Scifi Why: Starfleet Uniforms

Why are Starfleet uniforms so tight? I posit that it’s to cultivate an atmosphere of trust and openness towards others, primarily those species that have not made contact with Starfleet yet. I started thinking about this yesterday after reading this NYTimes article about Woolrich, an American clothing company that has tailored a new line of chinos specifically for the purpose of carrying concealed weapons. I guess I’m just more comfortable seeing a phaser or gun out in the open, dangling from someone’s belt, than being taken by surprise and shot at when I start screaming at the guy who just cut me off in the bike lane.

Anyhow, those uniforms couldn’t have been an easy thing for the cast of TNG to put up with. Patrick Stewart has gone as far as saying that they were on their way to causing him permanent back and neck damage! Ouch! Not to mention the embarrassment they must have inflicted upon the cast as some of them aged from strapping taut-bodied 30 somethings to less-than-in-shape, slightly-more-round-than-they-used-to-be 40 somethings. OK fine. It was really just Jonathan Frakes and his Ding Dong addiction.


And then there’s poor Brent Spiner playing the android Data. He must have felt a ton of pressure to appear ageless throughout the seven year run of the show. Good on ya Starfleet for probably promoting unhealthy body image issues for the entire cast, all for the sake of garnering trust with unknown entities. The future is hard. Let’s go shopping.

**P.S. to my wife: “sexy star trek costume” is totally in my search history for research purposes. Ex astris, scientia!