Why are jumpsuits/one pieces a good idea in Starfleet?

[Phil123]

Hello.

I'm not asking about favorite uniforms, more a question of practicalities. We have seen some back and forth in Trek between one and two (or more) piece uniforms.

Ent jumpsuit
Disco 2 piece
TOS 2 piece
TOS Movies 2 piece, replaced by 2 piece and jumpsuits
TNG jumpsuit, replaced by 2 piece
DS9 jumpsuit, replaced by second jumpsuit, except for command variant
VOY jumpsuits and 2 piece?
TNG Moves jumpsuit, except for command variant

Apologies if I have any of this wrong. Why would a jumpsuit be a good idea? It's not something we really wear in day to day life. Yes they use them in NASA etc, but on a Starfleet ship you have gravity and it's a very "normal" environment. Engineers possibly aside, not much climbing around.

Any thoughts? what is best? Should it have been more clearly thought out for each role/department?

Thanks

 

[The Wormhole]

DS9 jumpsuit, replaced by second jumpsuit, except for command variant
VOY jumpsuits and 2 piece?
TNG Moves jumpsuit, except for command variant

IIRC, by DS9 season 3 they weren't jumpsuits, sine top part was a jacket. Likewise the FC era uniforms especially, given how often we see people on DS9 go around without the jacket portion, or at least with is unzipped.

But anyway, even today jumpsuits are common for uniforms in various military service, including the US Navy and US Air Force, so I don't really see the issue with Starfleet using them.

 

[Timo]

ENT might have had jumpsuits. From TNG on, though, clothing tech seems to feature seamless seams. No telling how many pieces Picard's seeming one-piece really divides into when he starts a-stripping.

Given seamless seams, there's nothing inconvenient about single-pieces. And nothing to be won by having multiple pieces - Ensign Ro could open and undon her jacket and give it to another, along seams that did not really exist, in her titular episode.

What our heroes need is something that works in every environment, because obviously Starfleet is too stingy to provide separate uniforms for different environments. Relatively thick coveralls seem fine there.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think it's all about projecting a certain public look for Starfleet personnel at a certain time (the same could be said for non-jumpsuit uniforms, IMO).

 

[Timewalker]

They're a good idea if they're constructed in such a way that people wearing them can stand, walk, run, sit, and kneel comfortably, not to mention the problems encountered when using a bathroom. It should not be necessary to remove the top part of the uniform just to perform normal physical functions however many times per day.

The actors have complained about these issues ever since TMP.

 

[scotpens]

. . . Why would a jumpsuit be a good idea?

Because it looks science-fictiony.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

IIRC, by DS9 season 3 they weren't jumpsuits, sine top part was a jacket.

DS9 uniforms were always two-piece. Both the original and FC styles.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Hello.

I'm not asking about favorite uniforms, more a question of practicalities. We have seen some back and forth in Trek between one and two (or more) piece uniforms.

Ent jumpsuit
Disco 2 piece
TOS 2 piece
TOS Movies 2 piece, replaced by 2 piece and jumpsuits
TNG jumpsuit, replaced by 2 piece
DS9 jumpsuit, replaced by second jumpsuit, except for command variant
VOY jumpsuits and 2 piece?
TNG Moves jumpsuit, except for command variant

Apologies if I have any of this wrong. Why would a jumpsuit be a good idea? It's not something we really wear in day to day life. Yes they use them in NASA etc, but on a Starfleet ship you have gravity and it's a very "normal" environment. Engineers possibly aside, not much climbing around.

Any thoughts? what is best? Should it have been more clearly thought out for each role/department?

Thanks

DS9's jumpsuits appear more practical for personnel on an outpost where on going maintenance is happening. It's an alien station by design, but I don't know what the producers were thinking having a crew on board a space ship wearing the same jumpsuits (Voyager and Star Trek Generations) going through a variety of places for an extended amount of time in space.

