Star Trek

I think I've seen the DS 9 style referred to as a "utility uniform", the implication being that they get more hands-on on an outpost station than on the flagship.

Memory Alpha doesn't mention that distinction, but it does note that Sciences Blue is more greenish in that version, which I think is why the men look better in "blue" in that style.

That probably explains why Crusher and Ogawa seemed to be the only medical staff on the Enterprise, and why when Q wanted to show Picard what a loser he'd be if he hadn't fought that Nausicaan, he put him in blue.

Wimpy Picard in blue was actually when I noticed "man, no guy looks good in blue".

You know, the only thing that could have made it worse for Picard was if Q showed him that without him, Wesley would be the captain by now.

Lighting is also something that can play havoc with colors. Data has a golden skin tone, but the lights tended to wash it out and he looked more pale white. The more garish lighting in DS9 could make the blue shoulders looks more green. I know the Enterprise jump suits were supposed to be a navy blue but came across as purple.

As for the DS9 uniform change, we never really got a strong idea if there were different departments within Starfleet or if it was all one organization and the color divisions was all there was. I mean, I think O'Brien was enlisted personnel in that he didn't go to Starfleet Academy, but he operated in the exact same capacity as Chief Engineer anyway. He's qualified, certainly, but real life is pretty picky about things like that. My father-in-law is a board certified mechanic and has been in that career for 40 years, but he still has to have his work double-checked by someone with a masters degree.

I actually think you can see the greenish "Blue" better on Voyager than DS 9.

I think putting an enlisted man in the station's chief engineer role was about how unimportant the station was expected to be. The station's top commanding officer was only a Commander until he convinced Starfleet to install a starship at his post.

edited 13th Nov '14 7:58:12 PM by TParadox

Styles change, but the gunmetal outfits still look good today. If I have to look at these schmucks for 22 episodes, they may as well go easy on the eyes, right?

It is a great look. Nearly as good as the Hornblower jackets. And the detail in the quilted yokes plays really well on screen.

edited 13th Nov '14 11:55:58 PM by TParadox

It's a funny thing, if you go with a style that is old fashioned it tends to look better in 20 years than the style that is hip and fashionable right now. The maroon jackets were so classical looking there was no reason to go with anything else, canonically they lasted at least 60 years (Star Trek 2 was 2285, Wesley's dad was shown wearing it around 2350-ish).

I rather like how the frivolous little Academy science lesson videos made a slight update to the grey and black uniform that might be doing a callback to the flap on the cranberry uniforms.◊

I recently found myself thinking about how to merge the grey-yoked uniforms with the cranberry ones and then I realized I'd already seen it. (Mine would use a lot more of the construction of the older one though)

edited 14th Nov '14 12:26:48 AM by TParadox

What is that image from?

Starfleet Academy

Oh, I didn't say where the frivolous little Academy science lecture videos were from.

They needed HD content for the movie blurays and didn't want to come up with anything actually new, so they wrote some short summaries of the plots framed as Academy lectures and had an actress recite them in front of a green screen.

Starfleet Academy SciSec Briefs at Memory Beta.

edited 14th Nov '14 11:12:28 AM by TParadox

Encounter at Farpoint's saucer separation is insane.

They're bolting at something like Warp 9.6, release the clamps, tap on the brakes lightly to let the saucer get away, and only then do they make the hairpin turn.

The saucer might be able to coast inside the warp bubble for a little bit, but the deceleration involved in going from nearly 3,000 C to sublight speeds should turn the ship into a supernova.

By all accounts that deceleration should have turned Worf and the civilians into a pudding on the back walls of the saucer section.

Worf's great honor courage created a gravitational vortex that kept everyone safe.

I love that McCoy's attitude about aging is that having people recognize you haven't died yet is no reason to be offended.

Also I never noticed that his shirt in that scene is science blue. The remaster brightened it up a lot.

Geordi certainly looks better in gold, but the remastered red looks pretty good on him too.

Sirtis's early attempts at emoting "feeling other minds" looks like she's either about to sneeze or have an orgasm.

edited 15th Nov '14 3:58:12 PM by TParadox

Ah the early TNG. Yeah the "Skant" for males was a bad idea, it just looked silly in those 80's era colors. JPRG's can get away with it but early TNG not so much.

What Could Have Been: Denise Crosby as Troi and Marina Sirtis as Yar....

Oh yeah, last thing on "Encounter": Riker tells Data that he's read Data's record, and then immediately asks him if his rank is honorary.

In "The Naked Now", did anybody else feel like the scene where Data reminds the Captain that the Tsiolkovsky download consists of eight months of data and anything the star could throw at them could be outrun at half impulse came off like he was already impaired? He seems kind of lippy in the delivery. Probably just early shakedown of the character.

I really don't remember, most of early TNG is a bit fuzzy for me. I never properly cared until the beard showed up.

Kinda miss Yar though.

Man, Riker holds it together for ages after he gets infected. Most characters get intoxicated almost immediately, but Riker spends something like 20 minutes taking charge before he finally has a moment of slack to notice he's getting foggy.

Why do the "Everyone gets drunk and horny" episode second? And why THAT episode to be brought back from TOS?

It really says something when the crew acting like drunk, horny idiots wouldn't even make a top ten list for worst TNG season 1 episode.

I figure it was seen as a shortcut to get under the characters' skins and show what they're about.

Results: Geordi moans about seeing too much, Tasha gets some of the best characterization the writers ever bothered to give her, Data does comedy, Crusher and Picard turn into giggling horny teenagers, Riker doesn't have anything underneath his dutiful exterior, and Wesley is at his brattiest knowitall-est, from which there was no coming back for a very large, vocal sector of fandom.

Notably it's a section so large it even includes Wesley Crusher.