The Hidden History Behind Star Trek Uniforms
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- Опубликовано: 30 июн 2024
- It’s easy to watch a movie or TV show without paying too much attention to wardrobe, but costume designers put a lot of work into every little detail on a character’s outfit. The Star Trek uniforms have varied greatly over the years, but each one is unique to the vision of the specific show or movie it’s worn in. You’ve heard all of the jokes about redshirts always dying first, but what does a red uniform actually mean in Star Trek lore? From the difficult material used in early seasons to the truth about that green shirt, let’s take a look at the hidden history behind Star Trek uniforms.
#StarTrek #History #Uniforms
Original colors | 0:00
Stripes and pips | 1:23
All about velour | 2:28
From Pants to Miniskirts | 3:27
Space pajamas | 4:35
Redeeming the uniforms | 5:37
All about spandex | 6:39
Exception to rule | 7:47
The infamous skant | 9:02
A working uniform | 10:10
Uniform mysteries explained | 11:02
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What color uniform would you want if you were in Starfleet?
I'd just wear my birthday suit. Safer that way...😂💯
I'd be in engineering colours...
Purple
Romulan uniforms
Blue, because SCIENCE!!!!!!
TOS uniforms were the best. Also during TOS, each starship had its own distinctive insignia, which I always thought was one of the best features of those uniforms.
Quite remeniscent of NASA Mission patches when you think about it.
If no one has mentioned it before, this video is rife with with errors. The rank stripes in the original series were specific for each rank, not associated with a crew person's being enlisted or officer. For instance, a commander would have two full stripes, captain would have two and a half, while ensigns had none. In the feature films with the original cast, starting with The Wrath of Khan, the only repurposed costumes were those worn by enlisted personnel. Fletcher took the jumpsuits, dyed them a rust-red, and added different rank and division features. The officers (Kirk, Spock, etc.) had uniforms that were completely new and redesigned with wool jackets and pants as well as undershirts, shoulder straps, and armbands with an expanded color range denoting which divisions they were part of.
I agree, this guy does not know what he is talking about.
^^This person nailed it^^
Also, you will see crewmembers in jumpsuits in TOS and they are enlisted. Not everyone on the starship is an officer.
Just to be pedantic:
Ensign - no stripe
Lieutenant jr grade - dotted (or half) stripe
Lieutenant - one stripe
Lt Commander - one & a half stripes
Commander - two stripes
Captain - two & a half stripes
and once
Commodore - one large stripe
Although there were admirals in TOS they only appeared on view-screens and so you never see their sleeve insignia (although a few behind-the-scenes photos show they did wear one, even fancier big stripe)..
Yeah, those band coats just didn't seem like they could have been repurposed from those pajama tops. Also, this guy never got into the reasons for the 3 colors originally.
The main reason for the bright colors in TOS was due to the decision to film the series in color when most TVs out there were black and white. Those three colors were distinctly different from each other when viewed on a black and white television; this was not an issue in the movies or later series, thus the more muted colors.
In addition, the vibrant TOS colors did look great on a color TV as well. This was the other reason the colors were used.
Also the three colors are the three primary colors: blue, red, and yellow (gold). No other colors can be mixed to make these colors.
David Baldwin actually the colors were RED BLUE and GREEN that came off gold.
David Baldwin actually the “primary colors” for TVs are RED BLUE and GREEN. That’s what the designer said. It’s weird all of these years it appeared as gold... also growing up with MEGO figures. Nope... they were really a lime green.
All the women wore pants in both pilot episodes.
According to Marc Cushman’s definitive production history of TOS, “These Are the Voyages, TOS Season 1”, Grace Lee Whitney who played Janice Rand thought wearing pants would cover up her best feature - her legs. She WANTED her character to wear a skirt.
This is correct
Correct. She helped design the replacement uniform for the series. It, not ironically, looked a lot like the dresses in a performance of "These Boots Are Made For Walking" the December prior to production of season 1. That performance registered really well on RCA color TV owners as the hottest thing that year.
Actresses wanted to wear the mod clothes. Whitney was in publicity photos with Shatner and Nimoy in the costumes from the second pilot. It looked like any other 50s low budget Science Fiction space future movie. Clutzy and sloppy.
Notice that Nichols first appears in a gold uniform tunic dress. She looked dreadful in it, washed out, so they quickly switched her to red, despite she being in the bridge command crew. Colors were often chosen to balance out scenes. Why Scotty has red and the bridge security.
Nichols and Whitney used to have a competition to see how high they could hike their skirts before the director or censors would say something.
Ahhhh the 60s. We were made of sterner stuff.
And a fine pair of legs she had too!
Yes this is right and Grace Lee Whitney featured in most of the promotional photos with Kirk & Spock
Somewhat ironic and sad that Whitney was let go halfway thru season one specifically because they didn’t want Kirk tied to any one female. At least that’s what she says..
My favorite uniforms are from the original series. When they made the first movies I absolutely hated that they changed them. Then they further drove me nuts, when they changed around gold and red for the next generation. Gold was definitely a better symbol for command than red.
Agreed. But I did like the Wrath of Khan uniforms.
Totally agree.
DESIGNERS: What can you say about the uniforms?
