United Federation of Planets - Uniforms

History of Starfleet Uniform’s 2151 - 2405



This uniform gallery shows illustrations from the year 2151, Uniform's, starting with Enterprise NX-01 and then onto all series and movies. In the Original Star Trek movies (2 through 6) we see officers wearing a consistent uniform, which consisted of black boots and trousers, a burgundy wrap-around top with white collar. This attire appears to have been the standard duty uniform of Starfleet officers for quite a long time, although there were a few variations of this theme.



In ‘TAPESTRY’ we can see that more or less the same uniform was in use in the early to mid 24th century (Picard’s Q induced jaunt back to his reckless youth). And in ‘FAMILY’ we see a holographic recording of Jack Crusher, seen by Wes aged 18. Jack is wearing the same uniform. This was made just after Wesley’s birth, allowing any of us to ascertain that it was in general use around 2349 (some 18 years before ‘FAMILY’). So we know that this uniform was decommissioned between this holographic recording and Jack Crusher’s death.



For in ‘VIOLATIONS’ we see a flashback of Crusher and Picard at the morgue to identify Jack’s body. They were at that point wearing the more modern uniform we see in the show’s first season, as they also were in Picard’s Stargazer dream sequence in ‘THE BATTLE’. Seeing as Wesley was 5 when Jack died, we can determine that the new uniform was commissioned between 2349 and 2354. So the old burgundy uniform reigned from at least the early 2280's (‘The Wrath Of Khan’) to the mid 24th century, some 60-70 years.



There appears to be a great inconsistency in the regularity of uniform commissioning and usage. Since ‘ENCOUNTER AT FARPOINT’ the uniform has changed several times. It became a lot fuller and less tight for the third season, also gaining a collar. Further on, a belt was added, the zipper was then at the back. Captain Picard sometimes wore (from the 5th season on) additional accessories to this theme, such as a jacket with padded shoulders, and grey top beneath.



Then came the introduction of a jump-suit, or (boiler suit) which was mainly all black with command indicated across the shoulders, this also included a new grey under garment. Also, this addition to DS9 doesn’t seem to be used ubiquitous throughout the ranks of Starfleet. Other visiting personnel sometimes wear the older uniform, such as Captain Keogh in ‘THE JEM’HADAR’, and Thomas Riker in ‘DEFIANT’. And in ‘Generations’ half the crew wore the old uniform and the other half the new one. Riker wore the new one in ‘Generations’, yet in ‘DEATHWISH’ on ‘Voyager’ two years later, he is back to wearing the old one again, complete with the old Combadge design. Perhaps his other uniform was at the cleaners!



In DS9's 'THE VISITOR' we see the future sequence of Captain Nog visiting a middle aged Jake at his home. Nog is wearing the old TNG style uniform. This whole situation at this point seems to be a bit of shambles of continuity.



In the eighth movie, ‘Star Trek: First Contact’, we see yet another new uniform. Being mainly all black with a kind of corrugated grey effect upon the shoulders. So we have one widely used uniform for about 65 years, and then the first season uniform lasts from the 2350’s to the third season of TNG, around 2365.



From that time on to the early 2370’s, and ‘First Contact’, we see the uniform change persistently, 4 or 5 times with all the variations thereof –so for a period lasting a couple of decades we see an unrealistic number of changes to uniform when you take into account how long the burgundy one endured. The creators certainly like to keep the costume department busy.

Thanks on information to: Spike @ http://home.arcor.de/spike730/

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Last edited by Adge - April 2004

Edition 1.2