Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The Next Generation Uniforms You Need To Know

tng's starfleet uniforms evolved loads over the course of its seven season run including that badass leather shoulder jacket picard had get me one of those i'll wear it for every single trek culture video going forward whatever the weather if i can get me one of those bad boys anyway tng's uniform has been the subject of their own real world controversies and production problems and inspired future generations of costuming appearing as recently as in star trek picard's first season and star trek discovery's third like star trek's many famous starships its props its sets its aliens its fictional history star trek the next generation's uniforms have their own law and their own secrets i am marcus bronzy this is trek culture and it's about time to unfold 10 secrets of star trek the next generation starfleet uniforms number 10 that's starfleet stank star trek the next generation's first take on 24th century starfleet uniforms were form-fitting and sleek with bold colour-blocking reminiscent of the original series iconic look however in order to conform to designer william ware tyson's strict no wrinkle rule these costumes were held taut with stirrups that looped under your boots and pulled down your back uncomfortable right yep well you're right if you think that the discomfort associated with these early costumes is much storied in the legacy of star trek jonathan frakes even claimed to have ripped more than one of them off in frustration i reckon he was doing the reichel maneuver you know what that leg was like it was always cocking itself up on the comp panels no uniform had a chance when you were pulling those moves on them without a warm-up anyway in at least one telling of the horrors of those uniforms patrick stewart stated that they had caused so much back pain his chiropractor suggested that he sue the producers of the show less talked about however is the stank that smell tng's og uniforms were constructed out of a lycra spandex a material not known for its breathability according to tyson's successor robert blackman there was no give in the shoulder and there was constant pressure on the actors who were wearing the costumes for 12 to 15 hours a day they were very very much disliked and uncomfortable to wear hot and they also retain body odor eew so along with the cat poop in the corridors the uniforms apparently smelled the set of the uss enterprise d must have been flavoursome to say the least number nine where's t point following the departure of tice at the end of season one due to health issues dorinda rice wood was star trek the next generation second costume designer like her predecessor would only spend a single year on the series but made a huge impact during her time there designing the now iconic big hat look for gainan and collaborating with michael westmore to create the borg wood was also responsible for getting diana troy out of that denim jumpsuit into the lavender burgundy job until she transitioned to the standard duty uniform midway through season six wood also tackled wesley crusher's fashion to be calling choices dispensing with the rotating series of very 1980 sweaters which were in fact no it was the 80s so i'm not gonna diss those wood created a standard acting ensign uniform basing the costume on the uniforms worn at the united states military academy aka west point according to wood if she had the opportunity she would have given the entire tng crew a similar makeover but budgetary constraints meant that only wesley received a new uniform ironically six years after wood departed the franchise robert blackman and deborah everton's redesigned uniforms for star trek first contact would harken back to wesley's west point uniform featuring similar blue-gray quilted shoulders and a little bit of piping number eight evolution upon joining the show between tng's second and third seasons costume designer robert blackman was tasked by producer rick berman with redesigning the uncomfortable and stanky costumes the costume change is immediately apparent in the third season premiere evolution with the command crew of the enterprise d now sporting two-piece uniforms with what blackman considered more noble mandarin colours less evident however is the fact that the uniforms were still a work in progress when cameras rolled on season 3 and evolved over the first few episodes ultimately blackman settled on an eisenhower jacket and the iconic look of tng was finally cemented for the rest of the series also got some nice appearances on star trek generations and a few on deep space nine number seven the other picard maneuver recently referenced in star trek picard's first season finale and originating in tng's the battle the picard maneuver is a massively amazing tactical strategy using a warp drive and how it works belongs in another video on this channel behind the scenes however the phrase picard maneuver has an altogether different meaning when standing up and sitting down the uniform that was single piece would and did bunch around the belly to accommodate for said bunching patrick stewart began to pointedly tugger his costume on set making the necessary costume adjustment part of john luke picard's dramatic mannerisms even after the single piece costumes were replaced with the jacket and trousers combo in season 3 stewart continued the habit but for a different reason instead of straightening his costume as he did in seasons one and two in seasons three onwards it was all about keeping that short taylor jacket from riding up and showing some unwanted abs number six the die is cast equality of the sexes in the 24th century should mean that the men and women serving aboard the uss enterprise d were treated exactly the same surprise surprise they weren't whilst the men in the cast of tng were given two-piece uniforms in season three that were more comfortable and forgiving in terms of body size the women were required to wear the same old single piece spandex jumpsuits according to the producers these one-piece uniforms were preferred by gates mcfadden who actually got her own custom uniform in season 3 distinct from the other ones worn by other female starfleet officers mcfadden's version of the sciences division uniform was nearly identical to the standard costumes that were used on the show but were made of higher quality material that better resembled the jackets worn by her male co-stars owing to its unique construction dr crusher's medical blue uniform was actually a slightly different shade of blue and you should be able to pick it out in season four if you've got a keen enough eye number five dress uniforms this one's kind of a bummer but no discussion of star trek the next generation's uniforms