EDNA MODE: I approve it as long as there are no capes
A point missed about the original velour uniforms of the original series: Those "golden yellow" tops were actually green - They just showed yellowish on film because of the way the fabric interacted with studio lighting....
Thank you. I was about to make the same comment. 😁
The velour was gold. Season 3 diamondweave doubleknit was greengold. Wraparound was limegreen.
Also with the processing of the film.
@@harcomou8395 Then how come in Shatner's book about The Original Series he comments about how the uniforms were Green tunics but the lighting made them look gold?
@@thefurrybastard1964 I don't know.
Scotty didn't actually go through the series without being killed. He was killed twice and brought back to life twice. Once against Apollo and once against Nomad
Does that include the time he was found in the transporter buffer in the ship that was trapped in the Dyson sphere in TNG?
@@joeseagl No. Scotty was technically alive while his pattern was stored in the transporter buffer. It was effectively a form of stasis, like cryogenics, except that he existed as energy instead of matter.
There's also the Star Trek 'First Contact' uniforms in grey, black shoulder edging and corresponding coloured shirts & collars.
I worked in Hollywood for a few years in the 90s, mostly just extra work, and the Star Trek sets were revered for having a craft service table with a Pepperedge Farms contract, so the food tables were full of all the Pepperidge Farm cookies. When you're a poor struggling actor and extra, free food is a HUGE benefit, because you never have money for things like food. I spent one whole day paired with a guy who did a lot of extra work on Star Trek, and he told me that they all had to wear very tight girdles under the form fitting clothes, which was extremely difficult since everyone plowed through the cookies all day long. I loved hearing the behind the scenes stories much more than acting, so I ended up as a writer instead. I still miss those carefree days though, it was great fun on sets when you weren't worried about carrying scenes or making an impression, extras were just supposed to be moving plants, basically, anyone who attracted attention was withdrawn from scenes or made to look as awful as possible, so not to interfere with the stars, and they were very sensitive to being upstaged! You had to be careful to never attract attention. Of course, tons of would be actors made the mistake of trying to "steal" scenes, and always fired....
Lol
Only John C. Reilly is allowed to steal scenes, probably because it’ll make the movie better.
@@brinsonharris9816
😂😂😂
@@juanitacarrollyoung2979
You probably already know this, but if the director gave you lines, it had to be 3 or 4 words long (I can't remember), if you were filmed saying those magic words on camera (and it wasn't cut out!), you could pay the Screen Actors Guild a few thousand dollars and be registered as a REAL ACTOR!! of course, a lot of sadistic directors and assistant directors would only give the slavering extra TWO words, so they didn't get their longed for credibility, which is why you hear a ton of, "yes, Sir!", or "this way!" in millions of movies...once you start noticing all that, it's almost impossible to watch anything without focusing on all the background people. It took me years to just enjoy a fun movie again, instead of looking at the extras who lose continuity, stumble, look confused or bump into other extras in the background...stuff in the background vanishes, reappears, plants, trees and decorations come and go in a single shot, even with the eagle eyes of the crew, it's almost impossible to keep everything perfect shot after shot...I worked on a terrible show for two seasons and it was so unbelievably bad, that no one was surprised when it was cancelled, even with some big names like Jon Tenney, Joe Morton and Sarah Jessica Parker. It was so bad I've never seen those actors admit they were even in it, even though I've seen a few reruns (rarely).
FYI :Desilu would buy bolts of red gold &blue fabric from Ohrbach’s department store and the uniforms were mostly made in house as needed, Desilu always tried to buy locally for costumes, dresses & gowns came from three stores I Magnin, Joseph Magnin or Liberty House most of the others were designed and sewn in-house .
There are at least 2 episodes of TNG that mention there is a range of approved uniforms. Many are due to cultural differences. Like Worf's "sash". On DS9, crews from fresh off of ships wore TNG uniforms.
This is similar to navy uniforms, at one time. The sailors had one for on the ships, 1 for land at home, and one for shore leave abroad. I think this concept has been dropped.
From what I understand the US Navy changes their uniforms quite regularly based on the whims of the admiralty lol.
The Motion Picture was a much anticipated. The "unveiling" of the new Enterprise was a wonderful moment. I would say the REAL flaw of the movie was the plot. It was essentially a redo of an episode. Vygr was essentially Nomad. Fans deserved better. BUT it did bring the Star Trek world and crew back to the screen so.... 😀
Star Trek TMP: Where NOMAD has Gone Before.
It was Metamorphosis too. Basically a reprisal of two scripts.
I’ll forgive ST 1 a lot of things. It was the first attempt at a motion picture and they didn’t know what made Great Star Trek. ST5 however... urgh.
@@mattwho81 Star Trek V was great, and I'd argue the 2nd most "Star Trek" of all of the Star Trek cinema outings, after TMP.
@@mattwho81 V may not have been the best Trek movie, but, it's not like it was drastically worse. The script was a little over-the-top but still entertaining, and, the cut budget shows at times, but it was still richly filmed for what they were able to do. I've found that most people who hate it are the type of people to ape whatever they're told by the fanzines and can't think for themselves.
@@mattwho81 Looked at my post and must qualify: "most people", not necessarily you, as how could I know you?
