Different style uniforms worn by different people at the same time is not so confusing if you've served in the US military. When I joined the Army, we were issued the olive drab green "pickle suits". Soon after, we went to the woodland camouflage BDUs, with the change order coming that the old uniforms could be "worn while serviceable." Same thing when the dress green uniform was modified a few years later: "wear until unserviceable", so I was not at all surprised to see different people wearing different uniforms on TNG. Even during the First Gulf War, not everyone was issued desert camouflage (light tan, dark tan, and specs of black). Many of us still had the woodland camouflage (green, brown, tan and black)

9:31 With regards to Picard missing his combadge in Generations, it wouldn't have made sense if he was wearing it in the first place since if you saw the movie, him being on the planet surface with Soran was a prisoner exchange between him and Geordi. Wouldn't make sense for him to wear the badge if he was Soran's prisoner. He beamed onto the Klingon ship, and then onto the surface. While on the Klingon ship, they removed his badge. This was the plan as suggested by Picard prior to him transporting on the planet while on the bridge discussing with the Klingon sisters. So I guess it was a good thing that someone didn't pack the badge for the trip. He was a prisoner so he wouldn't have needed it anyway. The only mistake I see, and one that has bugged me for a long time now was when Picard beamed onto the surface, his transport beam pattern was that of the Enterprise and not the Klingon transport beam pattern. Seeing as he was beaming from the Klingon ship, his transport pattern shouldn't be that of the Enterprise. 🖖🏻

Imagine Riker doing the chair maneuver wearing a Skant.

I can hear the director yelling at the person who forgot to pack the com-badge. "You had ONE job!"

I was the project manager for the It's a Wrap! Star Trek Auction from 2006-2009 and it's all true. Shoulder pads, specialized flexibility for stunt costumes, different color dyes, body suits..., we saw it all.

"That badass leather-shouldered jacket" also looks like it was made of velvet, so it looked good and felt good!

I recently picked up a vintage USAF bomber jacket. Every time I get out of the car it rides up and I have to employment the Picard Maneuver.

Gates McFadden was a professional dancer used to leotards, and it showed. She owned that look.

I heard Frakes has a perpetual back injury he sustained while moving furniture, hence putting his foot on everything. I'm sure the S1/S2 uniforms didn't help.

When I saw the new uniforms in season 3, I loved it immediately, so much better!

I always felt the Captain's Grey was totally underutilized. We saw Picard, Sisko, and Janeway each wear it at some point, but very rarely. I always felt the Captain and his 1st and 3nf Officers should have their own uniform so you always know if you are looking at someone in command. The Grey would fit that.

Mr. Frakes had suffered a back injury years before Next Generation, and standing long hours caused him pain so to ease his suffering he would put his leg up on chairs, consoles etc. to get some relief and in some of the shots you can see him lean to the left due to the pain.

In later seasons, after they dropped the one-piece spandex uniforms, you can still see background crew members wearing the old spandex jumpsuits, but with a collar added. The zipper up the front is a giveaway. Maybe they didn't get enough budget to replace all of them?

I've never noticed Picards belt buckle before.

