The purpose of the original DS9 uniforms

[tim0122]

Can someone explain to me the original purpose of the DS9 uniforms in-universe? Like under what circumstances they were to be warn as opposed to the TNG uniforms? Sisko, O'Brien, and others where the DS9 uniforms while on the station and the Defiant, but not on Earth or while on the Enterprise. Were the DS9 uniforms meant as the uniforms for non-ship-based assignments? If so, was it ever explained in any Trek extraneous material why they were changed to shipboard uniforms (as seen in Generations and Voyager)?

 

[Turtletrekker]

My head canon at the time was similar to what you said about ship board assignments and shore assignments. The real world reason, of course, is that they wanted to have the two shows be as visually distinct as possible. Why they eventually abandon the original TNG uniforms comes down to the same reason why the Enterprise D sets were so dimly lit in Generations, both the sets and uniforms had a lot of years and miles on them, and it was beginning to show on screen.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I don't think we get a definitive explanation on screen. They seem to distinguish the type of post that DS9 was, as Siski changes into it upon docking and back into the TNG uniform when back on Earth in season 4.

 

[Firebird]

Head-canoning based on what we saw for the first four seasons of DS9 is that starship duty requires the "Class-A" uniforms, which is the TNG Eisenhower jacket style uniforms.

Space station duty requires the "Class-B" jumpsuits. More utilitarian in style, but still with the tailored yoke and shoulder pads. Appropriate for multiple types of situations one might encounter aboard a run-down space station.

Dirty work (clean-up, maintenance, etc) gives us the "Class-C" basic jumpsuits that we typically see in engineering or the Jefferies Tubes. These are like one-size-fits-most, no real tailoring. Simple and basic. Not intended to be worn around "important" people.

 

[publiusr]

I loved the scene where the captain of the Odyssey had the TNG uniform…I thought the DS9 uniforms were for stations.

Monster Maroons for Starfleet Admirals, TMP for ground stations—that would be my choice.

 

[1001001]

Can someone explain to me the original purpose of the DS9 uniforms in-universe?

To cover their naked bodies…

 

[Jedman67]

To cover their naked bodies…

Not in the p0rn version

 

[The Wormhole]

The original purpose was they were meant to be space station uniforms, and indeed throughout DS9's first four seasons they did adhere to this somewhat faithfully in that whenever we see someone from a visiting ship or with a ground assignment (like Cal Hudson or the people at Starfleet Command), they were wearing the TNG uniforms. The matter became muddled because of Generations and their original planned new uniforms. The plan there was that those uniforms would have replaced the TNG uniforms as the "ship and ground assignment" uniform. They would have been worn by Voyager's crew, they'd be worn by the crews of visiting starships on DS9 and Sisko would wear that when he went to Earth in Homefront, as would the personnel at Starfleet Command.

But because Generations abandoned the new uniforms at the literal last minute, they didn't have enough time to come up with another new uniform design, but they still wanted the movie to have a different look from TV series TNG, so their only option was to use the DS9 uniforms. Even then, they only had enough time to make tailor-made uniforms for Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner. Everyone else had to wear the DS9 cast's uniforms, and indeed Jonathan Frakes work Avery Brooks' uniform and LeVar Burton wore Colm Meaney's. Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis and Gates McFadden had to stick with the TNG uniforms because at the time there were no DS9 uniforms to fit them. Voyager went with the DS9 uniforms because it was felt the cast looked better in them than the TNG ones, and because the DS9 uniforms looked "more modern" than the TNG ones.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I can imagine in universe, people started wearing the DS9 style everywhere. So Starfleet relented and made it official. Sort of like how everyone in the medical field started wearing surgical scrubs

 

[tim0122]

I do find it interesting that despite O'Brien and, I believe Sisko, changing their uniforms when going on the Enterprise in Emissary, Bashir keeps his DS9 uniform when he guest stars on TNG. I'm sure the real-world reason was to better communicate to the audience that it was a character from another show. In-universe, it's a bit inconsistent.

 

[The Wormhole]

I do find it interesting that despite O'Brien and, I believe Sisko, changing their uniforms when going on the Enterprise in Emissary, Bashir keeps his DS9 uniform when he guest stars on TNG.

Sisko hadn't yet switched to his DS9 uniform when he went aboard the Enterprise. He began wearing his TNG one when he first arrived to the station, was still wearing it when he was chatting on the Promenade with Kira when he was informed Picard requested his presence again, and thus kept it on when he went aboard the Enterprise. It wasn't until after his meeting with Picard that he made the switch to the DS9 uniform. So the only oddity here is O'Brien switching back to his TNG uniform for his visit to the Enterprise in Emissary, and that, depending on who you believe was a by-product of those scenes being filmed at the same as Meaney's last TNG episode and the new uniform wasn't ready, or one of the studio suits getting vocal about it being weird that O'Brien was the only Starfleet character in the cast we don't see wearing a TNG uniform in Emissary.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I always took it as "dirty job" uniforms, like work overalls. But nowadays, every ship and station has it's own costume...