Jellico was a baddass. Even Kirk would have respected that man.
Should have had his own show.
Jelico was a hardass who wanted things his way, but at no point did he actually do anything out of line. The episode might have tried to paint him as a bad guy but Riker comes off as much more of an asshole for how he reacts to the smallest request for change from Jelico. At one point Jelico has to come down and beg Riker to do a job that will save hundreds of lives because Riker is too busy with his ego trip. Jelico should have thrown Riker in the brig for some of the stuff he did.
@@void2258 I would have airlocked Riker. Hahah
Ronnie Cox is an amazing actor. Jellico is the only time I enjoy seeing him play a hero character, mostly because he's so good at being evil.
If Jellico is a badass and mistreats me, I will kill him immediately with a full phaser to vaporize him!
The "command gold" that Kirk wore in the first season was actually green, closer in color to the wrap-around green tunic that Kirk wore, but the film lab kept color correcting it so it ended up appearing gold onscreen. The scenes you used to illustrate the velour fabric are actually from the third season and are the new polyester fabric (you can tell because the new fabric looks a little more structured and colorful onscreen). The scene with the Gorn is the velour.
The original colors of TOS: lime Green, command. Blue science, Red , engineering, general duty, security. But for some reason, the Green became yellow.. Kirk's wrap around shirt is the right color.
@@johnbockelie3899 The color difference between TOS standard command tunic (goldgreen) and wraparound (limegreen) was intentional. They wanted the viewers to be able to differ between the 2 Kirks (evil Kirk and good Kirk).
@@harcomou8395 Good Kirk wore a wrap around tunic, Evil side Kirk wore the standard tunic. Other than that they were both the same color. It's just the way the lighting and color television was in those days. ( bonus, on that episode , when Kirk is on the planet, he has no insignia on his shirt, after he beams up, it's there. Also Kirk's wrap around tunic is only one of three made, this one has the rank stripes located on the neck area. Later one had it on the sleeves and black trim around the neck with silver trim. The proto type wrap around shirt can be seen on " Charlie. X" episode. Charlie wears it towards the end of the episode.)
@@johnbockelie3899 Please spare me with that "wraparound was same color as standard-bull$hit"
Thanks for your post. I still wonder about the composition of the red and gold blankets in Sick Bay in the Original Series.
The first movie did not underperform. They simply went another direction in many ways with sequel to give a more militaristic feel as it would be more action based.
Statement A ("did not underperform") and statement B ("went in another direction") are not correlated. Both statements are correct. However, the correct correlation with Statement A is that the first move had massive sunk costs from trying to launch a new TV station. The reality is that the theatrical TMP movie was intended to recoup some of the sunk cost, yet massively exceeded expectations. TWOK was therefore greenlit and given a more "normal" budget.
As a small comment, Lt. Uhura was actually in a fairly high up there command position aboard the Enterprise. She technically outranked Sulu and Chekov, and was 4th in command after Scotty, and of course Spock ahead of him.
@Projekt Kobra Uhura actually switched tracks a couple of times through the series. In Season 1 she was command, switching to Ops in Season 2 and 3. And I think she might have received a promotion in TAS, as it was in that series that she undertook a temporary command of the Enterprise.
According to David Gerrold, William Ware Theiss worked on the principle of "Visual Suspense" on female costuming: will they or won't they fall out of the costume.
I recall that Mad Magazine once did a gag where Deanna asks why her new costume was packaged in an egg.....
In that era the biggest brand of pantyhose was L'Eggs which came in plastic eggs. But it was the original series where women were wearing visible hosiery; the women in the TNG miniskirt outfits seemed to be bare legged.
The ultra short 1960s skirts were the best... and main reason to tune in.
Also, in the original pilot of Star Trek (The Cage), there were three colors of tunics. There was a gold color that Pike wore, the blue color that Spock wore, and then also a beige (or tan?) color worn by some of the crew. The beige color was very close to the gold color, so it wasn't as noticeable to many viewers.
This review is littered with errors and misrepresentations.
Please enlighten us as to those errors and misrepresentations.
@@jalan8171 Jim Brooks and several others have already provided much enlightenment on this within the comments.. But not mentioned elsewhere is that this video claims The Cage was not seen until a Betamax release in 1989 when it was in fact released in 1986 on VHS. Additionally: the rank insignia on the TWOK uniforms were not "different colours of badges" -they were the metal pin element(s) displayed on the right shoulder strap and matching left sleeve band, and these jacket & pants uniforms were all original -the TMP reused uniforms were the ones worn by various crew... etc.. etc.. other errors and misrepresentations are highlighted elsewhere in the comments.
The description of rank and insignia is laughably juvenile. Captains didn't wear "two or three" rows of braid, as suggested in the video. Captain is also both a specific rank, and an appointment, held by the senior officer of a ship (despite his actual rank). Kirk happened to be both a captain in rank, and the captain of the Enterprise. The rank braid, and later insignia depicted specific ranks in a sequence inspired by actual naval practice - Ensign, Lieutenant-Commander, Commander, Captain, Commodore, Admiral etc.
@@Echostation3T8 I agree. Betamax was long gone by 1989. It was hard to find by 1986.
