Should Voyager have started using the new uniforms?

[Silvercrest]

It was most likely just a decision by the show runners. They probably thought viewers would get confused if they saw VOY with the new uniforms.

Every time a showrunner assumes stupidity on the part of the audience, it leads to problems.

Actually, that would explain a lot.

 

[Timewalker]

Where on Voyager besides the replicator would clean a uniform?

They don't even have closets or dressers to put away clothes in.

I find it ludicrous that even in the 24th century, they don't have some kind of washing machine. After all, given how B'Elanna can flange up just about anything, why couldn't she make a sonic shower/cleaning thingy that works on fabric? Assuming, of course, that the Federation doesn't already use such technology.

And they do so have closets; there are numerous references in the fiction to so-and-so taking their dress uniform or civilian clothing out of their closet. I forget which character on which series (Julian, on DS9?) forgot to pack his dress uniform.

After all, given the way energy was being rationed at times, the crew would need a way to clean their clothing without having to replicate new stuff all the time. Otherwise, they'd be running around naked when they didn't have enough energy to spare.

I don't see why when you have such fictional things as a replicator, that you'd need something as stone age as a washing machine or still need to store things in a closet. The uniforms aren't even made from a fabric known to us in the 21st century. What's written in the books isn't considered canon on the shows either. I would guess they'd ration the use of the replicator just so they could use the energy when needed to create a clean uniform.

So the reason they lived on leola root stew for 7 years was so they could have nice new clothes every day?

Good grief, I remember making soap in my Grade 12 chemistry class! If I could do that over 30 years ago, I'm sure B'Elanna Torres can rig up a washing machine!

 

[exodus]

I find it ludicrous that even in the 24th century, they don't have some kind of washing machine. After all, given how B'Elanna can flange up just about anything, why couldn't she make a sonic shower/cleaning thingy that works on fabric? Assuming, of course, that the Federation doesn't already use such technology.

And they do so have closets; there are numerous references in the fiction to so-and-so taking their dress uniform or civilian clothing out of their closet. I forget which character on which series (Julian, on DS9?) forgot to pack his dress uniform.

After all, given the way energy was being rationed at times, the crew would need a way to clean their clothing without having to replicate new stuff all the time. Otherwise, they'd be running around naked when they didn't have enough energy to spare.

I don't see why when you have such fictional things as a replicator, that you'd need something as stone age as a washing machine or still need to store things in a closet. The uniforms aren't even made from a fabric known to us in the 21st century. What's written in the books isn't considered canon on the shows either. I would guess they'd ration the use of the replicator just so they could use the energy when needed to create a clean uniform.

So the reason they lived on leola root stew for 7 years was so they could have nice new clothes every day?

Good grief, I remember making soap in my Grade 12 chemistry class! If I could do that over 30 years ago, I'm sure B'Elanna Torres can rig up a washing machine!

So in well over a 1000 years you really believe cleaning clothes hasn't advanced beyond a washing machine because you made soap in the 12th grade? In all the 100 worlds in the Federation, all of the aliens in all those worlds use washing machines too?

 

[MatthiasRussell]

^No argument here. I still thought it was an interesting topic.

We could always move along to where did they keep all those shuttles and how did the Delta Flyer get out the door!?!

I simply speculate that over the decades since "By Any Other Name" (TOS episode about the Kelvans), Starfleet figured out how to apply their shrinking stuff into powdered dodecahedrons to the problem of storing large objects in small spaces (inorganic things). So whenever Chakotay crashed another shuttle, they just took a new one out of the supply closet, zapped it, (or added water and stirred, however it worked), and presto!

I thought Voyager had a gateway to a pocket universe in their shuttlebay or the shuttle bay is like the Tardis on the inside.

 

[MatthiasRussell]

I'm with the idea that the sonic shower could be used to clean uniforms as well as people. However, even though you can clean your clothes, they still wear out. How many times did their uniforms get sliced or burned after which they would need a replacement?

I agree that replicating instead of cleaning is an awful waste, but replacements would be needed for everyone in the course of their journey.

