#Starfleet Uniform

[trek-tracks]

What if everybody rags on Kirk tearing his shirts all the time but they’re actually designed to be the clothing equivalent of modern cars that crumple instead of letting the occupants be harmed by the collision

The Captain didn’t feel that punch at all but his shirt exploded

[stra-tek]

Strange New Worlds dress uniforms! Love that they're dipped in that TOS cheese

[holodeck-enthusiast]

Kirk is a jerk 🤭

[whirligig-girl]

Commission for Dragon Cobolt of Catra & Adora in the Monster Maroon starfleet uniform.

Image ID: Digital art drawing: Catra, a cat girl with short gray hair and brown skin/fur and large pink and black cat ears, and Adora, a slightly taller human woman with white skin and a blonde pony-tail, are standing and wearing starfleet uniforms circa 2280s. They are wearing black pants and red jackets. Catra's belt is loose and crooked, and she's opened up the jacket to bare her upper chest. She's wearing a black enlisted division collar and chief petty officer rank pin. She's looking slightly bitterly at Adora, who is wearing the uniform correctly with the chest flap closed, and a command-white collar and captain rank pin. She looks confused at a tricorder scanner device. End Image ID.

[idol--hands]

[tribblesoup]

[lxstingravity]

CAPTAIN ON THE BRIDGE.

[megdchristopher]

Inspired by the prompt ‘badge’ - I initially thought of a comm badge, but started basing the uniform off Scotty, and then remembered communicators were a separate device in TOS. Oh well.

I like drawing anthropomorphic animals, though figuring out how to adapt their skeletons is always a journey. I tried a bit of a Lower Decks style with a TOS uniform top.

[generic-whumper]

I think about mini dress uniform man from Star Trek TNG every now and again.

I hope he is doing well.

[yellowcakeuf6]

Starfleet Dreams

Channelling my inner Walter Mitty (LOL) - So, I finally found the courage to self insert into a fictional Starfleet role.

I headcanon that there's another division: social, cultural and humanities sciences (which encompasses ancient linguistics, social studies, philosophy, ethics and moral principles).

The uniform is a mix of trad science blue with a bit of purple (c/o Guinan) to represent wisdom and creativity.

I'm hoping that this little foray into wish fulfilment can help to quell my low self esteem, neediness and imposter syndrome just a little. They are stubbornly ingrained behaviours, but I live in hope...

[episodicnostalgia]

Star Trek: The Next Generation, 115 (Feb. 6, 1988) - “Too Short a Season”

Teleplay by: Michael Michaelian & D.C. Fontanta Story by: Michael Michaelian Directed by: Rob Bowman

The Breakdown

A Federation ambassador and their team have been taken hostage on Persephone V by alleged terrorists who refuse to talk to their planetary leader, Karnas.  So who WILL they talk to?  None other than the legendary Admiral Mark Jameson, who successfully negotiated a hostage situation on Persephone V, some 45 years ago.  Though his aging body has been ravaged by an incurable degenerative illness (confining him to a wheel chair), his mind is still sharp, and therefore has been given command of the mission with the aid of Picard and the Enterprise.  However, as the Enterprise makes its way to Persephone, our boy Mark begins to regain his strength and virility! This on its own should be impossible, but when the Admiral starts to rapidly grow younger it raises more than a few eyebrows. We discover that Jameson has been taking an alien de-aging treatment, which is extremely risky for most species.  With his new mission, Jameson apparently felt that he would take two full doses of the treatment all at once (instead of one dose slowly over years), so that he could be in his physical prime and ready for action. 

So why the urgent need for his restored youth?  Well, it turns out that Jameson may not have used the most ethical of tactics in that hostage situation all those years ago. You see, back in the day Karnas’ house was just one of several families fighting for planetary dominance, and he was also the dude holding the hostages that Jameson originally “negotiated to freedom.” Karnas had demanded an exchange of weapons for the lives of his hostages, so that he could gain the upper hand in his fight for political dominance.  Giving weapons to aid a non-federation civil war is strictly prohibited by the prime-directive, but seeing no other way out, Jameson opted for super neat loophole; He gave Karnas his weapons, and then once the hostages were safe, also provided all of Karnas’ enemies the same weapons, resulting in a 40 year war that killed millions (which TECHNICALLY doesn’t violate the prime directive, I guess).  Jameson then lied about all this in his report, and the federation evidently never bothered to corroborate any of it (which doesn’t speak to larger cover-up at all).

