star trek movie costume design

How Star Trek Brought Its Most Underrated Uniform Back

Costume designer Bernadette Croft reveals how she rebooted the look from “The Menagerie” for Strange New Worlds .

In November 1966, Star Trek aired a game-changing story. In its only two-part episode ever, “The Menagerie,” Spock goes on trial for mutiny, leading to a memorable courtroom storyline that retroactively established the Captain Pike backstory. For the occasion of the courtroom drama, the entire crew rocks their dress uniforms, which introduced a fancy variant of the famous Starfleet uniform. And now, in Strange New Worlds , that classic dress uniform is back.

“We actually call the formal dress uniforms on Strange New Worlds , ‘The Menagerie uniforms’,” costume designer Bernadette Croft tells Inverse . “It’s our colors and our fabric, but we’re really leaning into the nostalgia.” Ahead of Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 2, “Ad Astra per Aspera,” we caught up with Croft to discuss these the new/old dress uniforms, the fairytale vibe from last year’s “The Elysian Kingdom,” as well as a secret very retro uniform she and her team created, that fans barely noticed. Spoilers ahead.

Kirk and Spock in their dress uniforms in "The Menagerie."

Number One’s trial in “Ad Astra per Aspera” is deeply meta on a canon level. Several of the beats of this episode will remind Trek fans of Spock’s trial in “The Menagerie,” an episode that essentially gave birth to Strange New Worlds in the first place. When Gene Roddenberry decided to repurpose footage from the rejected 1964 pilot episode, “The Cage,” and use it as an extended flashback in “The Menagerie,” the idea of Captain Pike, Number One, and Spock on the Enterprise pre-Kirk became possible.

Tonally, “Ad Astra per Aspera” isn’t much like “The Menagerie,” but considering Spock stole the Enterprise in the previous episode, “The Broken Circle,” the argument that Strange New Worlds is doing its best to be a 2023 update of the 1960s show is strong. For Croft, that aesthetic has to come across in the costumes. Though, because Strange New Worlds comes chronologically after Discovery Season 2, influences from that series are felt, too.

“It’s kind of like a fusion of both shows,” Croft explains. “The trim around the neck and down the center front to just have more detail. We also did a collar decal. That hides the zippers. I learned that trick from [costume designer] Gersha Phillips on Discovery . Our dress uniforms also have that heroic silhouette, with a bit more power. It's also kind of the same silhouette as our normal staff uniforms. Their rank is on their shoulders, and that's in cadence with the Admiral uniform. People have reacted well to it. It seems the fans think it’s a pretty good update.”

The Vulcan judge and Captain Batel during the big trial.

In 1964 and 1965, Star Trek: The Original Series used velour for the uniforms in the first two pilot episodes: “The Cage,” and “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Because Discovery Season 2 and Strange New Worlds take place after “The Cage,” the uniforms are somewhere between 2254 and 2265. But, what about before that? What did the uniforms look like when Captain Pike served under Captain April in the 2240s? If you look closely at a photograph in Pike’s quarters in the Season 1 finale, you’ll see the answer. In the photo, Pike and April are rocking very velour, retro Starfleet uniforms. But, Croft reveals this wasn’t a Photoshop trick.

“It was so funny because it was a last-minute request. We didn't have much time at all,” Croft explains. “But yeah, with the picture in the frame, we were’ like ‘we gotta do The Cage.’ We obviously checked with our showrunners and producers to make sure that the uniform makes sense for April and Pike to be wearing. Usually, we tweak things. But this time we were like, let’s just do that velour look. We found this olive velour fabric locally, and we whipped that together.”

The photo in 'Strange New Worlds,' and the '60 inspiration.

As Emmy season approaches at warp speed, Bernadette Croft is hopeful that the world beyond eagle-eyed Star Trek fans takes notice of the work of her amazing costume team. Specifically, the Season 1 episode, “The Elysian Kingdom,” is eligible for a costume Emmy. In that episode, the entire USS Enterprise was transformed into a fairytale world, thanks to a telepathic alien who read the memories of Dr. M’Benga’s daughter, Rukiya. And, as a result, the entire crew gets costumes that feel worthy of an entire sword and sorcery fantasy series.

“Because the world was from Rukiya’s imagination, I got to tap into that feeling of being a kid and how vibrant your imagination can be,” Croft explains. “So, for Christina’s [Chong] dress, I designed her dress the way I would draw princess dresses as a kid. It was exaggerated and had a life of its own when she walked around the halls of the Enterprise .”

Christina Chong in “The Elysian Kingdom.”

The range that Croft demonstrated in the costumes from “The Elysium Kingdom” in Season 1 is on full display in Season 2. From updated Klingon armor to new elegant gowns for the Vulcans to some very big surprises later in the season, the eye-popping costumes of Strange New Worlds are at least part of the reason to watch. Like the ground-breaking costumes of William Ware Theiss for the 1960s Star Trek , Bernadette Croft is pushing the envelope, not so much to make a show that is futuristic, but one that treats the realm of this corner of the Star Trek franchise, less like science fiction and more like historical fiction.

“We take all sorts of inspiration,” Croft explains. “Sometimes it's a retro-futuristic world and we have to lean into fashions and silhouettes from the past. But other times, we’re going further into history. Our team needs to show that they're about to embark on this adventure. What does the weather look like in that society? How does the clothing take on the work that society is doing? And I think the costume is such an important visual storytelling tool.”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams new episodes on Paramount+.

This article was originally published on June 22, 2023

• Science Fiction

The TNG-era Uniform Paradigm

• January 15, 2022
• General Star Trek costumes , TNG , TWOK

As an additional preface to my updated TNG costuming resources, I thought it would be interesting to discuss the broader paradigm of the TNG-era uniforms, as conceived and established by William Ware Theiss.

With today’s relatively wide cultural awareness of TNG – decades after its original televised run and numerous spinoffs later – I think there’s much we might now take for granted about these uniforms (and their successors) that at the time, required very calculated and intentional decisions.

This isn’t an examination of any one specific uniform, but more about why things were they way they were, conceptually – the ideology behind the TNG-era uniforms.

And from my outsider’s perspective, what I believe may have been going on in the minds of Gene Roddenberry and William Ware Theiss at the time.

THE ORIGINAL SERIES PARADIGM

“In the beginning, there was William Ware Theiss …”

– Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann

Star Trek Costumes: Five Decades of Fashion from the Final Frontier

Twenty-odd years before The Next Generation , William Ware Theiss was the costume designer on The Original Series and the aborted Phase II .

From the precious little we’ve seen of Phase II , it seems clear that moving forward, Theiss had intended to closely adhere to the original uniforms and wardrobe paradigm he’d previously established.

Between Phase II ’s abandonment and The Next Generation ’s launch, however, there had been four feature films starring the original cast, for which Robert Fletcher was the costume designer and Gene Roddenberry had had limited involvement.

The conception and rocky initial production of TNG has been well-documented, which you can learn about via the TNG Blu-Ray special features and William Shatner’s Chaos on the Bridge , among other sources.

The gist of it is that Gene Roddenberry is said to have been unhappy with certain aspects of the TOS movies (and his lack of creative involvement with them) and had become notoriously protective of his franchise vision of the future.

Being back at the helm for the spinoff series – obsessed with what he believed Star Trek was and wasn’t, and with more creative control – it’s hardly surprising that he’d want to “round up” as much of the original team as possible, including William Ware Theiss.

For this new series, there would again be new Starfleet uniforms, and Theiss’ overall approach seems to have basically been to “pick up where he left off” with The Original Series and Phase II , almost entirely disregarding Robert Fletcher’s work on the movies.

(We’ll look at some of Fletcher’s costumes shortly, as well as some movie-era design elements Theiss decided to discard or incorporate into his TNG-era uniforms. I’ll also discuss why I believe Theiss chose the approach he did.)

The Starfleet uniform paradigm, as established by Theiss in The Original Series , included three division colors.

For the movies, Robert Fletcher had considerably widened the palette of division colors and changed their associations.

For The Next Generation , Theiss disregarded Fletcher’s division colors and instead returned to his original three colors (albeit with the red and gold associations swapped).

The TOS uniforms underwent considerable evolution over the show, but in all their incarnations Theiss had established the crew wearing a Starfleet emblem on their left chest.

Robert Fletcher had adapted and modified this design element for the movie-era uniforms, and Theiss incorporated this idea into his TNG-era uniforms as well.

In The Original Series , Theiss had also established several Starfleet uniform variants for specific crew members and occasions.

For example, the captain would have the option of wearing a more relaxed, semi-casual uniform that was distinctive from everyone else’s standard duty uniform.

Although Theiss himself never explored this possibility with his initial TNG-era uniforms, costume designer Robert Blackman would later follow up on Theiss’ concept.

Theiss also established that the ship’s doctor(s) would have an optional uniform variant.

In The Next Generation , Theiss gave Dr. Crusher an optional lab coat to complement her standard duty uniform, and his immediate successor Durinda Rice Wood dressed Dr. Pulaski in her own series of medical smock variants.

The Original Series also had the crew wearing formal uniforms for special occasions, and Theiss incorporated this concept into his TNG-era paradigm as well.

Another of Theiss’ wardrobe choices was to often have background extras and “worker bees” dressed in coveralls, rather than standard duty uniforms.

He integrated this idea into his TNG-era wardrobe too.

THE MOVIE-ERA PARADIGM ... DISCARDED

Although Robert Fletcher created outstanding uniforms for the movies – several of which would go on to become fan-favorites, like the “monster maroons” – in doing so, he had largely disregarded William Ware Theiss’ work on The Original Series .

Color palette notwithstanding, one of the major ways Fletcher diverged from Theiss’ TOS paradigm was by significantly expanding the Starfleet uniform family to include more classes and variants.

This wider variety of uniform styles added more depth to the Star Trek universe, as well as more visual interest – something arguably needed after the bland and muted uniform colors from The Motion Picture .

One major uniform distinction Fletcher made was between commissioned officers and enlisted crew.

This was something we hadn’t seen in The Original Series .

Indeed, the very existence of enlisted crew members was a departure from the show.

Until I’d taken a closer look at TOS-era uniforms, my personal interpretation was that officers wore the standard duty uniforms and enlisted crew wore the aforementioned coveralls, but “Captain John Chase” of Starfleet.ca addressed the issue in this excellent blog post:

https://starfleet.ca/library/uniforms/enlisted_men/

Coveralls notwithstanding, in Theiss’ paradigm, you were either in Starfleet and wore the standard uniform, or you weren’t – very simple.

Despite the existence of enlisted Starfleet personnel having been firmly established and enlisted crew having visually distinctive uniforms in the movies, Theiss returned to his original “uniform or nothing” paradigm for The Next Generation .

Fletcher also dressed engineering crew members in heavy protective suits – visually implying how powerful and hazardous Starfleet engines could be, how committed Starfleet was to the safety of its crew, and perhaps how intense it could be to work next to a matter/anti-matter reactor that powered a starship.

Theiss disregarded the protective engineering suits for TNG as well; engineers simply wore the standard duty uniforms.

Hell, crew members regularly wore the “skants” within a stone’s throw of the warp core, so perhaps we can surmise that Starfleet had made great strides forward with the safety of its engineering sections over “The Lost Era.”

Nor would Theiss ever dress a TNG-era Starfleet engineer in a vest akin to the one Fletcher designed for Scotty.

For the movie-era uniforms, Fletcher also gave medical personnel a specific uniform style that bore little resemblance to the standard duty uniforms, and which seemed to be less of a “variant” and more of a “class.”

(Although Theiss had established possible medical variants for medical personnel in The Original Series , his medical uniform variants were stylistically much closer to the standard duty uniforms.)

Again though, Theiss returned to his tighter uniform paradigm for TNG; other than Dr. Crusher’s distinctive lab coat, medical personnel just wore standard Starfleet uniforms.

Fletcher gave the movie-era Starfleet security helmets and armor …

… which again, Theiss discarded.

Starfleet security officers marched right into God-knows-what with naught but a phaser and the spandex jumpsuits on their backs.

In the movies, we also saw the crew members don various styles of “field uniforms,” including both jackets and vests.

Even though Theiss himself had designed “landing party jackets” in the original TOS pilot, “The Cage,” he didn’t pursue the concept for TNG.

Characters would just go on away missions in the standard uniform; the most they’d ever bother to do would be to grab a tricorder and/or phaser, just like in TOS …

… including some situations in which it would’ve been really handy to have some field supplies like food, water, first aid, basic tools, and other emergency supplies.

And finally, Fletcher had introduced another semi-casual uniform option, in the form of a 23 rd -century “bomber jacket.”

Obviously Theiss chose to discard that idea as well.

I mean, I don’t really see this guy wearing a “bomber jacket” over his skant, do you?

Why did Theiss so thoroughly discard Fletcher’s work for The Next Generation ?

Well, we can only speculate.

Personally, I believe there may have been several major factors.

First may be the purely practical issues of television vs. movie budget, and television vs. movie needs.

Movies have larger budgets, which allow for more elaborate costumes, and more of them. There are more extras, all of whom need to be costumed.

With more characters over a longer span of time on a giant theater screen, more visual interest is arguably needed … yet the costumes still have to bear scrutiny since they’ll be seen on such a huge screen.

On the other hand, one could argue that – at least in an era long before DVD, Blu-Ray, and streaming – TV costumes should be fairly homogenous and instantly-recognizable so the viewer and/or channel surfer immediately know what show is on.

And at the time TNG launched, the costumes only needed to withstand the scrutiny of real-time VHS quality on an 80s-era TV.

Not that Theiss or his successors ever “phoned it in” – it’s actually amazing just how well the TNG-era costumes hold up in remastered HD!

(From what little we saw in What We Left Behind , DS9’s costumes looked phenomenal in remastered HD!)

But today’s 4k binge-watching is an entirely different production and viewing experience, and the TNG uniforms didn’t need to be as ornate and intricately detailed as Fletcher’s movie-era uniforms.