And who knows, maybe there was more to the new uniforms than just fashion. Perhaps they were of a new material that made them better for some reason as well.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Transportation and replication is similar technology.

Have you noticed how people don't come out the other end of a transportation any cleaner?

 

[Timewalker]

I don't see why when you have such fictional things as a replicator, that you'd need something as stone age as a washing machine or still need to store things in a closet. The uniforms aren't even made from a fabric known to us in the 21st century. What's written in the books isn't considered canon on the shows either. I would guess they'd ration the use of the replicator just so they could use the energy when needed to create a clean uniform.

So the reason they lived on leola root stew for 7 years was so they could have nice new clothes every day?

Good grief, I remember making soap in my Grade 12 chemistry class! If I could do that over 30 years ago, I'm sure B'Elanna Torres can rig up a washing machine!

So in well over a 1000 years you really believe cleaning clothes hasn't advanced beyond a washing machine because you made soap in the 12th grade? In all the 100 worlds in the Federation, all of the aliens in all those worlds use washing machines too?

Where do you get the 1000 years from? The Stone Age was considerably farther back in time than that!

And just because Stone Age people used technology that is considered primitive by modern standards, that doesn't mean that nobody actually uses those methods anymore. If you were ever in a situation where you had to learn to light a fire with nothing but flint and tinder or else freeze/starve, you'd do your best to learn, wouldn't you? Same if you needed weapons and the only things around were things you could make into a spear or axe. Just because hardly anybody in the Western World uses such things anymore, doesn't mean that nobody knows how, or couldn't learn how. I saw a paleontologist make primitive hand-axes out of stone; it's actually not that easy to come up with a usable tool that does the job and lasts.

All I was saying that if we can do this stuff in the 20th century, why couldn't people in the 24th century - with 400 more years' worth of knowledge - do even better?

I'm not suggesting that everybody has scads of clothes. Maybe two or three uniforms and a civilian outfit or two, plus whatever they wear in bed. Anything else probably would be replicated and recycled.

I agree that things would have worn out or been damaged beyond repair. I'm not suggesting that anybody sat on Voyager and darned socks or re-hemmed anything with a needle and thread. But even on DS9, Garak had some kind of sewing machine! Computerized, of course, but it was still a sewing machine. And what makes more sense, in the hypothetical event of somebody spilling a drop of ketchup on himself in the mess hall? A quick touch-up with a known cleaning agent that isn't soap, or replicating a whole new outfit?

Transporters are set to reject known pathogens. Honest dirt isn't a pathogen.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

After First Contact, DS9 started using the FC uniforms. After the Pathfinder Project established regular contact between Voyager and Starfleet, there would be communications between officers in different uniform styles. Should Starfleet have sent the uniform pattern to Voyager? Should Command or Janeway have required the crew to wear the updated uniforms to maintain uniformity across the fleet? Were the new uniforms never used simply to save on Voyager’s budget?

An in-universe reason for not using the FC uniforms would probably be that they didn't have the replicator energy/matter to waste on something as trivial as uniforms when the previous ones fulfilled Starfleet dress code--there are a couple of instances when previous uniforms have been worn:
- In "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost", Sisko switched back to the TNG uniform on Earth, the uniform was also favoured by Captain Benteen, and in GEN the E-D crew wore a mismash of the two styles
- I'm pretty sure "Rapture" (which had the crew in FC uniforms) that there was someone at the Bajor signing meeting still in a TNG uniform

For an out of universe reason, it could be to do with budgets. But there is also the fact that there were two Treks on at the same time, so the different uniforms would help further distinguish them.

 

[MatthiasRussell]

^However, as I stated, uniforms did have to be replaced due to wear & tear at which point they could have been replaced. And if energy issues was such a problem, maybe tell Tom to stay out of the holodeck for a week and eating up everyone else's replicator rations for a black and white Flash Gordon adventure.

 

[Guy Gardener]

They said early on, maybe the pilot, that holodeck energy was incompatible witht he rest of the ship, then later on contradicted that statement entirely.

Tuvix and Neelix's uniform/suit were blended into a composite.

