Thoughts on Discovery Starfleet Uniforms (Trailer Edition)

[GaiusBaltarBand]

I like it, looks like a continuation of the Enterprise and Kelvin era uniforms with hints of the rebooted uniforms. I'm glad they didn't go with the sweaters from The Cage. That would have looked awful.

There's sort of a Mass Effect look to them as well.

There seems to be a lot of Mass Effect influence. The warp shot with the fins on the Shenzou and the synth music is straight up Mass Effect. The uniforms and ship design seems to borrow a lot too. I don't dislike it, but I was hoping for something less derivative from the current sci fi aesthetic.

I have no direct evidence to back this up, but given the first teaser trailer and Bryan Fuller's past work, I have a feeling he wanted to lean more weird and retro. I got the impression he was going to merge The Cage and TMP design aesthetic. Part of the reason he left may have been the studio wanting something that looked more flashy and mainstream. I really hope sometime in the future we get to hear how close this all comes to what Bryan Fuller had envisioned.

 

[MFB]

The uniforms are okay. The blue color is nice but I would have prefered black or dark blue trousers for contrast. The metallic gold/silver/copper parts are a bit much, they look more like dress uniforms, don't know if the standard division colors would look better. But I like the badges in their different metals although I wouldn't have used the TNG rank pins on them but the TOS rank stripes on the sleeves.

Considering I would have liked to see a modernized TOS uniform. That worked well in the new movies and I think "Discovery" should use more retro elements. I have to say: After seeing the Communicator on the first promotion picture I expected to see more TOS aesthetics in the trailer and was a bit disappointed.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The uniforms look like Space Navy uniforms. I like it.

 

[Fandango831]

I really enjoy the design of it all. It takes the blue look of ENT along with pockets and zippers and adds the TOS/Pilot era coloring in the form of the metallic piping which is very creative. My only gripes are that the boots should have remained all black and not gone for the campy metallic soles and they should have done rank sleeve bands versus those god awful tiny pips on the badge. Hell I love the new badges and those pips kind of ruin it for me and make it look way too cluttered. All in all I'd give it a 7.5/10

 

[dinzy]

I think they look good. Better than most Trek uniforms.

I still find it od that people expect them to look like some version of previous uniforms. The uniforms in Trek make no sense at all. In the TOS era there were 2 TV style uniforms and 2 separate movie style uniforms bridging a decade or so. That is pretty insane for a military outfit to keep changing like that. In the TNG era there were also 3 major changes in a similar timeframe. The precedent, though very silly, is that starfleet uniforms change drastically all the time.

 

[mdtauk]

I think they look good. Better than most Trek uniforms.

I still find it od that people expect them to look like some version of previous uniforms. The uniforms in Trek make no sense at all. In the TOS era there were 2 TV style uniforms and 2 separate movie style uniforms bridging a decade or so. That is pretty insane for a military outfit to keep changing like that. In the TNG era there were also 3 major changes in a similar timeframe. The precedent, though very silly, is that starfleet uniforms change drastically all the time.

We are not sure if there is a gap in time between the Shenzhou mission and the Discovery mission, so they may not share the uniforms and interior aesthetics. But there could have been a similarity with colours, to maintain continuity, without copying the exact style of uniform. Like how the JJ Movies did, compared to the Original series.

 

[ISS Enterprise]

Not thrilled overall....

Do not like they are better versions of Enterprise unis
Should have been something along the lines of unis worn on Kelvin mixed w a little differences, but overall not what I was wanting
BUT show looks good so can ignore ish them

 

[CommanderRaytas]

Disco...very?

STAYING ALIVE! STAYING ALIVE! AH! AH! AH! AH! STAYING ALLIIIIIII-

* clears throat *

Yeah, I know, I'm stopping.

 

[Jedi Marso]

Hmm.

On the whole, I don't hate the new unis, but...

1. They aren't as good as the Kelvin-verse uniforms, and, strongly related to this point;
2. They do not evoke the TOS era in the slightest. Nor do any of the other production designs, for that matter.

On the whole, I have to say that I remain blase and uninspired about the whole series. That's not just based on the uniforms, but on everything I've seen so far, including the trailer.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

There seems to be a lot of Mass Effect influence. The warp shot with the fins on the Shenzou and the synth music is straight up Mass Effect. The uniforms and ship design seems to borrow a lot too. I don't dislike it, but I was hoping for something less derivative from the current sci fi aesthetic.