Even if Roddenberry and/or Theiss wanted to (which I doubt), having an entire TV series’ worth of Fletcher’s uniforms may have been utterly impractical for budgetary reasons.

Second, Gene Roddenberry is said to have been displeased with the apparent militarization of Starfleet in the movies, which was reflected in the movie-era uniforms.

I believe one reason the TNG-era uniforms were so different from their movie-era predecessors was an attempt by Roddenberry to visually distance – or even disassociate – The Next Generation from the TOS movies as far as possible.

And third, it is my personal belief that Theiss may have felt slighted by Fletcher’s radically-different uniform designs and, after Phase II never made it off the ground, the success of the movies was salt in his wound …

After all, how would you feel if:

• You were the original costume designer
• Your show was cancelled, but then became enormously popular afterward and your uniform designs became iconic …
• You were to be the costume designer on the new show, which was abandoned
• The cast went on to do four movies without you, but with another costume designer who had largely disregarded your now-iconic work, and those movies were well-received and successful
• The original producer (for whom the movies were also a sore spot) invited you back to design costumes on the new spinoff series

I know how I’d feel!

Artistic and budgetary differences aside, I believe these circumstances may have been a driving force in the mind of William Ware Theiss when conceptualizing his TNG-era uniforms.

In a nutshell, I believe Roddenberry’s apparent obsession with “recapturing” the essence of Star Trek , Theiss’ own design style being so different from Fletcher’s and his subsequent (possibly bitter) experience about the movies, and the simple budgetary limitations all shaped the decision-making process for TNG’s costume design.

MOVIE-ERA ELEMENTS INCORPORATED

Although William Ware Theiss almost entirely disregarded Robert Fletcher’s movie-era costume paradigm and designs, there were a few elements of Fletcher’s work that he kept and incorporated into TNG.

One tenant of the underlying philosophy for the TNG-era uniforms seems to be a better representation of gender equality than had been presented in The Original Series .

While perhaps progressive for its time, TOS showed us that women didn’t wear pants, told us women weren’t allowed to be starship captains, and generally had (what today might be regarded as) sexist overtones.

Despite being a flawed product of its time, I think most fans would probably agree that, at its best, Star Trek has always presented (or at least attempted to present) an optimistic future for humanity: free of racism, sexism, and bigotry of any kind, populated by people who respect each other, work for the common good of everyone, and accomplish great things together.

At its heart, Star Trek tried to show us a future in which all humans can simply “get along” without our current and historical preconceptions and biases against each other inhibiting us from reaching our full potential.

The issue of gender equality manifested in Roddenberry’s conceptions of The Next Generation .

Rather than populating the show with shallow women obsessed over physical beauty and mindlessly swooning over men – and dismissing ideas such as women not being allowed to be Starfleet captains – he created three female lead characters, all of whom were senior officers and two of them department chiefs.

Theiss may have already been moving in that direction with the aborted Star Trek: Phase II ; it seems that by that time, female crew were finally permitted to wear pants with their Starfleet uniforms, as evidenced by the uniform trousers below (presumably for wear by Janice Rand):

I believe this was perhaps the first notable shift in the psychology of Theiss’ Starfleet uniform design.

(Women wearing pants to work may be a laughable given today, but at the time, this could be considered a significant step – however small – toward gender equality.)

Despite the Phase II uniforms having never made it on-screen and Theiss’ lack of involvement with the movies, Robert Fletcher’s uniform designs were generally unisex.

Furthermore, this psychology may have influenced Roddenberry and/or Theiss to create the now-infamous unisex “TNG skant” uniforms – but more on those shortly.

Unfortunately, the Starfleet insignia situation as seen in The Original Series had been something of a mess.

One could easily be forgiven for assuming that the triangular “arrowhead” emblem we now associate with Starfleet was unique to the Enterprise crew, and the wide variety of assignment patches seemed to indicate unique insignia for each ship, base, institute, etc.

There appears to have even been confusion among the production team as to the original intent, as evidenced by this memo from producer Robert Justman to William Ware Theiss:

https://www.startrek.com/article/starfleet-insignia-explained

In The Motion Picture , a circle was added behind the previous Enterprise emblem, and the patch color indicated the wearer’s division.

The Motion Picture also introduced the notion of the Starfleet emblem being a separate metal (or metal-looking) pin attached to the garment.

Although the design of the emblem was modified again, it was standardized for all Starfleet uniforms in The Wrath of Khan , and the notion of the badge being a separate metal pin (as opposed to a sew-on patch) was fully realized across the cast.

After Fletcher’s standardization of the chest badge and with a second chance at independently establishing consistency, it should be no surprise that Theiss incorporated a standardized metal Starfleet insignia onto his TNG-era uniforms.

For the TWOK-era uniforms, Fletcher placed the wearer’s rank on the upper right shoulder strap.

Although for The Original Series uniforms Theiss had previously established the wearer’s rank with braid on the sleeves, for The Next Generation he adopted metal rank insignia and affixed it to the upper right area of the uniform.

In The Motion Picture , Fletcher introduced a Starfleet uniform that was a skin-tight, jumbo spandex jumpsuit.

Gene Roddenberry is said to have both favored the “sprayed on clothing” aesthetic and abhorred wrinkly costumes, and Theiss favored unstructured garments made with synthetic knit fabrics, so either one or both of them seem to have really latched onto this uniform concept.

The standard TNG-era uniforms were also skin-tight jumpsuits made of heavy jumbo spandex, although thankfully with the more modest areas blacked out.

Theiss’ original Klingon costumes had usually included a baldric, which he gave to Worf for The Next Generation .

(Some believe it may have even been the same one.)

However, the Klingons had been given significant makeup and costume redesigns in the movies.

It was decided to maintain their movie-era “look” – including Fletcher’s Klingon costumes.

I think this was a great call; reverting back to the TOS-era Klingon costumes and make-up would’ve been jarring and off-putting after what we’d seen in three of the four movies at that point.

(And in fact, Fletcher’s Klingon costumes would continue to be used throughout The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , and Voyager , amassing far more screen time over their numerous television appearances than the movies for which he originally designed them.)

THEISS' AESTHETIC and DESIGN MOTIFS

Now that we’ve discussed the overall paradigm and possible psychological factors behind Theiss’ TNG-era costume designs, in this final section we’ll take a look at some specific ideas and influences that may have played a part in the conception of the show’s wardrobe.

For the third season of The Original Series , Theiss changed the standard uniforms to a double-knit fabric.

The previous (woven) uniforms had proven problematic due to “shrinkage” over time and some members of the cast struggled with their weight, causing additional fitting issues.

This may have intensified Theiss’ aversion to structured uniforms and woven fabrics, and switching to the double-knit seems to have solved – or at least reduced – these issues.

I mention it as possible evidence that Theiss was already moving in the direction of knit fabrics for his Starfleet uniforms … hence all of his TNG-era uniforms being made with nylon jumbo spandex.

Theiss had a singular style, and he seems to have revisited several of his design motifs from The Original Series .

He definitely seems to have enjoyed experimenting with asymmetry, which strongly manifested in his TNG-era uniforms.

Here are a couple examples from TOS, alongside his TNG-era admiral uniform:

Speaking of his admiral uniform designs, in The Original Series he’d consistently established that flag officers wore a distinctive metal accent on their uniforms.

Likewise, his TNG-era admiral uniform would include a unique metal “brooch.”

The TOS-era tunic necklines varied considerably, but by season three, Theiss definitely seems to have favored the V-shaped neckline.

His TNG-era uniforms would have similarly wide, V-shaped necklines (albeit without the collar).

A subtle design motif that Theiss favored right from the beginning with “The Cage” and “Where No Man Has Gone Before” was small openings (which I call “slits”) at the ends of garment limbs.

He used this motif on other costumes as well, including these two asymmetrically-paneled jumpsuits.

Theiss incorporated a (pleated) variation of these “slits” on the bottom of his Phase II uniform trousers.

He would return to this idea for his TNG-era uniforms as well.

Again on the topic of gender equality, in The Original Series the standard uniform for female crew members had been the “skant” mini-dress, most notably worn by Lieutenant Uhura.

I already mentioned how Fletcher’s movie-uniforms were essentially unisex, and how Theiss may have already been moving in that direction with his Phase II costume designs.

The Next Generation took things a step further by demonstrating that in the future, not only was it acceptable for women to wear the same uniforms the men wore, but that men could wear the same ones women wore!

(While perhaps a brave attempt to portray true gender equality in the future, ultimately whether or not it was successful is a matter of personal opinion.)  

Some may attribute the overall concept of Theiss’ TNG-era formal uniforms as a subtle nod to Fletcher’s TWOK-era uniforms, for obvious reasons.

However, I find it far more likely that Theiss was revisiting his costume design for Ambassador Robert Fox.

In The Original Series , Theiss established the “look” of the Romulan uniforms: grayish textured fabrics with dark belts and contrasting sashes over the right shoulder.  

And in his final episode as costume designer, he followed up on his original design when introducing the TNG-era Romulans.

IN CONCLUSION

William Ware Theiss so thoroughly established a paradigm and aesthetic with his TNG-era uniforms that not only would his costume designs set the precedent for the following spinoffs, but decades later his TNG-era uniforms are still instantly recognizable to almost anyone with even a modicum of nerdom and/or pop-culture awareness.

His TNG-era uniform designs were a direct evolution of those he’d designed for The Original Series , and (as we saw with the trousers) the aborted Phase II .

They were perhaps a culmination of design elements he’d introduced and experimented with on the original show, then revisited when conceptualizing what the Star Trek universe might look like a hundred years or so after his 23 nd -century uniforms.

Theiss had already begun favoring knit fabrics for Starfleet uniforms in The Original Series , and may have been moving toward more unisex uniforms for Phase II .

It takes no great eye to see that William Ware Theiss and Robert Fletcher, while both gifted costume designers who made great contributions to Star Trek , had radically different – practically incompatible – artistic visions for the future.

For any combination of the reasons I mentioned earlier, or for other reasons entirely, Theiss established a uniform paradigm for The Next Generation that, while unique (and even striking), was an obvious follow-up to his work on The Original Series .

While some of his more niche ideas (like men wearing “skants” and his season 1 admiral uniform) would be short-lived, other facets of his paradigm (such as the three division colors and rank placement) would continue to be adhered to through the end of Enterprise .

Although Theiss himself was only directly involved with the costumes for a single season and the design of the uniforms would evolve after his departure, the paradigm and “look” of TNG would become – in my opinion – every bit as iconic as his uniforms for The Original Series .

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The switched division colors between TOS and TNG may have been a deliberate change, but to a certain degree, it was a change Fletcher made when engineering changed to gold and command to white in TWOK. A white undershirt doesn't really look like a division color, especially given the ubiquity of white undershirts worn as a base layer and white collared shirts worn under suit jackets, so the red jacket was somewhat of a de facto command division color. So, with red as the de facto command division color and gold (or yellow sweat stain as it looked on VHS) for division, Theiss's division colors are more of a continuation of what Fletcher did.

Also, no mention of the side cutouts Theiss considered? ( https://forgottentrek.com/redesigning-starfleets-uniforms/ )

I can perhaps see a loose connection between Theiss' and Fletcher's division colors, but I really think it was both of them just operating independently of the other.

And yes, Theiss' concept drawings for TNG are wild! Probably the only thing stranger than what we wound up with were the earlier concept illustrations. Truly bizarre stuff. 🙂

Have you ever gotten the chance to inspect any of the trousers that were paired with things like the 1st season dress uniform or admiral jacket? It's clear the cuffs were treated the same as the jumpsuit cuffs, but what about the rest? Were they just the bottom half of a duty uniform, finished with a waistband or were they constructed differently?

There were multiple styles of trousers over TNG, paired with different uniform jackets (etc.).

I'll be posting more about them in my upcoming TNG trousers analysis. 🙂

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Redesigning Starfleet’s Uniforms for Star Trek II

Few of the people involved in the production of the second Star Trek motion picture were happy with the uniforms Robert Fletcher had designed for the first.

“I don’t blame them,” Fletcher told Star Trek: The Magazine years later. “I didn’t like them much myself!”

The costumes seemed to sum up everything that was disappointing about the film: they lacked color and drama. They were bland.

Fletcher, who had been brought in on The Motion Picture to redesign the uniforms William Ware Theiss had designed for the original television series, was asked to redesign them again. Except this time, there would be less budget.

Fletcher and Producer Robert Sallin decided to salvage what they could from the costumes that had been created for The Motion Picture by changing the tailoring and colors. A series of dye tests revealed that the old uniforms could take three colors well: a blue grey, a gold and a dark red. The plan was to use these modified uniforms for the non-commissioned crew and cadets while enough money was found to design an altogether new wardrobe for the main characters.

Hornblower in space

When Nicholas Meyer joined the production as director, he had specific ideas about what he wanted to see in the new costumes.

I decided that this was going to be Hornblower in outer space, so I said, “OK, if this is going to be the navy, let’s hem them look like the navy; they shouldn’t be walking around in pyjamas,” which seemed to me to be what the uniforms in the first movie and the TV show looked like.

Meyer gave Fletcher one more instruction: he wanted the new uniforms to pay homage to the costumes worn in The Prisoner of Zenda (1937).

Fletcher began his work by producing a series of quick sketches. “I’ve always been used to an almost automatic drawing method,” he explained.

I scribble a lot and out of the scribbles comes the idea. Then I link that visual I’ve found for myself with other things intellectually and produce a scheme.

Fletcher was careful not to reproduce existing naval uniforms and used the dark red color that had been discovered during the dye tests. Meyer liked this approach, since it made the costumes dramatic and created a strong contrast with the background.

The first version of the uniform had a stiff black collar like the costumes in Prisoner of Zenda . Bob Sallin suggested changing this to a turtleneck. When he made the alternations, Fletcher decided to use trapunto, which is a form of vertical quilting.

