Re: Should the uniforms include a jacket? If so, what color
mahler5 said:I think they should, and they should use the tng color scheme.
Blech. No thanks. I am SICK TO DEATH of the "Blackman redesign" uniforms. And ABSOLUTELY sick of the "Blackman shoulder-pad outline" and geometric "slimmer-downers" on them.
I want to see stuff that's reminiscent of TOS to the maximum extent possible, while EXPANDING upon it, following both contemporary military standards and just general common sense.
Jumpsuits are uncomfortable, compared to separate-pants-and-shirt clothing. They can fit you standing, or sitting, but not both. So... no jumpsuits unless it's for a very specific function.
The basic uniform should be trousers and tunics. The trousers should be basic black, and should be worn over boots. The boots should be more "practical" than the dress-boots worn in TOS, however (I own a pair of boots very similar to those, and while they're VERY comfortable, having them constructed with elements of athletic footwear as well as elements of protective footwear only makes sense.
(Interestingly, this seems to be the direction that the production has taken regarding footwear, based upon what little we've seen so far.)
Every uniform should have, as it's basis, a pull-over-type shirt, in department colors. The colors should go back to the classic TOS color scheme. The fact that Roddenberry "revised" this for TNG later on, just on a lark as far as I can tell, should have no impact on this.
There should be three colors for departments. Depending on the timeframe, they should be pale red (aka "Salmon"), pale blue-grey, and pale tan, or more vibrant red, blue, and gold. The vibrant colored ones should go over a black undershirt with a black collar that's visible. The older muted ones should have integral collars.
Rank should be indicated by braid on the sleeves. However, the form of the braid can vary. In fact, if it's pre-TOS, the "braid" would be replaced by "bars" and there's no reason not to have pins or markings on those bars.
So far, we're talking something VERY similar to TOS. But there should be variations.
In the real military, besides "Class C" uniforms (BDUs, or in Trek terms, technician jumpsuits and so forth), you have "Class A," "Class B", and various dress-grade uniforms. These have been developed over time, and they simply make sense. No sense in redeveloping things that already work, huh?
SO... the basic "TOS-style" uniform is just the "base" Class B uniform. There are various add-ons that go along with that.
For instance, you would have overjackets... probably multiple types (light field duty jackets, semi-dress jackets, even basic thermal jackets... aka "sweaters"... which could be worn on top of this. TWOK and later gave us many variations on this sort of thing... see Kirk's vest in "Generations" for example.
You'd have specialized field gear. Security personnel should wear a "body armor" jacket (similar to what you see in TMP in concept, though probably not so much so in execution!). Engineering personnel would wear anti-radiation gear. I'd really like to see the "load bearing vest" we saw in the corridors during Season 1 so often (after all, the pants don't have pockets... this vest was the answer to that it seems!).
You'd also have rough-duty field gear... heavier-duty boots, heavy field jackets, etc. Something more along the line of what we saw in ST-V.
The trick is to EXPAND on what we know, not replace it. Keep the general appearance of the "Class B duty uniform" almost identical. Just give us additional variations and "tweaks" that we can assume may have "always been there" but we were never shown due to budgetary issues.
SO... "should the uniforms include a jacket" isn't the right question. Rather... "should there be uniform variations, and may some of those variations include jackets of various types?" The answer to that is a resounding YES! But aboard ship, typically, the crew wouldn't wear that uniform variant.
Make sense?