The Last Starfighter (1984)

Costume Design by Robert Fletcher

Nick Castle's off-kilter space opera is partly set on a spacebase of the Rylan Star League; the crew of the Spacebase wear a variety of futuristic jumpsuits. The tan-coloured jumpsuits of the 'Starfighters' are fitted with piping, with different arrangements for the suits of Alex (Lance Guest) and Grig (Dan O'Herlihy), as Alex has two lines of piping whereas Grig has one. The uniform is completed with a rounded helmet which is usually worn with its visor up. It is unknown how much of these uniforms was Fletcher's own design, or if he was referencing these artworks by the famous scifi production artist Ron Cobb.

The uniforms of the technicians present on the Rylan base mostly follow a similar cut to the Starfighter uniforms, this time coloured powder blue with white lining, and with similar symbols emblazoned on their chests and arms, and some are seen in bell-shaped domed helmets.

Other technicians wear a white version of the blue uniform, worn with all-white versions of the Starfighters' caps. These uniforms included here were bespoke-made just like the blue ones above. The majority of extras wear off-the-rack mechanic overalls that have been minimally altered with strips of fabric, and worn with blue versions of the bespoke caps.

The commander of the base, Enduran (Kay E. Kuter) wears a white suit coated in grey pattern lining (a similar design motif used in many of Fletcher's Star Trek designs) and worn over a white top with a black pattern resembling a tie. Sadly this outfit is never seen fully up close.

Enduran has several aides with him in one scene, as well as several deleted scenes; these are thus even more elusive, and the blue suit has still not turned up on auction sites yet.

The Ko-Dan fleet is commanded by Xur (Norman Snow) whose uniform is of a similar cut to the uniforms of the Rylan starfighter personnel, but made up of black fabric and leather, with differing symbols in place, and wearing a metal headpiece with it.

His servants wear a grey version of the Rylan technician jumpsuit, with black lining.

Under Xur's command is Lord Kril (Dan Mason), who together with his lieutenant sport bright orange-red and black jumpsuits fixed with plastic armour plating, gauntlets and boots, and worn with two ridged plastic helmets, with some slight differences - Kril's suit has two plastic pieces on each shoulder, whereas his lieutenant has none, and his ridged helmet is black rather than orange, as well as being fixed with a moving eyepiece. The helmet appears to be Ron Cobb's design, rather than Fletcher's - I'm not a fan of the helmet design much, and far prefer Robert Fletcher's original costume sketch.

The Ko-Dan soldiers are in similar uniforms but entirely orange-red in colour, and worn with concealing helmets to hide their less than humanoid faces, as well as the chest armour being in a different shape. The helmets are a particular memorable design especially, with the eyes fixed onto them seeming almost insectoid.