The Mandarin collar was the best move along with putting Troi in a Uniform

I actually had my own Starfleet uniforms when I was a kid. I had the original jump suit version and later had replaced it with one that was just the shirt when the jump suit didn't fit me anymore. The jump suit actually does have a zipper which is in the BACK of the uniform. The shirt was much easier to get in and out of... plus made going to the bathroom easier since I no longer needed to strip down just to pee. It was a two piece uniform in the show with a shirt and pants but I just wore a regular pair of black pants with the shirt which didn't quite match the look of the uniforms in the show but was close enough. And yes just like in the show, the shirt did have a tendency to ride up causing me to have to constantly pull the Picard maneuver. I never had the jacket though and that is something I always wanted as a kid to complete the uniform. Both versions of the uniform also had padded shoulders which was more of an 80's look which is weird considering the show was made in the 90's and set in the future... Did they think the padded shoulders were going to make a come back? One other difference between the jump suit and the shirt... the jump suit I had, the com badge and pips were actually printed onto the uniform as part of the fabric. I had actual pinned on ones which I placed over the prints so you couldn't even see that the prints were there but it did make the uniform look like a cheap Halloween costume rather than a replica of something they would of actually worn on set which is what it was meant to be. The shirt however did not have prints on the uniform so it looks a lot better. Plus the pips can be removed as needed to represent different ranks rather than needing to have them all on to cover up the hideous print on ones. By the way... I still have the shirt hanging in my closet even though it doesn't fit me anymore. I've also had a few different com badges. One was held on with two pins that went through the fabric. There were backings on the pins to prevent them from stabbing ME, the pips are held on the same way. The bad part about that is since it had electronics to make the com badge noise it stuck out a bit instead of being flat like on the show and the backing part eventually wore down from repeated use of pressing the button so I actually did poke myself a few times even with the backings on. That was replaces with a magnetic one which looked a lot better and it still had electronics but those were built into the part that would be UNDER my uniform so no would see it. The down side to this version was that the magnet was not very strong so the badge would be constantly sliding down my chest and I'd have to readjust it back to it's proper place. I've actually very recently got a new com badge with a MUCH stronger magnet but no electronics. I still want that jacket though.

I never realized that Dr. Crusher has a different uniform in seasons 3-4. I knew the tone looked different in color.

This was one of your best videos yet, Marcus. I knew more than two thirds of the info, and yet I was entertained till the end. Solid job to everyone involved. Excellent work.

The TNG uniform was a Lycra-wool blended "spandex" with about a two millimeter per cm stretch. (Quite limited for a spandex.)This gave it a smooth form over the body without detail

The Picard comm badge problem retroactively makes Generations make a _bit_ more sense. The Duras sisters would be *incredibly* stupid to let him keep the comm badge and somehow allow the Enterprise to get a transporter lock on him, thus loosing their valuable hostage. Taking a Starfleet Officer Hostage 101: ALWAYS REMOVE THEIR COMM BADGE.

I bet in-universe the skant was retired when an out of shape male crewmember bent over in front of an admiral while picking something up.

The stirrup down the back holding the uniform in place are familiar to US Marines. We wear shirt stays when in our dress and service uniforms

The most confusing thing about Star Trek generations is that there were different officers wearing different style uniforms all throughout the movie

I appreciate the energy you bring to the video! Your commentary was fun and lighthearted and you seem to really enjoy the show!

I've known the combage error for years but never heard this tidbit before. Awesome!

Ro's comm badge magically goes from her jacket to the tank top when she removes her jacket.

Talking about tight fitting uniforms that have no wrinkles. If you have ever looked at a Marine's brown shirt and green trousers dress uniform (Service A with long sleeve and jacket & Service B short sleeve & no jacket) you may have wondered how the shirts stay wrinkle free even when they bend over and the socks never sag down. In that uniform you have stirrups that clip onto the bottom of the shirt and go all the way down to the socks holding the top tight no mater if sitting or standing. You have four stirrups. Two front and two back but you wrap them around the outside of your leg. The stirrup attached to the shirt front goes down, around the knee, connecting to the back of your sock. Vis versa for the stirrup on the back of the shirt. These can leave red irritating marks on your legs if you have to wear them all day. Most combat and logistics Narines wear the camouflage fatigues at work. Those working in offices at the Platoon, Company & Battalion level usually only wear that uniform on just before a holiday break, an awards or special event, inspections & some units do it every Friday. Some office workers have to wear that uniform almost every day with the camouflage uniform being only on cleaning or field training days. The Marines always in thst uniform usually work at the higher level, come into contact with the general public a lot or have a job compairable to one where in the civilian world you would wear a tie & dress suit all day. Examples are Regiment & Division level, Law Offices, some guards, drill instructors & training receiving staff, medical offices and other specialty locations like that. I spent the majority of my time in the Marine Corp working as a secretary for a Master Gunnery Sargent at the Regiment level. Being around the highest rank non commisioned officer enlisted in the Marines, Captains, Majors, Colonels and Generals all day they want you to look your best. Haircut every seven days, everything always shined, clean and ironed. Most Marines have maybe four to seven camouflage, two of the brown and green uniforms and one set of the super fancy dress blues you see on all the ads to join. I had three camouflage, five Service A, five Service B & three Dress Blue because of how often we wore them and no time to dry clean between use.