@@HandGrenadeDivision There's ranks of lieutenant, junior grade and lieutenant between the ranks of ensign and lieutenant commander in naval rank structure. Commodore is archaic rank. It's long been replaced by rear admiral, lower half.
Thank the gods for Star Trek mini skirts.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the wrap around uniform top kirk sometimes wore in the original series...
Picard also had a unique 'captain's jacket' in a flocked material, which only the captain wore.
I think Kirk’s alternative shirt was introduced in an episode where there were two Kirks and you needed to tell them apart. Incidentally, the ‘green’ wrap was actually the same colour as the gold tunics but it was made of a different material. The gold only looked that colour because of the way the cameras worked.
@@MLB9000 I love little factoids like this! I had no idea it was the same color gold... it totally looks green to me.
So you just decided to skip half of Deep Space Nine, and all the Star Trek movies (with the TNG cast)?
Secrets of Star Fleet uniforms:
The uniforms used in " The Cage" were actually bought in a local department store.Then altered into uniforms.
The grey jackets were made from scratch.
I like the idea that there are two basic uniforms available to all Starfleet Personnel.
Pants.
Skirts.
Whichever you feel comfortable in, go for it.
Thank you for an amazing video. Gene Roddenberry was a total genius! Plus he served in the war. Respect ✊.
I am a huge Star Trek fan, but as for Gene Roddenberry being a genius I;m not so sure. The only good thing he did was Star Trek. All the other TV he did was pretty much rubbish.
And like the actor who played Eddie haskel, he was a motorcycle cop for LAPD
@@kenvoorhees3997 foop
@@shadoman7682 I respectfully disagree. In all cases, genius is always fraught with multiple failures.
@@JohnSmith-el6lk Don't get me wrong I loved Star Trek & it's concept. It has influenced my life in so many ways. The ideology of this Utopian future where all bigotry, sexism, racism is in the long distant past inspired me. I live my life as closely to his world as I can. I'm just saying he did make a few bloopers too... :)
You didn't mention the green command wrap from TOS or the grey/black uniforms of the Dominion War era.
In Capt.Pikes time, all crew women wore pants. The mini skirt was probably optional at that time. 2250-2265. Kirk's time: 2265-2270.
Deana Troi wore civilian clothes because she deals with people as a councillor . To make people more comfortable while discussing their problems to her.
Did not know that the 1st pilot was shot in '64 that's pretty early and then Captain Pike (jeffrey Hunter) quit. What might the series have looked like had he stayed on?
Great Scott
More like his wife thought her movie star husband was too big for TV.
Lt.Uhura looks great in her costume as did Nurse Chapel
Nichelle Nicols is right. This was during the throes of the sexual revolution, and the miniskirts were about freedom. The women were liberated by, not "confined to", miniskirts.
Hard to get the judgemental tones out of people's voices when talking about it though. No one nowadays even wants to imagine sexuality and feminism can be together.
The miniskirts were Grace Lee Whitney's idea. She wanted to be able to show off her "dancer's gams" and Bill Thiess obliged.
@@captin3149 That's because today's so-called "feminists" are usually blue-haired and fat; nobody wants to see them in mini-skirts.
Bullshit. Miniskirts sexualized women as objects. Hippies who practiced sexual freedom wore pants. It was far more revolutionary for a woman to wear pants in the 1960s than a miniskirt.
@Projekt Kobra You have no argument. Your weak comment proves it. State your position like a boss or sit down and shut up.
No mention of the First Contact uniforms?
I've always thought of the red tunics from Star Trek II as the "Mountie Suits". ....
"I'm with Starfleet, and I'm OK" :-)
"I sail thru space and keep Klingons at bay"
Alternatively, "James T. Kirk of the Mounties". (Dudley Do-Right theme plays)
Couple of corrections: The Motion Picture was NOT a financial failure. Quite the opposite. It did incredibly well, making a profit off of an amazingly large sunk cost for the time. The movie had a massive budget because it was carrying over costs from trying to launch a new TV Network and flagship TV series. Also, the red color of uniforms was NOT carried over from the movies. The original plan was to use TOS colors for the uniforms. Red and Gold were switched when it was decided that Patrick Steward didn't look good in Gold.
The idea that different ships and stations used different uniforms is actually cannon. In the original series, each ship had a different badge representing the ship. The chevron badge that we associate with Star Trek was actually the symbol of the Enterprise. The DS9 uniforms were originally intended to represent "space station" uniforms with visitors from Starfleet ships wearing TNG style uniforms. This was particularly obvious when Worf showed up in his Gold TNG uniform and changed to a DS9 style Red when he accepted a station post. This concept was later tossed out the window with the Generations movie which showed a "transition" to the DS9 style uniforms and Voyager which ran with the DS9 style.
Spok smile is the scariest thing I ever seen in the TOS, maybe in the entire star trek multiverse.
Clearly you haven't seen Michael Burnham yet. Then again, that isn't the real Trek universe, so......
@@varanid9 Michael is not a vulcan. You clearly doesn't understand the risk of a vulcan being incapable of emotional supression. You can't be sure that's not the original trek universe. Maybe their long jump in future is needed to ensure the original timeline to happen.
