William Wear Theiss: In & Out of Uniform

[ChallengerHK]

In 1990 or 1991 (I think) the Smithsonian held a Star Trek symposium, hosting several speakers on the history and cultural significance of Trek. William Ware Theiss was one of the speakers. I attended, although I recall very little. (I taped the whole thing on cassette, and I need to find those tapes.) The one thing that I do recall, however, involved Theiss.

He had delivered a speech and then segued into a Q&A session. One fellow walked past me to get in line to ask a question.Although the tone and the purpose of the symposium definitely leaned toward the academic, this guy was the 90s image of the fanboy, in this case wearing a TNG uniform stretched very tight across his stomach. When his turn at the mic came, he ignored the academic tone withh a question that I would have expected at a con. I can't quote him, but the gist of his question was that the phaser was on the right side of the uniform in TOS, which made sense for right-handed people, but he wanted to know why it had moved to the left side of the uniform for TNG, and I do recall him using the term "tactically disadvantageous" in an accusatory tone, as if Theiss had to justify his choice.

Theiss didn't miss a beat. Again, I can't quote him, but overall his answer was something on the order of "I designed and made costumes. If the director or the prop manager needed to hang a prop on the costume then I asked them 'Where do you want it?' and that's where I put it."

The entire audience was laughing.

 

[Henoch]

Was that Adam West at the end?

Batman in a skirt, too.

 

[Professor Moriarty]

I’m a little late to this thread, but I just wanted to say nice job on the article, @Maurice!

 

[Maurice]

I’m a little late to this thread, but I just wanted to say nice job on the article, @Maurice!

Hey thanks, Prof.

 

[Commishsleer]

One good thing about the TOS uniform is the tunic's realistic simplicity for spacemen. You could wear it aboard the International Space Station, no problem.

By contrast, I remember an episode of Voyager where Janeway has to change clothes to gear up for some kind of battle, and she takes off the tunic, then a vest under it, then another layer, and so on. It was a preposterously layered and complicated uniform, totally impractical for indoor wear. And in fact it was obvious they created all these layers just for this episode, so the costume alone would add detail and stretch out the scene.

Except for the TOS woman's uniform which was highly impractical - especially spinning in free fall.

The Next Gen Type uniforms were in a way worse. They were essentially onsies - which are very overrated if you needed the toilet or needed to undress quickly for some other reason.
Also if you were slightly overweight you couldn't wear them but I suppose that applies ti all series uniforms except 'Enterprises' mechanics overalls.​