As a preface to my TMP-era costuming resources, I thought it would be interesting to take a broader look at the overall uniform paradigm of the movie, as established by costume designer Robert Fletcher.
I realize I may be in the minority, but I love TMP.
I appreciate its thoughtful tone. I enjoy the subtle and nuanced performances. The Enterprise refit is absolutely gorgeous, and Jerry Goldsmith’s phenomenal score is my all-time favorite score of his. (It actually ties for my all-time favorite movie soundtrack of any genre.)
I also love that there isn’t a foaming-at-the-mouth evil supervillain with a doomsday weapon who wants revenge on the Federation – something that’s just been done way, way too many times since The Wrath of Khan.
I’m so tired of this crap
That said, while I do like most of the costumes in the movie – and there were a lot of them – I also know they’re not everyone’s cup of tea.
For some this might be because of their radical departure from The Original Series uniforms (designed by William Ware Theiss); others may simply prefer their successors, the beloved “monster maroons.”
But for The Motion Picture, Robert Fletcher immediately established an intricate visual universe with a mind-boggling number of uniforms and uniform variants, giving Starfleet a genuine sense of realism as an organization with its different uniform options for different people in different contexts.
In this post, we’ll take a quick look at most of the primary uniform styles and variants.
Why So Different From TOS?
An obvious question might be, “Why didn’t they just use the same uniforms in the movie?”
After all, since TOS (then simply known as Star Trek) there had been two productions that stuck to the overall uniform aesthetic that William Ware Theiss had originally designed: The Animated Series, and the aborted Phase II.
With the show’s dedicated fanbase having been instrumental in its revival and with those fans having been accustomed to the established aesthetic for over a decade, changing the “look” of everything might seem like a questionable creative decision.
But neither director Robert Wise or costume designer Robert Fletcher haphazardly disregarded what came before them; nor was the new direction rooted in ignorance.
I’ve found three accounts of why there was such a major change to the costumes, and they’re all pretty consistent.
In The Motion Picture Blu-Ray audio commentary, Garfield Reeves-Stevens said, “The costumes are fascinating … Because when Robert Wise, who had never seen a Star Trek episode, took on the job of directing, he screened episodes … in a theater at Paramount, and found that the brightly-colored costumes of the television series, intended for the small screen … too garish for the big screen. So these muted colors come into play.”
In the Blu-Ray special feature, “Costume Tests,” DE post-production supervisor Michael Matessino stated:
“It was pretty much unanimously felt that the bright-colored costumes from the original TV series would’ve been too distracting on a big theater screen. What they actually ended up doing was going back to Gene Roddenberry’s preferred color palette that he had used for the two original TV series pilots in the 60s.
“It was only after the series was actually greenlit by NBC that a mandate came down that they wanted more color in the costumes and in the sets to promote their NBC color programming.
“On Star Trek: The Motion Picture, they actually really went back more to the color palette that Gene Roddenberry preferred, which was blues and beiges and golds and metallic railings and metallic doors.”
And in the book Star Trek Costumes: Five Decades of Fashion from the Final Frontier, Robert Fletcher is quoted saying:
“They had to bear some reference to the original clothes, and yet be entirely different.
“No one on the production was ever really satisfied with the old uniforms from a visual standpoint; they felt they were very unconvincing, very nonfunctional. What everyone agreed on was that the new uniforms needed to be more logical – something to give a solid feeling of reality, clothing that people can live and work in efficiently.
“The old series had too much of a ‘pulp’ look, the new Star Trek will have a more science ‘fact’ rather than a science ‘fiction’ look.
“[The wardrobe] had to look like the future, but not be so extravagant that it drew attention to itself. It’s much easier to do a flamboyant costume for some alien prince [than] trying to tread very delicately on eggshells and not offend the original Trekkers. I was very aware that some of the most ardent fans might resist changes.”
The TMP Color Palette
With all that in mind, one can easily make the visual connection between “The Cage” and The Motion Picture.