Military uniforms

The new uniforms looked far more like military outfits than the ones from the first movie, which Fletcher conceded in an interview with Cinefantastique defied the Star Trek tradition.

“[Gene] Roddenberry always contended that the Federation is not a military organization. Yet they always behaved as if it were,” he argued. “They have ranks, they have military courtesy and Kirk is definitely in command on his ship.”

Meyer preferred the military look and asked Fletcher to design rank insignia to make the uniforms look even more like uniforms.

There was kind of a complicated arrangement of divisions and ranks expressed by the braid on the sleeves. I made that up. I organized it and produced a little instruction booklet about it for the wardrobe department and anyone else who was interested.

Initially, the insignia were worn on a band around the upper arm. This was moved to the cuff.

The last major change was to redesign the flap of the double-breasted jacket so it could actually open. This was something Meyer requested. He felt the lighter color on the inside of the flap would frame the actors’ faces better.

However, the flaps presented Robert Fletcher with a problem. When it was open, one could clearly see the snaps that held it in place — and these looked distinctly unfuturistic.

In order to make it look less like plain old snaps, I found this sterling silver chain that looked strange. I ordered a reel of it and sewed it in with the snaps to give it a feeling that it was perhaps a magnetic closing.

Fletcher then designed several variations of the uniform, most of which were worn by Kirk and not by the other characters.

It’s normal in any kind of military organization that you don’t have just one uniform; you have uniforms for specific tasks and specific times of day — formal, informal, combat, and so on. Kirk is the lead, so he goes through the most variations. When it seemed appropriate, he had a change.

Robert Fletcher’s new Starfleet uniform remained in use until the original cast retired, becoming as much a part of the Star Trek universe as William Ware Theiss’ originals.

30 comments

Gawd, I HATED the Star Trek II uniforms. So bulky and uncomfortable-looking. And I can only imagine how ridiculously hot they must have been under the stage lights — like wearing a fur-lined parka.

I liked them. They provided a real world feel to the whole picture. I think they looked somewhat comfortable, granted it must’ve been hot under those studio lights. They look no more bulky than a suit jacket. My only quibble is that they should’ve kept the division colors from The Original Series to provide a greater sense of continuity.

I agree with Jaren, completely.

I don’t agree with the different colors for the organization. Starfleet is supposed to be inclusive and not a segregate organization. Offering different colors for bands or depts is fine, but The Wrath of Khan uniforms were the first time an organization had a uniform. A set attire that included everyone in one cause. The military has that uniformity and so NASA, a civilian organization the organization Starfleet is suppose to be mimicking. To have lavish colors and different varieties was a product of the 60s, nothing more.

Erm… Chris… those were *all* uniforms. If you look at military forces, they all have different uniforms within themselves, with different ones for different purposes. The whole “ermagerd, colors aren’t uniform!” argument is nonsensical. You need only look at the flight decks of aircraft carriers to see the various colored shirts and uniforms in use there, with each denoting a different function. These illustrate and explain the different colors and functions: link 1 , link 2 .

I think they sort of kept the division colors, on the shoulder strap and the arm band. I think they were a vast improvement over The Motion Picture .

Could not disagree more. Terrible design. The only thing I didn’t enjoy in that film at all.

You must be a product of the peace and love era… the Star Trek II uniforms were most likely hot as hell, but the didn’t look like actors wearing PJ’s on screen. Those uniforms were the best of all TV and movies put together…

Another distinguishing feature seems to be the sweaters under the uniform jackets. For example, command officers wear white sweaters and medical personnel wear green. And so on.

These uniforms were absolutely brilliant and evokes a sense of nautical regality missing in TOS and TMP. Fabulous Star Trek design sense with a nod to ‘cavalry bib’ tunics, bloused ‘paratrooper’ trousers and British full dress colorations combine to make the most powerful, memorable and distinct Star Trek uniform of all iterations; class, swagger, and dash. The perfect uniform for the command crew of the Enterprise and Starfleet!

I hated the redesigned uniforms for Star Trek II and beyond. In the 1968 book The Making of Star Trek , Gene Roddenberry is quoted as saying that clothes (uniforms) in the future would not have zippers, buttons, clips, belts and many of what was ultimately in the design of the “red” uniforms. I wasn’t troubled by the uniforms in The Motion Picture except that they lacked color. In fact, I prefer the original uniform design by William Theiss of the first two seasons of TNG over the Robert Blackman redesigned uniforms for TNG’s remaining seasons. IMHO, William Theiss was a far superior costume designer than Robert Blackman. The actors never liked them, because of their one-piece design, but they were tight-fitting to the actors’ body, and were not as “baggy” as the Blackman TNG redesign. Just look at what jumpsuit the Space Shuttle astronauts wore from the fifth shuttle flight to the flight of Challenger ’s destruction. Blue coveralls (seemed like one piece) uniforms with just a open helmet with an emergency air pack. After the Challenger accident NASA went back to using ungainly pressurized space suits, but in the end those wouldn’t have saved the astronauts in the event of another Challenger -type disaster, nor the demise of shuttle Columbia .

There’s a reason why the actors of TNG preferred the later uniforms, and that was because to create the effect of no wrinkles, the actors would wear costumes that were too small for them, and so the new uniforms were designed, otherwise they’d lose Patrick Stewart because he was having back problems. Same reason why TOS actors preferred the TWOK uniforms over TMP. Gene Roddenberry was trying to create a futuristic look, but the problem with his vision of clothing was that he had no idea that functional clothing evolved based on comfort.

I have always hated the ST:WOK uniforms. For all of reasons stated above. The closest thing they’ve come to a merging of the styles was DS9’s uniforms. Which worked for practicality. You’re not gonna sit for eight hours in a ST:WOK uniform without skin chaffing and massively sweating. Not to mention how stiff they’d be in trying to reach across consoles. They were horrible.

I actually liked the design of the TMP uniforms. They were practical and in reality, one can imagine they would have been quick to don and doff. Essential for a duty uniform. Fletcher muted the colors as it was felt the bright colors from the series would have looked comical on the big screen. The idea of the utility jacket with large pockets for away missions made sense, as did Scotty’s onesie with the large thigh pockets for engineering. When you look at the TMP design as a progression of the TOS uniforms it seems logical (pun intentional). The Star Trek II designs are a complete departure to the design aesthetic. They did a lot of weird retrofitting in Star Trek II ; notably the communicators and phasers. In TMP, the communicator was compact and wrist-worn, and the phaser was very streamlined. The communicator that Kirk uses in the Genesis Cave scene looks like the clunky version from “The Menagerie/Cage”.

You are right on the communicator, but I would say in some ways it looked even clunkier than “The Cage” one (but at least it wasn’t transparent!) The phasers from TWOK were actually the same as TMP though, you can briefly see security with them on the bridge during the V’Ger attack and there are behind-the-scenes photo with either Nimoy or Shatner holding one while wearing a space suit.

What was wrong with the original idea? Lime Green (Command and Operations) Blue (Science and Medical) Red Engineering and Security) made Star Trek unique! This is Trek ’s TRADEMARK! It’s DIFFERENT! From Battlestar Galactica and any other sci-fi series. The other sci-fi shows generally use a ‘military’ style idea, which Gene Roddenberry was insisting that the Federation is not a military organisation. So, what was/is wrong with the original three colors? Simple, and practical, non-belligerent and iconic for Star Trek . If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. For me, it was such a relief when the three colors were brought back for the film reboots, it proves that it works for the big screen as well as the small. I hope that the original creation will prevail!

As a chef, I loved the new uniforms with the flap that could be undone for more casual times. The decision was far better than TMP.

Has always been one of my favorite uniforms. As to the comfort, they seem no more or less comfortable than a chef’s coat, and they work in hot, greasy, humid, kitchens for 10 hours. I doubt the 100 percent climate- and humidity-controlled environment of a starship would be an issue, and future fabrics would behave differently. (“It is very *cold* in space!”) I think in reality even the senior officers would more frequently wear what the extras wore, the jackets tend to lend an air of dress uniform to it that seems unnecessary for routine operations or training operations. Real world budget restraints aside, there should be a casual variant much like Kirk’s green wraparound tunic he wore in TOS.

I love the Wrath of Khan unis! Kirk looked like a freakin’ doctor in that white monstrosity from TMP!

Unless I am mistaken, the jackets were for officer uniforms only. I saw it as a means of identification among the crew, same as the rank insignia. Higher ranking officers usually have more “ornate” uniforms, do they not?

Check out the extra standing behind Ms Nichols in the candid photo. He is like “Guy” from Galaxy Quest … look its crewman #6. I would have done the same thing. I personally loved these uniforms. I bought the pattern back in the late 80s and had a friend who is a seamstress make it for me.

The best Trek uniforms of all time. I loved how they gave them a shout out in some TNG episodes (minus the turtleneck shirt.)

The Wrath of Khan uniforms lasted for the longest time, the 2280s until after Picard graduated from Starfleet Academy, the crew of Enterprise -C wore them minus the turtleneck as well. They blew the TMP uniforms out of the water, ever see one at a con? NO ONE likes the TMP uniforms. Kirk’s bomber jacket, the Regula I field jacket, I still want both AND a The Wrath of Khan uniform, but then I want a TOS dress tunic/pants and an Enterprise uniform too. We can dream right?

Those are exactly the uniforms I want myself.

Jumpsuit onesies actually cut right into the privates. That’s the reason the actors complained and they were forced to change them to pants and a shirt on both the movies and TNG. The original Stormtroopers’ armors were hard plastic and had the same issue, their newer suits are soft rubbery stuff.

Best Star Trek uniforms to date!

I LOVE the TWOK (and beyond) uniforms. I understand and even agree that they seem like a step backward with regard to ease of wearing, taking them off and putting them on, etc. But WOW, do they ever look SHARP! I love the separate colors on the undershirt, sleeve band and shoulder strap denoting division, as well as the cool insigna designating rank. And the red “mountie” jacket with the flap is beautiful. Further, the field jacket, Scotty’s engineering vest, and officer’s bomber’s jacket expanded the fleshed out the look very nicely. Do they look futuristic and efficient? No. But do they look gorgeous on screen? Oh, hell yeah! I understand others’ objections to them, and to be fair those are quite valid reasons. But all art is subjective, and me, personally, I just adore the aesthetic of these uniforms most out of all iterations of Star Trek . It’s funny: I don’t recall where I read or heard this, but George Takei once said that, during the filming of one of the movies, he found it uncomfortably hot to wear the uniform under the lights needed for shooting. But since Sulu spends most of his time on the bridge, in shots only featuring him at the helm console (in other words from the waist up), he shucked his uniform pants and shot a number of scenes wearing the red uniform jacket on top but only a pair of shorts on the bottom!

These are my favorite uniforms. I have an inexpensive fan-made replica that I bought on eBay many years ago. I only wore it once to a Halloween party.

Not a big fan of either uniform, to be honest. The first uniform looked like New Age cult apparel, and the second looks like what Santa’s elves would wear to a formal event at the North Pole.

Sorry guys, the uniforms were spot on. Clearly nobody above has served on any of the services.

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The men and women of Starfleet have possibly the most recognizable uniforms in history, known everywhere by fans and bystanders alike. Simple, yet elegant, and as widely known as any, Starfleet's best have seen their greatest moments in these uniforms for more than 50 years. Costume SuperCenter took a look at exactly how those uniforms have changed and evolved over the years, from Gene Roddenberry's original vision to the uniforms we see today!

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Wednesday 31 August 2016

Star trek beyond's costume design.

The key for all of these guys was to make each one unique and special. Sanja had various silhouettes picked out and we tried several before getting here. 

The Survival Jacket appears fairly complex, but it's actually very highly complex. Not only were we sourcing over seven different fabrics used for this jacket ranging from a cotton duck to polyester to china silk, but we had fabric that was screen printed as well as a specialty vinyl for the pipping. The original jacket also utilized mixed media elements including rubber, plastic, and metal. We feel our attention to detail for this piece was extremely high and the fit is perfect. Even though this ornate costume stands in contrasts to the typically understated look of Starfleet's uniforms, fans will see after the movie that it fits within the context of the story.

6 comments:

This just makes me more disappointed with the movie than I was before. Don't get me wrong, it's a solid action movie, but it had some really great art design, but was so fast-paced I don't feel like I was really ever able to get a good look at any one thing.

I'd take fast action over a The Motion Picture style lingering on everything for all of time approach! Some design, a lot of design, isn't meant to be seen, fully, it's just part of the texture of the film. I'm sure in your life you walk past bits of amazing design all day long without noticing. And sure it's nice when you do notice things and really appreciate how they were made, but they are worthwhile existing if they do the job even if they are just seen from the corner of your eye, be that in a movie or reality. Look at another aspect of the film, movie soundtracks aren't really there to be enjoyed as their own thing, they are part of the overall movie, helping to tell the story. Yet you can also enjoy them separately, and take in every nuance of them too. I see the production design much like that.

I can see where you're coming from, but personally I find the pacing of Beyond... well, wearying. It's a good action movie, don't get me wrong (if Simon Pegg can do anything, it's make a good action movie) but IMHO even action movies should never be mostly action. You need calm moments for the juxtaposition. In the totality of Beyond there are only what, two or three scenes in the entire movie (amounting to no more than two or three minutes) where the characters actually have time to talk calmly to each other. That's ridiculous. Bringing up TMP as the only alternative is silly and hyperbolic. The Motion Picture and Star Trek Beyond are both decent movies that err with their pacing to either extremes: the one being too slow, the other too fast. The examples to look at are First Contact, The Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country... all of which had fantastic action scenes that still only took up a relatively small faction of the runtime in each film. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, when a film's pacing is too fast to allow for establishing shots, there's a serious problem.

