Season 1-2 uniforms, a defense

[john titor]

A lot of people give out about the spandex uniforms, I thought they were great, they were efficiently designed for maximum efficiency in combat situations where you don't want loose fitting clothes catching on any sharp surfaces. In addition they looked futuristic and the lack of space conveyed a down to work image which served starfleet well.

 

[BlueWolf]

Are you serious? They were horrible; the uniforms used in the later seasons, and even the newer ones in DS9 and the TNG movies, were by far a lot cooler. As you said, the early variants might have been more practical, but they just didn't look right on the characters at all (especially in retrospect).

 

[RyuRoots]

I don't think they looked futuristic. They LOOK like they're from 1987. The same way that the TOS uniforms LOOK like something from the mid-60s. And it was a little hard to take them seriously as...well, uniforms. Something that a looser shirt and a collar really helped with.

 

[Trekker4747]

A lot of people give out about the spandex uniforms, I thought they were great, they were efficiently designed for maximum efficiency in combat situations where you don't want loose fitting clothes catching on any sharp surfaces.

Other than the fact that it's horrible on your back -as evidenced by the actors' gripes about them- that might be a good point.

 

[john titor]

I wonder if its possible to buy one, I like them, I could walk about town wearing my skin tight spandex starfleet uniform feeling extra cool. Anyway the point about 1987, the future came to the 80s, then went back to the future and then we had the not so futuristic 90s with cowprints. So essentially 1987 looks very 24th century, the 80s were the future, we just lost track.

 

[BolianAuthor]

^

You can buy the patterns to make them still.

I'm one of the VERY few fans who loves the 1st and 2nd season uniforms. I was glad they still brought them back in AGT.

 

[pureTREKKER]

They were alright.

But seeing men wearing those 'skirts' where quite disturbing.

 

[RyuRoots]

They were alright.

But seeing men wearing those 'skirts' where quite disturbing.

pureTREKKER, I'm surprised at you! That is an outmoded and sexist attitude. /Riker

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I actually prefer the first and second season uniforms even if you have to be super trim to wear one. Theiss' design is simplistic and sleek much like the TOS uniforms. As much as Blackman tried, the uniforms he created to replace Theiss' didn't have the same clean lines and often made the male actors look puffy and bloated.

I once saw a fan costume using Theiss' TNG design but with a more weighty material, like gabardine, and it still looked good and, perhaps, a bit more comfortable to wear.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I actually didn't mind those season 1 & 2 uniforms at all--it's just that I wouldn't personally be caught dead in one of them...

 

[Too Much Fun]

A big thank you to the person who started this thread. I love those uniforms too and am disappointed whenever people put them down or when they perform poorly in polls about uniforms. I like the stripe around the chest and most of all, how the shirts don't end weirdly.

I know they were uncomfortable for the actors, but I think they looked much nicer and more natural than the later uniforms, which annoyed me with their high collars and the awkward way they were designed at the bottom of the shirt, forcing Frakes and Stewart to have to constantly pull them down (The Picard Manuever).

I agree that the grey uniforms of the last three movies were an improvement, but I still have a soft spot for the early uniforms. I find the season 3-7 uniforms to be such a goofy-looking eyesore that I didn't want to buy any TNG action figures wearing them.

 

[Doug Otte]

I initially liked them, but grew to like the later uniforms better, which contradicts what I'm going to write below.

During the first or second season, a non-fan who had seen the show made an interesting comment. She said the uniforms were less "ostentatious" compared to the movie uniforms. That is certainly true, and I think it was an outgrowth of Roddenberry's futuristic ethos. Other than the pips, all ranks look essentially the same (putting the dress uniforms aside), and they were thus more egalitarian.

By contrast, although the subsequent uniforms looked more comfortable, the padded shoulders and raised collars were more pompous and egotistical.

So, I guess I like the later uniforms better from an abstract stylistic viewpoint, but less from a philosophical viewpoint.

Doug

 

[C.E. Evans]

I like the stripe around the chest and most of all, how the shirts down end weirdly.

It's supposed to be a stylized version of the Starfleet "arrowhead" insignia (we see the bottom of the insignia on the front and the top of the insignia--albeit upside down--on the back).

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I prefer the season one and season two outfits - actually, the season one version; Dorinda Rice Woods made some minor adjustments for season two that always bothered me a little. None of Blackman's Starfleet uniforms were anything other than dowdy. Theiss was The Man - the variation of his design used in the current movie are pretty good, too.

 

[BolianAuthor]

I think the season 4 uniforms were the absolute best... when they finally got everything down right. But I've always still loved the uniforms from the first two seasons... I thought they looked great, in their own right.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

Not that it is important, but i hated those early uniforms. blech.

 

[eepruls]

I didn't like that you could see the nipples/man boobs on the men (especially Data and Geordi). On a uniform, that's just not right. Thank goodness they got rid of that in season 3.

 

[Nardpuncher]

The thing for me is the uniforms from First Contact onward look so hot. I don't know what temperature they keep Starfleet ships, but maybe the S1 and 2 uniforms are more comfy...especially the miniskirt!
This could all be a function of me, a Winnpegger, living in Taipei where in the summer it gets up to 35 Celcius and with the humidity factored in they say it feels like 45 to 50. I miss being chilly.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I know that in The Art of Star Trek coffee table book there were a bunch of Theiss' sketches of possible TNG uniform designs, which are all very interesting, but I've always wanted to see a clearer picture of the prototypes he constructed. There is a glimpse of one design (both male and female) in a small picture that was printed in the Star Trek Communicator's issue covering the 20th Anniversary of TNG.

Frontier, in your travels through rare photographs, have you managed to collect any?

 

[Odo You Didn't!]

I always wondered if the crew might get a bit chilly on away missions in the earlier uniforms. The later ones look warmer to me, I wouldn't want them getting cold!

Also, as Riker and others got a bit 'homelier' as they got older, I was relieved that they didn't force them to wear spandex. Poor old Number One would have looked like about ten pounds of monkey poop stuffed into a five pound bag