Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Costume Design by:

- Robert Fletcher ( notable efforts: The Scarecrow (1972), The Taming of the Shrew (1976), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), The Last Starfighter (1984), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Fright Night (1985), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) )

Costume Design Genre: Futuristic

The first sequel to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Nicholas Meyer's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan would be a much more action-packed and dramatic film than its predecessor, being in effect a sequel to the original series episode 'Space Seed', where Kirk ran into the long-lost Earth warlord Khan (Ricardo Montalban), who was marooned on the planet Ceti Alpha V at the end of the episode - and in this film, manages to steal a starship in order to find Kirk again and kill him.

The more dramatic tone of the film required some changes in the Starfleet uniforms, which again were designed by Robert Fletcher (assigned as costume designer once more), who at Meyer's insistence, created a new uniform with a much more militaristic look (Meyer wanted the new uniforms to be something akin to the various uniforms of the fictional nation depicted in The Prisoner of Zenda), consisting of a red double-breasted jackets (with a coloured strip over one side) worn over a coloured turtleneck (of the respective division colours of white, green, orange and blue), as well as with lined black trousers that ended in flares around the boots. The jackets open up to reveal a white internal fabric, and have black lining on the back, and Kirk's jacket has a golden strip going down down the jacket line. The costume budget for this film was actually decreased compared to The Motion Picture, so only the main cast and one or two more characters wore these new uniforms - but despite that, these uniforms would be seen again in all the remaining Star Trek movies until Star Trek Generations, as well as making several appearances in The Next Generation as well - in fact, according to a video interview with Robert Fletcher, Fletcher recounts how Robert Blackman - the costume designer for most of The Next Generation, as well as its movies, Deep Space 9, etc - actually thanked him for designing them and the Klingon uniforms!

Similarly to the uniforms in The Motion Picture, an excursion jacket is worn for outside ventures, but in this film it is a large bulky jacket with with belts, white ridged patches on the cuffs and bottom ends, and a ridged white collar. Kirk is also seen wearing a dark red utility vest under his jacket, but both are worn in place of the double-breasted jacket of the standard uniform, with everything else being unchanged.

As said earlier, the budget for the film was lower than The Motion Picture's, and as such there wasn't enough money for every character to be in an entirely new uniform - as such, the ensigns staffing the Enterprise are actually all in reused jumpsuits from The Motion Picture, but dyed in a new colour scheme of dark red with a beige top half and black stripes on the side, and a turtleneck collar fixed on the neck. Like the standard uniforms, these would be reused in all the remaining movies as well as Generations.

Khan only manages to escape his desolate prison via accidentally being discovered by a Starfleet crew working with a science team working on a 'Genesis Device' that can bring life to a barren planet - the science team are all in unique outfits consisting of two-tone patterned shirts and tunics, with David (Merritt Butrick) in a brown and white shirt with piping around the sleeves - over these shirts, the scientists all wear stiff short white smocks.

One of the only civilian fashions to be seen in the film is worn by McCoy (DeForrest Kelley), who sports a beige shirt with blue elbow patches, and cut so that a blue and white strip is going down the middle, briefly seen worn with a blue jacket as well - a tweaked version of this outfit would be worn in The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home, and so will be covered again in the entries on these films.

During this scene, Kirk is also wearing civilian attire, consisting of a mauve shirt with detailed wearing around the collar and cuffs, worn under a maroon wraparound shirt and trousers.

Of course, one of the most famous outfits of this film (second to the new Starfleet uniforms) is the tattered outfit worn by the evil Khan and his crew - the outfits were intended by Fletcher to evoke that Khan and his marooned crew had only managed to dress themselves in remains of protective jackets and metallic pieces, with the outfits tattered in a way to show most of their skin - especially Khan's chest (it has been even been rumored that Montalban was wearing a prosthetic chest, but it was his real one alright!), which is on display the whole time, as well as the studded glove on his right hand, which is worn at all times. The rest of the crew is just in tattered rags, but his deputy is in a similar ridged jacket remnant with an open chest. When the crew are first seen on the surface of Ceti Alpha V, they are are in hooded rags with their only notable feature being the metallic visors worn under the veils, as well as Khan still retaining his studded glove.