posted
With the expected announcement of a revisited and/or rebooted TOS being our next Trek product, I've been wondering what stuff like the tech and more specifically the uniforms would look like. The 1960s outfits would never be able to cut it... So I wonder if anyone has ever tried to redesign the TOS uniforms with modern sensibilities? Anyone here ever tried, or seen it done?
posted
Uh, I'd think the easiest thing to do would be to associate the TOS shirts, bell-bottom pants and leather boots with the classic British Commando look. Adjust the material so that the shirts look like military-standard pullovers, sex up the boots with a few straps, add a manly belt with a holster for the phaser, communicator and nondescript additional equipment, and you are all set.
You could still keep the basic colors, just with somewhat richer, darker texture.
From a distance, the difference would be minor. In close-up, "modern sensibilities" would be easily met by having the pullover flatter the upper torso and arm muscles, and the redesigned belt move the waistline higher up. The main "modernizing" factor in any case would be the slightly scruffy faces with trendy makeup and up-to-date hairdos (which nicely enough could plausibly include the Starfleet sideburns).
Oh, and that's what both males and most females would wear, of course. Just hike up the waistline even higher for the females, open up the collar, and do the standard exaggerated proportions trick overall. "False unisex" will remain The Thing in scifi and action for the upcoming decade at least. Only one of the leading females would have the miniskirt, just for effect. And thanks to that effect, it wouldn't really matter what the miniskirt itself looked like... (Just lose the go-go boots.)
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posted
quote:Originally posted by Timo: Uh, I'd think the easiest thing to do would be to associate the TOS shirts, bell-bottom pants and leather boots with the classic British Commando look. Adjust the material so that the shirts look like military-standard pullovers, sex up the boots with a few straps, add a manly belt with a holster for the phaser, communicator and nondescript additional equipment, and you are all set.
So basicly...Dillon Hunt in color?
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posted
From what I've seen (on, er, the occasional episode of NCIS) the US Navy uses brightly-coloured pullovers, especially on aircraft carriers. So I think there is scope for retaining the department-colour pullover look. Some cvhange to colour and texture would be likely, but I think they'd be best to avoid adding extra detail lest it be gilding the lily (and making them look more like Mirror Universe TOS uniforms).
The bell-bottom-trousers/boots look needs to be changed. But I don't know what with. Trousers tucked into knee-high boots? Too Han Solo.
posted
May have been me bitching about the uniforms on Enterprise... I was in favour of the Navy shirt thing carried into space. Dress uniforms would look something like what the admirals wore, maybe, but shipboard would hearken back to the less-advanced days of a Terran space navy, with clear colours for the operational divisions and sleeve stripes or patches for rank -- no small metal bits that could fall off and cause havok if the primitive artificial gravity failed.
And what's wrong with the Han Solo look?
--Jonah
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posted
Lee makes a good point about the coloured jersey system used aboard carriers by most carrier navies, and Peregrinus about having bits of stuff that can fall off or just get lost.
I always saw the jersey/tunic as strictly shipboard wear only. In ST:II Kirk and co. don coats to go walking about. In TNG Picard had that jacket, bell bottoms and grey tunic affair that he occassionally wore. I always thought that would probably be a good expeditionary uniform but not good day wear on the bridge.
Also, the quite heavy looking red tunics worn in the movies and the current crop of purple shoulder-padded uniforms with an undershirt that is obviously not very light weight are both, in my view, serious cases of overdresssing for day to day work on a climate controlled ship. The original uniforms and the jumpsuit affairs from DS9 and even Enterprise are ideal, lightweight, comfortable looking and afford freedom of movement for ship wear. Beaming down? Put a coat on.
So, the TOS crew have always worn colour coded jerseys, but in the movies they wore big tunics over them. TNG era Trek has for a long time featured a jumpsuit worn over a jersey, but has only recently got the idea right.
Ideally the uniform scheme of ST:II would have formed the basis of the TNG uniform from day one. So try this: the DS9/Voy jumpsuit, but only with red shoulders, worn over the same lightweight jersey but colour coded. Possible additions include a colour coded sleeve band to match the jersey or the retention of the coloured shoulder strap from the movie uniforms.
Just some thoughts
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posted
Hm... That's something to ponder. I admit, I wasn't too thrilled with Bob Fletcher's sudden multiplication of department colours from TOS to TMP, but I'm used to it now. Which made me annoyed when TNG went back to just three again. Of course, that was due to having the same designer as for TOS.
The only downside is that I don't like retconning that much. So accept the TNG/DS9 unis we got, accept the FC uniforms, accept the "future Trek" uniforms from "All Good Things...", et al. And then work on the next evolutionary step in the early 25th century.
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
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posted
I think, on aircraft carriers, the brightly-colored pullovers are for crewmembers working on the flight deck -- Tom Clancy's book on Carriers had a list about what color meant what.
posted
It's curious that Lurker should choose to resurrect this thread and mention starship climates, because I was just thinking about this the other day after looking at some pictures from "Rocks and Shoals."
What temperature are starships supposed to be? In the FC uniform (and the TOS movie one, come to think of it) you have a lot of layering - undershirt/t-shirt/vest-thing, departmental shirt and jacket. Add to that the boss-man weaistcoat/vest (as seen on Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Sloan. . .) and you're gonna get hot.
Unless the ships aren't that well heated - or at least corridors and common areas aren't; from what we've seen of sleeping attore and bedclothes it doesn't look like anyone is getting up in the middle of the night to gert another blanket. So are crew quarters warmer?
But then you have them poncing around on that planet in "R&S" where even though it looks bloody hot they still wear the full kit. So maybe the "real" uniform fabric isn't as hot as it would be were it made of the materials the costumes are made of, or are made of some kind of smart fabric that knows what the temperature should be on one side of itself (the inner side) and "breathes" to maintain that.
And as for the fact it never seems to get creased. . .
posted
Might not get creased, but it can get torn.
"Bollocks, I tore my pants!" - O'Brien
I think considering the level of technology in the 24th century, we can assume that the uniforms are made of some form of smart fabric. Maybe even having some kind of electronic climate control system in them. It might sound silly to go to that much trouble, but they probably take that sort of technology for granted, so it's no big deal.
quote:Originally posted by Lee: It's curious that Lurker should choose to resurrect this thread and mention starship climates, because I was just thinking about this the other day after looking at some pictures from "Rocks and Shoals."
Lee, I'm actually a personality fragment lurking in the back of your subconscious. You created this alternative identity and it is you who are typing this message. I will prove it to you. We are sitting at the computer wearing nothing but a thong, fluffy bunny slippers and listening to Diana Ross.
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Climate control uniforms? There's an episode of TOS in which Kirk beams down with a couple of red shirts and Chekov (I think it might be 'Spock's Brain'). The climate is very cold and Kirk's first order is for the landing party to adjust suit thermometers, which are apparently located on the belt at the back.
As this was the only incidence I could recall of the uniforms have climate control devices, I decided not to bring it up. But if we accept this as a routine addition to a uniform, rather than something the landing party added to their equipment before they beamed down (reference my 'put a coat on' comment earlier) then the whole issue is rendered redudant... except to say that the latest purple shouldered uniforms do still look more physically restrictive than the lighter weight versions seen previously, and much less comfortable around the neck and below the chin with that big thick collar.
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