Poll Uniforms: TNG or early DS9?

[Hikaru_Ichijo]

When comparing stardates, Caretaker takes place before Star Trek: Generations. The crew of Voyager wears the uniform we were introduced to from the early seasons of DS9, but on Generations, the crew of the Enterprise-D is seen wearing the uniforms from both TNG and those early seasons of DS9.

If Voyager had gone with the dress code seen in Generations, which uniform would you prefer to see on the senior officers? For reference, I'll post both variants worn by Dax and Bashir from Emissary:

 

[Seven of Five]

They should wear all of them at the same time, then taking a layer off when the person in focus has finished their line. That would be the only way to one-up the confusion during Generations! It must have been a casual Friday. Or perhaps the new uniform doesn't arrive until Tuesday either?

My serious answer is I think they should have changed to the First Contact/late DS9 uniforms after Pathfinder, it would have been a nice touch to that state of the series when communications with Earth were starting to resume. I can imagine just imagine a scene with the crew on the bridge using it for the first time and being a little excited. Or maybe that''s just me?

I guess it depends on how much of a concern it may have been using replicators just to have different uniforms. Surely they could put the old ones in to recycle them?

I've clearly thought about this too much.

 

[Hikaru_Ichijo]

[QUOTE="My serious answer is I think they should have changed to the First Contact/late DS9 uniforms after Pathfinder, it would have been a nice touch to that state of the series when communications with Earth were starting to resume. I can imagine just imagine a scene with the crew on the bridge using it for the first time and being a little excited. Or maybe that''s just me? .[/QUOTE]

I was really excited when DS9 started using the First Contact uniforms. To me, it was such a huge step up from their previous uniform. For Voyager, I too, would have liked to see them wear these (sadly, we only saw Janeway in one).

Before First Contact, I personally would have liked to have seen Voyager go the Generations route. I felt the TNG uniforms looked more "authoritative" and would have given the person in charge of the bridge more of a command presence if they were wearing it. I felt that Sisko, for instance, carried such a presence when he went back to wearing the TNG uniform in Homefront/Paradise Lost when he was the Chief of Starfleet Security:

 

[trekshark]

TNG
kind of wish the tng style is for starships and starfleet command, and ds9 style was for starbases was an actual thing

 

[F. King Daniel]

Looking at Dax, apparently they could only afford shoulder pads in the DS9 unis

I prefer the early DS9 ones. TNG ones have aged poorly and the First Contact ones are drab. There's a reason why the ST: Picard uniforms are basically more detailed versions of the early DS9/Voyager/Generations ones.

 

[somebuddyX]

If they had gone with TNG uniforms and everything else remained the same, then two years later they phase out the DS9 jumpsuits and that's the last we see of them, whilst the TNG uniforms keep kicking until 23rd May 2001 (2378), which is wild to me to think about considering the last time we actually saw them in the present was Tears of the Prophets, 17 June 1998 (2374). I kinda like this idea.
The other wild thing is if the intended Generations uniforms had gone ahead, would Voyager have worn those? Would the DS9 crew have changed to wear them too, and so all three 24th century crews would be wearing the same uniform? Or would they have stuck with their jumpsuits all the way through the Dominion War? I have a hard time imagining the colourful Generations uniforms on the Enterprise-E bridge or on Starfleet officers in the caves of AR-558. I think the First Contact uniform's darker look suited the films/show's darker storylines.
One reason I like it the way it turned out is that in those collages of Trek captains it gives each 24th century captain the possibility of having their own unique uniform: Picard in TNG, Sisko in First Contact, Janeway in the Voyager/DS9 jumpsuit. So there's that.

 

[Seven of Five]

I always forget about the rejected uniforms from GEN. It's probably for the best that they were dropped as they look quite strange. It looks like something I have knocked up in Paint myself.

I can just imagine the VOY crew in it.

 

[The Wormhole]

TNG
kind of wish the tng style is for starships and starfleet command, and ds9 style was for starbases was an actual thing

DS9 adhered to that for the most part, IE whenever we saw someone serving on a ship during the first four seasons, they always wore the TNG uniform. Generations just used a weird mishmash of the two uniforms on the Enterprise D after the rejection of the new uniforms they still wanted the movie to be visually distinctive from TNG, and with no time to make new uniforms, they used the DS9 uniforms. Problem was, they literally used the same uniforms from DS9 and in some cases, there were no DS9 uniforms sized appropriately enough for certain actors, so they stuck with the TNG uniforms. Voyager used the DS9 uniforms only because it was felt they looked more modern and better on the actors than the TNG ones did.

The other wild thing is if the intended Generations uniforms had gone ahead, would Voyager have worn those?

IIRC, that was the plan.