Not being the forgiving sort, Karnas has now taken the present-day federation delegates hostage in exchange for Jameson’s life (the alleged terrorists never existed).  In the mean time, that treatment that's restored Jameson’s youth has gone too far, as his health rapidly declines from his organs imploding.  Realizing this is the end of the line, Jameson gives himself over to Karnas who ultimately satisfies himself with watching Jameson die painfully in front of him.  Since he did technically get what he wanted, Karnas agrees to honour his terms, and allows the hostages to go free. 

The moral of the story: If an a guest Admiral boards your ship to command an away mission, prepare yourself for some morally dubious goings-on.

The Verdict

My biggest criticism is how little starfleet seems to hold their commanding officers accountable.  Even accepting that Karnas kept Jameson’s secret, I find it hard to believe that between all the other warring factions, that word wouldn’t have gotten back to Starfleet command/the Federation about their inadvertent sponsorship of a planetary war.  I also think that realistically Picard should have just contacted Starfleet as soon as their assigned Admiral started de-aging 50 years immediately before heading up a vital mission.  The same could be said for Jameson’s sudden decision to switch from negotiations to a surprise offensive (which fails miserably), but then I guess that would make for a short episode.  Needless to say, Picard is going to have one hell of a report to submit.

All that aside, I otherwise quite enjoyed this episode.  The story nicely sets up the reveal of Jameson’s past misdeeds, showing us that our heroes are often not what we imagine them to be.  Jameson’s actions initially feel irrational and contrived, until we understand he’s just a desperate man running from his past out of guilt and shame.  It makes for a mostly-relevant observation of the way our own political and military leadership alter history to the benefit their legacy, while avoiding accountability for their actions. Very Shakespearean stuff.

3 stars (out of 5)

Additional Observations

Power Corrupts Starfleet Admirals:  This is the first corrupt 24th century Admiral that we’ll run into, but it’s a trope that I believe goes all the way back to the TOS era. It makes sense given that Starfleet apparently has no follow-up process with commanding officers after major missions.

Jameson armed multiple hostile factions in a global dispute, ostensibly without Starfleet’s knowledge or approval; which leads me to wonder where he procured the weapons that he gave away?  Am I to believe that he used his ship’s replicators to provide enough artillery to fuel a world war?  Wouldn’t that raise a few eyebrows amongst his crew, some of whom must have had their reservations over such a questionable bargain?  As much as I enjoy Star Trek, there are some mental gymnastics one must perform in order to ignore the otherwise-fairly-obvious signs of widespread corruption within Starfleet’s upper echelons.

Although Picard and Crusher are probably the most featured main-cast members of the episode, the story is predominantly driven by Mark Jameson.  Unlike future evil-admirals who will function as proper villains, this episode comes closer to framing Jameson as the protagonist, making him more of an anti-hero.

[nevertrulyset]

Perspectively Fun Star Trek Fact:

Only 3 main characters across TNG/DS9/Voyager are seen in canon wearing the 2371 style uniforms correctly (that is with the top zipper all the way up) while on duty, and those characters are Harry Kim, Tuvok, and Worf.

I did a little research, because I thought Julian Bashir surely would have been properly zipped up in the early days of DS9, but nope. Jadzia Dax actually wears her zipper higher than Julian, although still not all the way up.

Literally no one in the movie Generations is seen wearing the uniform properly, as Worf is only seen wearing the previous design. Even Data can't be bothered to zip his jacket all the way up. Geordi LaForge and Will Riker (who are actually wearing uniforms belonging to Miles O'Brien and Benjamin Sisko because of budget) are seen with rolled sleeves.

This has been a Perspectively Fun Star Trek Fact.

[stra-tek]

A very close look at the dress uniform medals from Strange New Worlds S02E02, from Jörg on Twitter. I wonder what they all mean?

[costumedump]

Costume For Brent Spiner As Data

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Data's Painting Of Spot

Star Trek: The Next Generation "Inheritance"

By Wendy Drapanas

Data/B-4's Head

Star Trek: Nemesis

Designed By Michael Westmore

Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds

Skirball Cultural Center

[crystal-mouse]

Shipshape and Starfleet fashion! Made a little vintage magazine ad :)

Inspired by this post by @kirksfattitties !

Accidentally deleted (idk mobile is weird?) the original post thinking it was a reblog so reposting these as one lol ^^;; either way, it's nicer to have them side by side :)

[attiredpan]

Losing my mind over these