Although the muted uniform color palette effectively framed the actors’ faces and helped the audience focus on their performances, the assortment of white, off-white, gray, beige, tan, and brown uniforms has since proven to a bit too muted for some fans.
Even inside the relatively tight range of neutral colors, though, there was a surprising amount of color variation.
For example, at least three different gray colors were used: the standard gray for the main cast (left), a greenish-gray for the “flag officer” uniform variant (middle), and a darker gray for some background extras.
As a side note, it’s wild to me how blue the uniforms looked in the movie, compared to how absolutely neutral-gray the fabric looks in-person.
(It actually seems like it’s been tweaked to looked bluer and bluer with each subsequent release, remaster, etc., with the most recent “4k Director’s Edition” looking the bluest.)
There were at least three different off-white/cream colors used, as seen on the shirts pictured below:
This isn’t just a case of notoriously inconsistent auction photos; observe Uhura’s more yellowish shirt compared to the pale pink ones worn by Sulu and Chekov in the film itself:
There were at least two different tan colors used (a pale “peach” and more of a neutral “khaki” color) and of course, darker brown.
TOS Elements Incorporated
Ranking System
Despite these restrictive color changes, there were still some echoes of familiar TOS elements and splashes of color to be seen.
In The Original Series, the wearer’s rank was indicated via braid on the lower sleeves.
On the “class A” uniforms in The Motion Picture (which we’ll be taking a look at shortly), the wearer’s rank was also indicated this way.
The overall rank schema mostly remained the same, but in The Original Series the rank stripes and dashes were embroidered, whereas in The Motion Picture they were “manually” formed by wrapping a length of narrow soutache around a length of naval lace.
This produced a similar result, but noticeably different detailing when closely examined.
Chest Patches
In The Original Series, crew members wore a small, arrowhead-shaped patch (commonly referred to as the “Starfleet delta”) on their upper left chest that, in addition to the color of the wearer’s uniform, indicated their division.
In The Motion Picture, most (but not all) of the uniform styles had a similar “delta” on the left chest, with a division-colored circle added underneath it.
Although TOS had three division colors, for TMP, Fletcher expanded the selections to include six: white for command, orange for sciences, light green for medical, red for engineering, gold for operations, and gray for security.
Also in TOS, “flag officers” (e.g. commodores and admirals) wore a metallic badge on their left chest instead of the standard patch; in TMP they continued to do so.
Shoulder Tabs
On some of the TMP uniform styles, the wearer’s division was also indicated by a pair of small shoulder tabs.
Although these weren’t present on the TOS uniforms, a subtle continuation of the TOS ranking system was that these shoulder tabs also showed the wearer’s rank, mostly using the same schema as seen in the series.
Captains had two stripes and one row of dashes.
Commanders had two stripes.
In TOS, lieutenant commanders had one stripe, and one row of dashes.
As you can see in the examples above, Dr. McCoy and Scotty were both promoted from lieutenant commander to full commander sometime between TOS and TMP.
Below that, the ranking systems diverged a bit, and things got a little hazy; in lieu of any hard facts, the best I can offer is my interpretation of the available evidence.
There were two different stripe widths, one thicker (similar to the full commander rank, but only one stripe instead of two), and one thinner.
Sulu only briefly wore a uniform with the TOS-style rank braid on the sleeves, but we could see he now carried the rank of lieutenant commander.
Uhura never wore a uniform with rank braid on the sleeves in the movie, but I did find an auction photo of one made for her, which also had lieutenant commander rank braid.
In the movie, both Uhura and Sulu had wider stripes on their shoulder tabs, which would seem to also indicate the rank of lieutenant commander.
(Although I don’t regard movie novelizations as “canon,” in the TMP novelization by Gene Roddenberry both were specifically mentioned as being lieutenant commanders, so I mention this as an additional reference.)
In The Original Series, lieutenants had one stripe on their sleeves, and I believe that the thinner stripes on the shoulder tabs in TMP also indicated the rank of lieutenant.
Chekov sported lieutenant rank on his “class A” uniform sleeves, and a thin stripe on his other uniform’s shoulder tabs.