Too. Many. Ads. You don't need an ad break after each segment.
Someone who is good at maths watched all three seasons of The Original Series, noted who died, what shirt that officer was wearing and determined that people who wore a Gold/Green shirt were more likely to die than a Red Shirt.
I always felt that TMP uniforms basically had a US Navy feel to them albeit in space. I guess that makes sense because most of the production staff of the TOS served in the military.
The best uniforms IMHO were the ones for the next gen movies: formal enough to not look like pajamas but practical enough to look like work wear. The red original movie uniforms look good as dress uniforms but not for practical working outfits. I guess that's why they had the jackets for planet landings (like in The Cage) and jumpsuits for the enlisted crew. Still should have had some more practical wear for the officers though, especially when they are (unrealistically) the ones doing all the physical action.
The rank stripes on the sleeves of TOS uniforms were not haphazard at all. They started at ensign, no stripe, and went up methodically thru the US Naval ranks to admiral. Same as TNG pips did.
In fact, I recently watched TOS episode Tomorrow is Yesterday when they go back in time and beam a 1960s Air Force Captain on board. Later he is seen wearing the Star Fleet uniform, with the correct rank of Lieutenant (the US Navy equivalent of Captain)..
Yeah, I don't think the guy who made this video did a whole lot of research.
Also noteworthy is the episode "The Naked Time." The character of Joe Tormolen is the ONLY "Lieutenant JG" ever seen on TOS. His cuff braid was a single broken stripe.
Another bit of trivia: The costumes were sent out to be cleaned after each day's filming. The division badges (the Starfleet delta badges on the breast) and the rank stripes had to be removed before the costumes were cleaned and then resewn back on before filming started the next day. There are a couple of notable bloopers where mistakes were made in this process and a character's rank or insignia will change in the middle of a scene indicating that the scene was shot across multiple filming days. In one particularly egregious example, Kirk's division badge is missing entirely in a scene. Likely a pick-up shot filmed after the episode had wrapped.
That badge was the symbol for the Enterprise. It was later adopted Starfleet wide in honor of Enterprise's accomplishments.
The gold tunics in ST:TOS were actually green. The color dye chosen however showed up as gold in the broadcasts due in part to the lighting and the way color film was processed back in the 60's. You can get an idea of the actual color from the wrap-around tunic that Kirk occasionally wore in Season 1.
Color was chartreuse, which is exactly 50% yellow and 50% green. Wraparound was intentionally limegreen.
Fetching coffee answering the phones and looking good in a miniskirt , you've come a long way baby
As someone who's getting a little older, the "maroon monster" of ST2-ST6 is where it's at! Looks great on a variety of different body types.
You ended the video in a weird place. What bout the uniforms created for First Contract that the DS9 crew also wore starting in the middle of Season 5?
If you go in production order of _Star Trek TOS_ there were two episodes, *The Corbomite Maneuver* and *Mudd’s Women* ,where Lieutenant Uhura wore a yellow uniform, or as Nichelle Nichols called it a *drab green* uniform before getting a red uniform that she first wore in the episode titled *The Man Trap*
Mustard
"Though the Space Pajamas looked comfortable"
George Takei would disagree
He's described how difficult it was to get into the uniforms in Star Trek:The Motion Picture, stating that the cast members of the film couldn't go to the bathroom without having the costume department people going with them to assist them with getting in and out of the uniforms and that "Unless there's a change in the design of the uniforms, there won't be a 'Star Trek II' "
Nah, that was a crock of shit. Takei was just miffed because he wanted a built-in flap for the seat of his pants.
Capt. Edward Jellico = Legend
Trials & tribble-ations, Dax: "And women wore less."
Yaayyyyy for Star Trek the original series the Star Trek TNG robbed a lot of story lines from original series besides Captain Kirk much sexier and gutsy than Picard! And rest of cast Uhura Chekov Sulu Spock McCoy Nurse Chapel and Scotty full of personality and ahead of their time and their communicators were forerunners of todays cells
Your'e absolutely wrong about Star Trek the Motion Picture. It did very well at the box office and many hard core ST fans still love that movie. Perhaps you meant to say "The general public that didn't already love Star Trek thought it was slow." Fans loved it.
TOS "standard" uniforms were more comfortable and functional.
Can you imagine Captain Kirk in a ST2 WOK uniform fighting the Gorn?
I can't.
Well, wasn't that what he wore fighting the Klingon Captain in Search for Spock? Or was it when he was fighting Malcolm McDowell in Generations?
@@varanid9 Nope, and... Nope. He did not wear it on both occasions.
Actually the colors were RED BLUE and GREEN that looked gold with certain materials. The command dress uniforms and Kirk’s wraparound was GREEN. The velour looked gold on film. The designer said so in interview.
That color always looked green to me, too, but, I'm told that it's called gold, and, have seen it labeled as such in other mediums. Don't know how it got that as it's always looked green to me. I used to think there was something wrong with my eyes.
The Motion Picture is my favourite of the Star Trek movies purely because it’s the most Trek.
This is m least favorite. I even prefer ST V ovrr TMP.
The twisted mind of wokeness: women cannot wear feminine costumes.
