TNG Jumpsuit Analysis – Season 3 Onward – Yoke

Yoke Depth

The later TNG jumpsuit yokes were initially about ⅞” to 1” deep at the center front, and definitely at their most consistent throughout seasons three and four in this regard.

This consistently remained the standard throughout season four.

Early into season five, however, the yokes began growing deeper – just as their predecessors had over the first couple seasons. (History repeating itself?)

But we’ll circle back to that momentarily.

Throughout most of season five, these shallower yokes were still commonly seen – even on some of Dr. Crusher’s jumpsuits that continued to be used into season six, and Counselor Troi’s initial uniforms.

After that, this yoke depth was still seen – but mostly only on guest characters and extras.

For what it’s worth, the yokes on both the screen-used Ensign Sito and male extra’s TNG jumpsuits I studied were 1” deep at the center front.

Both jumpsuit yokes also measured approximately 3 ¾” deep (Ensign Sito’s was 3 ⅞”) at the center back.

Backtracking a bit – as I mentioned, early in season five, Blackman began experimenting with deeper yokes.

At first, the difference was fairly subtle and barely noticeable.

(For additional context, it was around this same time that Blackman both introduced his TNG-era cadet jumpsuits – which also had deeper yokes – and began likewise experimenting with deeper yokes on the corresponding TNG jackets.)

As you may recall, toward the end of the season, Dr. Crusher was given new jumpsuits (with slightly different collar shaping).

These jumpsuits had slightly, but noticeably deeper yokes.

Her jumpsuits from season seven had even deeper yokes.

Here’s a comparison between her mid-series (shallower) and later (deeper) jumpsuit yokes:

While at least one of Counselor Troi’s initial (season six) jumpsuits did appear to have a yoke depth more akin to the shallower, mid-series “standard,” at least one other appeared to have a slightly deeper yoke.

She was given a new set of uniforms for season seven, which had considerably deeper yokes.

Her jumpsuits from Generations and “These Are the Voyages …” had similarly deep yokes.

Here’s a comparison of her jumpsuit yokes from seasons six and seven:

Most of the other TNG jumpsuits made over those later production years also had deeper yokes; to me, this (combined with the similar progression of the corresponding TNG jacket yokes) implies that this was an intentional creative direction Blackman was moving toward.

Indeed, in the Deep Space Nine pilot (about halfway through TNG’s sixth season), Jadzia Dax’s jumpsuit possibly had the deepest yoke we ever saw.

TNG jumpsuits didn’t show up very often on DS9, but when they did, they usually had deep-ish yokes.

This wasn’t simply a case of the jumpsuits stretching out over time; not only did the deepened yokes directly affect the adjacent areas of the jumpsuit, but on the screen-used male extra’s TNG jumpsuit I studied, the center front area was actually stabilized with a lightweight fusible interfacing (which prevented it from stretching).

We’ve been primarily focusing on the front yoke area, but the back yokes were correspondingly deepened as well.

Lower Yoke Seam Curve

The depth wasn’t the only element of the jumpsuit yoke to vary or change over the years; as with the early TNG jumpsuits, the contour of the lower yoke/body seam line varied considerably.

Like the early TNG jumpsuits, on the “hero” uniforms this seam often appeared to be horizontally straight across the front, before dipping downward toward the outer arm.

Despite their other stylistic differences, Dr. Crusher’s later jumpsuits were consistently patterned this way throughout the series.

However, as with the early TNG jumpsuits, this lower yoke/ body seam actually curved gently downward away from the center front.

Counselor Troi’s jumpsuits were consistently patterned this way, as well.

However, again note the slight curve to the seam.

Ensign Ro’s lower yoke seam also often looked horizontal …

But again, in actuality the seam was slightly curved.

Both Nurse Ogawa’s mid-series and later-series jumpsuits had slightly stronger, more easily-observable lower yoke seam curves.

Most notable guest characters throughout the series wore jumpsuits with similarly-patterned lower yoke seams.

The same was true on Deep Space Nine.

Many of the jumpsuits worn by extras had similar seam contours.

For what it’s worth, the yoke on the screen-used Ensign Sito jumpsuit I examined curved downward about 1” from center front to the sleeve, and the male extra’s TNG jumpsuit I examined curved downward about 1 ½”.

The lower back yoke/upper body seam was slightly curved, too.

Note that on the back-zipping jumpsuits, the patterned curve was negligible; the tapered center back seam itself pulled the lower back yoke seam into its proper, gentle downward curve.

With this gentle downward curve having been generally consistent on the uniforms worn by Dr. Crusher, Counselor Troi, Ensign Ro, Nurse Ogawa, most notable guest characters, and some of the extras, I believe it safe to conclude that this was the “ideal” seam contour.

