Poll Uniform Jumpsuit Color for "Enterprise"

[Admiral Archer]

A while back I was reading in the TOS forum that the command uniforms from Kirk's era were actually Avocado GREEN, not gold or mustard colored. I was shocked! I had always thought that the uniforms looked very yellow, but apparently I had been mistaken.

In a similar vein, do we know what color the uniforms really were on "Enterprise"? I always thought they looked purple early on, but on the Diamond Select action figures and in later seasons, they looked more navy blue. Is this due to a change in uniform design, or did the switch to HD in later seasons reveal what the uniforms had always been colored? Is this a case of "Avocado Green vs Mustard Gold"? Let's find out!

 

[NCC-73515]

Gold is actually a very greenish red when you take it apart (RGB: 255, 215, 0).
Wiki also says the uniform color was satin sheen gold, a deep yellow, unlike Vegas gold, which is a moderate greenish yellow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_(color)

 

[C.E. Evans]

While the main cast member jumpsuits became more blue in ENT (starting with "Minefield"?), the extras and various background people still had more of the original purplish jumpsuits.

 

[Captain Crow]

Darker blues can read as purple due to lighting and/or the camera that's being used.

The Police Box props used in Doctor Who (2005-onward), especially the ones during the Moffat era, have the same issue of sometimes reading as purple instead of blue.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I knew there was an old thread here about this very subject years ago. They did switch to from purple to blue early in season 2.
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/purple-uniforms.192352/

Initially only the main cast members had the blue jumpsuits, but gradually the extras got them too.

 

[Captain Crow]

Looking at the pictures in that thread, especially the one with the earlier and latter jumpsuits side by side, both sets of jumpsuits look like shades of blue to me.

The earlier ones look like they're possibly Midnight blue rather than Navy blue. The latter ones look to be either Royal blue or Imperial blue.

 

[Orphalesion]

The original jump suits are one of those colours where, if you ask 10 people you'll get 4 different answers to whether they are blue or purple. I think I always saw them as "purplish blue"
The later ones are definitely blue.

 

[plynch]

I never once thought of them as any purple. I picked "other" b/c "navy" is dark, almost black. They're just dark blue.

Theiss and the actors of TOS attest the TOS command tunics were "apple green" or "avocado." Plus there's copious internal logic w/ the other command shirts which all photographed green. Other threads ad nauseum. (Except me, I love the topic for some odd reason.)


I just got new lenses in my eyes. Just call me Steve Austin. (cataract surgery)

When I had only one new one, MAN! did I see blues and violets that I hadn't seen. Turns out even w/o cataracts, all our lenses yellow with age and filter out blue/violet.

Middle-aged adults see color differently from young people. Blues and violets roll off more and. more as we age.

Now I have TWO new lenses. They are different types, but from the same maker. One filters more blue (thus is yellow/greener, actually a BIT more pleasant, like analog sound).

My point: there is no absolute color.

Depends on light, film stock, the viewer, even the preconceptions we bring to a situation.

*Btw I saw an original TOS tunic under "white" museum-quality lighting in the Detroit Science Center when I was 15 years younger. It (S3 polyester, mind you -- faded less than the velours) appeared greenish-yellow (green chartreuse), a VERY typical mid-sixties color, as I have posted 60s color palettes, greeting cards, and children's books elsewhere on the BBS. As were gray-blue and carmine red.

Best bet as to what ENT's colors "REALLY" were: ask the actors or the costume designer.

 

[ChristopherPike]

They definitely switched from denim blue to indigo blue sometime around "Carbon Creek" or "Minefield". The main cast that is, as you can see the older jumpsuits still being worn by background crewmen.

It was frequently too darkly lit or just drowned out by the greyness of everything to make much of a difference. It isn't until the switch to HD video for Season 4 that choice pays off though, when they finally pop right out of the screen, together the added colours to the set... bright blue doors and handrails on the bridge, boosted TOS blinkies on the screens.

I tell you what I missed and wish they hadn't got rid of. The quilted leather-look away team jackets from "Broken Bow". Caps worn by the crew too.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

My point: there is no absolute color.

Wow, this thread suddenly got very philosophical...

 

[C.E. Evans]

From the old necro'd thread...

...I always thought they looked different because of some change in studio lighting and the switch from film to digital, but...

They really are different, aren't they?

Yeah, it was in "Minefield" that the new more blue uniforms were first introduced.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Minefield_(episode)
"Although new, lighter-blue-colored Starfleet jumpsuits were produced for the second season, they were not seen until this episode. At first worn by only the regular cast members, the new uniform color eventually became more widely used as the season continued."

 

[F. King Daniel]

I never knew the colours changed and I never knew the originals were purple-ish until right this moment. Huh.

 

[Oddish]

Indigo. People often forget that there are seven colors in the spectrum, not six.

 

[plynch]

I do, since I just regained seeing indigo in one of my eyes that had a new lens! I'd say indigo, too. I like that color suit btw.

 

[valkyrie013]

Huh.. Never really thought about it. Not a major change so didnt notice it. If I did I would have put it down to it was getting lighter due to being washed weekly or something.

 

[ChristopherPike]

It would've been nice to see the uniforms change to overall dept colours, had it gone on. Still flight suits but entirely mustard for command, red for engineering and the blue staying to become science. The old dept piping changing to be metallic, silver or bronze, nodding toward Discovery, but now denoting service length maybe. Gold for 25 years. Silver for 10 upwards. Bronze for less than 10.

Although a widespread uniform change would probably come in with the Federation founding, about the time Enterprise ends. The establishment of the upright Starfleet delta is suggested in Star Trek Beyond for the 2160's, together with those U.S.S. Franklin grey jumpsuits, depending on whether you see events before Nero's arrival as still Prime universe.

 

[Mister Spock]

I tell you what I missed and wish they hadn't got rid of. The quilted leather-look away team jackets from "Broken Bow". Caps worn by the crew too.

It's one element of the show that I liked, that they actually put some thought into what the characters wore. Compared to, say, The Next Generation where the characters would beam down to ice planets and desert planets in the same outfit with no obvious discomfort. I like that the NX-01 crew had hats and coats for cold weather as well as t-shirts and sunglasses for hot weather.

 

[Odo]

Yeah, I like the caps/jackets , and that their clothing was more weather appropriate - thought it was a nice touch, and went along with keeping real world attire (like their uniforms).

 

[Keith1701]

Great design uniforms for Star Trek Enterprise.