(In the aforementioned TMP novelization, Chekov was specifically mentioned as being a full lieutenant.)
Although Lieutenant Ilia never actually wore a uniform with shoulder tabs in the movie, there were at least two made for her; an auction listing for one of her unused costumes shows a thin stripe on the shoulder tab.
And in the Blu-Ray special feature, “Costume Tests,” she’s seen wearing a different uniform with thin stripes on her shoulder tabs.
However, in an auction listing for another of her unused costumes, a pair of unattached shoulder tabs has the thicker, lieutenant commander stripes:
I have a few theories as to why this may be:
1 – These may have been intended to be the original lieutenant rank, with lieutenant commander represented by the stripe and dashes as in TOS, but a decision was later made to diverge from that.
2 – This may have simply been a mistake by the original wardrobe department.
3 – This pair of shoulder tabs may have just been haphazardly tossed in with the costume to “complete” the auction listing. (Unrelated items have been “incorrectly” bundled in auctions many, many times, all the way back to the original Christie’s auction.)
Personally, I wouldn’t attribute much weight to them being Ilia’s, but I did want to briefly mention them as a possible point of interest.
Anyway, in TOS neither ensigns or crewmen wore any rank braid on their sleeves.
I’ve always thought that an easy way to make a distinction between the two would’ve been for ensigns to wear one row of dashes, but to the best of my knowledge we never saw this in TOS.
In TMP, Billy Van Zandt’s character (unnamed in the movie, but addressed as “Ensign” by Uhura – “Ensign, the possibilities of our returning from this mission in one piece may have just doubled”) wore a uniform that had a row of dashes.
I believe this was Robert Fletcher expanding the original TOS ranking system to canonically include a designation for ensign.
That wasn’t a one-off or fluke; I also came across two auction listings for other TMP uniforms that had a row of dashes on the sleeve:
Curiously, in this TMP publicity photo, Chekov can clearly be seen one row of dashes on his sleeve.
It’s anyone’s guess as to why this was, but I think the simplest explanation is that sometime after that publicity photo was taken, it was decided that Chekov would be a lieutenant.
(As a side note, at this point in the franchise, I don’t believe there were “junior grade” ensigns or “junior grade” lieutenants yet.)
With all that in mind, there were definitely a couple other new ranks added to the lineup for The Motion Picture.
In the movies, there was the addition – or at least the clear acknowledgement of – enlisted crew members, which Robert Fletcher would further expound on in The Wrath of Khan.
The most prominent example was for Rand, who wore a metallic, square-shaped rank insignia on her shoulder tabs:
Her rank was never stated in the movie, but again for what it’s worth, in the TMP novelization, she was the Transporter Chief.
The other new rank insignia was a triangle, which is described as “petty officer” in many auction listings, although I’ve yet to find any factual basis for this association.
There were a few of these floating around in the huge briefing scene.
All this little shoulder tab detailing might be easy to miss when watching the movie at home on your TV screen, even in gloriously remastered UHD (to say nothing of watching the VHS on an 80s/90s-era TV), but on a gigantic theater screen it really adds an impressive depth and richness to the universe.
"Perscan" Devices
A neat addition to most of the TMP uniforms – and one exclusive to this first movie – was a small device worn on the front waist.
These were never actually referred to by name in the movie, but in the novelization they were called “perscan” devices. I’ve also heard them referred to as “bio-monitors.”
Their function was never described in the movie either (they’re simply there) but they were given a brief description in the novel:
“It was a tiny scanner-transceiver which was now worn by all crew members, permitting the body’s vital signs to be monitored from sickbay at all times.”
The novelization continues:
“In the new full dress and duty uniforms, it was part of the belt ornament, this center-abdomen position being the ideal location for a medical scanner.
“This information, of course, was kept as confidential as all other medical records, but it did have the considerable advantage of providing the ship’s medical department with a continuous, all-conditions physical status report on everyone aboard the starship.”
There was also a footnote:
“The perscan device transmits its readings code-scrambled and directly into the medical computer, where a previously authorized voiceprint is necessary for any unscrambled readout. Any such data concerning the ship’s captain can be obtained only by the ship’s doctor.”
