A collection of Starfleet uniforms from the year 2266
From the mid 2260s to the early 2270s, Starfleet uniforms were drastically modified from their earlier versions. The general tailoring of the "tunic and pants" uniform design worn by Starfleet servicepeople was maintained, but with the addition of an updated collar, new rank insignia and revised colors for Starfleet divisions and departments. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver")
These uniforms were made of xenylon, an algae based fabric with a special appearance not often seen in the clothing in more primitive eras. The difference in fabric appearance was considerable, as Captain James Kirk once pointed out to an illusory inhabitant of the Melkot simulation of Tombstone, Arizona. (TAS: "The Terratin Incident"; TOS: "Spectre of the Gun") In addition, they had built-in temperature controls, to accommodate for cold weather environments. (TOS: "Spock's Brain")
This style of uniform would initially put into general use by 2265, but some starship crews or individual service people would continue to wear the older style until 2268. These uniforms would be drastically replaced in the 2270s, with a changing of many uniform variants sometime between 2270 and 2272. (TOS: "Charlie X", "The Trouble with Tribbles"; Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
Division colors
Montgomery Scott, Chekov, O'Brien, Bashir, among others, addressed by Kirk  A Cadet in 2268 |
Into the 24th century, buffs of Starfleet history will note the division colors of this era. Miles O'Brien and Benjamin Sisko told Julian Bashir of the different practices when, in posing as "contemporary" Starfleet officers during an unplanned visit to 2268, the doctor, admitting he was no historian, initially did not understand why the captain wore a "gold" uniform and the engineer a red one, as the uniforms of his career conformed to a different standard. (DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations")
- Command division
- Command uniforms ranged in color depending on the type of fabric used. While they were generally described as gold, some of the darker variants had a distinct greenish hue, while the dress uniforms, and a captain's alternate tunic were clearly green.
- Operations division
- Ops uniforms were a warm shade of red in most variations, although it has been noted that some personnel wore beige uniforms reminiscent of earlier styles.
- Sciences division
- Science and medical uniforms were a mild shade of blue.
- Cadets
- Cadet uniforms were metallic gray, woven from a special reflective thread.
Duty tunic
The different division colors are represented here in the duty tunics as well as the popular female skirt uniform
The standard duty uniform was worn with standard issue black leather (TOS: "Charlie X", "Obsession"; DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations") boots that rose above the calf and zippered along the inside. Black pants were worn that ended in length midway down the shank of the boot and terminated in a 1 inch wide flare, similar to the style worn by sailors on old Earth. The duty uniform top was a long-sleeve, division-colored tunic, with a closing seam from the collar to the left shoulder. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver", "The Naked Time", "Charlie X")
Rank insignia were displayed as sleeve stripes, and an assignment patch on the left breast was worn by all personnel. While the previous uniform style had a ribbed low turtleneck collar, the replacement design had a black collar with a V-shaped bottom. Black undershirts were issued, but not strictly required for everyday wear. (TOS: "The Cage", "Where No Man Has Gone Before", "The Naked Time", "The Man Trap", "The Omega Glory")
Female uniform
 Variant of female duty uniform Two-piece skirt variant |
Female crewmembers could choose between a standard uniform with pants, or a one-piece uniform that continued down into a short skirt over matching high cut shorts, worn with black pantyhose and boots. Female uniform tops also had a large open collar, the seam closed right at the assignment patch. There were two variations of the female tunic: one with a black collar and another version which had the collar colored the same as rest of the tunic. (TOS: "The Man Trap", "Charlie X", "The Naked Time")
- It is not clear if Christine Chapel's uniform is meant for medical personnel only.
Some later variants of the skirt uniform seem to be two-piece uniforms. (Star Trek: The Animated Series)
Dress uniforms
Different uniforms were worn for circumstances other than general service. For example, dress uniforms were worn for diplomatic functions. A dress tunic uniform, worn with standard pants and boots and a Nehru collar, in the male version. A skirt variant exists, with a back collar similar to the standard female uniform but with a longer skirt and gold piping along the collar. Lower ranking personnel wear an assignment patch, with a thin gold piping around the collar (and running down the front of the high-collar version). Lieutenants have the piping, patch and also their rank stripes. Higher ranking lieutenant commanders wear the tunic with similar piping, but decorations are worn in lieu of the assignment patch and rank stripes for lieutenant commanders and above. Commanders and executive officers have a much thicker braid around the collar, and captains have additional piping down their shoulder seams. Finally, commodores and above have an additional gold piping running the length of their sleeve. (TOS: "Space Seed", "Court Martial", "Is There in Truth No Beauty?")