is complete without talking about the scant named by first season costume designer william ware tice because it was intended to be a gender-neutral hybrid of the skirt and pants having the actress and actors both in skirts was to defuse any of the sexist accusations that might have been associated with the designs from the old show it's also fashionably probably what 400 years from now men would wear scance because many actors just weren't comfortable with wearing the costume the scant was slowly phased out and no male member of the cast ever wore the uniform again 80s and 90s clearly weren't ready for the scant but the costume designer gersha phillips recently resurrected the distinct look for the recent centric short treks the trouble with edward and ask not so we may see more scants in the future number four advanced zipper technology we all know that famous gene roddenberry quote in the 24th century there'll be no hunger there'll be no greed and all the children will know how to read plus there'll be no zippers along trius's edict that there would be no wrinkles in starfleet in the future gene roddenberry also alleged that there would be no zippers in the future as such every starfleet uniform in the roddenberry and rick berman errors of star trek were designed to hide those closures to the point where hollywood magic was used when the script called for an officer to remove her uniform jacket as seen in season 5's and some row even the starfleet uniform that appears to be single piece jumpsuits are in fact made of two pieces with invisible breaks in the waist and an invisible closure running up the front in real life this was achieved simply by intercutting footage of michelle forbes in her regular jumpsuit with footage of her removing a specifically designed jacket put simply in the 24th century zipper technologies are so advanced so it's akin to magic number three generations wardrobe malfunction when star trek the next generation ended its seven season run on television the cast and crew immediately kicked into gear on the production of 1994's star trek generations whilst the show's sets costumes props and models had all been designed to capture as much detail and realism as possible certain elements simply wouldn't stand up to the scrutiny of the big screen producer rick berman encouraged experimentation with tng's look resulting in costumes that look great on paper but according to robert blackman that's the only place they look great because after a single day of production filming with blackman's new starfleet uniforms it was evident that the costumes just weren't working and the decision was made to scrap him starfleet's new look was out and it was replaced with a combination of old uniforms from tng and relatively new ones from deep space nine footage of that single day shoot with the revised uniforms is rare blink and you'll miss it with this poor quality footage of levar burton wearing his and there are no photographs as far as i know of the cast in these costumes that have ever surfaced however playmates toys gave us a little insight into how they might look they produced their line of star trek generations action figures anticipating the cast would be wearing these new uniforms and were unable to change the toys look once the decision was made to cut the new uniforms from the film this resulted in a lot of confused kids on christmas day 1994. number two picard's lost combadge stay with me on this one because i sometimes confuse myself following star trek generation's new uniform snafu blackman stepped aside for the following three motion pictures batman though wasn't the only one who apparently had a tough time on the star trek generations costume department whilst the brand new uniforms didn't make it into the final film though i will say they did go on to inspire the starfleet uniforms in star trek lower decks a unique costume was created for patrick stewart identical to the coveralls worn on star trek deep space nine at the time captain picard's uniform featured a belt buckle newcomb badges were also created specifically for generations debuting first in star trek deep space nine's the search the new com badge was designed by john eaves and replaced by tng's overall backing with a rectangular one unfortunately when the generations production crew traveled to nevada to film the scenes on set on viridian 3 someone forgot to pack captain picard's combadge yeah okay uniforms check data's contacts check combat i thought you was going to bring the combat in the finished film picard beams from the enterprise down to the planet and his combadge somehow doesn't make the trip with him many simply assumed including me that the dura sisters had removed it but in the real world explanation is that the production couldn't afford the time and or money it would take to retrieve or make a new com badge so therefore whatever we'll just film and now you'll never be able to unsee that mistake in star trek generations i've cursed you with that sharing my pain number one starfleet issue bras and jockstraps star trek has never really been shy about showing its heroes in various stages of undress especially an enterprise i mean it was like they found any excuse to get the crew of the nx01 into their blue starfleet issue undies but star trek the next generation was a little more restrained and exactly what the crew of the enterprise d wore underneath those uniforms remained a mystery that is until a 1994 tour of the tng costume department in which marina certis revealed the existence of specially made padded bras for female officers and jockstraps or support briefs for the men about her federation underwear she said this is the industrial strength starfleet regulation brazier i think i'm partially responsible for every woman on the show wearing one of these and that's because they work women weren't alone in having strategically padded starfleet uniforms not only were the male cast members of tng forced to wear underwear that specifically hid their vpl their costumes were enhanced with pectoral pads to make the starfleet uniform jackets more structured and more flattering where can i buy those from so there you have it i've been marcus bronzey and that was 10 secrets of the next generation uniforms got something to add to the convo let us know in the comments and of course make sure you like and subscribe you can also find us on twitter at trek culture i'm on all social medias at marcus bronzy m-a-r-c-u-s-b-r-o-n-z-y i've also got a kick-ass podcast called how to kill an hour you can find that wherever you listen to yours until next time llap

Channel: TrekCulture

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Id: DW3Ja4qo6EI

Length: 12min 40sec (760 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 30 2021