While neither this movie or its uniforms are universally loved by fans, I think we can all appreciate just how thoroughly everything was thought out, planned, and implemented.
These were made in two different sizes; the smaller ones were for the women’s uniforms, and the larger ones were for the men’s.
The Four Standard Uniform "Classes"
There were four standard duty uniform styles in The Motion Picture.
None of them were ever referred to by name in the movie, but they’re generally referred to as “Class A,” “Class B,” “Class C,” and “Class D.”
Some might feel like this is too many different uniform styles, but personally I think it’s akin to the variety of standard uniforms for contemporary military personnel depending on situation, context, role, and personal preference.
"Class A" Uniforms
The “Class A” uniforms were two-piece wool ensembles.
The top was kind of a shirt, tunic, and/or jacket hybrid, and it was worn with matching trousers.
As I mentioned earlier, the wearer’s rank was indicated by braid on the lower sleeves, like it was in The Original Series.
There were four variations of these:
The “flag officer” variant had a standing collar and a contrasting center body panel.
It also had shoulder tabs, with a small star-shaped insignia.
And as I mentioned earlier, it was worn with a metallic Starfleet delta on the upper left chest.
The body of this “flag officer” variant was also a darker, more greenish-gray color than the standard duty uniform.
The standard duty variant was a solid color with an open neckline and no collar.
The neckline was subtly accented with two narrow “rings” of fabric; the outer one angled slightly downward at the center front to form a “teardrop” shape.
On these, the wearer’s department was indicated with a division-colored patch on the upper left chest.
There were two other collared versions seen in the movie; one primarily worn by Dr. McCoy, and one primarily seen on Chief DeFalco.
Both had a deep upper front opening; Dr. McCoy’s had a cornered collar similar to that of a contemporary suit jacket, while Chief DeFalco’s had a more rounded collar like those seen on the medical uniforms.
I believe these different collars may have been standard for each gender.
We didn’t see enough of them in the movie for a clear determination, but there were many uniforms made for the movie that went unused and were later auctioned, including Dr. Chapel and Chief (?) Rand variants that had the rounded collars like Chief DeFalco’s:
There was also this uniform top made for Scotty, which had a cornered collar akin to Dr. McCoy’s, even though he only wore the standard (open neckline) version in the movie.
(However, considering the medical green chest patch, I think this may have actually been a Dr. McCoy uniform top and been misidentified or mislabeled for the auction listing.)
And finally, there were all these other men’s uniform tops that also had cornered collars like Dr. McCoy’s:
While I can’t say for sure whether or not any of these were ever actually used in the movie, from this I think we can safely surmise that the rounded collars were probably for the women’s tops, and the cornered collars were probably for the men’s.
Anyway, here’s a publicity photo in which all three variations of the “Class A” uniform can be seen together:
As a side note, there was apparently an earlier uniform design (possibly a prototype) that had a collar more akin to a contemporary dress shirt collar.
(There were actually several other anomalies in these and other cast/publicity photos, which I’ll mention as we go.)
He may have actually worn this prototype for some of the early filming; we know how so much of the movie was plagued with reshoots … but I don’t think this particular uniform style ever actually made it into the movie.
"Class B" Uniforms
The “Class B” uniforms were also two-piece ensembles.
In Starlog issue #33*, Robert Fletcher was quoted saying, “… These shirts were loosely modeled after T-shirts, and served as the equivalent of military fatigues.”
* April 1980, “Outfitting the Crew of the Enterprise: Bob Fletcher, Costume Designer” by Karen E. Willson
The shirts were made from heavy knit fabric; they had V-shaped upper front openings and raglan sleeves.
As I mentioned earlier, the wearer’s division was indicated by the chest patch and shoulder tabs, and their rank was also shown on the shoulder tabs.
These “Class B” shirts could be short-sleeved or long-sleeved; Captain Kirk, Sulu, and Uhura all wore the short-sleeved variants.
Chekov and Dr. Chapel wore the long-sleeved versions.