Would the DS9 crew have changed to wear them too, and so all three 24th century crews would be wearing the same uniform? Or would they have stuck with their jumpsuits all the way through the Dominion War?

I think the plan was to continue the ship/station divide with the uniforms. On DS9 they would have continued wearing the jumpsuits, and whenever a ship visits the station, its crew would be wearing the Generations uniform. We'd likely have seen Sisko switch to the Generations uniform in Homefront/Paradise Lost.

 

[1moreRobot]

Looking at Dax, apparently they could only afford shoulder pads in the DS9 unis

I wonder if that TNG uniform she's wearing just doesn't fit properly. Maybe they shoehorned her into one of Sirtis' costumes or something?

 

[Hikaru_Ichijo]

I wonder if that TNG uniform she's wearing just doesn't fit properly. Maybe they shoehorned her into one of Sirtis' costumes or something?

I was thinking the same thing. Since Terry Farrell was only going to wear the TNG uniform for only a couple of scenes, I'm betting the costume department just gave her whatever was on the rack that day.

I read somewhere that the costume department loaned one of Colm Meaney's uniforms to LeVar Burton for the second half of Generations. If that's true, that would explain why shorty ol' Geordi looks like he's drowning in Chief O'Brien's sleeves

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I think giving them the choice between the two might've been good for some variety.

I don't know why but I prefer the TNG uniforms with the DS9/VOY combadge, the original TNG badge just looks odd and I can't say why.

 

[tomswift2002]

I always forget about the rejected uniforms from GEN. It's probably for the best that they were dropped as they look quite strange. It looks like something I have knocked up in Paint myself.

I can just imagine the VOY crew in it.

Quite frankly, the new Starfleet uniforms in “Picard” I find to be something that I would make on my own. Actually, I did make a very similar uniform top back in 2001 (based on the DS9/Voy) for a Halloween party, and I dug it out when I got the Picard Blu-Ray, and I couldn’t believe how close they were . My shoulder stripes were a little wider than the actual DS9/Voy uniforms. As an unofficial costume, it was fine, but on screen, those shoulders look sloppy and ridiculous.

I would’ve preferred “Picard” to dig out the alternate future TNG uniforms that we saw in “All Good Things” and “Endgame”, vs what the used. Or used a slightly redesigned version of the rejected Generations uniform.

 

[Lynx]

I like the TNG uniforms the best and I wish they had used them in all three series.

The Voyager/early DS9 uniforms were sort of OK but I never liked the generations uniforms. OK, compared to what we saw in Enterprise and later series but rather dull compared to the TNG uniforms.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I would’ve preferred “Picard” to dig out the alternate future TNG uniforms that we saw in “All Good Things” and “Endgame”, vs what the used. Or used a slightly redesigned version of the rejected Generations uniform.

Come now you can't be expecting them to stick with continuity

 

[tomswift2002]

Come now you can't be expecting them to stick with continuity

The uniforms on “Picard” make the TMP Pajama’s look respectable.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Once Lower Decks is released on Amazon Prime and I get to sample it (fingers crossed I like it enough to binge) I might give Picard's pilot a go, so just have to wait and see for myself

 

[Mister Spock]

I've always liked the TNG uniforms the best from that era of Starfleet. And I find the crossover period where they were wearing the DS9 combadge to be a cool look.

The DS9/VOY uniform is just too plain to me. A bit of colour on the shoulders and that's it. They also don't look as tailored or fit as well as the TNG uniforms, looking quite frumpy and boxy.

 

[Akiraprise]

While I am a huge fan of the FC uniforms, and would have preferred to see them used on VOY eventually, I also like the Season 4 DS9/VOY uniforms. It always looked to me like there was an improvement in uniform quality from S1-S4 on DS9. They at least got the V necks to stop turning outward.

 

[STEPhon IT]

The uniforms on “Picard” make the TMP Pajama’s look respectable.

Sigh. Those words coming from... a Star Trek fan. Sigh.

 

[Orphalesion]

I will probably always prefer the TNG uniforms. I just like how the shoulder/neck area is black (a neutral colour) Even in the pictures above I think that Bashir, Jadzia and Sisko look so much better in the TNG ones while Geordi and Worf look a lot worse in the DS9/Voy ones.
The only problem with the TNG ones is that those for the female characters are (reportedly rather uncomfortable) jumpsuits while the guys had a sweater/pants combo. If they had just changed that for DS9 and Voy I'd be happy.

I won't even talk about the ugly, grew abominations from First Contact and late DS9....

Of the modern ones I like the DISC and LD ones best (in fact I think the DISC uniforms are some of the best ever used on ST)
while on PIC

Spoiler

I can live with the ones he and Raffi are seen wearing in that flashback, but the "present day" ones look kinda terrible. At least the Ds9/Voy had the common sense not to extend their division colour to the collar...