Uniform Confirmation from Trekmovie.com

It just occurred to me that people with some forms of color-blindness must have one heckuva frustrating time with this issue, wondering what we're talking about.

Also, I have an ancient TV that renders blue as pink. So sorry, folks, TOS-era dress uniforms (at least those on Spock and McCoy) are PINK.

 

Eh, what's all this noise?

They appear to be using the same colors that TOS appeared to use. However, if using the original command gold is just too much of a brain strain, feel free to wear the glasses from Emerald City.

 

Speaking of color: I wonder why the red stripes on uniforms worn by Trip and Malcolm on ENT sometimes looked purple. Is that the lighting again?

As for the TOS uniforms: I still think it's green. Also, it would make sense that color TV, which was just starting to come into its own, would have a series like Star Trek use uniforms of the three primary colors - red, blue and green - to 'sell' it. They wanted a series as colorful as possible, so why not use the colors most likely to sell color to the masses?

 

Notice that I don't care what color they use in XI. I just want the film to not suck giant balls like the last four (yes children, FC sucked like the rest.)

 

It wasn't always a question of what they wanted.

Theiss liked to use materials that he thought would look odd and interesting on screen. Early on, he sometimes used materials that turned out to be unsuitable in one way or another - because they didn't turn out to wear well, or didn't appear as he'd hoped on camera, or because they were difficult to maintain.

An early example: the "landing jackets" worn by Pike and company in the pilot episode were constructed of thin leatherette turned inside out so that the grey foam backing showed on the outside. Very cool looking, oddly shimmering effect on camera. Unfortunately, the foam backing snagged and tore easily - every time an actor rubbed against a papier mache bolder it would leave a visible scar on the material. So the jackets were abandoned.

Another example: the first time the production version of the uniforms were cleaned - after a day or so of shooting on "The Corbomite Manuever" - Theiss discovered to his horror that the lovely looking cotton velour shrank very badly. Costumes had to be retailored - hems and sleeves lengthened, zippers torn out and resewed, collars replaced - as quickly as possible during the shooting day. As a result of the quick work, if you look at stills from the episode you'll see the most bizarre mismatched collection of oddly shaped collars and ill-fitting tunics. Some of them seem to change from shot to shot.

Which brings us to your formulation...if it were applied to "The Corbomite Manuever" it might read:

Which brings us to the real reason it was acceptable to have the uniforms appear differently - more gold, less green - than the producers and designers had planned: the production didn't have the time, didn't have the resources, and didn't have the money to replace that much wardrobe early during the series run. They accepted that the uniforms would look gold, just as they accepted that they'd have to deal with the cotton velour for two entire seasons before the material was replaced.

One last thing: it's absurd for a bunch of guys to argue over whether a mixed color is green-gold or gold-green or taupe or beige-gold or whatever, because American men are only capable of seeing eight or nine colors. See, in kindergarten we're all issued these crayons, eight to a pack and each about the circumference of a horse's leg. They are: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Brown and Black. We're thus imprinted, and these are the only colors we'll ever recognize.

 

Abrams should use green fabric that looks gold on camera.

The Desilu costume William Shatner put on was green. The Starfleet uniform James Kirk wore was gold.

Now, let's return to the real issue. Which of Kirk's 4 hair colors is canon?

Also, which Saavik is the real one, and which is the imposter?

And are they going to have grey sweaters covered in glitter as the cadet uniforms?

 

Except in the Remastered episodes, where it's avocado.

 

Personally, my childhood just disappeared and was replaced by the color avocado.

AVOCADOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Can we go back to arguing about the collars and undershirts now?

 

No, we have to move on to the codpieces now.

 

Either Kirk has a big one or none at all.

 

I think the topic was the article on the costumes already filmed for the Star Trek movie. They sound fine to me. My avatar was taken from one of the grey jackets in the spy shots a few months ago. I wonder if it really is accurate. By the article's description, it might be but there is no divison symbol in it.

 

The delta in your avatar may not be from the Comm/Op, Science/Med, OR Eng/Sec devisions. After all, the uniform it's attached to is grey. It may be a non department-specific coat or something.

 

Will the uniforms have blue warp nacelles or not?

 

They'll be blue, but they'll look green on screen.

 

I'd like to see McCoy with the boat-neck shirt at one point.

 

Mariner, have you ever seen an authentic TOS command duty uniform? Not a picture or video clip, I mean a real costume used on the show. Trust those who have.

The fabric is not green. It's mustard gold.

The dress uniform is green. The wrap-around is green. The duty uniform is not. It's got nothing to do with the way it looked under the studio lights or the way it photographed. The real thing tells the real story.