There were at least four different shirt colors, three of which were worn by the main cast; here you can see Kirk wearing white, Sulu wearing pale pink, and Uhura wearing beige.
Chekov wore the pinkish color Sulu did, and Dr. Chapel wore the beige color.
There was also brown, which was only worn by background extras.
As if there weren’t enough variation, these shirts could all be paired with matching trousers, or trousers in a different color.
Captain Kirk wore a white shirt with gray trousers, and Dr. Chapel wore a beige shirt with white trousers.
However, Uhura wore more closely-matching, khaki-ish trousers with her beige top; here’s a moment of both her and Kirk wearing their “class B” variants:
To the left is an extra wearing the pinkish shirt with khaki trousers, second-from-right is one wearing the beige top with khaki trousers, and on the far right is another wearing the beige top with brown trousers.
In another shot, the aforementioned rightmost two extras can be see with another extra, this one wearing a brown top and matching brown trousers.
Whether or not these colors and/or color combinations have any official Starfleet standard, or any rhyme or reason in general, seems to be open to interpretation.
It’s also possible they’re at least somewhat arbitrary – for the characters in-universe, for the actors who play them, or both.
The rest of the main cast never wore a “Class B” uniform in the movie, but there were some made for Dr. McCoy, Decker, and Ilia.
There was also at least one publicity photo of Ilia wearing one, even though she never did in the movie itself.
"Class C" Uniforms
The “Class C” uniforms are probably the most obscure, since they were the least-worn and least-seen style in the movie.
Sulu was the only member of the main cast to wear this particular uniform, and even then he only wore it for his first couple scenes.
These were actually three-piece ensembles: a loose-fitting top worn with matching trousers and a black undershirt.
The top was kind of a hybrid between a double-breasted suit jacket and a robe, and whenever I see it I think of a karate “Gi.”
The wearer’s division and rank were again shown on the shoulder tabs.
It had three-quarter-length sleeves and a metallic Starfleet delta toward the edge of the front overlap.
This is the only one of the four primary uniform classes to not have the bio-monitor (“perscan device”) attached at the waist.
Even though Sulu was the only one to wear it in the movie, most of the main cast actually had at least one made for them.
Scotty did wear one for some of the cast publicity photos, but not in the movie itself.
The men’s version clearly overlapped left-over-right, but working solely from auction photos, the women’s version appears to have overlapped in the opposite direction, right-over-left.
And as a quick point of interest, in this photo Sulu wore this “Class C” uniform but without the black undershirt.
Perhaps this was an early photo, and the undershirt was added later?
"Class D" Uniforms
The “Class D” uniforms were jumpsuits, heavy spandex and generally very tight-fitting.
Like the “Class B” uniforms, the wearer’s division was indicated by the chest patch and shoulder tabs, and their rank was also shown on the shoulder tabs.
These uniforms were unique in that they had a patch pocket attached to the right hip – a rarity for Star Trek costumes!
These “Class D” jumpsuits were mostly worn by extras in the movie, although Uhura, Decker, and Rand all wore one for their introductions and early scenes.
Scotty switched to the “Class D” uniform after Spock arrived and mostly wore it for the rest of the movie.
It was difficult to see, but toward the end of the movie, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Decker all wore “Class D” jumpsuits under their field jackets for their excursion to meet V’Ger.
When they got back, Kirk was the only one to take off his jacket, but once he did he was clearly wearing the “Class D” jumpsuit.
Even though they never wore them in the movie, Sulu, Chekov, Dr. Chapel, and Ilia all had “Class D” jumpsuits made for them.
Ilia did wear hers for a camera test, which can be seen in the Blu-Ray special feature, “Costume Tests.”
Dr. Chapel wore one during some cast publicity photos, in which Decker can also be seen wearing a tan jumpsuit (rather than the gray version he wore in the movie).
Decker also wore the tan jumpsuit in these photos – presumably before he (or someone else) decided to go with the gray instead.
We never saw these clearly in the movie, but a neat variation of these jumpsuits is generally called the “Earthbase” uniforms.
