Friday 16 July 2021

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 6 (1992)

Costume Design by:

- Robert Blackman ( notable efforts: The Running Man (1987), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993 - 1999), Voyager (1995 - 2001), Enterprise (2001 - 2005), Pushing Daisies (2007 - 2009), Mockingbird Lane (2012) )

'Realm of Fear'

This episode had the cowardly and incompetent Barclay (Dwight Schultz) having a chronic fear of transporters, even in his sleep - where he wears these mottled wraparound pajamas which are especially striking because of the golden lining around the front.

'Man of the People'

This episode, which was a sort of spoof on The Picture of Dorian Gray (always somehow good fodder for science-fiction series, somehow!), involved Troi (Marina Sirtis) falling under the influence of the alien diplomat Ves Alkar (Chip Lucia), who ends up using her telepathy to dump his negative emotions on. Alkar wears a two-tone blue suit, consisting of a tunic with a darker fabric over the shoulders and worn over cravat-like collar, worn with a jacket with the same colour scheme.
The other two members of Alkar's species, the Lumerians, seen with him are in similar outfits but of a red and green fabric respectively.
Alkar's suppposed mother, Sev Maylor (Susan French), wears a golden-lined veil-like garment over a plain black unitard.

'True Q'

In this episode, the Enterprise is visited by a woman named Amanda (Olivia d'Abo) who is actually a similar being to the mischievous Q. Her first dress consists of a pink dress worn over a unitard.
Amanda's second dress is a similar design to the previous one but in a mustard colour, and is a slightly more complex design with a stiff angular collar and ruffles on the ends of the skirt.

'Rascals'

This rather silly episode where some of the Enterprise crew got turned into children, involved Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), who throughout the episode sports a purple version of the red dress she sported in the last season, with the shoulder pads in a lighter shade with as per the red dress' design - she's wearing this even when she's a kid again!

'A Fistful of Datas'

Most of the costumes in this episode were historical garb (in particular of the Wild West), but Alexander is briefly seen wearing futuristic pajamas with tweed panelling on the cuffs.

'The Quality of Life'

This episode was set on a mining cstation, where the operations are overseen by Dr. Farallon (Ellen Bry), who sports a burgundy and beige top, worn with burgundy trousers and cut with a flapped collar. The beige portion of the dress is a pattern that goes over the shoulders and top of the sleeves.
The technicians working under Farallon all are in grey jumpsuits fitted with the same sort of collars and shoulder patterns, only the patterns are coloured either dark blue or red - unfortunately, they are usually not seen well on screen for the most part.

'Chain of Command'

This episode once again involved the Cardassians, who are now in a redesigned uniform that they would keep wearing for the remainder of their appearances, especially in the sequel show Deep Space 9. The new uniform is thoroughly different to the one they sported in their unitial appearance in the fourth season, consisting of bulky matte black armor worn over a black jumpsuits. The armor is curved and points downward to the wasit, and is designed to have a collar line that extends into a sort of crest at the front of the chest. This uniform is worn with large boots as well. This design slightly keeps in with the 'Ancient Egypt' theme that the Cardassians were originally designed in mind of. These screenshots are mostly not from this episode, instead being from the Cardassians appearances in the following and final season of The Next Generation.
This design sense is even kept with their children, as the Cardassian torturer Madred (David Warner)'s daughter wears a grey velvet dress with a triangular panelling over the chest and shoulders.

'Aquiel'

In this episode, Geordi falls in love with the titular Aquiel (Renée Jones), who at the end of the episode sports this lovely orange dress with an asymmetrically cut collar.
In this same scene, Geordi wears this green top with lighter panelling around the shoulders and red lining all over.

'Face of the Enemy'

This episode involved Troi being disguised as a Romulan officer, being clad in a slightly different variant of the uniform - this version has a lighter material with curved lining as its pattern, and is worn with a slightly different belt as well.
The most notable outfit in this episode is the uniform worn by the 'Corvallen' freighter captain who is carrying a mysterious cargo for the Romulans - sadly, this outfit isn't even seen fully in the episode, only being seen on a view screen. This uniform is a brown ridged jacket with a thicker pattern adorning the chest, and is only seen properly thanks to being sold on the It's a Wrap auctions.

'Tapestry'

This episode involved Picard dying and meeting the devious god-like being Q (John de Lancie) in what appears to be the afterlife. Q is wearing a white robe, woth ruffled sleeves, a large belt and a deep collar covered by an undershirt, all in an bright white colour - shame that the background is alos white, meaning it's hard to see properly when we finally do get a full shot!
Q also briefly wears this outfit, consisting of a bodysuit of a deep red velvet-like material, worn with a silvery futuristic waistcoat of a red speckled material.
Similarly dressed is this lady at the bar who wears a bodysuit of a golden mottled material under a veil-like material.
The bar is the scene of a vicious fight the young Picard has with a group of Nausicaans, alien brutes wearing tattered outfits consisting of coarse material with blocky parts of brown and black leather arranged in Blackman's trademark asymmetrical style. These costumes would see reuse when worn by the Nausicaan bodyguards in the Deep Space Nine episode 'Bar Association'.