It's odd when they separated that Neelix was back in the same old suit despite that Tuvix had been changing his clothes "periodically" for a month.

 

[The_Baroness]

Who says there's no Launderette on deck 15?

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

They said early on, maybe the pilot, that holodeck energy was incompatible witht he rest of the ship, then later on contradicted that statement entirely.

It was "Parrallax"

By the 24th century, they'd have ways and means to clean and repair uniforms saving replicator matter for other equipment and stuff.

 

[Guy Gardener]

According to Sam Wildman, they're (re)using the same matter.

The tech just jiggles it's atoms a bit to make their wardrobe clean and mended.

Almost exactly like how an atom bomb works.

 

[MacLeod]

I suspect the line about holodeck power being incompatable with the rest of the ship was to prevent us fans saying that how can you justify use of the holodeck when you have to conserve energy. (TNGs "Booby Trap"

Though surely they could have converted it some how. I have many devices which run off DC but I plug them into my AC supply in order to charge them.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Well they did.

I mean normally, in a non disaster situation where you're not chained to a wall at gun point, you'd think that you wouldn't drink from the toilet bowl, even though it's basically exactly the same water as in the kitchen.

Needs must as the Devil drives.

 

[brandnewfan]

Uniforms were the least of Voyager's problems, IMO.

The Maquis crew should've never switched to Starfleet uniforms. They aren't Starfleet, period. Are you telling me I can go get lost in space with Captain Janeway and she'll give me a Starfleet uniform and rank? Could I even become her first officer over another of the crew who has actually *stayed* in Starfleet and been more loyal to her and her ideals than I have been? What a slap in the face to the real Starfleet crew to now have to answer to a bunch of traitors, not to mention the fact that they went to the Academy (which we know from TNG is extremely hard to get admitted). Yes, some of the Maquis have prior Starfleet experience, but not all of them. Even if a handful of the Maquis crew (Chakotay, Torress) wanted to switch, there is absolutely NO WAY that ALL of them would agree. There would be some Maquis that would be so against Starfleet in general and would never agree to wear their uniform, even if they were forced into this situation where they had to work together to get home. Working together and conforming straight down to a T are two completely different things and would have never happened under any circumstance all across the board in the way it's depicted in Voyager. So many missed opportunities with having the two crews at odds beyond what we *barely* get in just one or two episodes. Fault one to the writers.

The ship itself would have been tearing itself apart. They're 75,000 lightyears from the nearest Starbase; they have no regular maintenance. How does the ship stay so clean and perfect looking inside and out for 7 years? Even if they clean regularly on the inside, they aren't doing anything on the outside! And all those space battles they get into, omg, the ship's hull would barely be holding together. I watched Year of Hell recently...that's how the ship should've looked after 7 years. So many interesting stories we could've had. Fault two to the writers.

And I'll stop there. lol Don't get me wrong, the show has some great moments and several good episodes. But it's my least favorite series, and it didn't have to be. There were so many options the writers had. The characters were good, as were the actors; the situation they were in had goldmine potential. But it was squandered by incompetence from the powers that be.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Calm down.

You just answered 7 questions that won't be asked till tomorrow through next month.

Everyone wanted to be on Voyaer because they had the opportunity to leave in the 37s and decided to stick it with Janeway.

Of course Michael Jonas stayed to stick it to Janeway.

And Lon Suder stayed to to stick Janeway with a shiv.

but the point is that they stayed.

 

[Dukhat]

Yes, let's stick to the topic. There are more than enough other threads about what was inherently wrong with the show

IMHO, the entire crew should have stopped wearing uniforms totally. Have them wear regular clothes. Have them paint the walls. Have them put up a bunch of potted plants on the bridge. Give the whole ship more of a "generational starship" feel, instead of the Starfleet vessels we've already seen with the Enterprise, Enterprise-D, and the Defiant.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Naked Tuesdays?

 

[NCC-1701-B]

I think it would have been good for them to change to the newer uniforms, story wise, it could have made the crew feel a little more in touch with the fleet, despite being so far away.