They fail to see that each line of costumes from a different era reflects the society of the time. Women were never "forced" to wear undesired uniforms, on the contrary, that was the fashion trend of the specific era. If anything, jumpsuits were reportedly uncomfortable for both men and women, which led to more comfortable uniforms later on. Yet, initially, the miniskirts of female crew members in TOS were exactly in tune with the sentiment of freedom of the sexual revolution. The mentality of woke people sounds more like bigotry and repression to me than liberation and freedom of expression.
"...sounds more like bigotry and repression..." That would probably be because it is.
I don't even like the term "woke". It seems to imply that when you learn a certain piece of information, you've learned everything there is to know about oppression. Instead, it will be an ongoing, probably lifelong process of learning things that you didn't know about what other people go through.
@@bazzokzwattom2655 I think I understand what you mean. You see, the term is not really relevant, there are many ways to describe this trend. The point is the twisted mindset behind their reasoning. Oppression can use many disguises, but we all know what it looks like.
Janice Lester could never become captain
@@tralfaz - Yeah, but she was the only one who ever said that, and she was batshit crazy! So the show runners had an out (and have used it ever since it came up in the 90s!)
TNG (eventually) had female captains. Heck, the captain of the previous Enterprise-C was female..
Red uniforms in TOS were worn by engineering & support services (including Communications, Transporter ops & security).
I am certain that no one will agree with me but STTMP was my favorite Star Trek movie and the uniforms were my favorite.
I don't know about favorite, but, looking at it years later, it holds up a lot better than I thought it would. And, all they had to do was replace those goofy PJ pants with the black pants and boots of the later movies, but, keep the shirts and they would have had the best looking Trek uniforms of all. I think that movie featured the coolest bridge set out of all the Trek movies and shows, too. The only real problem with the movie was that it was overly long. Another thing I didn't like were the 2 extra characters horning in on time I would have preferred spent seeing the original cast members after their 10 year absence.
It's rumored that the uniform changes come from section 31 as a way for temporal agents to know where in Star Fleet history they have arrived at by simply looking at the uniforms. This is why they change after any major event in the Star Trek timeline. My favorite uniform is the one from Enterprise, its functional, comfortable looking, and its dark blue with the piping colored for the division. Oh and its the only one with pockets.
I learned something new with the gold leaf bands around the cuffs on the shirts indicating rank. I never noticed that before ... Thanks. TOS uniforms we're always the best.
No history on Enterprise uniforms? I see why no Voyager and the last 3 movies as they were the same as DSN 9 though.
Basically similar to a military ,or naval ship's crew/ officers.
Specifically an aircraft carrier deck crew. Heard at least once that was the inspiration of the color coding of the different assignments.
@@kudukilla Roddenberry had just made a show called "The Lieutenant", about an army officer. In the U.S. Army, yellow is the color of cavalry, a mobile force, which, throughout History, has been the military arm of nobility, hence, in TOS, it represents Command and Navigation. Blue is the color of Infantry, the "Queen of Battle", which is the reason the other branches exist, just as Science (the search for knowledge) is the reason for Starfleet, and, since Medicine is a science........Red is the color of Artillery, which supports the other arms as Security and Engineering supports Starfleet's operations. There's a TOS episode where Kirk even refers to himself as a military man. When TNG rolled around, Gene seemed to want to get away from the military image as PC thinking had heavily influenced Hollywood.
I've heard the spandex uniforms were tight and uncomfortable, which is why Picard was always pulling on it when he sat down or stood up.
Actually he only did that after they ditched the spandex for the two piece suits with the collar pips - you can see when he does that that he has a black belt, and the shirt gets lumpy when he shifts position. You couldn't tug on the first season jumpsuit because it was so tight it couldn't shift out of place.
@@IrishCarney I read somewhere that the uniform was so tight it was giving him back problems. so to avoid a possible lawsuit, advice from his doctor, they had to make it looser. Thanks for sharing that with me.
( 0:35 ) red uniforms were also for "engineering" service crew members (in addition to the security, "communications", and "admin" [though some "administrative", or "communications" crew wore "gold" uniforms], as mentioned). The same colors were also used for the "jumpsuit" pattern uniforms. This is an odd omission, given the video also mentions Chief Engineer Scott...
Number One ( 4:04 ) endures in "Star Trek : Strange New Worlds'' just as Majel Barrett - Roddenberry endures as the "computer voice" across all Star Trek. ☺
Interesting info and imput!
I really love hearting about Star Trek Uniforms.
I’m waiting for someone to explain the angled sideburns that most Starfleet members sported.
In the original series, Roddenberry wanted to give the crew of the Enterprise "futuristic" hairstyles. The actors pointed out that they still had to live in the real world when they weren't filming. The sideburns were all they would allow.
@@_XR40_ Thanks XR, I’ve waited over 30 years for someone to explain how that came about.
It’s an upside down Starfleet delta.
In “The Paradise Syndrome” when Kirk lives for months among the Native American Indian people he grows out normal straight boxy shaped sideburns although early on in the ep you can see the triangular edge still showing under the stubble.
In The Cage episode and other earlier periods Spock and even Uhura wore gold for a brief time .
