a kind of acknowledgement of the 'monster maroons' (ie that everybody in the movies wore red, ergo the red shirt myth was finally debunked)
It's worth noting though that the first crewman death in the series is the bridge Conn officer at the start of "Encounter At Farpoint"..... and he's wearing a red shirt.
It's worth noting though that the first crewman death in the series is the bridge Conn officer at the start of "Encounter At Farpoint"..... and he's wearing a red shirt.
Amongst Trek fans it was a familiar joke in the 70s.
I thought Conn Officer Torres survived the encounter with Q, at least that's the impression I got from what Picard said in the trial. As I understand the first (official) death was Engineer Singh in "Lonely Among Us".It's worth noting though that the first crewman death in the series is the bridge Conn officer at the start of "Encounter At Farpoint"..... and he's wearing a red shirt.
I think the actors would have looked better in their original intended colors if the uniforms had been more like the post-S2 uniforms. The collars make a huge difference.
That looks better than I thought it would. Of course we did see Riker and Worf wearing those colours in "Second Chances" and "Parallels" but Picard, Data and Wesley really stand out in their TOS colours. Geordi always looked better in the red uniform in my opinion.
I always just assumed it was a reflection of trying to pass as a successor to the movie franchise, in which the standard officer uniform was red...ish, rather than the series, which they distanced themselves from in several ways, i.e. very few TOS aliens, adding of an XO, etc...
Honestly, one has to wonder what an in universe explanation would be for the return to varied colors of uniforms . As recently as 2 decades earlier, they're still in the TwoK stuff
Honestly, one has to wonder what an in universe explanation would be for the return to varied colors of uniforms . As recently as 2 decades earlier, they're still in the TwoK stuff
I've heard this over the years, but is there any documentation or source for this. Because the costume test footage on the Blurays show Stewart and Frakes only wearing the red color.
I think the actors would have looked better in their original intended colors if the uniforms had been more like the post-S2 uniforms. The collars make a huge difference.
Nah, the blue clashes with how pale Data is as opposed to the more neutral yellow/gold and the yellow shirts in TNG just don't have the same gravitas as the gold shirts on TOS, so they aren't as suitable for command as the red.
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