Wearing DS9 jumpsuits or wearing something similar (First Contact uniforms) which appeared to look heavy and less comfortable. Its the same kind of hair-brain thinking with the ST:II outfits; it's not practical to be wearing something like that for any extended amount of time on a ship. Based on the interior design of the NX-01, I can't understand why the crew is wearing jumpsuits.
It's not like they're aboard the International Space Station or inside of a capsule. Creative bankruptcy from the Berman group. Jumpsuits are appropriate for ideal conditions, like a mechanic working on machines. TOS, TMP, and JJTrek* uniforms appear practical for a crew on a tour of duty.

*Sorry, every time I see the word "Kelvin", I think it's a word or project from Cardassia.

 

[Timewalker]

TOS, TMP, and JJTrek* uniforms appear practical for a crew on a tour of duty.

Yeah, skants with pantyhose and gogo boots were really practical.

NuTrek's T-shirts and miniskirts and gogo boots were even more practical.

I guess it's nice that the women's uniforms in nuTrek come with matching bras and panties? At least nuCarol changed into a jumpsuit/overall whatever to go down to the planet. But she wouldn't have had to if she'd just had a practical uniform in the first place.

 

[Tosk]

IIRC, by DS9 season 3 they weren't jumpsuits, sine top part was a jacket.

The DS9 uniform was a jumpsuit with undershirt all the way up to Rapture in season five.

DS9 uniforms were always two-piece. Both the original and FC styles.

Yeah, but only because y'hafta count the turtleneck as the second piece, as opposed to the jacket/pants two piece.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

We have seen DS9 crewmembers wearing the turtleneck, and the trousers, but not the jacket.

 

[Tosk]

We have seen DS9 crewmembers wearing the turtleneck, and the trousers, but not the jacket.

Was it done through editing trickery like when Ro took off her jacket that didn't really exist? I recall O'Brien taking off his entire jumpsuit in Paradise, but I'll need a refresher on when the no jacket bit happened. ...Either way, the outer layer is still clearly a single piece in "real life" though.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Was it done through editing trickery like when Ro took off her jacket that didn't really exist?

No.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

The First Contact variant is more than a one piece/two piece. In First Contact and In the Pale Moonlight we see Captains Picard/Sisko wearing the the pants/longsleeve combo with red turtleneck underneath. Then, below that, we see a vest with the grey shoulders and comm badge. Below that, we also have a purple wifebeater. Good thing Federation ships and old Cardassian mining stations are climate controlled, because four layers of clothing would be hot as shit!

 

[Tosk]

No.

Little more info?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Little more info?

Here you go.

Specifically:

The new uniform was a loose-fitting, two-piece black jumpsuit with division color on the shoulders, usually worn with an open collar over a blue-gray mock-turtleneck shirt.

Also see the "Uniform undershirt" subsection of the above link.

 

[Tosk]

Here you go.
Specifically:
Also see the "Uniform undershirt" subsection of the above link.

Thank you...(not surprised to see the examples are all VOY, which I don't know as well.

And I see it is editing that accomplishes it. The difference between in-universe and real-world. I've been focused on the fact that the crew clearly wear a real-world jumpsuit, despite the "magic" seams that allow them to invisibly wear all sorts of variants and under layers.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

And I see it is editing that accomplishes it. The difference between in-universe and real-world.

I'm not sure what you're getting at, here. Why would it be necessary to use any kind of editing or camera trickery? If the uniforms are two-piece in-universe, why wouldn't they be that way OUT of universe?

 

[Tosk]

I'm not sure what you're getting at, here. Why would it be necessary to use any kind of editing or camera trickery? If the uniforms are two-piece in-universe, why wouldn't they be that way OUT of universe?

Because they clearly are a jumpsuit as a real costume. Paris goes into the brig wearing a jumpsuit and then strips to a pants/shirt combo. In-universe it's fine, but real world they put him in a different uniform to accomplish the change.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ You don't think it would have been easier to simply make it a two-piece from the get-go, just so the actors would have an easier time getting into and out of uniform?

Especially since there were so many complaints about the original TNG uniforms (which WERE one-piece)...