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Why are the Pike-era Discovery uniforms all dark blue, when the uniforms we see when the Enterprise shows up in DSC look like a variation on Kirk-era TOS uniforms? Why is it that the uniforms in SNW look like Kirk-era uniforms, while the uniforms in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" look like the uniforms from "The Cage"?

Why ask why?

I suddenly find myself thinking about Marshak & Culbreath's "Phoenix" novels (at least, I think that's where it was one of them; it was certainly from the early-Bantam era): at one point, Kirk and Spock find themselves "bloody starkers," and Kirk declares (with tongue firmly in cheek) total nudity to be "uniform of the day."

 

[Jedman67]

The original purpose was they were meant to be space station uniforms, and indeed throughout DS9's first four seasons they did adhere to this somewhat faithfully in that whenever we see someone from a visiting ship or with a ground assignment (like Cal Hudson or the people at Starfleet Command), they were wearing the TNG uniforms. The matter became muddled because of Generations and their original planned new uniforms. The plan there was that those uniforms would have replaced the TNG uniforms as the "ship and ground assignment" uniform. They would have been worn by Voyager's crew, they'd be worn by the crews of visiting starships on DS9 and Sisko would wear that when he went to Earth in Homefront, as would the personnel at Starfleet Command.

But because Generations abandoned the new uniforms at the literal last minute, they didn't have enough time to come up with another new uniform design, but they still wanted the movie to have a different look from TV series TNG, so their only option was to use the DS9 uniforms. Even then, they only had enough time to make tailor-made uniforms for Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner. Everyone else had to wear the DS9 cast's uniforms, and indeed Jonathan Frakes work Avery Brooks' uniform and LeVar Burton wore Colm Meaney's. Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis and Gates McFadden had to stick with the TNG uniforms because at the time there were no DS9 uniforms to fit them. Voyager went with the DS9 uniforms because it was felt the cast looked better in them than the TNG ones, and because the DS9 uniforms looked "more modern" than the TNG ones.

Sisko hadn't yet switched to his DS9 uniform when he went aboard the Enterprise. He began wearing his TNG one when he first arrived to the station, was still wearing it when he was chatting on the Promenade with Kira when he was informed Picard requested his presence again, and thus kept it on when he went aboard the Enterprise. It wasn't until after his meeting with Picard that he made the switch to the DS9 uniform. So the only oddity here is O'Brien switching back to his TNG uniform for his visit to the Enterprise in Emissary, and that, depending on who you believe was a by-product of those scenes being filmed at the same as Meaney's last TNG episode and the new uniform wasn't ready, or one of the studio suits getting vocal about it being weird that O'Brien was the only Starfleet character in the cast we don't see wearing a TNG uniform in Emissary.

the new uniform was supposed to be a variation of the AGT uni, but with a TNG style collar and some piping. But in initial tests it didn't perform well with the studio so they canned it at the last minute. The new 'angular' combadge looked cooler than the TNG oval combadge and made its way to TV via DS9 & Voyager after GEN wrapped.


The new Voyager uniforms fixed the mistakes of TNG and DS9 costumes: Like in DS9, the tunic zipped from the front, because it made dressing the cast a lot easier, and the hero costumes came with pockets for phasers and tricordors, which were missing from the earlier shows. Additionally, "separates" were made so that crew could dress down by taking off the jackets, although IIRC it was actually a completely separate costume variant as the "hero" jumpsuits were not detachable.

In-universe, it was supposed to be the same Class A/B uniform, until it was supplanted by the FC uniforms although VOY kept the old ones to easier differentiate the 2 shows.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Why are the Pike-era Discovery uniforms all dark blue, when the uniforms we see when the Enterprise shows up in DSC look like a variation on Kirk-era TOS uniforms?

They're supposed to be a new design. As mentioned in DISCO S2 Ep1

Why is it that the uniforms in SNW look like Kirk-era uniforms, while the uniforms in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" look like the uniforms from "The Cage"?

Because it's the classic design. Sometimes you go with that.

 

[Firebird]

Bashir keeps his DS9 uniform when he guest stars on TNG.

I always interpreted that as meaning Bashir wasn't boarding the Enterprise for full duty or any sort of formal ceremony. He was visiting in an off-the-cuff manner, so no reason to change from his Class-B uniform.