I noticed Picards com badge was missing but I thought it was removed do he couldn't try and hail a ship in orbit

Extraordinary that after 20 years of being a star trek fan there are still nes things to learn ! Sweet video

and something that you might not have known about the uniforms in generations is that Jonathan Frakes was actually wearing Avery Brooks costume and LeVar Burton was wearing Colm Meane costume (notice how the arms on his costume are too long) Data and Picard new uniforms were the only 2 specially made for the actors.

I did not realize that Wesley Crushers Acting ensign Uniform was designed based upon West Point Cadets

I would have never thought a video on TNG uniforms would be that interesting, but I'm pleasantly surprised. I chalk a lot of it up to Marcus' presentation skills.

I think the skants would work better if they weren't skin-tight, and maybe more of a kilt idea, rather than a mini-skirt thing.

From what I've heard, The studio really wanted to make Generations redesign work, but it was a perfect storm of problems, there was difficulty structuring the uniforms, not enough material to dye for the revisions and not much time to finalize the revisions before filming was set to begin. If it wasn't for the short period between TNG's series finale and the preproduction of Star Trek Generations, there probably would have been more time to iron out the flaws in the design and get them looking even nicer than they ultimately did.

I have that uniform. Suede it's comfy and utilitarian. No one questions it in public and its one of a kind and I'm in the uk. Your welcome

Wil Wheaton referred to the pectoral padding in the costume as "molded muscles" in his Shatner Story (which is a short piece he wrote and occasionally performs, about what a colossal jerk William Shatner was to Wil after he finally worked up the courage to talk to him (with help from a cinematographer who introduced them), and about Gene Roddenberry forcing Shatner to write an apology to Wheaton after word got back to him through the grapevine). He recalled the padding as being particularly mortifying to him as a skinny teenager.

The pads on the pecks are probably the same type of pads used for suit jackets. And should be relatively easy to put into a normal jacket.

If you ever wonder why it was the TNG and following casts were required to wear specifically-restrictive undergarments, just think back to how needlessly revealing the uniforms in Star Trek: The Motion Picture were, especially Will Decker's unitard. You can clearly see Decker's (insert rhyming term here).

I always found it odd that no Starfleet personnel ever wore some kind of body armor when they were on away missions. Even in episodes where they knew they were going into battle(like when the DS9 crew teamed up with the Jem'Hadar). And don't say they wore personal force fields because plenty of them have been shot and killed/injured over the years

They have Captain Picard's jacket you were talking about for sale for around 100 bucks on a site called USA Leather.

I am surprised the Picard jacket was not discussed but this was a great list!

I made the same assumption about Picard's missing com-badge, but I thought the mistake was with the transporter vfx because I thought he was beaming to the Klingon ship first, so it would explain why he didn't have the badge.

When it just TOS, I had a book about the costumes. The designer’s job was to make it look like the women guest star’s costume was about to fall off. They were pretty cool.

"It's akin to MAGIC!" Yeah, that line got me to LOL.

Honestly, Stewart not having his badge on Veridian 3 looked badass. I'd never noticed how distracting the badges are from the Uniform, so seeing the Uniform without the badge made it look even better.

Wesley Crushers' com badge was a solid silver color, it wasn't the two toned gold and silver the other officers had. At least while he wore the grey uniform.

Well that explains a lot. I always wondered why everyone in seasons 1 and 2 looked so uncomfortable and constipated.

See, I heard part of the reason for the "Picard Maneuver" was that Gene Roddenberry didn't like the uniforms to have wrinkles or look bunched up so the actors were told to tug them for a cleaner look.

