Uniforms for Star Trek: The Motion Picture - From the Files of Starfleet Command Headquarters

U is for Uniforms!

Within the Marvel comic "Spock... the Barbarian!" from 1981 is a few pages on Starfleet uniforms as seen in The Motion Picture. The coloring is a little off from what we see in the Motion Picture, but the information still applies.

First we get a look at the Class-A uniforms, along with the gold insignia styles and their ranks. The Class-A uniforms are only worn when VIPs (ambassadors, admirals, etc.) are on board, or at ceremonial functions such as funerals, special dinners, or weddings. During the motion picture we see Kirk in both the Admiral's (or Flag Officer's) and the Captain's Class-A uniform, as he was an admiral at the very beginning of the movie until he took over as Captain.

This page also informs us on the "Commodore" rank - "An honorary title; usually the senior Captain in an organization - a captain who performs the duties of an admiral."

As far as Class-A uniforms go, this page states that the command level officers (Kirk, Spock, Decker, Scotty, etc.) wear grey (although it usually looks blue),  whereas the lower-level officers and crew (Uhura, Chekov, Sulu, etc.) wear beige. For whatever reason, Spock wears his Class-A uniform with a black collar.

And by the way, those are life support monitor belt buckles on the front of their uniforms (referred to in this guide as a bio-scan belt buckle).

The Class-B uniforms are more casual, with either long or short sleeves, and are worn daily around the ship. There are three uniform colors, shown below, and shoulder tabs and insignia showing department and rank. A white shirt and grey pants are worn by command level officers, and  the lower officers wear beige. Enlisted personnel wear light and dark brown. The insignia worn on the breast match the tabs in color.

Grey: Operations division: Security
Yellow/Gold: Operations division: Communications and Command division: Helm and Navigation
Green: Sciences division: Medical
Orange: Sciences division: Research and technical
Red: Operations division: Engineering and maintenance
White: Command.

Rank is indicated by stripes, except for the yellow squares worn on the tabs of Chiefs.

The medical Class-A uniforms are very much like the others, but with a v-cut collar. Dr. McCoy, being a command level officer, wears grey, while Dr. Chapel wears beige.

The medical work uniforms are white, but without a bio-scan belt buckle. These uniforms are worn only in sickbay and in surgery. The medical worksuits for lower ranking officers are also white, but have the bio-scan buckle. Both the medical work uniform and the medical worksuit have a caduceus instead of the insignia, but the work uniforms have shoulder tabs that indicate rank.

For informal occasions outside of sickbay, Both McCoy and Chapel wear white pants, with either a white tunic (McCoy) or a beige tunic (Chapel) over top.

The general leisure uniforms (wraparound tunics) are generally worn while off duty. Like the other uniforms, these come in grey, beige, and brown depending on rank.

The duty jackets/excursion jacket worn by the landing parties were manila, with colored strips around the upper arm indicating rank. There is a "blooper" in the Motion Picture where at one point, Spock and McCoy's rank strips are reversed. The duty jackets have two large pockets on either side. There is also an alternate duty jacket for colder conditions, with fur cuffs and a hood.

The work suit uniform is worn by engineering, technicians, and maintenance personnel on the job, and sometimes under a duty jacket. Kirk and Spock wear these uniforms as well in grey. These suits also come in white, brown, and beige - and green on planetary stations. Also known as a jumpsuit, some of these suits had large pockets on the thighs.

The engineering anti-radiation suits are worn "in and around warp engines and matter/antimatter power chambers" and come in white or brown.

The shoes worn by the Enterprise crew are attached to their trousers.

Some security personnel (starship and base) wore full body armor with a helmet, which was dark with white details. These pages also fail to go over the protective suit worn by certain (minor) members of the crew, the thruster suit, the civilian tunic (also seen only on minor/background characters), pressure suits, and the petty officer insignia (which is a gold triangle).

Omnibus Volume 1 - Star Trek Comics - Issues 4-18

O is for Omnibus!