You might trying watching the film with your pre-conceptions about it being an action film turned off Fox. Because there are probably more quite moments of characters talking in Beyond than either of the previous films. Most of the scenes on Altamid were characters walking about talking to each other. Plus there were the earlier scenes with Kirk being depressed on the Enterprise. And later in the film even the actiony Kirk vs Krall fight was chatty at times. And establishing shots were one of the visual signatures of the film, there were quite a few really wide spacey establishing shots throughout.

Sofia Boutella & other Star Trek Beyond celebrities costumes obtain now!

i love action movies and the outfit celebrities where in it. i am obsessed with these solid, beautiful leather jacket nowadays. JENNIFER MORRISON BLACK LEATHER JACKET

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ST09 Costume Designer Talks Star Trek – Then And Now

| February 26, 2009 | By: Edward Gross 205 comments so far

Kaplan: new eyes – but did his Trek homework Michael Kaplan is an award winning costume designer who has worked in Hollywood for three decades, starting off with the landmark sci-fi film Blade Runner in 1982. Yet when he went in to his first meeting with JJ Abrams, he wasn’t sure how it was going to work out. In my interview for SciFiNow, Kaplan said:

I went into that meeting thinking I had a huge problem and disclosed to him that I hadn’t seen any of the Star Trek movies and knew the TV series, but just because I was growing up during that time, not because I was an avid fan. He felt that was a plus, because he wanted something really fresh. He wanted new eyes.

In their early discussions, the costume designer expressed his feelings regarding many “futuristic movies,” and the fact that he simply didn’t buy it when a new colony of people would be dressed in Biblical, Greek, Roman or Egyptian costumes. Kaplan noted:

I told him it would be really fun to create a whole new world, yet do an homage to the TV show, because that’s where our world in Star Trek would end. There were certain things we wanted to be recognizable. Updated, but not done away with, like the Enterprise costumes. There’s a ‘60s sensibility I thought was important to keep intact. It was really about finding a balance. I would do some sketching and say, ‘I love this costume idea, but it doesn’t feel like Star Trek,’ and we would abandon it. A design could have been more Star Wars, for example. There’s a vocabulary that was needed, and, of course, I studied the Star Trek Encyclopedia.

Star Trek’s new costume designer also went into detail on creating the new version of the classic TOS uniform:

I wanted to do something more sophisticated than they had done on the TV series, so I created a new fabric where a pattern of the boomerang logo was utilized. You’ll also see that there is now a black shirt that’s a part of the uniform. Back on the TV show, it was all one piece. This is like the undershirt and uniform is on top of that. It made sense to me that the uniform would have an undershirt, and that it would still be consistent. The shirt is a dark charcoal gray, as are the pants, and the color of the jumpers describe what that person’s job is.

Edward Gross is a sci-fi journalist and contributor to multiple magazines, including Geek Monthly, SciFi Now and SFX.

SciFi Now? Looks almost real!

i love the new uniforms :)

away team jackets like in the Cage?

“Edward Gross is a sci-fi journalist and contributor to multiple magazines, including Geek Monthly, SciFi Now and SFX. ”

If he hasn’t contributed to “Nacelles Monthly”—-he’s a hack! Anybody who’s anybody gets at least one article there.

the new uni’s kinda look like Nike Dri-Fit workout shirts…

Michael Kaplan seems to care a lot about respecting TOS style. I appreciate that!

One comment: There was a black t-shirt under the TOS uniforms, as seen in The Naked Time. It seems it was only a personal habit of Kirk to wear nothing under.

be nice, this is Ed’s first article at TM….and Ed was interviewing ST folks before some readers here were born, so he is certainly qualified to write for Nacelles Monthly

boomerang logo… fascinating.

Oooh the cannonista’s aren’t gonna like that now, 2 shirts instead of ONE? BLASPHEMY!!!!

Cool. Is this a different guy than the article you were working on from the source I sent you Anthony?

@3: I hope so. I love that idea.

I’ve started to see a running trend with UK mags that come from the same publishing group(Imagine Publishing)…all of the mastheads have the same or similiar sans font used for the title of it. I started noticing this when I was buying from their stable of mags, but it works because I automatically know who publishes it….maybe that was the point all along…

#6 – Man, that just makes me sound SO old. Anyway, Nacelles Monthly won’t return my calls. What’s up with that?

Welcome Ed!

First of many… I hope.

#8 they shouldn’t get too ballistic over it because in some of the early TOS episodes, they showed them wearing a dark charcoal undershirt as well.

I wonder how much an influence Bill Theiss’ style was? Classic designs.

The new uniform is about the only thing I’m totally on-board with, though, honestly, the screened on “boomerang” as he called it is a bit too predominant for my tastes(from what I’ve seen). It just reeks of the brick pattern on Spiderman’s jumpsuit or the over-use of the Superman S symbol on the chest S in Superman Returns(where it was an embedded texture).

Oh well, at least this guy gets when something doesn’t look or feel Star Trek. It’s too bad that sensibility couldn’t have been brought to the new phaser.

Let me geek for a while and say that TOS actually, if you watch the episode “The Naked TIme” demonstrated the black collars on the old uniforms were in fact a black undershirt. So, intentionally or no, he is conforming with the original.

They continually refer to the outfit as the “Enterprise Uniform.” I wonder if they stuck with the idea of individual emblems. Maybe other fleet uniforms have their specific emblems worked into the fabric as well, and not everyone has delta shields…

Well, he’s right that the boomerang logo was the Starfleet logo of the TOS era, but that’s not what’s in the uniforms. The uniforms have the Enterprise “arrowhead” badge woven into them (which looks really, REALLY stupid, by the way), added to the fact that this movie uses the Enterprise arrowhead as the TOS Starfleet logo (when it was the boomerang!).

I don’t mind the black-shirt-under-the-tunic thing, because that’s how I always interpreted the TOS uniforms anyway. I just don’t like that cheesy logo-weave.

Wonderful article Ed. Was a great read.

#20 – Thanks! I appreciate the compliment.

@12… Next time call my cell, Ed!

Its too bad the prop guys aren;t as skilled. Has anyone seen THIS on the bridge..its a BAR CODE scanner..they didn’t even try to dress it up/down:-S Im APPALLED at how lazy they got here..I wonder what else we’d see..totally ruins it for me…

http://blockheadpictures.com/images/misc/trek001.jpg

I always thought the key to the TOS uniforms was the calf-high pants and high zippered boots.

The high tech fabric with the boomerang logo looks like it’s descended from ENT MACO uniforms.

It also seems like they’ve reverse-engineered the TWOK military-style uniforms by making ‘Rust Red’ the color of a Starfleet Academy.

Yeah, black undershirts are nothing new and I love it that they are incorporated into the new design, intentional or not. Don’t care for the mini “boomerangs” but it’s a minor quibble.

And as far as Edward Gross goes, his Captain’s Log was one of the best, most informative and unbiased books on the Trek series that I’ve ever read. Welcome aboard Ed, here’s to many more contributions to this site!

#23 –

maybe they need the bar code scanners for ‘quick check out’ when somebody buys an iPod…??

17: The black collars were actually sewn on the uniform tunic, the t-shirt collar was invisible under the tunic. Just google some pics of the original props, there you can see it. You can also see in the actual TV footage that the shoulder zipper goes through the collar.

Actually, the two shirt style isn’t unheard of…McCoy wore one in TOS.

They got the straight-edged rank braid right for the time period…the cut of the tunic…the departmental colors and insignia inside the delta…just don’t know why they couldn’t go with gold instead of silver. One small thing…

My only real peeve is the delta logo all over the shirt…smacks of Brandon Routh’s costume in “Superman Returns” with all the little “S” emblems all over it.

#23 “Im APPALLED at how lazy they got here..I wonder what else we’d see..totally ruins it for me…”

Too bad, for millions more, like myself, who don’t know a barcode scanner from a protomatter disconbobulator, they won’t think twice about it.

The practice is really nothing new. One of the props from Ghostbusters was a shoe polisher. The silverware on TOS was nothing but airline flatware and we all know about the salt shakers. No big deal really.

The Playmates toys copy the Uniform Delta pattern on the boxes, btw…

And about those barcode scanners, the most famous german SciFi series, “Raumpatrouille, 1966”, featured Electric Irons on the bridge!

#29. Yes I know ILM has kitbashed for years starting on Star wars, but at least they should add a few thingymabobs onto it to disguise it, this is literally right off the shelf!!! I mean at least add a Star Fleet logo to it or something for goodness sake. They’re paying this prop guys a lot of money, so they take the $1000, keep $980 for themselves and spend $20 on a bar code scanner..for a MULTI MILLION $$ MOVIE…c’mon

#24 It’s too bad the prop guys on TOS weren’t more creative, either. McCoy’s salt shakers TOTALLY ruined it for me.

Seriously, dude. Most movies with very few exceptions sample real world items for props. It’s called budgeting… besides, without staring at them for a long time is a screen cap, who would have noticed?

#25 – In all honesty, I had a GREAT time co-writing Captains’ Logs with Mark Altman, and I’m glad my love for the subject came through.

Love, love, love the look of the costumes. I hope somebody puts out a sewing pattern so I can have one for next Halloween.

The pitnicker in me hopes there’ll be an explanation of why the ladies have short sleeves and the men long (won;t one of them be either too hot or too cold all the time?), but the rest of me can live without it if it doesn’t happen!

#12 – They’re probably going by the Romulan calendar or something.

#31. Thats nice, but this is 2008, you’d think they would METICULOUSLY design something as iconic as the BRIDGE of the USS Enterprise with custom detailing..not off the shelf products. Now I wonder too that this is ‘out’ if the company that produces the bar code scanner would be happy about their copyrighted product just being stuffed onto the bridge ‘as is’?

Every single detail on this bridge which will have considerable screen time now and in the future should be CUSTOM designed, I dont care so much about the romulan dudes stuff or misc background junk..but this is the BRIDGE..this is the CON..come guys whats up with that? No one could be bothered to think out a cool prop that has some function instead of an off the shelf bar code scanner????

#33. isn’t this a $135 MILLION budget..

$20 Bar code scanner..

priceless…

Boomerang logo?!? As much as I think the new uniforms look better than the old ones (though they still should miniskirts, even though they look hot) you FAIL for calling the Starfleet delta a boomerang. Actually the symbol from the TOS Defiant was closer to that than the Delta.

Does anyone recall that TOS crew DID wear black undershirts? (except for Kirk, of course, particularly when he got in fights) they showed up in a few episodes.

Holger, you are right about the zippers, in the 60’s, velour was the “futuristic fabric of choice” for sci-fi, Lost in Space costumes used it too. Velour fabric does not stretch, hence the zippers.

As for the ‘boomerangs’ it’s not that off-base: modern-day Marine-Corps utility uniforms actually have the signature ‘eagle-globe-and-anchor’ insignia randomly embedded in the camoflage pattern.

The Bridge of the 1701 features Personal Habitat Fields that create the persons favored environment. In cases of emergency the temperature will be lowered to counteract perspiration or raised bloop pressure levels.

thorsten….here they are… :-)

http://www.tv-nostalgie.de/Sound/Raumpatrouille.htm

#42. yea thats great, so your happy a 135 mil movie cant compete with a crappy obscure german film? congrats..

Time that we start that reboot, Mark… Maybe we should use Philips this time!

This brings up something I have been looking at when it comes to the new bridge design. The bridge overall looks way to fragile These bar-code things, the L-shaped lamps, the tall glass panels, etc. A couple of good hits from a Romulan phaser, and the crew flies around the bridge…knocking this stuff all off and flying every wear.

TOS had the long “intercom” lamps, and after the pilot, removed them.

Also, many of you have commented that the uniforms are fairly well done (I am not crazy about the delta shield pattern myself), But do they look like they belong on this ship, with all the white and lights?

TOS had almost no white in the color scheme…even the walls were gray. Granted this was the age of the color TV, but that is also why the uniforms worked as well as they did. Color on Color…

#38 138 Million isn’t exactly a sky’s-the-limit budget. Yes, that’s a heck of a lot of money, but when you consider how many different things they had to spend that on, from SFX to sets to location shoots to salaries to scoring to etc etc, you can imagine the amount of money saved by picking up a few of these for $20 a pop instead of paying a propmaster for hours of designs, multiple prototypes and manufacturing. Hundreds of dollars if not more, plus I would rather have the propmasters spending their time and energy into developing more iconic things like communicators, phasers and tricorders.

those barcodes shatter the illusion.but not as much as the ashtray in the middle of them!

Great article, thanks Ed. Good to see an interview with costume design, since we have so many questions. Any chance you could draw some followup questions from here at trekmovie.com and get a few questions more to him?

I’d like to know if the use of silver striping and boomerang is a subtle indication of difference from the gold striping and boomerang of the original series. Sort of a ’66 Trek is “golden era” and ’09 iTrek is “silver era”.

#23 Indeed. Perhaps they can CGI them OUT and de-clutter the iBridge. #26 iPods, iCorders and iCommunicators, oh my! I was thinking more that they could quickly scan any bumpy-headed aliens and they’d ring up on that fancy viewscreen what their price is. I’m sure the Binars would love it! I just want to know why there isn’t a red LED digital clock above the viewscreen. That was Nick Meyer’s best idea in TWOK!

If we have to retcon those scanners, perhaps we can say they’re only there for this “test mission” and they’re doing an inventory count?? I mean, call in RGIS, and let’s scan the bridge tonight, and then move on to Deck 2 tomorrow.

@46… Its $150 million. So they had to fly coach to Seoul…

barcode readers

'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' costume designer dishes on her dazzling outfits (exclusive)

Bernadette Croft's regal fairy tale outfits in Season 1's 'The Elysian Kingdom' were definitely award-worthy.

For any reputable costume designer blessed with a fertile imagination and a keen eye for fashion, providing the 23rd-century outfits for characters in the "Star Trek" universe is truly a dream job. 

For the second season of " Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ," which launched on June 15 and streams exclusively on Paramount+, Bernadette Croft ("Star Trek: Discovery") and her Toronto-based costuming team have been churning out futuristic wardrobes for not only the officers and crew of the USS Enterprise but also a range of alien races scattered across the galaxy.