Instead of a chest patch, these had a large patch on the upper left sleeve showing our solar system and Earth – presumably the solar system and planet of the wearer’s origin or current assignment.
I think the only time these were seen were on extras milling around at the Starfleet Headquarters hangar near the beginning of the movie.
Lower Front Pant Legs
As you may have noticed, the lower front pant legs on all four of these uniform “classes” – and on most of the other TMP uniforms – was accented with a sort of inverted box pleat.
I say “sort of” because it was actually a “gusset” insert sewn into the lower front pant leg seams, but the overall effect is basically the same as an inverted box pleat.
The notable exception is the “flag officer” variant of the “Class A” uniform; those trousers were solid down the front and had a curved hem line over the boots.
Shoes
One of the more memorable – or shall we say, notorious? – elements of the TMP uniforms was that many of them had shoes physically attached to the lower pant legs.
However, from what I’ve seen throughout many hundreds of auction photos, it looks like the majority of TMP uniforms actually had separate shoes – including these “hero” uniforms for Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Decker, and Ilia:
Here are some better auction photos of Dr. McCoy “Class A” and Scotty “Class D” uniforms, neither of which have attached shoes:
And here are a couple examples of extras’ uniforms that didn’t, either; observe how the pant legs overlapped the shoes, and elastic stirrups held the pant legs in place.
My theory is that the uniforms with attached shoes were generally reserved for “hero” costumes, and the aforementioned main cast uniforms may have been early prototypes, or costumes for stand-in and/or stunt use. (Obviously I can’t say for certain.)
For some reason, the uniforms with attached shoes stick out in our collective memory (including mine) – perhaps because they’re so unusual?
And to their credit, these do produce a look unlike anything you’re likely to find at a modern retail clothing store. They fit right into a futuristic sci-fi vibe.
SECONDARY UNIFORMS
Engineering Radiation Suits
In addition to the four main uniform “classes,” there were several other uniforms seen throughout the movie, usually for specific departments or situations.
The engineering radiation suits were one of the most notable (and visually impressive) uniforms.
These were worn by Scotty and/or the engineering crew during most of the middle of the movie, whenever the ship needed to go to warp speed or they needed to make repairs.
We did a “deep dive” into these a while back, when I had the opportunity to study a screen-used costume.
I also discussed these at length in a corresponding video, so for now I’ll just mention that most of these were white, but there were also some orange variants.
On his costume sketch for these, Fletcher wrote that these orange variants were for “emergency/fire suits.”
Medical Uniforms
Another departmental uniform was for medical personnel.
There were two variations of these; the versions worn by Dr. McCoy and Dr. Chapel had open fronts and rounded collars, with a green “caduceus” patch on the upper left chest.
Dr. Chapel wore this costume for throughout the middle of the movie, from when she arrived on the bridge to treat Chekov’s wound, through her time with the “Ilia probe,” and during Spock’s post-space-walk examination.
Dr. McCoy wore his toward the end of the movie, beginning with Spock’s recovery and through the bridge sequence as the Enterprise approached V’Ger (and Earth).
The other version had raglan sleeves, a closed upper front, an open neckline with no collar, and a badge of some kind on the upper left chest.
There were a couple of these in the briefing scene:
Here’s the best look I was able to find of the chest badge:
Here’s an auction photo for another:
When Dr. Chapel arrived on the bridge to treat Chekov’s burn, she and her aide were wearing the two different styles.
My interpretation of this is that the collared versions with the “caduceus” were for medical doctors, and the other versions were for other medical staff such as nurses and technicians.
I will point out that not all medical personnel wore these departmental uniforms – at least, not all the time.
My guess is that these medical uniforms were a form of “scrubs” that were primarily worn in sickbay or in treatment situations around the ship.
In quite a few early publicity photos, Dr. McCoy also wore a light green scarf (?) with his.
Even though he never actually wore it in the movie, I think it may have been repurposed later with his civilian costume in ST4.
(It might be different, though – hard to say for sure.)