However, some of the TNG jumpsuits had lower yoke seams that curved downward more strongly away from center – usually front-zipping versions worn by female extras.

There were some back-zipping jumpsuits that had a stronger downward yoke curve – including Jadzia’s uniform from the Deep Space Nine pilot.

There were one or two gold jumpsuits that had particularly strong downward yoke curves.

It’s possible that some of these examples were at least partially due to the actresses having particularly sloped shoulders, resulting in their uniforms draping differently out toward their arms.

But in most of these examples, the stronger downward yoke curve was something that would’ve been intentionally patterned.

My guess is that perhaps Blackman experimenting with the pattern lines; both he and his predecessors tended to slip uniform experiments like these into the background occasionally to see how they fared on-camera.

Or, he could’ve simply wanted some additional visual variety to the uniforms.

Either way, I believe these examples are best regarded as outliers.

A couple of the later men’s jumpsuits appeared to have a slightly M-shaped lower yoke seam contour, echoing those on Captain Picard’s and Worf’s uniforms from season two.

I find this somewhat curious since neither of these jumpsuits would have been modified older uniforms.

Here are a couple side-by-side comparisons between the “normal” and “extreme” downward yoke seam contours:

Lower/Outer Yoke Corners

Another element of the jumpsuit yokes that varied was how low the outer corners extended onto the sleeves.

In season three, Dr. Crusher’s yoke dipped downward several inches onto the sleeves.

On her season four uniforms, though, the yoke barely dipped downward onto the sleeves at all.

Here are a couple side-by-side comparisons between her season three and season four jumpsuits, in which the difference is more easily observable:

For seasons five and six, it looks like her jumpsuit yokes dipped downward onto the sleeves a bit more than they had in season four.

Then for the seventh season, her jumpsuit yokes dipped downward onto the sleeves more like they had during the third season.

Counselor Troi’s uniforms varied a little, but not as much as Dr. Crusher’s – possibly because she wore the standard duty uniform for less than half the time Beverly did.

Her season six jumpsuit yokes curved downward slightly onto the sleeves, but not much.

Her season seven jumpsuit yokes did as well, although again not by much – and not nearly as much as Dr. Crusher’s jumpsuit yokes did that same year.

In Counselor Troi’s case, this may have at least partially been a personalized aesthetic; Marina Sirtis appears to have relatively “square” shoulders, so Blackman may have decided that the more subtle curve onto the sleeves was a better “look” for her.

On the other hand, we also know that Blackman was well into the process of deepening the yokes by season seven, and this slighter curve toward the sleeves may have also been a result of that progression.

From a patterning perspective, if the outer/lower corner of the yoke remained constant while the lower edge was lowered, then the overall angle/slope would change.

Ensign Ro’s jumpsuit yoke had a slight downward curve toward the sleeves.

Sometimes though, it looked like her jumpsuit yokes didn’t curve downward much toward the sleeves at all.

I’m not sure how much of this was an optical illusion resulting from the camera angles and/or her posture, versus any potential differences in the cut of the actual uniforms themselves.

Both Nurse Ogawa’s mid-series and later jumpsuit yokes curved downward toward the sleeves, but her later jumpsuit yoke curve was noticeably steeper.

Guest characters’ uniforms varied in this regard, although that should hardly be surprising at this point …

Commander Shelby’s yoke dipped downward several inches onto the sleeves, as was “standard” (if there was ever such a thing) at that point in the show.

Lieutenant Commander Leijten’s jumpsuit yoke barely curved downward onto the sleeves at all.

Like Counselor Troi’s later uniforms, this may have been partially due to the actress having more “square” shoulders.

By contrast, Lieutenant D’Sora’s jumpsuit yoke was more akin to Dr. Crusher’s (season three) and Commander Shelby’s uniforms.

But then, Lieutenant Commander Darren’s was more in the range of Dr. Crusher’s season four jumpsuits, despite the deeper yoke and the actress having more “normal” (not “square”) shoulder slope.

There was considerable variation among the extras’ and supporting characters’ uniforms as well.

Some had what I would regard as only slight downward curves toward the sleeves:

Others had what I would describe as “normal” outer yokes:

Still others had very steep outer yoke curves, dipping downward sharply and extending quite low onto the sleeves.

With all this variation, naturally multiple uniforms with different detailing were sometimes seen simultaneously.

In the example below, the lady at the helm was wearing a jumpsuit with a “normal” outer yoke area, whereas the fellow at the ops station was wearing a jumpsuit with a yoke that barely curved downward onto the sleeves at all.