"...wore gold and yellow."
They were actually green like the alternate tunic Kirk wore sometimes. The material under lighting made the standard tunic show up looking somewhat yellow on camera.
We've seen jumpsuits in TOS on colonies and stations, so I think they kinda went off of that as well.
The officers uniform for "Wrath" were the best. Glad to see that they closed out the series in "The Undiscovered Country".
WAY too many ads for a 12 minute video...
I think that the Star Trek The Motion Picture style is the most realistic and probable futuristic uniform, at least they should be and what I'd select to wear.
Random episodes he wears green
The original "gold" uniforms were actually more greenish. The lighting and camera made them appear gold. However, some fabrics still looked green in those conditions.
@@violagreene4643 Kirk actually had a different uniform in several episodes. He's the only one (as far as I know) to wear it. It's a wrap-around tunic with a green color and sideways Enterprise symbol. I actually really liked it. Made him look dashing.
@@kelvaris1 i know. My point is that that tunic and the "gold" tunics were supposed to be the same color. However, the different fabrics looked different under the stage lighting
@@violagreene4643 Apparently, green velour came out as gold under the studio lighting used - And they just rolled with it, since the costumes were already made - But the Command uniforms were originally meant to be green.
If you think about it, it's the same as the video spectrum RGB....
@@_XR40_ Notice that command dress uniforms were nearly the same green as Kirk's wraparound shirt and that the coverall uniforms were seen in blue, red, and a more olive/khaki green, it is obvious that the "gold" shirts were meant to be green.
I enjoyed this video but man. There where so many commercials I felt like I was back in the 90s again. We will return to these messages right after a word from the show.
I'm always partial to the uniforms of TOS, I really did like the change seen in TMP. These uniforms seemed similar in concept to those in Space 1999, but more to my thought is that they seemed more in keeping with the space exploration concept of Star Trek rather than the militaristic uniforms of the later flicks. Still, they all work for me.
This is SO nerdy and unimportant, yet SO well done, interesting and entertaining. Thanks!
Was the drab beige phase taking a cue from Space: 1999? (And, of course, 2001.)
It was a '70s thing. NASA astronauts on Skylab wore light brown jumpsuits.
What happened to the grey top uniforms from first contact & DS9 would eventually wear???
That uniform is a close second to the ST II uniform
I don't know where this guy is getting the complaints about velour from. Velour was extremely popular with teenagers back in the 1960s. I had several pullovers. Casual wear, made from velour, was warm, almost tailored in fit, and extremely comfortable. It did stretch out during wear, but bounced back in the washer and dryer. The tailored fit was a coming thing in the 1960s, mainly in Arrow shirts, but also in pants. You couldn't wear velour if you were over-weight or out of shape. William Shatner looked great in the beginning episodes, but quickly started putting on weight. The show switched uniform designs (mainly for Shatner), and fabric material, to hide Shatner's growing portliness. If you look carefully at later episodes, the bottom of Shatner's tunic was turned up inside to hide Shatner's growing paunch. This information came directly from interviews done of Gene Roddenberry, the show's creator.
What about the coveralls on Enterprise with the color piping to designate their area of the ship? Or the way out uniforms of Discovery where you can’t tell who does what or who outranks who?
You didn't mention the true colors of TOS uniforms. They were not "gold" but came out that way on NTSC TV, in combination with the lighting used. They are actually puce, and the Blu-ray remastering shows the colors more accurately. On the HD remaster, you can also see where the zippers are!
The story of Troi getting a regular uniform towards the end of the run was explained in much greater detail by Marina at a convention shortly after the series ended. I attended it in Philadelphia, and I don't know if she gave the same presentation in other meetings.
There was so much more you didn't ever touch on! Like, how the engineer on Voyager got a lab coat to hide the actress's real-life pregnancy.
The breast patches in TOS also had meanings. The overall shape was different for each ship (so only the Enterprise used the "arrowhead" shape). In the center of the breast patch was an additional symbol showing department (science/medicine was an eye-like symbol, command was a tall star and engineering/communications was a sort of spiral). This symbol corresponded to the shirt colors and was the same on all ships, regardless of the overall patch design. It seems a little odd that there were two indicators for department, but only sleeve stripes for rank, but that's how it worked.
The arrowhead symbol looks like the main Freemason symbol while the eye symbol is another Freemason symbol. I am not a conspiracy nut or theorist, but I can see the connection very clearly.
I enjoy hearing about history Star Trek Uniforms.
Sure somebody else said it, but Kirk wore green. It looked yellow on camera and the animated series used a yellow color, probably from using video reference. The velour fabric photographed weird making it look like that. Spock's skin is green too btw
Color science in early broadcast television was not able to convey the real color of the uniforms in the original series. In particular, the ‘gold’ uniforms were actually a shade of green to the eye - this can be seen in some of the episodes even in one of the clips shown where the uniform had a clear green hue.
