I have spent the last 40-plus years of my life thinking that on the original Star Trek series, Captain Kirk and other “command” personnel (Chekov, Sulu, etc.) wore yellow or gold shirts.
In every other media, they have been depicted as yellow or gold, including my original action figures from the mid-1970s and my replica uniform tunic. I recall that an old Technical Manual called this color “tenne,” which according to Wikipedia is a heraldic term indicating a “orange, brown or orange-tawny color.”
However, I have discovered this blog post, which quotes original Star Trek costume designer William Ware Theiss as saying that the original colors of the uniform tunics were red (Scotty, Uhura), blue (Spock, McCoy), and LIME GREEN!!! Kirk’s uniform looked gold or yellow only because of a quirk in the way the fabric reflected the studio lights and how the cameras at the time read that color.
According to the interview, the standard Kirk pullover tunic was the same lime green as his wraparoundtunic and his dress tunic. The latter two were made of different fabrics that didn’t reflect the light in a way that made them appear yellow on television.
The original ST had multiple issues with colors and the film used. Apparently, when they were doing screen tests for the Orion slave girl (with Majel Barret as the model), the film kept coming back from the lab without the green. They tried for three days, with the makeup getting greener and greener and greener, and the film came back every morning with pink skin. They finally figured out that the developer was, in the process of checking the print during development, thinking that the green was something wrong with the film and color-correcting.
Here’s a period photo of Shatner on the set. I think it’s unlikely that the still photographer would be using the same film stock as was used in the motion picture cameras. (Just as a guess, I’d guess he’d be using Kodachrome.) His tunic is gold in the photo.
I’ve heard the story about the colour correction of the Orion slave girl (Marta), and Kirk did wear that green wrap-front tunic. I wonder if people are conflating the two?
Last month I saw the Star Trek exhibit at the EMP in Seattle. Turns out I didn’t take pictures of Kirk’s costume–if it was there–but lots of original series costumes *were *there, and none of them were unexpected colors.
Yeah, the shirt in the photos without the flash look like a mustard color to me. They still look different from the wrap around tunic and the formal dress tunic.
Edit - if that actually is a nearly 50 year old shirt, the fabric may have undergone some kind of change in color, too.
What “people”? Did you read the quote? It’s from an interview with the actual guy who made all the costumes for Star Trek, and who is one of the most well-known costumers in Hollywood history.
And the quote says that the color deviation happened when the costume was “photographed,” which would throw all period photographs into suspicion.
I have read this, but always wondered hiw they could correct deep green to normal skin tone. They can really do that? And not make everything else look strange?
Yeah, but it has that gaping slash across the front where the bad guy managed to slice open the shirt and not do any real damage to the torso of OUR HERO!
This is probably wrong, but I seem to remember that Kirk’s shirt was green when watching the series back in Germany. Is it possible that the colours were affected by the different TV systems (PAL vs NTSC) ?
I’ve seen publicity stills from the third season, after the original velour had been replaced with (in the words of Ruth Berman) “bonded something-or-other.” Kirk’s tunic definitely photographed lime green.
You can always spot the velour tunics because they were constantly being altered—they shrank each time they were cleaned. They were never as neat and trim as the ones in the third season.
Or so he claimed. It couldn’t have been his midsection growing as the season went on.