ST: TNG... the uniforms were supposed to sate the sci-fi nerd community's strong desire for all clothing to innately be form-fitting and not having clothing wrinkles because the technology would allow it. You know, clothing be like comic book characters' virtual body paint outfits. Turns out, it was not such an easy nor smart thing to do on a sci-fi series.

The Riker Saddle-Up. It's a classic.

Picard is missing his com-badge on Veridian III? Curse you Marcus for pointing that out to me! ... But thankfully it works for the story and can be explained away. LLAP 🖖

yes, I'll watch your videos, but can we please stop with this whole "xxx that you NEED to know" title nonsense?

I too love that leather shoulder captain's jacket from TNG, apart from the fact it doesn't seem to do up at the front if one so wishes so you can have smart and casual in one item.

Well presented Dude. And, you're right, I will never unsee the unseen. THANKS A LOT

There was an episode where Picard lost one of his rank pins and was in a turbo lift with only 3, yet when he left he had 4 again.

I seem to recall Doctor Pulaski, in Season 2, had her own dress-style uniform she was always wearing. Also, Nhan on Discovery had something similar.

Marcus your Afro is approaching epic levels. Very nice😎

I liked Crusher’s future uniform on the USS Pasteur. My favorite from the series.

6 - You mentioned the TNG uniforms showing up in DS9, they also showed up in Voyager (Riker wore one when Q brought him to Voyager) and Enterprise (Troi and Riker ) They also show up in Picard.

One of my fav TrekCulture vids. Well done.

Always something new to learn about Trek! Thank you, Bronzy.

I am a big fan of what you all do! Keep it up!

I specifically remember my brother and I laughed when we saw males wearing the skant.

The gray leather shoulder jacket was popping! I legit want one of those!

Another tid bit from Generations, because of the last minute change to the uniforms they had to borrow DS9 costumes. This is why LeVar Burton looks like he's swimming in his, because it's actually Colm Meaney's.

I honestly thought that Picard's lack of comm badge on Veridian 3 was intentional, perhaps in the Klingon's didn't want him to be trackable. However, if this was truly a mistake and someone forgot the comm badge, why didn't they just borrow one from another cast member who maybe wasn't shooting that day?? Unless of course it was only a few people in Nevada doing that scene.

Even if they didnt want to spend an hour or so waiting for a comm badge, they could have easily wrote in an action where he reaches up to tap it and looks down like "damn its not there"

Marina has a whole routine about the many different uniforms she had to wear as Troi. The best bit was about Troi's green dress, described as a leotard with a skirt sewn on, "so to go to the bathroom I had to get naked."

This video was surprisingly informational and super random at the same time. XD Thanks for it! :D

I've always wondered about Counselor Troi's teal dress. I was a fan of it because Marina Sirtis wore it well, but it doesn't seem to fit with the "ship's counselor alternate uniform" style that she wore for the bulk of the series. Those did at least give the impression that they could pass as a type of Star Fleet uniform, unless you're under Capt. Jellico's command. The teal dress, however, seems more like a civilian garment, which since Deanna was a Star Fleet Academy graduate, a Lt. Commander for the bulk of the series ("Farpoint" to "Thine Own Self"), and no other officers or enlisted crewmembers are allowed to wear something that "outside the box", it does make one wonder if there is an in-canon reason for such a permission. After all, Riker shut down Ro's wearing of the Bajoran earring, due to it not being "Regulation"... despite never batting an eyelash over Worf's various baldrics, even though they were essentially not regulation either, due to being an article of culturally specific apparel. Memory Alpha says it may depend on an individual ship or star base commander's discretion as to whether or not to allow it, or that the regulations eased when more Bajorans began joining Star Fleet... Still doesn't explain why not a single word said to Worf about his baldric when he's the only Klingon in Star Fleet. Costuming quirks are a fun discussion topic, aren't they? 😁

Literally do the Picard maneuver when I stand up at work

Only two female cast regulars from the 80s-00s era of Trek went without the 'enhancements' discussed in entry #1 - Kate Mulgrew and Nana Visitor.