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Other uniforms
Short-sleeved tunic
A medical short-sleeved tunic
A short-sleeved "smock" tunic was often worn by medical personnel. It appears to be made from a fabric similar to that of the jumpsuits and gives the user more free use of their hands than the standard long-sleeved tunic. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver", "The Naked Time", "Mudd's Women", "Journey to Babel")
Wraparound tunic
Captains had a choice of more casual clothing to wear when on duty. James T. Kirk favored two variations of a green wrap-around tunic, the first with rank stripes spread across the left and right shoulder, and the second with sleeve rank stripes like the standard uniform. Unlike the standard uniforms, the assignment patch was used as a fastener near the waist. Charles Evans wore a beige version of this uniform with a cream colored undershirt. Charlie's uniform didn't have any rank insignia. (TOS: "The Enemy Within", "Charlie X", "The Doomsday Machine"; ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")
Duty jumpsuit
A science division jumpsuit Command jumpsuit |
Everyday work jumpsuits were also worn, usually with no assignment or rank patches visible (even if the jumpsuit was worn by a senior officer). Duty jumpsuits come in a division color. Some versions had embroidered writing and insignia on the left breast. The jumpsuit had medium length sleeves and was worn open in the front, sealing at the waistline. A standard black undershirt was worn underneath, in contrast with jumpsuit uniforms of the previous style with division-colored undershirts. The jumpsuits came in red (operations division), green/brown (command division) and blue (sciences division). (TOS: "The Naked Time", "The Enemy Within", "Mudd's Women", "Balance of Terror", "Dagger of the Mind")
Hazard vest
The unfortunate wearer of a hazard suit
A hazard vest, seen in beige, was in issue for excursions or technical personnel. Sometimes the hazard vest was worn in conjunction with protective gloves and head cover. (TOS: "The Man Trap")
Protective suit
Protective gear
A flexible protective suit was available for use in dangerous environments. (TOS: "The Naked Time")
Environmental suit
Environmental suits
A pressurized environmental suit was issued for use in inhospitable environments. It provided full life support to its wearer in vacuums. (TOS: "The Tholian Web")
Athletic wear
 Athletics unitard  Various forms of sportswear |
Athletic wear was available for use during sporting or other leisure activities. Several varieties were issued, all colored red. One set included red leggings, black socks, a tunic and a belt. The belt was colored, possibly indicating a certain ranking within a sport. Another option was a red unitard. The assignment patch was placed on the left breast of the tunic, and on the left side of the leggings or unitard. (TOS: "Charlie X")
Accessories
Equipment belt
Brown equipment belt Black equipment belt |
Equipment belts were worn with the standard duty uniforms, often by security personnel to carry phaser pistols. (TOS: "Miri", "The Galileo Seven", "Arena"; DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations")
- The quite elaborate brown belt was only seen in early episodes. During most of the series phasers were simply attached to the pants by using Velcro (as can be seen here).
Life support belt
- See: Life support belt
Embroideries
Assignment patches
Assignment patches were worn on many of the uniform styles, and were individual depending on a service person's posting. Departmental insignia of the wearer's position was in the center of many of these patches. (TOS: "Charlie X", "The Omega Glory", "The Tholian Web"; DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations"; ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly", "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")
- The above assignment patches were used by the crew of the USS Enterprise from 2266 to 2270, and are typical of the era's ship assignment patches. They depict the usual divisional insignia patches used on corresponding color uniforms, although these were absent from some other styles of patches. Although the division symbols and colors were standardized by this period, Uhura wore a sciences patch on her early command gold uniform. ("The Corbomite Maneuver") Nurse Chapel's unique medical patch was obviously a sciences patch with a red cross painted or attached to it, as the circles of the sciences design were visible. (example)
Rank insignia
- This chart represents the rank insignia seen on screen throughout these uniforms' appearances. Ensign and enlisted ranks apparently had no insignia. No rear admiral, full admiral, or fleet admiral were seen. The rear admiral insignia could be inferred from the Star Trek: The Motion Picture uniform style, which showed Kirk's rear admiral insignia of that era, where very similar stripes were used.
Appendices
Appearances
- Star Trek: The Original Series (all episodes, except "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before")
- Star Trek: The Animated Series (all episodes)
- DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations"
- ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly"
- ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II"
Background information
The Starfleet uniforms worn during Star Trek: The Original Series were designed by William Ware Theiss, who returned to design the Star Trek: The Next Generation uniforms (which were further adapted into future versions on DS9, VOY and the TNG-era films by Robert Blackman).
Although the standard command division uniform tunics looked gold on most color TV sets, the costumes were actually lime green[1]. The greenish hue of the command tunics can be seen more clearly in the third season, when the fabric used for the tunics was changed from satin velour to a double-knit fabric that reflected the set lighting differently. The dress uniforms, made of a silk material, were always clearly green by comparison, and some darker green jumpsuits and wraparound tunics that were more clearly seen seemed to confirm that all the "gold-to-green" variations were part of the same color scheme. The so-called "beige" uniforms which originated with "The Cage" were ironically a much more yellow color, but likewise appeared beige or pinkish under the lights.
These uniforms first appeared in "The Corbomite Maneuver". Kirk's wraparound jacket was light green, one variation in "Charlie X" with captain's braid on one shoulder, 2 other variations in TOS Season 2 with gold trim only with rank on the sleeves appearing only in "The Doomsday Machine" and with both gold and black trim with rank on the sleeves, for the remainder of the season. No other officer in the original series was ever seen wearing this uniform, although one more green uniform was used, a green service jumpsuit worn by Connors. (The mirror universe Jonathan Archer wore this variant uniform in ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly".) This style was not seen at all in TOS Season 3.
Chronologically these uniforms first appeared in late 2265 in the Christmas party flashback scenes in "Dagger of the Mind" and the recording of Doctor Leonard McCoy's visit to Capella IV in "Friday's Child".
With a few exceptions, all women in these uniforms wore the skirt variant. One uniform seen on extras in TOS Season 1 was a woman's gold command uniform with pants. It was created for a scene in "Charlie X" where a pretty crewwoman was transformed into an old hag, who might not have looked appropriate in a skirt uniform. It also made an appearance in "The Man Trap". In regards to the collars on female uniforms, blue-collared uniforms were seen in TOS and TAS on Nurse Chapel, and red-collared uniforms were seen in TAS. Female gold command uniforms were rare on both series and were never seen with colored collars.
This uniform style was last seen in TAS: "The Counter-Clock Incident", although it was later recreated for DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations" and ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly".
External links
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