Sickbay Patients
A truly strange costume was worn by sickbay patients.
I don’t think it’s a proper “uniform” so much as an “outfit.”
Outfits for sickbay patients were commonly seen later in the franchise throughout TNG, DS9, and VOY.
But those at least looked like plausible “patient outfits” to me; these TMP outfits are just weird.
It was a sleeveless, hooded top with a contrasting orange interior. The front could be let out so it had little orange lapels, or it could be fastened closed up the entire front.
There were some clamps going up the pant legs that held some tubing in place; there were a couple more on the top too.
This wasn’t just a random one-off worn by Spock; another sickbay patient wore one of these in the background.
Whereas most of the other cast members wore standard uniforms for their photoshoot, Nimoy actually sported this bizarre costume, complete with orange slippers.
Security Guards
Security guards had their own uniform variants.
These appear to have been standard “Class A” uniforms, but with helmets, body armor, sidearms, and poofy boots.
These mainly hung out in the background and crowd scenes, although one was more prominently seen at the airlock for Spock’s entrance (above) and during the V’Ger probe (for all the good he did).
The only one mentioned by name was Ensign Perez, who was present when the “Ilia” probe boarded the ship.
Field Jackets
A neat addition to the standard uniforms were tan “field jackets.”
These were worn by Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Decker for their excursion off the ship to meet V’Ger.
The idea of these again harkened back to “The Cage.”
These jackets had an open neckline with no collar, raglan sleeves, and large pockets toward the bottom.
They had some tubing along the sleeves, similar to that on the engineering radiation suits.
The wearer’s division and rank was shown on the upper left sleeve.
These field jackets closed up the front via hidden zipper on the left underlap, and a series of hidden snaps along the right overlap.
Fun trivia that I want to mention before it’s lost to time:
At the end of the movie, once the trio were back on the Enterprise, Kirk took off his field jacket, but Spock and McCoy continued wearing theirs.
In this shot, we could see their jackets had the appropriate division colors: sciences orange on Spock’s jacket, and medical green on McCoy’s.
However, for the final (live-action) shot, the actors had switched jackets and were clearly wearing the wrong division colors!
This was digitally “corrected” in the 2022 remastered Director’s Edition.
Epsilon Nine
The Epsilon Nine crew had their own uniforms that, as best I can tell, were exclusive to them.
These uniforms had open necklines and upper fronts, with decorative stitching.
The wearer’s division and rank were indicated by the standard shoulder tabs seen on the other uniforms.
The Epsilon Nine crew also had their own unique chest patches.
Interestingly, there was a range of standard uniforms and a few other designs made for the Epsilon Nine crew, but only the variants above were clearly seen in the movie.
There was one extra wearing a standard “Class D” jumpsuit with what appeared to be an Epsilon Nine patch at Starfleet Headquarters … maybe she’d just transferred, was visiting Earth, or was about to transfer to her new assignment there? If so, she really dodged the bullet!
... Still More Uniforms!
Believe it or not, there are even more uniforms and variants seen in the movie, most of them worn by extras peppered throughout the briefing scene.
Janitors
There was this uniform, which I believe was for janitors, since it was briefly seen worn by the janitor after the “Kobayashi Maru” simulation in The Wrath of Khan, and during the Enterprise hijacking in The Search for Spock.
Another fun fact: the large panel on his chest is the underside of a Cylon Raider model kit from Battlestar Galactica! (Credit to Michael Cowart for first mentioning this to me years ago.)
There were at least three of these uniforms made for the movie; below you can see two to the left, and one to the right.
Assorted Jumpsuit Styles
There were at least three different dark brown jumpsuit styles worn by extras during the scene: one had a full, rounded, mandarin-style collar that wrapped around the entire neck.
In this (cropped) shot, one of the aforementioned jumpsuits can be seen on the right, while a jumpsuit with an entirely different partial, standing collar can be seen on the left.
And in each of these (cropped) shots, one of the aforementioned jumpsuits is visible to the right, while one with an open neckline can be seen on the left.