It can be difficult to find individual comics that are in good condition, especially when it comes to Star Trek comics. Luckily, IDW publishing released omnibuses, in volumes. Volume one, which I own, contains the Marvel Comics issues 4 to 18 - all in one book.

Buying this book is considerably easier than tracking down an buying the individual comics, but has one very serious drawback: the print quality. Throughout this post I will be showing scanned panels from issues 10 and 18 - first from the original comic, and then from the omnibus (click images to enlarge):

As you may see, the artwork is often blurred, and details tend to go missing all together. This may be caused by the resizing of the pages for the book. The colors are brighter, but not always better.

Here Spock and Kirk are turned into pirates on a ship:

The contrast is increased greatly, and the color is more saturated. In some panels, it is not such a distraction:

And in other panels, I find it too distracting to even continue reading:

For this reason, I tend to use my omnibus for reference - I turn to the original issues when I want to read , as art quality and aesthetics are very important to me when it comes to comics.

Below, you may see how certain details and lines disappear completely, altering the entire "essence" of the art:

Often, there is a speckling effect when it comes to blocks of black color:

Once more example (just because I really enjoy these panels) with all of the quality problems I mentioned in one: Over-saturated colors, blurring, white speckling, and disappearing details:

Very distracting, is it not? And not only that, but I feel that publishing something of this quality is degrading to the original artists - vandalism. I really wish they would have worked these issues out before publication.

However - I would like to point out that despite these problems, owning the omnibus is great for reference, and better than nothing if one cannot find the separate issues. The story is still there, and just as amazing.

Marvel Comic Groups: Spock...The Barbarian!

The one (and only) thing that bothers me about the "Marvel Comics Group" Star Trek comics is the front covers - they are massively misleading. That aside, they are also massively amusing. For example, let's just look at the tenth issue from the first volume in 1981 - Spock... the BARBARIAN!

When I got this comic book, I was really curious as to what would happen - what had thrust Spock into battle, and how he had allowed it. I should have known after reading others that the story would have almost nothing to do with the cover art. The story - Domain of the Dragon God! Warning: Ahead be spoilers.

Spock and Doctor McCoy crash on a planet to find that primitive tribesmen are trying to throw a girl into the a pool "churning with hideous reptiles" as a sacrifice to the Dragon God. The girl escapes and runs to Spock. The men run after her, and are stunned with phasers. McCoy takes the girl, leaving Spock to fight them off single-handedly. Unfortunately, his phaser clogs and he is overpowered. The tribesmen think that Spock is a shaman because of his knowledge and technology.

The girl (N'Shulu) brings McCoy to her people because they are good, unlike Ragnok and his people, and will help him save Spock. Meanwhile, Spock is brought to Ragnok and sentenced to hard labor on the mountain with the other slaves. A fight breaks out between Spock and the other slaves when they are introduced to new ways of working - proof that Spock is an evil shaman.

McCoy meets with N'Shulu's brother and his people, and they agree to help. They wish to overthrow Ragnok, but are too weak. After deciding to disobey the Prime Directive, he teaches them of bows and arrows (snakes that fly), and how to use them. Just as Spock prepares himself to escape, McCoy and the armed men attack Ragnok and his guards. Ragnok is killed with a "magic flying stick that can kill from a distance" and K'Barrgh takes over as leader. K'Barrgh, changed by this sudden power, begins to rule as Ragnok had and orders an urgent sacrifice of Ragnok's wife.

Doctor McCoy attempt to make them realize the mistake they are making, but Spock suggests that "further efforts at socio-religious reform would be most unwise" when the men begin to turn on them for being "evil gods". They feel that their point is proven when the sky darkens - luckily, they are saved by the Captain just before they are killed in the name of The Dragon God.

Nowhere in the story does Spock even remotely become a barbarian, unless you count fist-fighting as barbaric - something that is considered to be so on Vulcan. Perhaps that is it, or perhaps it was just the fact that he was among "barbarian" slaves.