The home video release of The Cage was in 1986, not 1989, as mentioned in the video. In the original home video release, only the shots used in The Menagerie were in color, and everything else was in black and white. They held a TV event where they showed this copy sometime that year as well (I was in elementary school at the time, and it was a HUGE DEAL). It was rereleased to home video entirely in color on VHS a few years later in 1988, after the original color negatives were found. Apparently, they released the Beta a year later in '89? I wasn't even aware that Beta home videos were still being sold in 1989, but then geeky news was hard to come by in 1989.
interesting video, thanks
Just a clarification that ST:TMP was not a “thud.” If you adjust for inflation, it’s still the highest grossing Star Trek film with the original cast, and it’s more appreciated by Star Trek fans than you might think.
What no mention of the blue jump suits with color shoulder lines on "Enterprise", or both STNG and DS9 uniforms used in the same STNG movie?
One other point about the Enterprise uniforms back in the '60s show. The insignia on the uniform has an icon within it. The overall each ship had its own insignia which helped identify who was assigned to what ship. The icon within this was a confirmation as to what department the person was assigned.
Something that confused me when I saw the first movie was how EVERY Starfleet uniform had the Enterprise symbol on it. Cheesy explanation from the novelization said it was to honor the fact that Enterprise was the only ship to actually return from the 5-year missions. For the younger folks, do a Google search for images of William Windom in Star Trek and simply look at his uniform. This is from an episode detailing the destruction of one the unsuccessful 5-year ships.
Horatio Hornblower is also one of the principal inspirations for The Original Series.
Don't forget the genius move where they removed the sleeves from the dress uniforms in the Kelvin timeline, leaving all female staff without ranks...
You said the ranks were for keeping order on the Space Ship, but actually they were/are naval rankings for a Sea Ship. Because it was a Space Ship , the naval ranks were used.
Also, the insignias of rank of Next Generation and forward were pretty close to actual rank and insignias of actual naval personnel. The sold pips stood for thick stripes and the middle black and gold surroundings pips stood for thin stripes. If you take this into account, they line up exactly with the ranks of todays naval uniforms.
Troi looked good in a uniform. Shame she couldn’t have it longer. Thank you Jericho.
A friend that was former-Army made comparisons to the uniform changes the existing armed forces encountered to explain the discrepancy, however with replicators and their recycling ability it would be easy to swap out a uniform pattern across the fleet. Dump your old uniforms in the replicator and watch it spit out new ones.
I hope there's a part 2, because you left out whole universes of uniforms (even in TOS season 1), the newer movies and all the new series.
Kirk's season 1 velour: gold
Kirk's season 3 diamon-weave: chartreuse (50% yellow 50% green)
Kirk's wraparound: limegreen
To be fair, The Original Series was structured around the modern Navy so that everything would be relatable to the viewing audience. The Navy still uses stripes on the forearms to denote officer rank, with more stripes equaling a higher rank. I don't know the ranks by heart, but I'd be willing to guess that the stripes on Star Trek are identical in count (if not exact style) to the stripes in the modern Navy, since the rank structure already is. Chances are, the change from stripes to pips coincided with standardization of uniforms across the US Armed Services (sleeve stripes are now only retained on Naval dress uniforms).
Almost right. I remember reading many years ago that they were based on the US Navy but the number of stripes was changed because... space.... So in the Navy a Captain is 4 stripes but on Star Trek it was 2 full stripes with 1 dotted stripe in the middle.
In the Earlier period episodes like "The Cage " or "The Menagerie " ( which is the same episode ) Lt Uhura wore the Gold uniform
So not gonna talk about how DS9 shared uniforms with voyager or the dominion war uniform upgrades? Or the Enterprise and discovery uniforms? Not a very comprehensive history.
Great video right up until you started talking about Lower Decks. Are we still passing that off as Star Trek?
He does kind of have an interesting plausible point tbh.
@@FIRSTNAMELASTNAME-zt4kf They all wore the same uniform in lower decks what are you talking about? The only way the point makes sense is if you look at TOS where every posting in Starfleet had a different mission patch instead of the Starfleet arrowhead which was originally the Enterprise's mission patch.
YES!!!
No comment on the Enterprise series???
Or how about the different emblems that other ship crews wore in TOS besides the delta?
The Enterprise era uniforms are honestly my favourite because of how much closer to reality they are. They're purely practical, hard wearing utilitarian bits of kit. I imagine those to be far closer to what we'd wear in space if we ever manage to get our act together as a species and take the next step in our technological and exploratory evolution.
I've always wondered why the delta emblem worn only by the Enterprise crew of TOS became the symbol of all of starfleet in other series. I've seen no explanation of why personnel of other starships like the Constellation, Defiant, and Exeter in TOS had so many different emblems that disappeared in other series. More of Trek's inconsistencies?
@@randystegemann9990 I think the delta WAS the Starfleet emblem, and the Enterprise being the flagship got to use it. Everyone else using their own is kind of like how most modern military regiments have their own coat of arms etc. I think most people's head canon is that because of the prestige of the Enterprise crew the whole of Starfleet wore the delta out of respect after their 5 year mission. I'm unaware of any in universe explanation for it either. I kind of don't mind it staying that way either, sometimes explaining everything ruins it (midichlorions anybody?).
@@TalesOfWar I don't recall any actual explanation of it. But the delta is everywhere in Discovery, ten years before the time of TOS. Just another unexplained inconsistency. Not a big deal, and I hope to see more Trek series.