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Star Trek uniforms are as iconic as the show itself. Over the years, Starfleet uniforms have changed their design and colors as a strategic move to embrace the future. While in The Original Series, the USS Enterprise crew wears the gold, blue, and red uniforms, in The Next Generation and following Star Trek ventures, the uniforms undergo some obvious changes, depending on their colors and roles associated with them.
While Captain James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner) wore the golden Starfleet uniform as the commander of the ship, in The Next Generation, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (played by Patrick Stewart) adopted the red color as gold did not look commanding on him.
Why did Star Trek change colors from The Original Series?
While the creators of the franchise never gave a solid explanation for it, one of the reasons that would be often cited for the regular changes in the colors of the Star Trek uniforms is that most of the Star Trek ventures brought in new set of design teams who would work with the actors to create the color that was suitable to the character, the storyline and above all, the budget.
For The Next Generation, Stewart was initially going to follow Shatner's footsteps and adorn the gold uniform made by costume designer William Ware Theiss. However, Stewart felt that he did not look commanding enough in the gold uniforms and decided to change the color to red, as gold was associated with everyone in the operations.
Uniforms in Star Trek: The Original Series
In The Original Series, gold was associated with the command, red for operations, and blue for science and medical. The costumes were designed by William Ware Theiss, who would also go on to work in The Next Generation. Creator Gene Roddenberry initially wanted green instead of gold for command of the ship. However, on camera it did not look appealing, so the production decided to go with gold.
Among trekkies, there was a theory going around, according to which people in red seem to die first in Star Trek. But that stopped when the Star Trek universe started expanding.
Uniforms in some of the other Star Trek projects
In every Star Trek venture, the colors represent the department associated with the crew member. The only change was the design of the costume itself and where the colors were placed. From collars to shoulder pads, the designs took a new and innovative turn.
In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, we go on to see the cast adopt more subtle colors such as white, grey, blue, and brown. The uniform design seemed flat compared to the bright outfits that the trekkies were used to. However, in The Wrath of Khan, we see that the cast gets a memorable costume makeover with red jackets and collars indicating the department they are in. White was associated with command, grey, orange, and green for other departments.
In The Next Generation, while they started in colored jumpsuits, as the series proceeded, the jumpsuits were replaced with woollen outfits because of the discomfort from the material that were used previously. The colors were all jumbled up, which now had red for command, gold for operations, white and blue for the other departments.
In Deep Space Nine the colors on the shoulder pads over the crew’s black suit referred to their departments. Voyager and Picard followed a similar style with a few changes. In First Contact, the cast would be seen wearing grey shouldered outfits with colored undershirts. Variations of this would be seen in many other Star Trek projects as well.
In Star Trek: Enterprise, the crew donned dark blue jumpsuits and a triangle design on their shoulders, each color representing the department they are in. These gave a more practical approach to the uniform.
Even Star Trek: Strange New Worlds would adopt similar colors like in The Original Series. One of the reasons could be to give it continuity since Captain Pike (played by Anson Mount) was Captain Kirk’s predecessor and mentor.
Star Trek: Discovery had a complete makeover. With the dark blue suits and metallic designs, it brought a futuristic and chic look to the uniform. For the colors, gold represented command, silver for science, and bronze for operations.
Discovery costume designer Gersha Phillips went on to weave magic with her creations, including elaborate golden looks for the Mirror Universe in the series. As per Forbes, Phillips said,
“I wanted something that still had to capture the feeling of Star Trek, but had a more updated feeling… I felt like I needed something that represented today’s world more ... My thing is always that the idea of the future is that your body is scanned, at least in Star Trek, and your garment is made to your measurements through the replicator. (That’s) what we were saying for Discovery, so they should fit really well and that’s sort of the idea.”
Star Trek: The Original Series aired on NBC from 1966 to 1969. Created by Gene Roddenberry, the Star Trek franchise today has expanded to animated series, movies and spinoff shows.
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