Croft was the head costume designer on the premiere season of "Strange New Worlds" in 2022 after working with Gersha Phillips on "Star Trek: Discovery" Season 3. One of her standout achievements last year was the eighth episode, " The Elysian Kingdom ," a campy, light-hearted fantasy in which the crew becomes trapped in a fairy tale by a sentient nebula.

This episode had been submitted for consideration for a 2023 Emmy Award for Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes but was sadly (and wrongly, if you ask me) edged out of a nomination nod during Wednesday's (July 12) official announcement ceremony.

Related:   ' Star Trek' streaming guide: Where to watch the 'Star Trek' movies and TV shows online

We spoke with Croft regarding the process of creating these special "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" outfits for Episode 8, extracting nuances from the characters' personalities to form each costume, working with modern 3D printing , which outfits were her favorites and hints for upcoming fashion statements in Season 2.

Space.com: When you first read the script for director Amanda Row's fun episode, what did you discuss regarding the costume designs and her vision for this fantasy chapter?

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Bernadette Croft: Interestingly, Amanda came from the art department and originally worked building beautiful sets for TV and film, and now she’s a director. So she comes with a very special kind of talent and experience in terms of the visual representation of the script. I was very lucky how collaborative she was and how I could delve into the script. I’m a fantasy kid and I loved movies like "Labyrinth" and "The Princess Bride." So I could dip into my own nostalgia and reminisce about how important imagination is as a kid.  

I first wanted the daughter, Rukiya, and her father, Dr. M’Benga, to have elements of African culture and lean into Babs’ [Olusanmokun] Nigerian heritage. I wanted that African inspiration to be prevalent, and I researched past and present Nigerian royalty and included things in the costume like the coral necklace, which is a symbol of wealth and power. They needed to be really colorful and a feast for the modern eye. The script transported me instantly to this fantasy story in space. It's lively and charming but there’s this undertone of a parent's pain of letting go.

Related: 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds:' Augments, Illyrians and the Eugenics Wars  

Watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on Paramount Plus: Get a one month free trial  

Get all the Star Trek content you can possibly handle with this free trial of Paramount Plus. Watch new shows like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and all the classic Trek movies and TV shows too. Plans start from $4.99/month after the trial ends.

Space.com: Where else did you draw inspiration from in creating the vivid variety of costumes?

Croft: David Lynch's " Dune " is so iconic. It revolutionized costuming. I also looked at medieval history and traditionally what does a fairy princess or a knight look like. It was one of those episodes where we could have these eclectic tastes and glean certain elements from all of these types of sources and bring it all together. And the actors had so much fun with it. There’s a lot of trust and respect with the cast and different departments in bringing such an iconic show to life.

Space.com: Can you dissect how Hemmer’s (Bruce Horak) incredible sorcerer costume was created?

Croft: Bruce gave us so much energy in the fittings. And he loves textures and the way things make him feel, and it was such an incredible collaboration. That mantle is molded leather on his shoulders with the different chainwork. We 3D-printed a skull and sun motif and used layers of different fabrics in the robe. We had this grey shiny-silvery " moon dust" that we applied to the hems and made it look a little rough around the edges. That Caster costume was one of my favorites. I loved it. Bruce wanted to keep it!

Space.com: Anson Mount appeared to have a blast in his pompous chamberlain outfit. How did that lavish wardrobe and his transformation from stern starship captain to conniving fool come about?

Croft: For his portrayal of Captain Pike, he leads with this stoic authority that you have to listen to, and he's respected and knows his stuff. His weaselly character in "Elysian Kingdom" was completely the opposite. The green color kind of referenced that green wrap jacket that he sometimes wears in season one. The broach he wears is just his Starfleet command emblem turned upside down. His cape was wonderful. In some of the outtakes he’d swing it around, so it's great to see how a costume can enhance an actor’s performance and really let them get into it.

Space.com: Ethan Peck seemed like he became absorbed in his dark wizard costume you and your team created. What was the process for conjuring up Spock’s outfit?

Croft: I wanted to give him an imposing silhouette with strong, sharp shoulders. The robe hung off his body, and we used different textures of wool, brocade, and leather. They were all darker tones but with some metallic qualities. We wanted him to look like he's been trudging through a swamp, so the bottom of his robe was muddy and dusty. There was a weird creepy element to him, too. The wig was this wild rock star wig, and Ethan thought that was really fun. 

It was such a cool costume, and it was hot, and Ethan did a great job. My favorite element of Pollux's costume was his pendant. It was two dragons with this oil-slicked crystal. One of our costumers 3D-imaged that, and we got it 3D-printed.  

Related: Best space-themed 3D prints: Recreate iconic spacecraft and objects

Space.com: Christina Chong's Lt. Noonien-Singh is always so guarded, and seeing her manifest this silly girlish princess was hilarious. Can you tell us your thoughts on the design of her magical gown?

Croft: Her normal character on the show is this militaristic, take-no-prisoners security officer. In this episode, she plays a whimsical fluffy princess. It was so cool to see Chrissy's range, and she can switch effortlessly with it. It’s lovely to see actors show off that range. I think I must have drawn that costume when I was a little girl, thinking, This is my ultimate princess gown. The actual skirt was about seven feet across, and with all that sequined fabric, it was quite heavy. 

Chrissy is also an ex-dancer, so she could really hold that costume together and would enter the room with all that magic. She had to get dressed in a tent on set and couldn’t even fit through doorways. By the end of the day, the skirts would pick up all these sticks and debris, and we'd wonder what she’d been walking through. It was one of my favorite costumes for sure.

—  'Star Trek:' History and effects on space technology

—   'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' season 2 episode 4 delivers a well-written nod to the original series

 —   'Star Trek' movies, ranked worst to best

Space.com: What can you tease about Season 2's sci-fi costumes to come?  

Croft: We have some really fun episodes in Season 2. You've got comedy, romance, horror. We've got a thriller. The crossover episode with " Lower Decks " was so much stupid fun. I was lucky enough to bring to life the "Lower Decks" uniform that Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid’s characters wear from that show. We took special care in making sure Mariner and Boimler's uniforms made sense in our "Strange New Worlds" universe, but also made sure that the "Lower Decks" team headed by Mike McMahan was cool with it, and they gave us their seal of approval. It was a treat to see them bring their characters to life on set and they've got such great chemistry.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Jeff Spry is an award-winning screenwriter and veteran freelance journalist covering TV, movies, video games, books, and comics. His work has appeared at SYFY Wire, Inverse, Collider, Bleeding Cool and elsewhere. Jeff lives in beautiful Bend, Oregon amid the ponderosa pines, classic muscle cars, a crypt of collector horror comics, and two loyal English Setters.

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Designing Starfleet Uniforms for the 32nd Century

Costume Designer Gersha Phillips shares the challenge of creating even more futuristic-looking Starfleet uniforms.

Costume Designer Gersha Phillips ( Star Trek: Discovery ) tells host Mica Burton about the challenge of creating even more futuristic-looking Starfleet uniforms for Season 3. The key? Disguising the construction lines of the uniforms and using a fabric that sits away from the body.

Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-4 are streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., the UK, Canada, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia and Austria. Seasons 2 and 3 also are available on the Pluto TV “Star Trek” channel in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The series streams on Super Drama in Japan, TVNZ in New Zealand, and SkyShowtime in Spain, Portugal, Poland, The Nordics, The Netherlands, and Central and Eastern Europe and also airs on Cosmote TV in Greece. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

Den of Geek

A Look at 50 Years of Star Trek Costumes

The authors of a new book about the history of Star Trek costumes told us some Starfleet secrets.

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For the last 50 years,  Star Trek  has invited us to explore the final frontier. Along the way we’ve met new life, new civilizations, and new Starfleet officers undertaking this mission.

While great stories and good acting have helped draw us into this sci-fi world, another important aspect that helps us embrace the idea of  Star Trek  is the costumes and makeup created for each character. They helped us believe in aliens and feel a part of this future for humanity.

As the decades have changed so has the look of  Star Trek , with some costumes heavily evolving and others only receiving tweaks. With so much history it can seem like a daunting task to look back at how this fascinating part of the franchise has developed over the years, but luckily two veteran Star Trek authors have tackled the subject in a brand new book titled  Star Trek Costumes: Five Decades of Fashion from the Final Frontier .

Authors Paula Block and Terry Erdmann have co-authored a number of  Star Trek   books including  The Secrets of Star Trek Insurrection   and the  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion , and were asked if they would like to write this exploration of the franchise’s costumes. The husband and wife said they’d love to and the result is a colorful, more than 200 page journey through the series from the first TV show to the latest films.

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The story of  Star Trek  fashion all begins of course with the original series, which aired from 1966 to 1969. The costumes seen on this show would set the innovative tone for the rest of the franchise through the decades and fans have costume designer William Ware Theiss to thank for it. He worked on the iconic appearances for everyone from Starfleet’s officers to the wide range of aliens that showed up on the series. Developing these stand out looks were not easy at the time however.

“Theiss’ only challenges at that era was that TV was pretty restrictive about what you could and couldn’t show,” Block told  Den of Geek . “You know, you couldn’t show belly buttons and you couldn’t show too much cleavage so he found clever ways to get around that. You couldn’t show too much of the top of the breast? Well he’d show the bottom of the breast. That type of thing.”

His type of designing left a lasting impact and resulted in what is now called the  Theiss Titillation theory . The theory follows the idea that it would appear sexier and more exciting if it looked like there could be an accident where clothes might fall off at any time. One of the most common examples of this theory often shared is the outfit worn by the android character Andrea in the first season episode “What are Little Girls Made Of?”  

Beyond this unique take, Theiss also gave us the designs for the now classic Starfleet uniforms worn by the crew of the Enterprise. While the style of these uniforms has evolved over the years, many of the precedents set by Theiss remained the same such as each different division having their own color associated with them. The colors representing each area would change as the franchise grew but in this first series red was worn by engineering and security, blue was worn by science and medical, and green was worn by command. However choosing those colors were the result more of technology than anything else according to Erdmann.

“They used colors that would be distinctive from one another on black and white television and so those were the colors that they used. They said ‘well these will work real well and not look alike.’ It’s coincidental I think that we really like the fact that they’re red, blue, and green so it was a technical thing rather than an artistic thing when they originally picked those uniform colors,” he said.

If you’re wondering why gold isn’t mentioned, since in many of the episodes Captain Kirk appears to be wearing that color instead of a green top, that’s another result of technology.

“That green that we think of as the command colors for the original series, it looked gold on television because of the lighting and everything. It was actually a very light lime green,” Block explained. “We did actually find, with CBS’ help, some original costumes and stuff and you can tell they have a real faint lime cast to them so he had picked something that was a pale green color but it photographed as gold and it’s been gold every since in everyone’s mind.”

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The original series ended after just three seasons, but that didn’t mean the end of the franchise. The beloved characters would return in the movie  Star Trek: The Motion Picture  and with it introduce a new look. According to Block, Theiss was tied up on another project when work on the movie began and so costume designer Robert Fletcher was brought on board.

“He really expanded the  Star Trek  universe a lot. I would say if there’s three of the designers that did the most in terms of expanding  Star Trek  it would be Bill Theiss, Robert Fletcher, and then Robert Blackman later on,” she said. “Fletcher’s ideas were influenced by the producers of course, but he also went off on his own tangent. For the first movie Robert Wise was the director and he didn’t like the garish colors of the original series’ costumes so he wanted it to be more pastel and toned down so that the actors would be more prominent than the color of their costumes and that’s how we got those pale colors for the first movie.”

The pale costumes are definitely less exciting than what was seen in the original series. White, blue, and beige dominated the color scheme and each character’s division in Starfleet was less noticeable. The movie also introduced a one-piece jumpsuit uniform design that frankly was not very flattering to the characters wearing them.

Thankfully these uniforms disappeared as the franchise moved on to  Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . A sense of color returned to Starfleet when Fletcher designed new uniforms once again. With their red jackets and new ways to distinguish between divisions, these costumes and variations of them would continue to appear in movies as well as  The Next Generation .

The Motion Picture  did leave a more significant—and more welcome—impact on the franchise beyond the officer’s costumes however thanks to the complete and spectacular redesign of the Klingons.

“Robert Fletcher, even though he was costume designer, he was also instrumental in deciding on the look of the Klingons and doing facial makeup and giving them the distinctive forehead…he didn’t like the original television Klingons because they were too human looking,” Erdmann said.

Even though they didn’t have much of a budget to work with then according to Block, Fletcher worked with the makeup department to develop the Klingon look and is “really kind of credited with creating the modern Klingon.” That look would change in slight ways from then on, but the basics of the new design would remain and become instantly familiar to fans as belonging to the warrior race.

As a result of the redesign, Klingons earn the title of  Star Trek  alien that has changed the most from the original series. Others like the Vulcans have for the most part stayed the same in regards to makeup as the years have passed, though their clothes may have changed.

“The Vulcans were very straight forward and obviously logical in the original series. Robert Fletcher started putting a lot of jewels on their wardrobe so they had a lot of jewelry manufacturing going on during the whole movie period and that stayed all the way. They always had big rocks, the idea that maybe Vulcan had a lot of minerals on the planet and they used them as decorations on their wardrobe and symbolic decorations,” Erdmann said. “That kind of surprised me. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but you go back and look at the Vulcans over the development of the 50 years and they’ve got these big beautiful jewels on all the time.”

As the franchise continued with more movies and new TV series the fashion of the final frontier continued to evolve, keeping classic elements and updating others. The colors of the divisions for example would often shift on the uniforms though which colors represented the basic divisions essentially stayed the same.

“They went farther in some things than they had been able to in the ‘60s…” Block said. “They kind of went a little farther in [the Theiss Titillation theory] when they got to  Deep Space Nine  because they had a lot of aliens on that show so like the bar girls when you looked at them on  Deep Space Nine  they had some pretty risqué costumes though they were in the background a lot so you didn’t notice that as much.”