It’s tough to say for sure, but it looks like this third jumpsuit style may have actually had a tiny, partial standing collar; it may have also been made in white, pale gray, and black.
I think this Andorian might’ve been wearing one of these, too …?
Tram Engineer
There was this uniform, which was described as being for a “tram engineer” in the auction listing.
The person actually operating the shuttle (tram?) in the movie wore a different uniform.
A few of these could be seen walking around, though.
Another walked by right before Admiral Kirk’s tram landed, although I have no idea what the other guy was wearing.
Other Uniforms (?)
There were a couple other uniform designs that may or may not have ever made it into the movie somewhere.
Both of these were definitely used (or reused) later on in other movies, but I don’t know about TMP.
It looks like there may have been a few of the outfits on the left during the briefing scene, but very little of them was actually visible so I can’t be positive.
In his costume sketch, Robert Fletcher listed the one on the right as a “lounge suit,” while most auction listings for these have them described as “off-duty” attire.
Note that the neckline and sleeves have similar stitching as the Epsilon Nine uniforms.
The outfit worn by the “Ilia” probe appears to have been a variation of these.
There were at least a handful of these made, but auction listings for them always included pants with the outfit.
I guess the pants were optional?
(There’s a Gene Roddenberry idea if ever there was one!)
Spock Collar
And finally, Spock’s uniforms all had a distinctive collar.
However, it’s probably more accurate to say that he wore an extra collar with his uniform, since I don’t believe they were actually part of his Starfleet uniforms.
To me, it looks like the same garment he was wearing beneath his Vulcan robe when he first arrived on the Enterprise.
I believe he continued to wear this underneath his Starfleet uniforms after his commission was reactivated.
Interestingly, in many of the early publicity photos he wore the standard uniforms without a collar; apparently it was added afterward.
(This can also be seen in other cast photos from earlier in this post, such as when I mentioned Dr. McCoy’s “Class A” prototype collar and Decker’s beige “Class D” jumpsuits.)
Legacy
Some fans believe Star Trek’s film franchise stumbled out of the gate with TMP, and maybe it did to some degree (especially with the rushed theatrical cut, which even director Robert Wise only regarded as a rough cut), but I still love it.
This first movie’s uniforms aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, and some fans have been critical of the muted color palette and unflattering costumes.
Even many of the cast and crew who worked on the movie weren’t happy with them; in the September 2002 issue of Star Trek: The Magazine, Robert Fletcher himself said, “I don’t blame them. I didn’t like [the uniforms] much myself!”
And in his book Star Trek: Movie Memories, William Shatner wrote, “I hated our new uniforms. Ugly, form-fitting, pastel-colored, one-piece jumpsuits, these things itched even worse than our old TV series togs.”
Nevertheless, despite the criticism – or perhaps because of it – I think it’s amazing how strong of a legacy this movie’s costumes left, and how many of them were reused in the following productions.
Many of the generally-unloved “Class D” jumpsuits were repurposed into the fan-favorite TWOK-era enlisted jumpsuits; they were overdyed and had a variety of new detailing added.
The engineering radiation suits, medical uniforms, and security guard uniforms would also continue to be used through the subsequent movies.
In this post we’ve only focused on the Starfleet uniforms, but other costumes like Spock’s robe were used again as well; it actually had more screen time throughout ST3 than the first two movies combined!
Not to mention the amazing Klingon costumes Fletcher designed for TMP, which would continue to be used in five of the next six movies, then sssoooo many times throughout the television spinoffs.
There were many more TMP costumes reused in subsequent productions – to the extent thatthe topic is probably deserving of its own post.
But hopefully this has helped shed some light on the different uniforms, classes, styles, and variants seen in the movie, and perhaps (hopefully) given you a new appreciation for this aspect of the universe that Gene Roddenberry, Robert Wise, and Robert Fletcher brought to life.
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Do you make the TMP costumes?
I do make all my own demonstration/tutorial uniforms for my sewing patterns, but I don't offer custom-made uniform commissions for them - at least not yet? I may expand into doing so as I produce more TMP-era sewing patterns and tutorials.
- Alex