In the original series (when things were a bit less refined) uniform colors seemed to go like this:
[ul]**
[li]Gold = Command[/li][li]Blue = Medical / Science[/li][li]Red = Enginering / Security / disposable crew members** :D[/li][/ul]
In Next Gen (and DS9 & VOY) it seems to go:
[ul]**
[li]Red = Command[/li][li]Blue = Science[/li][li]Green = Medical[/li][li]Gold = Operations (Engineering, Security etc.)**[/li][/ul]
However, I caught a first season episode of NG (“The Arsenal of Freedom”) and both Worf and Geordi are wearing red. I know that for most of the series they wore gold.
After checking startrek.com I see that they both started as lieutenant junior grade, but then were made head of security & engineering (respectively). I guess that’s when they changed to gold(?)
So I guess what I’m asking is why would a red uniform signify a command rank and a junior one as well?
Worf and Geordi changed uniforms when they moved into Operations-track positions from … errr… whatever they were doing before. (Which wasn’t entirely clearly defined, though I think - don’t have my books with me - that Geordi started out as a junior bridge officer in Navigation).
Worf was shifted into Tasha Yar’s position after Deanna Crosby left the show, and since she had started with a gold uniform, it followed that he would get one, too.
La Forge’s shift to engineering is a little stranger since, oddly, the original primary cast of TNG didn’t have a engineer character. The initial Chief Engineer was Sarah MacDougal (played by Brooke Bundy) who was quickly dropped. She had a gold uniform. La Forge was shifted to engineering (and changed uniform) and his place on the bridge was taken by (blech) Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher.
I never noticed any green TNG uniforms…although on the original series, a green uniform signified that Shatner though he was too big a star to dress like everyone else…
Technically, the color used for science and medical uniforms in TNG is teal – which is blue-green. It can change depending on lighting. The other colors are mustard and wine. Don’t ask me why I remember that.
As for why they did the red/yellow swap for TNG, my guess is that they figured Patrick Stewart looked better in a red costume. Imagine him and Frakes in the mustard outfits (like Riker had in “Second Chances”) and they don’t carry as much weight. Likewise, the choice of Data’s costume seems to have been aesthetic, rather than functional. He could’ve been put in any color, but they chose the one that complemented his makeup.
As for green uniforms, look no further than Kirk’s wraparound tunic. The guy wore three different main costumes, but it took me years before I noticed. Just dazzled by his outstanding hairdo, I guess.
You mean the ones they used in the last couple of Star Trek movies, and the final seasons of Deep Space Nine? As I remember, according to Ron Moore (A DS9 writer who used to answer questions from fans regularly on a message board on AOL), they switched to the new ones because they had so many “layers” (Undershirt, Vest, Jacket, etc.) and it would be “cool” to have the characters be able to strip off whatever layers to fit the dramatic situation. To me, it just looked hot, itchy, and made our fine starfleet officers look like overdressed bellhops or maintinence crews. Plus, it raised the question of why starfleet would completely redesign it’s uniforms three times in 15 years, even during times of war.
And, oddly enough, this information has been brought to you from a man who wouldn’t see anything wrong with dressing in a T-shirt and jeans to a job interview.
It looked like the DS9 and TNG uniforms were supposed to be interchangable (witness our heroes switching back and forth in Generations) But then an across the board redesign went on during First Contact. The earlier switch from TNG seasons 1&2 to the later uniforms was probably written off as a minor change by the powers that be. But since you can just replicate your uniform, it is not a major cost to overhaul uniforms each thursday. It keeps the fashion designers off the streets and out of trouble!
So the story goes, TNG was going to use the same color scheme as The Original Series – gold/mustartd for command, blue for science and red for ship’s services. However, according to legend, all the cast members who would have had red uniforms protested, because even then, red was known as the “dead ensign” color.
The problem was resolved when Patrick Stewart, who wasn’t familiar with The Original Series, agreed to wear a red uniform. The curse was broken, the color codes rewritten and everyone lived happily ever after.
I have no idea if it’s true, it’s just what I heard once.
I like the way that DS9 crew members mostly wore uniforms with colored shoulders, black everywhere else, while Enterprise (TNG) crew members had black shoulders and trousers, colors on the torso. (the color schemes vs. assignments were the same, however)
My understanding is that the crew wore “jumpsuits” (colored shoulders) when on duty on a stationary space station, and regular uniforms when on a ship. This seems to have been consistently followed.
Also, they ALL switched to the new, layered, quilted-look uniforms at about the same time: a late season of DS-9, and TNG was in the theaters. I even remember Dr. Bashir commenting on how dull the new uniforms looked.
One final note: I really like the uniforms on “Enterprise” - am I the only one? And I haven’t geeked out enough to see if the color scheme matches TOS or TNG. Yet.
More likely, physical reality caught up with them. A single-layer spandex outfit is fine if you’re relatively slim, as all the cast members were during early seasons of TNG. As the actors aged and their physiques became harder to maintain, it was better to switch them to a slimming mostly-black uniform. The same logic was likely used in putting the original series actors into those burgundy tunics (and James Doohan in a bulkier radiation suit) from the second movie onward. Ron Moore was unlikely to say “Well, we went to a mostly black outfit because, frankly, Gates McFadden and Marina Sirtis are starting to sag a bit and Jonathon Frakes has been getting wide-ass from sitting in his director’s chair too much…”
Personally, I think the uniforms in the second movie were overall the best, with an actual jacket and pockets and other useful features.
The stupidest uniforms to date were those pajama suits from the first film, inspired by Space: 1999, no doubt.
If I recall, Kirk’s goofy green tunic thing was introduced suspiciously close to the good Kirk/evil Kirk episode, and phased out shortly thereafter. My guess is that it was a lame attempt to help us differentiate between the two, rather than another manifestation of Shatner’s famous ego.
Ditto on the hair, though. Man, I would’ve killed for Kirk Hair in seventh grade.
Double Bleech!! Not that Wheaton was an especially bad actor, I just hated the whole cutesy-ness (an total unrealistic-ness) of having a teenager steering a mile long spacecraft. One of the biggest things I give the creative team behind TNG credit for was severely limiting his role and then getting rid of him once he got old. Had the show been on ABC his character would have been made the freakin’ star ("Scott Baio - Space Cadet!")
Don’t think so, because the Voyager crew wore the ‘colored shoulders/mostly black’ type. When I was watching the episode where Voyager is captured by those guys with the huge rastah-man hair and they strand the crew on a desert planet, I remember thinking “Christ, those actors must be dying wearing those all black getups in the blazing sun!” Was pretty neat seeing a starship lower gear and actually land on a planet!
Jonathan Frakes likes them. The first time he visited the set of ‘Enterprise’ he exclaimed, “Oh my god, pockets! We’d have killed for pockets. And a zipper!” Their uniforms are all navy blue but the epilette style stripes around their shoulders seem to follow TOS scheme (gold for command, red for ops, blue for science/med).
God, Scotty’s outfit in Wrath of Khan was so silly looking. I kept expecting to slowly see him with a red nose, then a rainbow wig, then bicycle horns on his feet, then chasing everyone in engineering around with a seltzer bottle…
I remember reading (in Starlog magazine I think) that the producers of the first film felt that the stark, primary colors of TOS outfits would look silly on the big screen. So they dressed everyone (and basically everything) in beige. Yeah, that looked a lot better!