The way costumes were handled also helped connect the expanding  Star Trek  universe. At one point multiple series were on television as movies were also being released. When costume designer Robert Blackman, who worked on the TV shows as well as  Star Trek: Generations , designed new uniforms for  Star Trek: First Contact , the officers of  Deep Space Nine  began wearing them too.

Costumes would change even more as the prequel  Enterprise   took fans into a time before the original series and the reboot films offered a reimagining of that first series in an alternate timeline. Throughout all of the 50 years though, there are still connections that let you know it is  Trek   and some of the connections Erdmann and Block discovered while working on this book might even be ones you never thought of before!

“We learned that all the way across the franchise, every costume designer found it was real useful to do as much shopping at hardware stores as it was at fashion stores. They would design a costume but they would go out not only looking for interesting fabric, you know we’ve seen this even in clothing that we probably wear ourselves where the wardrobe maker will show the wrong side of a piece of fabric. It’s prettier on the inside but the outside is more interesting so they will put that as the outside of the outfit,” Erdmann said. “But they also shopped in hardware stores so you see all kinds of things sewn on, especially with the Borg of course. The Borg is literally made up of stuff, tubes and bolts and things, that they bought at hardware stores, but you found out that that kind of material, that kind of stuff is thrown into other costumes as well.”

Those aren’t the only two unique locations designers shopped either. Erdmann said they also went to used-clothing stores.

“They’d go to used clothing stores and buy like old fur coats and things and tear them up and use those pieces to make gloves and boots and it’s an amazing art that the costumers have,” he said. “They find the stuff to work with every place and they will look in places that you wouldn’t suspect in order to find the stuff that they want to work with. It’s fascinating to me.”

All of this begs the question of what we might see in the latest  Star Trek   releases.  Star Trek Beyond  will have a different costume designer than the previous two films with Sanja Milkovic Hays, who previously worked in the franchise as costume designer for  Star Trek: Insurrection , taking on the role. Then there’s the upcoming series set to premiere in 2017. Block said she and Erdmann are looking forward to the new show and “hope to see a lot of innovation in that.”

“I’m very anxious to find out what the new series will be. There’s a lot of discussion. I see online that some of the fans are really skeptical. They think ‘oh well it’s going to be on some streaming channel so it can’t be any good. The wrong people are going to be making it.’ But nobody knows anything so I think we should just settle back, relax, and look forward to whatever it is because I doubt that they’re going to screw it up and I’m just very excited about it,” Erdmann said.

It’s certainly hard not to get excited with so much  Star Trek  on the horizon, but looking back at its rich history and the fascinating world of costumes just might make fans look forward to it even more. After all, considering the evolution of  Star Trek   costumes we have to wonder: Will the 2017 series offer a whole new take on the classic uniform style? Will any familiar aliens receive a makeover from how they looked in past decades?

We’ll just have to wait and see, but until then fans can at least prepare themselves for the answers and maybe even reach a deeper appreciation for what we might see through this history of  Star Trek  costumes!

Lisa Granshaw | @LisaGranshaw

Lisa Granshaw is a freelance writer based in New York City. She writes about pop culture, entertainment, and a variety of topics for multiple websites and…

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The Ultimate Guide to Star Trek Costumes

Welcome to the ultimate guide to Star Trek costumes! Whether you're a die-hard fan or just looking for a unique costume for your next event, Costume-Shop.com has got you covered. With our wide selection of Star Trek costumes, you can boldly go where no one has gone before. Let's dive in and explore the fascinating world of Star Trek costumes!

Why Choose Star Trek Costumes?

Star Trek has captured the hearts of millions of fans worldwide for decades. It's a timeless franchise that continues to inspire and entertain. Dressing up as your favorite Star Trek character allows you to immerse yourself in the world of space exploration, adventure, and discovery.

But why choose Star Trek costumes from Costume-Shop.com? Here are some compelling reasons:

• Curated Costumes: We offer a curated collection of high-quality Star Trek costumes, ensuring that you'll find the perfect outfit for your next event.
• 24/7 Customer Service: Our dedicated customer service team is available 24/7 to assist you with any questions or concerns you may have.
• Timely Delivery with Tracking: We understand the importance of receiving your costume on time, which is why we provide timely delivery with tracking information, so you can track your package every step of the way.

Types of Star Trek Costumes

At Costume-Shop.com, we offer a wide range of Star Trek costumes to suit every fan's preference. Here are some popular options:

1. Captain James T. Kirk

Captain James T. Kirk is one of the most iconic characters in the Star Trek franchise. Dressing up as Captain Kirk allows you to embody his leadership, charisma, and adventurous spirit. Our Captain Kirk costumes are available in various styles and sizes, ensuring a perfect fit.

Spock, the half-human, half-Vulcan science officer, is another beloved character from Star Trek. With our range of Spock costumes, you can showcase your logical thinking and embrace the Vulcan way of life.

3. Lieutenant Uhura

Lieutenant Uhura, the communications officer aboard the USS Enterprise, is an inspiration to many. Our Uhura costumes allow you to step into her shoes and communicate with the stars.

4. Klingon Warrior

If you prefer the fierce and warrior-like characters of the Star Trek universe, our Klingon costumes are perfect for you. Become a Klingon warrior and embrace the honor, strength, and battle prowess that comes with it.

Why Costume-Shop.com is Your Best Choice

We understand that when it comes to purchasing costumes online, there are several factors to consider. Here's why Costume-Shop.com stands out:

• Speedy and Free Shipping: We offer speedy and free shipping on all orders, ensuring that your costume arrives in a timely manner.
• Exceptional Customer Support: Our customer support team is here to assist you every step of the way. If you have any questions or concerns, we're just a phone call or email away.
• Proven Track Record: With years of experience in the industry, Costume-Shop.com has a proven track record of delivering high-quality costumes to satisfied customers.

Whether you're attending a sci-fi convention, Halloween party, or simply want to express your love for Star Trek, Costume-Shop.com has the perfect costume for you. Our wide selection, curated costumes, and exceptional customer service make us the best choice for all your Star Trek costume needs. Shop now and embark on an unforgettable intergalactic adventure!

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Flight Captain Pilot Costume - Command the Skies in Style! ✈️👩‍✈️

🌐 Take Flight with Flair! Elevate your costume game with the Flight Captain Pilot Costume from www.Costume-shop.com. Perfect for themed parties, Ha...

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Command Delta Badge

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This magnetic delta comes to you directly from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . It is full-size and true to the show's scale in size and finish. The delta features a brushed metal finish. The delta has two vertical magnetic clutches and a back plate to hold it securely in place. While manufactured with FanSets normal attention to detail, this delta is not manufactured as a prop replica.

• True to the show's scale in size and finish
• Ships on May 15, 2024

Ordering Information

• Return Policy: We will gladly accept returns for any reason within 30 days of receipt of delivery.
• Shipping: Ship times are estimates of time in transit after your product leaves the fulfillment center. Some items in your order may ship separately to arrive faster.
• Availability: Ships internationally to most countries around the world.
• Shipping Policy: For more information, see our Shipping Policy here .

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Star Trek: Lower Decks Badge

Forged from resilient materials, the Star Trek: Lower Decks Badge proudly showcases the iconic Delta Shield insignia, adorned with the unique colors and design motifs of the U.S.S. Cerritos crew. Whether you stand among the esteemed senior officers or serve as a humble ensign, this badge serves as a beacon of your dedication to Starfleet and the Lower Decks team.

• This magnetic delta comes to you directly from Star Trek: Lower Decks .
• Measures at 2.25" tall
• The delta features a brushed metal finish.
• The magnet has two vertical magnetic clutches to hold it securely in place.
• While manufactured with FanSets normal attention to detail, this delta is not manufactured as a prop replica.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation Badge

Star Trek: The Next Generation Delta This delta comes to you directly from Star Trek: The Next Generation.  It is a full-size delta that features a matte brushed metal finish.  The magnetic version has two horizontal magnets or clutches to hold it securely in place. While manufactured with FanSets normal attention to detail, this delta is not manufactured as a prop replica.

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Star Trek: The Original Series Science Uniform T-Shirt

Introducing our Star Trek Uniform T-Shirt, where style meets intergalactic adventure! Inspired by the iconic uniforms worn by the crew of the Starship Enterprise, this shirt is a must-have for any Star Trek enthusiast.

• Your new favorite tee is made from super smooth and comfortable cotton touch polyester jersey that won't fade after washing.
• Fit: Regular fit; item generally runs small.
• Made Of: 95% polyester, 5% elastane.
• Care: Machine wash cold inside out with like colors and tumble dry low.
• Shipping Policy: For more information, see our Shipping Policy .

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Star Trek The Original Series Command Uniform T-Shirt

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Star Trek: The Original Series Engineering Uniform T-Shirt

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Star Trek: Picard Magnetic Delta Badge

This magnetic pin comes to you directly from the   Star Trek: Picard . It is a full-size delta. While manufactured with FanSets normal attention to detail this pin is not meant to be an exact prop replica. With a bright silver delta over a matte finish black nickel it measures 2 ¾" tall. Revised for screen accuracy this new version of the Picard Delta features a groove in the silver overlay. This magnet lets everyone know how much you enjoy Star Trek: Picard.

Product Details:

• Official Size and Scale!
• Double Clutch Magnetic Back
• Measures 2 ¾” tall

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Star Trek: The Next Generation Command Uniform Sherpa Blanket

This Star Trek: The Next Generation Command Uniform Sherpa Blanket lets you relax in ultimate comfort after a long day of commanding the U.S.S. Enterprise. Featuring the iconic colors of the Star Trek: The Next Generation command uniform on the soft mink front and a cozy sherpa back, this Star Trek blanket is perfect to snuggle up in as you unwind during the evening.

• You'll never need another blanket! This blanket is the perfect addition to your home, it looks good and is a nice companion on cool nights.
• Made Of: 100% polyester.
• Care: Machine wash cold on gentle cycle with mild detergent and similar colors. Tumble dry low or lay flat to dry for longest life.

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Star Trek: Discovery Men's Copper Operations Uniform

Did you know that the Uniforms for Star Trek: Discovery were based on actual NASA uniforms? That is why they are so stylish. The Star Trek: Discovery Men's Copper Operations Uniform looks just like the one worn by Shazad Latif as Security Officer Lt. Ash Tayler in the series. The lined blue top features a copper Starfleet badge and additional copper accents.

PRODUCT DETAILS:

• Material: 100% Polyester
• Care: Hand Wash to preserve uniform
• Additional Information: Pants are not included.
• Availability: Ships to the United States and Puerto Rico.

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Star Trek: The Original Series Command Uniform Throw Pillow

Give your starship quarters a noticeable upgrade with this Star Trek: The Original Series Command Uniform Pillow. Inspired by the iconic command uniform from Star Trek: The Original Series , this Star Trek accent pillow makes a great finishing touch to your home decor.

• Show off your favorite shows or characters with this vibrant throw pillow. You'll want to be able to display one of these in each comfortable spot in your house!
• Measures: 16” Wide x 16” Tall.
• Made Of: spun poly material with down alternative; blown and closed.
• Care: Spot Clean or Dry Clean Only.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation Command Uniform Throw Pillow

If you are in the command division on your starship, then you deserve some R&R every now and then! Inspired by the command uniform of crew members aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, the Star Trek: The Next Generation Command Uniform Pillow lets you relax in comfort while showing some pride for your division.

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Star Trek: The Original Series Science Uniform Adult Shorts

Planning a trip to Risa, Casperia Prime, or maybe Freecloud is more your vibe? Don't forget to pack these Star Trek: The Original Series Science Uniform Adult Shorts in your suitcase! Get ready to do some high tech science experiments aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 in these blue Star Trek: The Original Series Science Uniform Adult Shorts featuring the Science Badge! With mesh side pockets, water-repellant fabric, and elastic waistband, you can't go wrong rocking these amazing shorts on your next adventure.

• Made of: 91% recycled polyester, 9% spandex (fabric composition may vary by 3%)
• Four-way stretch moisture-wicking microfiber fabric
• Elastic waistband with a flat white drawstring
• Mesh side pockets

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Star Trek: Voyager Command Uniform Sherpa Blanket

Even those in the command division need some R&R! With a soft mink front inspired by the command uniforms of the U.S.S. Voyager crew members, this comfy Star Trek: Voyager Command Uniform Sherpa Blanket is perfect to throw over your shoulders after a busy day. With a soft mink front and cozy sherpa back, this Star Trek: Voyager blanket is a must-have addition to your personal quarters.

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Star Trek: Discovery Command Uniform Beach Towel

From pool days to beach vacation, this Star Trek: Discovery Command Uniform Beach Towel is a must-have accessory for DISCO fans. Inspired by the command uniforms within the DISCO series, this soft towel lets you lounge or dry off while showing your pride for the command division aboard the U.S.S. Discovery.

• Whether at the beach or pool you will use this beach towel as your favorite accessory all summer!
• Measures: 30"x60".
• Made Of: 100% Velour Terry Cotton.
• Care: Please wash before using towel. Pile and softness will return.

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Star Trek: Discovery Command Uniform Throw Pillow

Give your decor an out-of-this-world upgrade with this Star Trek: Discovery Command Uniform Pillow. Inspired by the command uniforms within the DISCO series, this Star Trek: Discovery pillow is perfect for command division members and Star Trek: Discovery fans alike.

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Star Trek: Voyager Command Uniform Throw Pillow

The perfect accent pillow for Star Trek: Voyager fans and command division members alike, this Star Trek: Voyager Command Uniform Pillow instantly elevates your home decor. Featuring a design inspired by the command uniform of Voyager crew members, this Star Trek: Voyager pillow is a fun addition to your room, media room, dorm, and more.

