Starfleet Uniform Question

[mojo1701]

I don't exactly understand why the different Star Trek series had different uniforms on at the same time. For example, when the Enterprise D was at DS9, Picard had the original, and Sisko had the newer one. When Janeway contacted Starfleet, Voyager never changed their uniforms to be the same as the rest of Starfleet.

Does anyone know why?

 

[Umbran]

Well, there are a few reasons...

As for DS9 - people in different branches of the service have different uniforms. There's one "Starfleet", but there's some differentiation - space station personel have different uniforms than those on starships. That's not all that odd - people in the modern US "Armed Forces" have different uniforms if they are stationed on a Navy ship or an Army base...

As for Janeway - on a ship whose resources are supposed to be somewhat limited, going through the effort of changing uniform designs merely because you happen to have managed to "phone home" is a little much, I should think. If you're having a hard time even managing to talk, passing uniform designs back and forth is a bit silly.

 

[mojo1701]

Well, I understand that 'limited resources' argument, but not necessarily that 'space station' one. Then why did Voyager have that one, too?

And naval ship and army base are different brances, aren't they?

And DS9 changed it in the last few seasons to the grey top, black rest, with colour collar.




Ooh, try saying 'colour collar' a few times.

 

[Granduke]

I think they unis were different because the designers at Paramount made them for the new shows

Seriulsy tho, the 'Star Trek World' explanation would be simply that the new uniform was coming into service. As Starfleet adapted the new uni, the old one was still official for a while. I mean even Starfleet couldnt issue them to everyone at once or the various ships couldnt fabricate tham as soon as they were allowed. Such a thing is not unusual in real life.

As for the Voyager explanation I think Umbran hit it on the head-for most of the series they wer cut off frim Starfleet and didnt know of the change. Even after they made contact late in the series, they couldnt really waste precious energy to create new ones.

 

[Viking Bastard]

The history of different costumes in Trek (real story, not in story exscuses):

The original TOS uniforms were really cheap and corny (even for the time period) so when they made 'The Motion Picture' they decided to create new and better uniforms. Of course, Gene Roddenberry was very much hands-on on all design for the movie and because he was a senile hippie, the uniforms he designed were pretty much just pajamas. The fans didn't like it.

Now, Paramount realized that maybe giving Roddenberry so much power over the franchise wasn't really such a grand idea. Fans were asking for more 'space adventure' and less 'new age mythology', so for 'Wrath of Khan' his involvment was really cut down. Director Nicholas Meyer hated the TMP uniforms and wanted more gritty, army-lookin' uniforms. Those uniforms remained with the film franchise until 'First Contact'.

Then there came TNG, where Roddenberry finally got some power over the franchise again. Not going quite as radically into the pajama direction this time, we get the season 1-2 TNG uniforms. They were cheap and badly done and very uncomfortable.

When TNG got renewed for a third season, got a budget boost and Roddenberry had to leave the franchise because of health problems, the uniforms were all redone. It followed the same basic design as the 1-2 season ones,with some minor changes, like the collars, but were much more expensive and comfortable. Some cast members then got new uniforms in the fifth or sixth seasons that are slightly different, because the old uniforms had been worn out.

New cheaper, more durable yet comfortable uniforms were made for DS9. TNG was not made change over because it was too expensive to make new uniforms for a show that only had one season left of it's run. In 'Generations' stock costumes from DS9 were used on extras because the movie got it's budget cut considerably early in production. When Voyager started they used the DS9 costumes as well, which are made out of a slightly different material, but otherwise completely the same.

'First Contact' got a huge budget, the largest for a Trek movie up to that point. To go with the darker nature of the movie, the producers made the grey costumes. When the filming of the movie was over, DS9 got the First Contact uniforms (the exact same ones). This was not the original plan, DS9's producers just asked for them, thinking that the tone of the costumes would fit the upcoming war arc of the series. As the series progressed you can notice that some of the costumes used on the extras in seasons 6-7 are slightly different than the ones used by the main cast. These are new costumes manufactored with DS9's limited budget.

Voyager never changed to these costumes except for the people they contacted in the Alpha Quadrant (that borrowed DS9's costumes), because Braga preferred the old ones and they got a pretty good exscuse not to switch.

 

[Chun-tzu]

[cheap shot]
You could also say that it reflects the fact that the new uniforms in DS9 were symbolic of the new ground (stories) they were covering, while Voyager was still wearing the old ones because they were still telling the exact same stories as TNG.
[/cheap shot]

 

[Viking Bastard]

Heh.

As much as I prefer the grey costumes over the pajama ones, I
think that it fits perfectly story-wise for them not to switch.

 

[mojo1701]

Ok, ok, I guess this makes sense.

But that cheap shot... I dunno... Voyager had quite a few original ideas.

 

[Ranger REG]

Only a handful of the episodes I can count, mojo1701, that were fresh and original.

 

[Viking Bastard]

'Year of Hell' and uh... probably something else...