Preface
Both the Starfleet uniform paradigm and its overall aesthetic changed significantly from Star Trek: The Motion Picture to its sequel, The Wrath of Khan.
Instead of four uniform classes (each with multiple style and color variants) worn indiscriminately by all crew members, this was reduced to two primary uniforms: one for commissioned officers, and one for enlisted personnel.
The “monster maroons” worn by officers are well-loved by fans – and deservedly so! – but by far the most common uniforms of the TWOK-era were those worn by the enlisted crew, and their corresponding trainees.
For a broader look at the TWOK-era uniforms, check out this blog post and its corresponding video:
Overview
Here’s an overview of the TWOK-era enlisted jumpsuit:
Stylistic Influences
On the surface, the uniforms for The Wrath of Khan were a major visual shift from those seen in The Motion Picture.
These uniforms were, in fact, only one facet of an overall different creative direction chosen for the sequel, which permeated practically every aspect of the movie:
“I said I’d really like to stretch the nautical analogy. It should be like The Prisoner of Zenda, or Captain Horatio Hornblower in outer space. I made everyone on the set watch the movie version of Hornblower.”
– Nicholas Meyer, The Making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan by Allan Asherman
(Quoted in Star Trek Costumes: Five Decades of Fashion from the Final Frontier)
“I decided that this was going to be ‘Hornblower’ in outer space, so I said, ‘Okay, if this is going to be the Navy, let’s have them look like the Navy; they shouldn’t be walking around in pajamas,’ which seemed to me to be what the uniforms in the first movie and the TV show looked like.”
– Nicholas Meyer, Star Trek: The Magazine (September 2002), “Star Trek Costumes”
“Nick wanted something a little warmer, more military, less … modernistic, or whatever word you might apply to the design of the first one. I went off to my tent and made new sketches, which were red, and in a lot of different pieces, with many more emblems and badges.”
– Robert Fletcher, TWOK Blu-Ray special feature, “Designing Khan”
Here’s a sketch of Fletcher’s redesigned crew uniforms:
The Wrath of Khan’s comparatively tiny budget necessitated leaning heavily on the existing (and generally unloved) costumes from its predecessor, but effectively modifying them and re-presenting them in a new context that led to them becoming fan-favorites was simply a work of creative genius.
Case in point: these TWOK-era enlisted jumpsuits began their lives as the TMP “Class D” jumpsuits, but they were overdyed to a new color and modified to the extent that they were virtually unrecognizable.
In my opinion, this is a perfect example of economic filmmaking – resourcefulness met with creative genius channeled toward revision, while tempered by frugality.
Successfully transforming a wardrobe of generally-unloved uniforms into a fan-favorites is nothing short of costuming alchemy … turning lemons into lemonade, as it were.
In the aforementioned book The Making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan by Allan Asherman, producer Robert Sallin said:
“One of the first things we had to do for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was redesign the entire wardrobe.
“I knew we couldn’t afford to do all the wardrobe over again, so I got Bob Fletcher to run some dye tests to find out what colors the uniforms from Star Trek: The Motion Picture would take successfully. We ended up with three colors: a gold, a blue-gray, and the wine [color] that we ultimately settled on.
“And Fletcher, who is a wonderful talent, added things, and changed things, including the tightness of the fit. He said, ‘Yes I can loosen this, drop that …’ I suggested blousing the trousers and adding the stripes. In so doing, we were able to modify and reuse much of the previous wardrobe for the cadets’ uniforms.”
(Again quoted in Star Trek Costumes: Five Decades of Fashion from the Final Frontier)
For clarity I just want to point out that he incorrectly referred to the enlisted crew uniforms as “cadets’ uniforms” – a common misconception we’ll get to shortly.
At least four plain red, TMP-style jumpsuits were sold at the original Christie’s auction, which appear to have been early dye tests for TWOK purposes:
There were probably more enlisted jumpsuits made than any other uniform of the era – doubtless because of the massive head start the existing TMP jumpsuits gave the costuming department.
All the way through ST6, in most group shots of Starfleet crew members, the majority of extras would be wearing these.
And as you can see, they blended in perfectly with the “monster maroons” and were clearly part of the same uniform family, while being unmistakably different.