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Star Trek: The Original Series Engineering Uniform Athletic Shorts

Planning a trip to Risa, Casperia Prime, or maybe Freecloud is more your vibe? Don't forget to pack these Star Trek: The Original Series Engineering Uniform Adult Shorts in your suitcase! Channel your inner Paul Stamets, Montgomery Scott or Georgi LaForge in these amazing red uniform shorts featuring the Engineering Badge! With mesh side pockets, water-repellant fabric, and elastic waistband, you can't go wrong rocking these amazing shorts on your next adventure.

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Star Trek: Discovery Command Uniform Sherpa Blanket

Whether you are unwinding after a long day aboard the U.S.S. Discovery or settling in for a Star Trek marathon, you will love snuggling up in this Star Trek: Discovery Command Uniform Sherpa Blanket. With a soft mink front inspired by the DISCO command uniforms and a cozy sherpa back, this Star Trek: Discovery blanket will become your favorite household accessory.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation Command Uniform Beach Towel

Make your next beach vacation the best one yet with this Star Trek: The Next Generation Command Uniform Beach Towel. Perfect for crew members in the command division, this soft Star Trek: The Next Generation beach towel keeps you dry while showing off your love for your team.

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Star Trek: The Original Series Command Uniform Sherpa Blanket

Being in the command division takes a lot of skill, energy, and focus. That is why you will love relaxing in your quarters with this Star Trek: The Original Series Command Uniform Sherpa Blanket draped around your shoulders. With the colors of the Star Trek: The Original Series command uniform on the soft mink front and a cozy sherpa back, this Star Trek blanket is a must-have for all crewmembers aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise.

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Star Trek: The Original Series Command Uniform Beach Towel

Just because you take a vacation from commanding the U.S.S. Enterprise doesn't mean you can't represent your division! Inspired by the command uniform of crew members aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, this Star Trek: The Original Series Command Uniform Beach Towel will make your next beach vacation out of this world.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation Command Uniform Tote Bag

You can let everyone know your status in the command division by throwing this spacious Star Trek: The Next Generation Command Uniform Tote Bag over your shoulder. Featuring a design inspired by the iconic red command uniform, this Star Trek: The Next Generation tote bag will become any fan’s favorite accessory.

• Dimensions: Bag 15" x 15"
• Maximum weight limit: 44lb
• Handle length: 11.8".
• Made Of: 100% spun polyester fabric, Dual handles 100% natural cotton bull denim.
• Care: Handwash.

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Star Trek: The Original Series Command Uniform Premium Tote Bag

Whether you are commanding a starship or heading to class, this Star Trek: The Original Series Command Uniform Tote Bag lets you store everything you need for the day in one secure place while showing off your command division status. Featuring the iconic yellow uniform and command division badge, this Star Trek: The Original Series tote bag is a must-have addition to your style.

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Star Trek: Discovery Women's Copper Operations Uniform

Look as stylish as Cadet Sylvia Tilly this Halloween when you put on the Star Trek: Discovery Women's Copper Operations Uniform. This lined blue shirt with copper accents is a replica of the style worn by Mary Wiseman as Cadet Tilly in Star Trek: Discovery. It features copper shoulder braids and a copper Starfleet emblem.

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Star Trek: Discovery Women's Gold Command Uniform

Step onto the bridge and take control this Halloween with the Star Trek: Discovery Women's Gold Command Uniform. Whether you are dressing up as Michael Burnham, the Shenzhou Captain Philippa Georgiou, or assuming command of your own spaceship, this uniform will let everyone know who is in charge.

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Star Trek: The Original Series Women's Deluxe Science Uniform

You'll look like you stepped off the Starship Enterprise when you wear this  Star Trek: The Original Series Women's Deluxe Science Uniform. This costume includes a form-fitting blue dress with a black collar shiny gold wrist bands and a replica Star Trek emblem pin. Look your best and impress Star Trek fans young and old in this officially licensed costume.

• 100% Polyester
• Embroidered Star Fleet emblem on front
• Metallic band around forearms

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Star Trek: The Original Series Women's Deluxe Command Uniform

You'll look like you stepped off the Starship Enterprise when you wear the  Star Trek: The Original Series  Women's Deluxe Command Uniform. This costume includes a gold, form fitting long sleeved mini dress with a black collar, shiny gold wrist bands, and a replica Star Trek emblem pin. Look your best and impress Star Trek fans young and old in this costume.

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Star Trek: The Original Series Deluxe Spock Uniform

Suit up for duty with this fresh Star Trek: The Original Series Deluxe Spock Uniform and you'll look and feel as good as new! Made of 100% polyester, this pullover shirt with a v-neck and raglan cut sleeves will keep you cool while you’re making the crucial decisions you never get credit for! It’s also got an embroidered Starfleet emblem and metallic ribbon sleeve stripes, because what’s the point of being out in space if you can’t have some seriously far-out, from the next galaxy type-a style? Live long and prosper, indeed!

• 100% polyester
• Pullover shirt has V-neck and raglan cut sleeves
• Embroidered Starfleet emblem and metallic ribbon sleeve stripes
• Original series style, finally available in our century!

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Star Trek: The Original Series Spock Dog Costume

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Star Trek: Discovery Science Women's Uniform (Silver)

Boldly go where no man has gone before, and look great while doing it with this Star Trek Discovery Science Uniform in silver. This blue top features an inner lining, a silver Starfleet emblem on the chest and additional silver accents ,  making it the perfect addition to your Star Trek cosplay costume . Pants are not included, only the jacket.

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Star Trek: Discovery Women's Command Uniform

Step onto the bridge and take control this Halloween with the Star Trek: Discovery Women's Command Uniform. Whether you are dressing up as Michael Burnham, the Shenzhou Captain Philippa Georgiou, or assuming command of your own spaceship, this uniform will let everyone know who's in charge. This Star Trek: Discovery outfit features the standard-issue navy blue uniform of all Federation crew members, as well as the gold trim that signifies command personnel. Includes a shirt with Starfleet insignia and zipper, a matching pair of pants, and boot tops.

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Women's Star Trek Costumes

Find a variety of Star Trek costumes for women! Shop cosplay quality uniform costumes and all-over print t-shirts to make an easy costume. Find accessories like Vulcan ears and Starfleet weapons to make your look complete!

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THEATRICAL COSTUMES & Wardrobe

Theatrical & Period Costumes,v Cosplay, Masquerade & Halloween Costumes for Adults & Children

Thousands of Rental Costumes

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Cosplay! Masquerade! Halloween!

COSTUMES, MASCOTS, & WARDROBE

Sales    •   rentals    •   design    •   educational services.

At A to Z Theatrical, we rent costumes for the Stage, Film, and the Everyday. Our Costume Department is open year round to individuals, corporations, high schools, colleges, churches, as well as amateur and professional theatrical companies.

Our costume professionals can help you select just the right pieces of apparel and accessories from our wide selection of theatrical costumes to round out any character.

We have thousands of complete costumes and approximately 50,000 individual pieces of wardrobe apparel in our 10,000 square foot showroom.

We rent theatrical and period costumes, masquerade, steam punk apparel, adult & children’s costumes, and so much more!

The listing below is a very small sampling of some of the types of costumes you will see in our spacious showroom:

   Costumes:

•   Anime / Cosplay
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•   Victorian / Crinoline

Are you a school, theatre, or other organization doing a full-scale performance? We offer several full Show Packages, including costumes, props and set dressings. You can even pick and choose from our Piece Lists to rent only what you need. Check out our Show Packages page for more information!

If renting does not fit into your schedule, check out our retail side.

We keep a complete selection of hand tied beards, mustaches, and theatrical wigs, costume accessories, professional makeup for stage and film, hats, canes, gloves, and popular costumes for adults and children in-stock.

We also carry a full line of feather products, including fans, masks, boas, and plumes.

Our retail inventory is constantly expanding to meet the needs of our valued clients and customers. If there is something we don't currently provide, we can source it just for you.

COSTUME DESIGN & FABRICATION

Aside from Rental and Retail Sales, A to Z Theatrical offers custom garments.

We can design and fabricate custom costumes, wardrobe pieces, and mascots, as well help you to realize your own cos-play vision.

Our in-house staff of designers and seamstresses are capable of assisting with your most difficult projects.

With over 50 years of design and costuming experience, we hope to make your show or special event a success.

A to Z Theatrical Supply and Service in Kansas City has been serving the theatre community nationwide for over half a century.

Our staff of experienced theatrical professionals are committed to helping our customers in any way we can.

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Screen Rant

Wonder woman’s new battle-ready armor is what she deserved in dark knights of steel.

Wonder Woman's new costume for DC's Absolute Power event is the battle-ready armor the Amazon Princess deserved in Tom Taylor's Dark Knights of Steel.

• Wonder Woman's new knight-worthy armor in Absolute Power solidifies her status as a true warrior princess.
• Scheduled for release on July 3, 2024, Absolute Power #1 by Mark Waid and Dan Mora sets up an epic battle that will shape the DC Universe.
• Dan Mora's variant cover for Absolute Power teases new costumes for Justice League members, including Wonder Woman, in an upcoming summer event.

Wonder Woman’s teased costume for DC’s blockbuster summer event, Absolute Power , delivers the knight-worthy armor she deserved in Tom Taylor’s medieval Elseworlds series, Dark Knights of Steel . This new attire propels Diana Prince beyond mere badassery, cementing her status as a true warrior princess while simultaneously being one of her best looks to date.

Scheduled for release on July 3, 2024, Absolute Power #1 by Mark Waid and Dan Mora heralds an epic battle between the Trinity of Evil—Amanda Waller, Failsafe, and Brainiac Queen—and DC's mightiest heroes. This battle looms as one of DC's most consequential events yet, since it will decide the fate of all metahumans in the DC Universe.

Fortunately, these cherished heroes are in for some much-needed upgrades, as Dan Mora's variant cover for the issue teases new costumes for seven Justice League members , including Wonder Woman , who will be donning distinctly knightly attire.

The Purple Gloves Return To Canon: Batman's High-Tech Armor Stays True to His Original Costume

Wonder woman gets new knight-worthy armor ahead of absolute power.

In Mora’s variant cover for Absolute Power #1, Wonder Woman is depicted donning formidable armor. The ensemble features a sleek, form-fitting black bodysuit as its base, layered with various protective armor pieces , including imposing shoulder pauldrons, a crimson and golden breastplate, a star-spangled fauld, and heavily armored thigh-high boots. Complementing this defensive array are Diana’s signature accessories: a shield, a longsword, and her iconic golden tiara adorned with a crimson star. The overall design exudes a knightly aura, perfectly befitting the Amazonian warrior princess and enhancing her already formidable presence.

While it remains uncertain whether fans will witness this new costume beyond Mora’s variant cover, the likelihood is high, given that Mora serves as the lead artist on the Absolute Power title . Therefore, this variant cover likely offers a sneak peek at the character designs that these Justice League members will adopt in the upcoming summer crisis . Anticipation runs rampant to witness these costumes in action within the narrative, and with Mora at the helm, these designs are poised to become even more intricate and polished.

Wonder Woman’s New Absolute Power Costume is the Armor She Deserved in Dark Knights of Steel

Another striking aspect of Mora’s Wonder Woman costume redesign is its alignment with the type of armor Diana deserved in Taylor’s Dark Knights of Steel . In the Elseworlds series, Wonder Woman's attire was somewhat underwhelming, featuring a predominantly cloth-based aesthetic rather than the armored look befitting a warrior princess. However, it's worth noting that Diana's appearance in the Elseworlds series wasn't necessarily bad, but it lacked the knightly appearance that some fans anticipated. With Mora’s design, fans now have the best of both worlds: two distinct yet equally impressive costume interpretations for Wonder Woman .

Absolute Power #1 will be released on July 3, 2024, from DC Comics!

Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman is the superhero identity of Diana, Princess of the Amazons. Created on the island of Themyscira, Wonder Woman is a super-powered demi-goddess with extreme physical strength who utilizes magical gifts (like her famous Lasso of Truth) to defeat her foes. As mighty as her fellow heroes Superman and the Justice League, Wonder Woman is unmatched in her compassion and virtue.

Alternate Sci-Fi Villain Designs That Would've Blown Everyone Away

S cience fiction has gifted us some of the most iconic villains in cinematic history, from the imposing presence of Darth Vader to the dread-inspiring Predator. It's hard to imagine that these menacing figures could have sported entirely different appearances. In the world of movies and TV, the creative process often calls for exploring multiple paths before settling on a final look. What if these other designs had been embraced? Could V'ger from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" or the "Forbidden Planet" Id Monster have been more effective if they weren't the figures we know today? Would the title creatures from "The Thing" or "Alien" frightened us so much if they had been imagined in other ways?

These distinct designs provide a rare glimpse into the untapped potential of characters and beings we love ... and love to hate. Such remarkable variations might have redefined our perception of these antagonists. Sometimes, the road not travelled leads to captivating destinations. Let's embark on a journey to an alternative reality of science-fi villain "what-ifs."

Read more: Critically-Panned Sci-Fi Movies That Are Actually Worth Your Time

John Carpenter's Thing

The signature feature of the eponymous creature from John Carpenter's "The Thing" is that it doesn't have a fixed form. The shape-shifting creature doesn't exhibit a default morphology, constantly transforming from one thing to another and sprouting tendrils, limbs, and toothy maws as needed. But before effects artist Rob Bottin took the reins to bring the creature to hideous life, a wholly different approach was in the works.

Originally, Dale Kuipers, whose previous credits included 1981's "Caveman" and "The Howling," was hired to conceptualize and build the Thing. He decided it was an alien bioweapon that would latch onto a victim's skull, and sink a million hair-like needles into their brain until it possessed the knowledge to reproduce its unwilling host and its behavior perfectly. It would then dissolve the body, consume it, and form a duplicate of the victim around itself. When discovered or threatened, it would exit this human shell starting from the most prominent orifice, the mouth. It would split the body open and latch onto anything or anyone it could use to extricate itself.

