Opinions on Starfleet Uniforms part 1

Opinions on Star Trek's Starfleet Uniforms

Part 1: TOS and the movies

Something I have been wanting to do for some time is to run through every main uniform style (Starfleet uniforms) in the franchise and discuss the positives, negatives and my opinions.  Since this is the 60th anniversary year for the franchise, I decided that this would be the perfect time to take look at the haute couture of Starfleet across 60 years of shows and movies.  So without further ado:

The Pilot uniforms (The Cage, Where No Man Has Gone Before)

William Ware Theiss originals.  Very simple, perhaps overly so.  The shirts with the ribbed collars are almost sweatshirt-like.  The gold and tan shirts are a bit close in color, sometimes they're hard to tell apart.  The women have more fitted shirts with larger, baggy collars.



TOS uniforms

The classic.  Gold, Red, Blue.  Simple and iconic.  And sometimes simpler is better.  The bell-bottomed pants are very sixties, as are the miniskirt uniforms worn by female crewmembers.



TMP

William Ware Theiss motion picture design.  A major paradigm shift.  The muted colors are reminiscent of the pilot uniforms.  The cast were quite unhappy with the costumes, the spandex being very tight, and the awkward zippers on the jumpsuits requiring wardrobe staff to accompany cast members to the bathroom.  Neat idea, poor execution.  On a side note, TMP saw the return of the field jackets, an idea abandoned after The Cage.

TWOK-TUC

The "monster maroons".  Enter Robert Fletcher (II-IV), Nilo Rodis-Jamero (V), and Dodie Shepard (VI) with a whole new paradigm.  The naval-inspired, formal, heavily detailed and adorned red jackets.  Very intricate, though I'm not sure how practical they would be in realistic situations.  Also the department colors were even more varied and more convoluted than the system established in TMP.  I did like how the trainee/noncom jumpsuits were modified redyed TMP jumpsuits.  Overall a cool, if perhaps overly complex design.

Coda: "lost era" variants seen in TNG flashbacks

TNGs various flashbacks to the lost era between the movies and TNG saw several variants of the monster maroon uniforms (apparently Starfleet really liked the design?)  "Tapestry" and Dark Page" see flashbacks to the 2320s/2330s, in which Starfleet officers wear the monster maroons with a crew neck undershirt instead of the quilted collar turtleneck.  Also some minor detail differences are visible on the sleeves.  Yesterday's Enterprise sees the Enterprise-C crew from 2344 wearing the jackets without undershirts or belts.  Honestly this looks a little...incomplete.  In "Family" and "Journey's End" Jack Crusher is seen wearing the Enterprise-C variant with a TNG combadge instead of the movies insignia.

Next Thursday: the Rick Berman era trek uniforms