Okay, so that blows my mind! The male cast of TNG actually had padded chests!

About Picard's combadge in Generations, I genuinely thought it was the way Marcus described: the Duras sisters taking away it from Picard since I thought he was transported to their ship before being beamed down to the planet. Now I can't unsee that one... 😅

I remember really noticing the differences over time during the latest rewatch.

Man! Those uniforms were some crazy stuff! Especially the skant!

I was hoping for an explanation of the different shapes behind the arrowhead insignia on the combadges.

So you are filming a multi-million dollar movie and cant get a prop FED EXed overnight Dock the prop masters pay if needed.

Definitely cover the “Picard maneuver” in a future video and compare it to Kirk’s “Z-axis” maneuver from “Wrath of Khan”. There are other maneuvers mentioned in Star Trek history so a “top 10” might be doable.

You missed a big one. The shoulder design and colors are supposed to make them look like they are wearing capes, reminiscent of superman and other comic book heroes

The description of the lyrcra cloth (though I have heard it in several places) seems rather odd to me in modern times, because as long as I've been shopping for clothes (the last 20 years or so) polyester-lyrcra clothing has been well known for being cooler that almost any natural fabrics, having better moisture management properties than any type of cloth except wool, being anti-microbial and not smelling nearly as much as cotton, and being very stretchy and comfortable. These are the reasons why almost all sports wear (swimming, cycling, running, team uniforms, etc.) Are made of polyester and lyrcra. It makes me wonder what changed.

25 Century Federation uniforms will be nanotech where the uniform would be able to transform into battletech like Iron Man. On the wrist will be an Apple watch type device with the Trek insignia that serves as communicator.

Loved the info and lore. Great video and thanks!

I'd love a TrekCulture look at the Strange New Worlds uniforms - Personally, I love way they're all clearly related and cohesive, and yet allow for a bit of personal style

TNG costumes were responsible for shifting the vocal range of all the actors higher. you need to slow down the playback 8% to hear their real voices.

There is one TOS episode where Kirk beams up without his Enterprise logo on the uniform. They forgot to put it back on when they got it back trom the dry cleaners.

Jerk, I don’t want to share your pain about the COM bag. I could’ve gone my whole life without knowing that. Now every time I watch this movie my eyes will be fixed looking for that scene.

Wil Wheaton talks about in his book how he often needed help getting his uniform on and would wait till the very last second before filming as it was very uncomfortable!

Picard beamed down from the Enterprise, not the Klingon ship. You could tell by the colour of the transporter beams!

I noticed Picard missing his comm badge the first time I saw the movie. I always assumed that even though he beams directly from the Enterprise to the planet, he had made an agreement with the Kingons to be part of a prisoner exchange for LaForge, so I assumed he removed it as part of their deal. Otherwise the Enterprise could have easily beamed him back once LaForge was back on the Enterprise

I always thought the Duras Sisters took Picard's combadge off him, too! Now you're telling me it was just a mistake?! I have to reassess my Trekdom, now!

I actually really liked the First Contact/Move Era grey uniforms, it was a really good look honestly. But I also just like grey and black

Go back and watch the first season. All the men are looking like David Bowie in Labyrinth, if you know what I mean. And I ain't complaining.

It’s not just leather shoulder pads... it’s got plenty of sensual velour as well 😁

As a kid we called short skirt hybrids squorts lol. Doesnt flow as nicely as 'scants'.

Kewl stuff. There's also the occasional scene where an ensign on the back half of the entire series would turn up in the background in a uniform that was obviously from season 1 or 2.

At the start, you mentioned the TNG uniforms were designed to resemble the colors of TOS... Do you happen to know why they swapped the red & gold coloring?

I think we need a poll here, which TNG uniform is the best, the ones in the early series or the later ones?

The two-piece uniforms in season 3 remind me of marching band uniforms. It would make sense to me that they’d also have band style bibbers on underneath instead of just trousers since the jackets are a relatively short cut, but I have no idea how to corroborate that

Are you kidding? Jolene Blaylock in fitted skimpies is a bird worth watching