But before production could begin, an accident left Kuipers incapacitated for two months. Being Hollywood, the project didn't stop, and Rob Bottin was hired to create and realize his own versions of "The Thing." Kuipers was understandably bitter at losing the opportunity and critical of the finished film. "Though Rob is a great tactician and a fantastic craftsman, I feel that his designs go so far as to be borderline cartoonish," he wrote in an article preserved via The Thing Legacy on Facebook .

Darth Vader

The first Dark Lord of the Sith stands as the most iconic sci-fi villain on this list. When "Star Wars" premiered in 1977, the audience instantly recognized his evil nature. With his black garb, flowing cape, skull-like face, and helmet, he could be nothing other than a villain.

However, this wasn't always the plan. In the early stages of developing what was then titled "The Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Starkiller," Darth Vader had a relatively minor role and didn't wear a mask. This changed as artists tried to visually represent George Lucas' ideas. A key artist in this process was Ralph McQuarrie, who raised questions about how Vader would breathe when transitioning from one spaceship to another. This implied a breathing mask with goggles, which is what he drew. This concept evolved in a feudal Japanese direction, with Vader's face covered by something resembling a samurai's face armor, topped with a kabuto helmet. Lucas loved the idea so much that he created the character's horrifying backstory to explain it.

The final result was a combination of elements from the works of several artists, particularly costume designer John Mollo, but with McQuarrie being the prime influence. As archived via StarWars.com , one of McQuarrie's variations was built after-hours by Joe Johnston for Industrial Light and Magic's 1976 Halloween party, complete with neon lightsaber. Whether this version or the look costume is more striking and intimidating is a matter for you to decide.

She-Hulk's K.E.V.I.N.

The meta-humor in "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" included prominent fourth-wall-breaking moments. A particularly noteworthy one closed the finale, in which a classic comic book concept came to life: a character meeting its creator.

In "Whose Show Is This?" Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany) expresses dissatisfaction with the expected Marvel Cinematic Universe-style climactic battle she's been assigned by the narrative. This leads her to leap out of the thumbnail of her show on the Disney+ landing page and embark on a journey to confront her true antagonists: the show's writers. It all leads to a face-off with Kevin Feige, the head of Marvel Studios. The punchline: Feige isn't portrayed as a human being but as K.E.V.I.N., a giant A.I. brain.

K.E.V.I.N. went through many concept iterations. Artist Jeff Simpson's explorations of this cyber-Feige were inspired by various technological eras. As called for by the script, all the designs shared one common feature: each wore a hat resembling Feige's trademark baseball cap. Ridiculously, the real Feige deemed it was illogical. In a show about a superhuman green lawyer, a robot wearing a hat was over the line. Head writer Jessica Gao later told The Hollywood Reporter that she joked, "Kevin, if you don't let me put a hat on that robot, then I quit." 

Hulks don't compromise, but the production team did, so while the ball-capped "Akira"-esque early version wasn't chosen, the final version of K.E.V.I.N. does feature a design element suggesting Feige's characteristic chapeau. An actual baseball cap would have been funnier, logic be damned.

The Xenomorph

One reason the title creature from "Alien" was so memorable was that it wasn't intended to be a movie creature at all. It originated as a figure in surrealist H.R. Giger's painting, Necronomicon IV. Giger's signature style combined elements of the organic and the mechanical. Eerie, elongated, and twisted forms evoke a sense of dread and fascination. Biomechanical elements, such as grotesque skeletal structures and sinuous tubes, are interwoven with organic forms, suggesting a perverse fusion of man and machine. Upon being introduced to Giger's work, director Ridley Scott knew he had his man.

Before Giger's involvement, others had attempted to envision the alien that would become known as the Xenomorph. Screenwriter Dan O'Bannon and artist Ron Cobb had their own ideas regarding the creature's appearance. Cobb's approach leaned towards realism and biology, demonstrated in his previous alien concepts for the "Star Wars" cantina, and the extraterrestrial beings of "The Last Starfighter." Despite its paired meat-hook claws, Cobb's versions ended up more peculiar than fear-inducing. The O'Bannon sketch seen here is far more horrifying than Cobb's drawings. It could have made a terrific monster, but what can compete with Giger's nightmare fuel?

Not every Giger design was a winner, though. His unused Chestburster looked something like a plucked bird carcass with a mouth at the end of its neck, which could have evoked horror, laughter, or both.

The Monster From The Id

From a practical standpoint, invisibility is a terrific solution to depicting alien beings. It obviates the necessity of creating convincing yet potentially costly on-set creatures. And — bonus! — an unseen threat may elicit more fear, as the power of imagination often surpasses what can be simulated by a person in a suit, a mechanical puppet, or staccato stop-motion.

However, the filmmakers of "Forbidden Planet" recognized the need to reveal their "monsters from the Id" in some form to avoid the audience feeling cheated. Their inventive solution was to suggest its shape via hand-drawn animation to depict its energized contours as it collides with an energy fence. MGM artists proposed numerous concepts for its form, but the ultimate creature design was crafted by independent animator and artist Ken Hultgren and brought to life by Disney effects animator Joshua Meador.

But showing the creature "in the flesh," so to speak, was considered. When Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) finally confronts the malignant manifestation of his own subconscious, it would briefly become visible. Multiple concepts were painted directly onto frame enlargements of the climactic moment, depicting all manner of monstrosities, as seen in a Heritage Auctions catalogue of the original concept sketches. All were ultimately discarded. The most disconcerting versions possessed Morbius' face, proving conclusively Commander Adams' (Leslie Nielsen) realization: "Morbius. That thing out there. It's you."

Although the Heptapod aliens in Denis Villeneuve's "Arrival" ultimately prove to be friendly, they are perceived as an existential threat by certain countries and groups. It doesn't help that the abstract concept of a "weapon" is misunderstood, leading to tragedy. The two Heptapods we meet, nicknamed "Abbott and Costello," are portrayed in a significantly different manner than described in the story on which the film is based, Ted Chiang's Nebula-winning novella "Story of Your Life."

A film adaptation of "Story of Your Life" was announced in 2012, and by early 2014, Villeneuve was attached as the director. In 2015, two artists were tasked with conceiving the ships and their occupants. Peter Konig's initial "Arrival" designs included versions with no definite front and eye-like organs on every side. Meinert Hansen's first doodles, seen on his own blog , leaned towards the original novella description, but his directive was to "design something we haven't seen before." He ventured in a direction that he felt was a bit too abstract for the audience to identify as beings and was ultimately satisfied that they didn't make the cut.

Ultimately, Carlos Huante defined the Heptapods, describing them to IndieWire as a "bizarre upper-torso kind of a thing, an anthropomorphic whale creature with the spider hand creature at the end of an umbilical cord."

The Predator

The original "Predator"  features a striking looking villain -- that is, when its cloaking device lets us see it. While it may not quite reach the level of H.R. Giger's Alien, it's memorable nonetheless. However, what Arnold Schwarzenegger battled to the death was Predator 2.0.

As documented on the Stan Winston School YouTube channel , the original suit design was approved despite the objections of the company contracted to build it. Its digitigrade legs and proportionally long arms required limb extensions, making it very difficult to work with. The man inside the suit was the not-yet-famous Jean-Claude Van Damme, whose martial arts skills were meant to make the alien hunter stealthy. However, he expressed strong objections to the suit, citing its inflexibility, heat, and even the look of its head. Since the digitigrade leg extensions couldn't be used for walking, any shots where the Predator's feet were visible required Van Damme to be suspended from wires. Shooting on location in a jungle added to the complications. After only a few days, the decision was made to scrap the suit and let Van Damme go.

Desperate measures were taken to save the movie. Production was halted, and the Stan Winston Studio took on the nearly impossible task of creating a completely new design and a finished suit in just six weeks. What they delivered is the Predator we all love to fear. But it's fun to look at that first Predator and imagine what could have been, had the effects technology of the time been up to the task.

The Green Goblin

Sam Raimi's 2002 "Spider-Man" was a big hit, but there were elements of it that were controversial. One was that Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) developed organic web-shooters. Another was the appearance of the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe). The primary complaint about the latter was that it was a head-to-toe suit of armor with an immobile mask that completely obscured Dafoe's face. Sure, this works for Darth Vader, but for the unhinged Green Goblin?

But long before Dafoe was cast, Amalgamated Dynamics/Studio ADI created and tested an entirely different approach, devising an Animatronic Make-Up Hybrid that faithfully mimicked the look of the comic book character but was capable of amazing expressions, as seen in a behind-the-scenes test video now seen on  the studio's YouTube channel .

The downside? It was complicated, and extremely time-consuming to put on. Furthermore, the actor would not be in control of the mechanisms that articulated the eyebrows, which would limit his ability to fully drive the performance. Impressive as it was, Raimi opted not to use the articulated mask, and the crew moved on to create the helmet that would end up being used in the film. It's a safe bet that many fans would have preferred the more true-to-the-comics look seen in the tests.

The Kilrathi

Few remember 1996's "Wing Commander," a movie that bombed so badly it killed the gaming franchise that birthed it and dashed the nascent directorial career of its creator, Chris Roberts (who would later find success as a movie producer). The film suffered from questionable casting and a predictable plot, but one thing on which nearly everyone could agree is that the design of the film's villains, the Kilrathi, sucks asteroids.

In the games, the Kilrathi are giant catlike creatures, as furry as Chewbacca. In the film, they're mostly hairless and resemble trolls more than felines. Even the animatronic Kilrathi in the "Wing Commander III" game cutscenes outshines what ended up on the silver screen.

Roberts had wanted to hire Patrick Tatopoulos, the creature and production designer for "Stargate," "Independence Day," and other '90s blockbusters. Tatopoulos' Kilrathi sketch reflected his work on "Stargate," portraying a noble and lionesque being. But his half-million dollar bid to build them was too high for the cash-strapped production to afford without making cuts elsewhere. Producer Todd Moyer chose to hire an effects house whose bid was significantly less than half of what Tatopoulos proposed. 

As he would later recall in an email to the fansite Wing Commander News , Roberts only saw the results the day before they began shooting, and one day of filming convinced him that these villains were "a bust." When the distributor refused to provide funds to digitally redo the Kilrathi, their scenes were pared back. By cutting costs, they ended up with results only suitable for the litterbox.

Audiences of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" didn't get a full view of the colossal V'ger antagonist until 2001's "Director's Edition," and many felt that reveal was a letdown. This reflected the concerns of some on the original production in 1979, who felt the best way to sell its enormity was never to show its entirety. Art director Mike Minor's "golden snake" design for V'ger was so long one end could not be seen from the other. A miniature of this was abandoned when Paramount upgraded what had been a TV movie to feature film status.

With the onboarding of Robert Abel and Associates for the visual effects, a completely new concept emerged. As effects firm's own Richard Taylor later described in an interview with Third Wave Design (accompanied by some early concept illustrations), it was a long, curved, streamlined shape, like a squid. This V'ger was to epitomize the "living machine" Spock described, featuring undulating surfaces that would change colors in response to the Enterprise's proximity. For its climactic transcendence, vast, translucent surfaces would unfurl, suggesting a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. Those acquainted with Abel's distinctive candy-colored neon effects can imagine the breathtaking potential of this moment.

However, Abel's team was abruptly dismissed due to slow progress, budget overruns, and studio politics. VFX pioneer Douglas Trumbull assumed control, and V'ger was entrusted to visual futurist Syd Mead to reimagine. To meet the film's immovable release date, the intricate organic surfaces were sacrificed in favor of a more solid, mechanical design, with a far less dramatic evolutionary exit.

Kenneth Johnson's 1983 miniseries "V" and its follow-ups feature villainous alien Visitors whose proportions closely resemble humans. This served a practical purpose, as they needed to wear human-like rubbery disguises to win over the Earthlings. However, this often seems implausible, particularly when Diana (Jane Badler) yells, revealing her human-like mouth all the way to her uvula.

The constraints imposed by practical effects makeup didn't hinder the 2009 "V" reboot series, as CGI allowed for greater creative freedom. Nonetheless, the series chose to withhold the full appearance of the Visitors — aka "the Vs" — tantalizing the audience with partial glimpses and suggestions of their true form. This suspense builds until the second season finale (which ended up being the series finale), when the audience finally gets a proper view of what lay beneath those human skinsuits.

Actress Morena Baccarin, who portrayed Anna, appreciated that the Visitors' appearance defied recognition, describing it as a blend of various lizard-like characteristics with a prehistoric touch. However, not everyone shared her sentiment. Fans could hardly be blamed for being disappointed that the silhouette resembles a blend of a lizard, an ant, and H.R. Giger's aesthetics, with an ant body, a fish head, and chicken legs. Artist John Gallagher's fascinating alternatives for the Visitors, shared via his own portfolio , suggest roads sadly not taken.

Darth Maul is a striking visual creation. Artist Iain McCaig's red and black markings echo the muscle patterns underneath. Of course, this iconic design was the end result, not the starting point. When McCaig was first brought in as a ​​concept artist the working title of "Star Wars Episode I" was simply "The Beginning," and there was no script. His first approach to this new Sith was to try to "out-helmet Darth Vader." Realizing the futility of trying to top Ralph McQuarrie's classic, he decided to explore the face instead. When the script finally turned up, Darth Maul was simply described as "a vision from your worst nightmare." McCaig had just such a nightmare ready.

In an oral history on StarWars.com , he described that nightmare. "Like a cross between a ghost and a serial killer staring in at you, and it's raining, and the rain is distorting the face. So I drew that, a stylized version of it, red ribbons instead of rain, and put it in a folder, and at the meeting passed it over to George. George opened it up and went, 'Oh, my God,' slammed it shut, handed it back, and said, 'Give me your second worst nightmare.'"

Too bad Lucas never thought to realize that original concept for some other hideous servant to the Dark Side.

Read the original article on /Film .