That's true. Strangely enough, both Paramount's Star Trek Beyond and CBS' Star Trek Discovery seem to be influenced from Mass Effect. ME's uniforms are also derivative of other sci-fi uniforms of course.

 

[GMSkarka]

I'm getting serious flashbacks to 1987 and the Wailing of The Fans: "These uniforms look like pajamas" "Something you'd wear to the gym" "That is NOT a Starfleet uniform" "Captains don't wear red", etc. etc.

Oh, you sweet summer children.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I wanted blight TOS/Kelvin universe colours on the Discovery uniforms. Instead we have #bluniforms. They look smart at least, although this was my first glimpse and I thought the girl in the centre was wearing a belly top, Mirror Hoshi-style!

The side stripes do make them look slightly tracksuit-y.

Not too fond of the rank pips on the badge, I feel they clutter it and it's already overloaded with the service division and the split.

Also, I guess this picture of a weird division symbol was actually a fake?

 

[Ralphis]

I didn't notice the rank pips on the badges at first. I was literally losing my mind trying to figure out how rank is designated on these uniforms. I like them, though.

 

[Ralphis]

Considering I would have liked to see a modernized TOS uniform. That worked well in the new movies and I think "Discovery" should use more retro elements. I have to say: After seeing the Communicator on the first promotion picture I expected to see more TOS aesthetics in the trailer and was a bit disappointed.

That was kind of my thought at first, too. I was thinking maybe a modernized 'The Cage/Where No Man Has Gone Before' style uniform, kind of like what the first two Kelvin films did with the TOS uniform. But I actually do like the DSC uniforms, so I'm not going to complain.

 

[Zonker]

I really like the uniforms on their own, but they seem weird for Star Trek. I'll get used to it I guess.

 

[BillJ]

They remind me of some college football uniforms (Texas A&M had the shoulder rings during their spring game), just need to add numbers.

 

[Markonian]

I like the uniforms. Very formal.

Except for...the asymmetric collar.

 

[Longinus]

I can't say I like them. They're well made and I like the general design, but the amount of metallic shit is just too much. Had that been replaced with black or just textured version of the base colour they would be fine. (Not minding that they don't look like the Cage uniforms, though I'm a tad disappointed that there are no classic service colours.)

 

[Willsky7]

Jotting down random thoughts for discussion:

- No, it doesn't look congruous with what could be inferred with the prime timeline's uniforms of that era. But putting that aside for now...

- The uniforms' blue coloring is closer to ENT than what was seen on the USS Kelvin and arguably on other bluish Starfleet uniforms from that timeline.

- Departmental colors seem to have Bronze, Silver and Gold metallic fabric accents to equate to the more familiar Red, Blue and Gold/Yellow/Green/Whatever of TOS/ENT. However, at least one of the two crewmen up front are wearing bronze, where "classically" they should both be gold; I'm not sure if we see anyone else wearing gold besides the two top kicks.

- The insignia carry the TOS departmental symbols. Rank is displayed on the lower left point of the chevron and seem to be analogous to the TNG dots, but really, really tiny. Luckily we're all doing this in HD. :P

- The tunic is not symmetrical - the front zipper/opening is slightly offset to the wearer's right. Perhaps coincidentally, to balance this out the insignia is split on the wearer's left.

- The captain has additional gold piping on her shoulders, apparently denoting her CO position. Everyone else has a similar fabric texture on their shoulders, but only the Captain's has hers filled in.

- We see a tunic variant with short sleeves that someone is wearing walking down the corridor away from the camera. The latter MIGHT simply be what the undershirt looks like, given how form fitting it is. OTOH, all Starfleet uniforms are more form fitting for women for whatever reason.

- Perhaps for the first time since TMP, the uniform boots are not simple black material. They feature shiny metallic piping around the soles.

If the DSC uniforms continue ANY trend from the Kelvin timeline fashion, it's to make the costumes nearly impossible to recreate for cosplay on the average fan's available budget, without buying a licensed replica...

Mark

I wish they would have incorporated the TOS color scenes into the uniform, it would be more believable that it takes place 10 year before TOS and they wouldn't have to drastically change the design just the color patterns. But this is the least of my concerns about discovery.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

There might be a throwaway line about someone wanting to have primary color division uniforms, and a character saying, "Ugh."