The definitive guide to Star Trek Starfleet uniforms
Posted by staff / October 26, 2016
Heaven forbid you end up at a Halloween party thinking you dressed as a captain, and a true Trekkie busts you for being a lowly ensign.
Rather than spending the night running around getting drinks and having people tell you to “Go look over that hill,” get it right the first time with Atlas Obscura‘s guide to decoding Starfleet uniforms.
For example:
In the original Star Trek series, which ran from 1966-1969 (or roughly from 2254 to 2269, in universe), there were three standard uniform colors among the Starfleet officers on the Enterprise: gold, blue, and red. During this time period you have gold uniforms being worn by people in command positions (Captain James T. Kirk, helmsman Lieutenant Sulu); blue uniforms were reserved for members of the science divisions, which included the medical staff (O.G. science officer, Lieutenant Commander Spock, and Doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy). Then you have the hard-working folks in the red uniforms, who make up the operations divisions on the ship, including security and engineering (Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, and countless, faceless extras that served as doomed security officers, also known as “redshirts”).
Live long and prosper.
Full story at Atlas Obscura.
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Wow, what a truly useless article.
you mean in the future there is no green? no purple? no white or black? no brown??? and
stripes are completely out of the question?
actually the “gold” was avacado green
So what happened a hundred years later in TNG? Did the lowly reds revolt against the golds and demand a color swap?
James Avacado Green was the Captain’s Dress uniform
I’D LOVE 2 GET A CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK,MR. SPOCK,SCOTTY,UNIFORM.HOW MUCH DO THEY COST.EMAIL ME THE INFORMATION AT THIS EMAIL:[email protected] YOU.KEVEN F. DONNELL
Wait. this is “definitive”? What about Voyager, TNG, DS9, etc.? And all the derivatives in the shows and the movies including those in the Kelvin timeline? This article is far from definitive. Stupid. Glad it was short.
Full story at Atlas Obscura.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-to-read-the-secret-language-of-starfleet-uniforms?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=f013fca63f-Newsletter_10_26_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f36db9c480-f013fca63f-63073461&ct=t(Newsletter_10_26_2016)&mc_cid=f013fca63f&mc_eid=e0dc911a8b
Actually in TOS the “Yellow” shirts were “Light Green” but the camera picked them up as “Gold”.
Also, they had the Captains “Green” uniform which the cameras picked up as “Green”. This uniform appeared in season 2 when Shatner put on a slight beer belly that they felt they needed to hide. The command insignia is actually on a flap lower down on the shirt that allowed them to re-adjust the shirt size.
There is also another “Green” dress uniform that the cameras picked up as “Green” that the captain wore for special occasions.
LAWRENCE DUBREUIL – Actually James is correct, the original “plan” was command would wear green, this is WHY the dress uniform and the “wrap” were both green as well. The early film/lighting that was in use early in the production made the green standard uniform look gold, it was a velour like fabric and it “showed” as gold on screen. The wrap ad the dress uniform used different fabrics that did show as green. It was later adopted into cannon that indeed command was gold. (Until NG when it was swapped Red to command and gold to engineering and support.) Just say’n.
Star Trek (Original and Next Generation) may have been the greatest achievement in the history of television, and we’re quibbling over uniforms. This is highly illogical.