We can blame Robert Wise himself for abandoning the uniform color scheme used in Star Trek: The original Series. He thought it would look garish on film. We can blame Gene Roddenberry for the look for the clothes. He believed that clothes would be disposable in the future -- worn a few times and then recycled -- so all the clothes were designed to look flimsy and uniform in style. (There is no fashion in the future, he said.) Robert Fletcher, an award-winning theatrical costume designer, designed the clothes. He agreed with Wise that brightly colored uniforms would look unrealistic on film. This must look real...must look real attitude had also spilled over onto the sets. Nearly all the sets for the film were intended for the TV series Star Trek: Phase II. The bridge developed for Phase II was nearly complete by the time the film was greenlit and the series cancelled, and little change was made to it. The sets were designed Joseph Jennings (an art director on TOS), Jim Rugg (FX designer on TOS), and Matt Jefferies (FX and prop designer on TOS). The sets got ride of the neon blinking lights on the control panels, the red turbolift doors, brilliantly colored images on the monitors. Instead, all colors on the bridge were a neutral gray and matte black, with lots of dull white lights (with no indication of what they were supposed to do or be). Fletcher decided on beige for Ops, steel blue-grey for Science/Engineeering, and dull teal for Command. Another major change he also made was to allow only a single bad to be worn on the uniform. On the series, each duty branch had its own badge on the left breast. These were eliminated in favor of a standard badge (Fletcher used the Command symbol), although the color scheme in the circle behind the delta shape varied depending on the duty branch. Fletcher had to fabricate a Class A uniform, Class B uniform (for off-duty), and a Dress uniform. The Class A uniforms are seen in the image originally posted. The Class B uniform was basically a t-shirt with shoulder boards to indicate rank and duty branch. All costumes had the shoe built into the foot, to make it look futuristic. With uniform design nearly complete, Roddenberry demanded that a sensor be added to the belly of each uniform. His idea was that these sensors could monitor a persons vital signs from the ship: A person who was injured or poisoned by a mugatu bite or whatever could be monitored by a physician on the ship, and that person could rely instructions to a crewmember on the ground. It would also mean that an away-team member could be constantly tracked. (This would eliminate the old trope of we cant get a transporter lock on him or theres too much interference or whatever crappy rationale was given for not beaming the Captain or Spock out of danger.) Fletcher also designed heavy sheepskin field jackets and exercise/leisure wear for the characters. Interestingly, all the costume work was done BEFORE casting was complete. Thus, according to Roddenberry himself, the roles of Decker and Ilia were cast based on how well they fit their already-completed costumes. (It was not a given that Persis Khambatta would play Ilia. Although shed been cast in the role in Phase II, she did not want to shave her head again and was reluctant to do the movie.)
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 21:39:49 +0000
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