Planet Earth (1974)

Costume Design by William Ware Theiss

The second in Gene Rodenberry’s trilogy of post-apocalyptic science-fiction television series pilots, Planet Earth (1974), like Genesis II before it, revolves around the future organization PAX. Members of PAX wear jumpsuits of a two-tone green and gold colourscheme; possibly borne out of the confusion caused by the colouration of the 'gold' Starfleet uniforms designed by Theiss on the original Star Trek. These jumpsuits feel like forerunners to the spandex Starfleet uniforms Theiss would design on the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation nearly a decade later.

Other PAX uniforms include a muted and more simplistic version of the main jumpsuit that is only seen from behind or in distance shots, as well as a blue jumpsuit for medical personnel.

We don't see too much of the civilians of the future city that PAX protects, but Hunt's friend Harper-Smythe (Janet Margolin) is briefly seen in a two-tone pink dress, designed in a very similar manner to the various dresses that Theiss designed on both the original Star Trek and The Next Generation.

However, the bulk of the film’s plot takes place in in a primitive matriarchal society, the Confederacy of Ruth, whose denizens are clad in a variety of archaic but very colourful dresses, a good deal of them being slightly revealing (continuining Theiss' slightly jokey reputation for the 'Theiss Titillation Theory'). The main figure of the Confederacy is Marg (played by Diana Muldaur) who is first introduced wearing a revealing scarlet dress with straps over the chest, again, exposing her midriff.

Towards the end of the film, Marg does end up sporting other dresses - the first of these dresses is a grey and white starched top with large sleeves that is just worn with the boots that everyone else in the Confederacy of Ruth is seen wearing.

Marg also briefly wears a sort of shawl with an asymetrical cut with the shoulders, worn with white sandals, which is only briefly seen in the sequence where she is interrogated by the 'Kreeg' mutants, and during the final dinner she wears a red dress with a butterfly pattern stitched on the front.

Harper-Smythe briefly 'joins' the Confederacy and as such wears a black and white dress with floral patterns on the front, cut with the same sort of diagonal pieces as various other dresses worn by the other women citizens seen in the film.

Villar (Jo De Winter), owner of the slave market, wears a gown with flower patterns on the sleeves and threads hanging off the back of it.

A similarly colourful outfit is sported by Treece (Sally Kemp), a Ruth resident that Harper-Smythe befriends, wearing a tunic with pink and blue patterns worn under a tan cape.

Treece also sports a threaded beige dress worn with a green shawl.

The other women of Ruth wear a variety of colourful, woollen dresses; notable mention has to go to Villar's assistant dressed like a cavegirl.

The male servants of each woman's house wear tunics that open up with a curved flap around one shoulder; it is lined with coloured thread and a panel of tasseled material around the back.

The militaristic Kreegs wear lilac buttoned uniforms - ain't that a very strong, masculine colour - with fur-lined boots.