'Birthright'

This two-parter episode involved both Data (Brent Spiner) and Worf (Michael Dorn) trying to seek out the truth about their respective fathers, with Data finding out more via a strange dream-like experience, where he meets his creator, Dr Noonien Soong (Brent Spiner, the same actor as Data). Soong is wearing a thick smock made of a mottled padded material, worn over a frilly shirt. This smock had actually appeared in the fourth season episode 'Brothers', but much tattier and covered with a mangy looking cloak.
Worf meanwhile, is on the trail to discover whether or not his own father died in battle against the Romulans, or was taken prisoner in a concentration camp, which he ends up journeying to - at the camp, he discovers the Klingons have now became accustomed to life there, and have settled into an agrarian lifestyle. These prisoner Klingons wear mostly drab tunics, robes and dresses, but have some details reminiscient of the typical Klingon armor as designed by Robert Fletcher for Star Trek: The Motion Picture onwards, namely the large collars and patches of fur on the sleeves as seen on Toq's (Sterling Macer, Jr.) outfit.
One of the notable exceptions to the rather drab fashion of the Klingon prisoners is Gi'ral (Cristine Rose), who sports a lilac dress with a lined furry top half, which has had tassles attached to it as well. This dress was actually originally made for another Klingon character in one of the previous seasons, but here it is not only seen more clearly but has been fitted with a large collar as well.
The Romulan guards wear a more interesting variation of the typical uniform, this one being made out of a dark mottled material, and worn with grey wristguards and a stiff collar remniscient of the collars on the Klingon uniforms - the most interesting of these uniforms sadly is barely seen, being worn by the lieutenant who wears a pale patterned version of the uniform.

'Starship Mine'

This episode involved a group of terrorists intending to steal important fuel from the soon to be decommissioned Enterprise, whose crew have been held hostage by Orton (Glenn Morshower), a ststion administrator secretly in league with the terrorists. Orton sports a rather formal outfit consisting of a green and black striped tunic with a rounded edge at the bottom of it, with a stiff collar.
Orton's unnamed accomplice, disguised as a waiter, wears a blue unitard adorned with gret patterns over the collar, shoulder and waist - these patterns slightly resemble those seen on the various alien costumes in the fourth season's 'Half a Life'.
The Enterprise itself is being scoured by the terrorists, who have disguised themselves as technicians who wear uniforms consisting of green and dark blue jumpsuits with large angular collars that show a red fabric underneath.
Picard is the only one left on the ship, and has to outwit the terrorists, all whilst wearing a red jacket with lighter patches over the sleeves and back.

'The Chase'

In this episode the Enterprise crew gets involved in the chase for an important historical discovery, that has been partly uncovered by the archaelogist Richard Galen (Norman Lloyd) who sports a leather-lined brown jacket over a rather stiff vest with vinyl segments cut into it - the jacket was reused in the Deep Space Nine episode 'Trials and Tribble-ations', worn by the devious Klingon agent Darvin.

'Frame of Mind'

In this episode, Riker is kidnapped by aliens who then play literal mindgames with him - during the entire time he endures the various surreal happenings, he is actually in a laboratory, wearing a blue jacket over a patterned blue shirt, worn with a black sash belt too.
The aliens who have imprisoned Riker are the Tilonians, who dress perhaps the most dull of any species the Enterprise had encountered yet, all in grey jumpers and black belts with the officials wearing grey coats with lighter grey patches around the sides. Their security forces are distinguished by having a block of shiny material over one shoulder.

'Suspicions'

This episode involved Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) investigating the truth as to whether or not an important scientific demonstration had been sabotaged or not to result in a death. The episode is half told by Crusher narrating to Guinan, who sports perhaps her last outfit to be designed for the show, being a lovely sea-green color with a mottled shoulder fabric piece - again, this is worn with Guinan's trademark disk-shaped hats, but this one has a mottled fabric covering its top as well.
The scientific investigation has members of several different species, with the Klingon member, Kurak (Tricia O'Neil), wearing a dark blue gown fixed with grey lining down the sleeves, as well as straps down the front and a large grey collar - and I personally love this costume, hence why I'm adding not one but two images showing its full size!
The Vulcans have sent their own scientists as well, with the more notable outfit being worn by the Vulcan scientist's human husband Christopher (John S. Ragin), who wears a mottled patterned tunic adorned with the trademark Vulcan sigils down one side of it.
Another scientist of the delegation, Jo'Bril (James Horan), who is scheming to steal the technology, wears a rather complex outfit, consisting of a specially cut tabard-like fabric, made of a patterned material, worn over a grey tunic, with metallic segments adorning the front of the tabard-like piece as well.
The experiment has been organized by the Ferengi scientist Reyga (Peter Slutsker), who wears perhaps the most striking outfit of this episode (as usual for the Ferengi, who are always top class dressers in the 90s Star Trek shows!). Reyga's outfit is designed a bit similar to the Ferengi uniform originally designed by Durinda Wood for the second season of The Next Generation, but the top half is entirely of a golden fabric, over a dark red bodysuit. The top half also is fixed with a ring-like piece on the center, similar to the Ferengi uniforms.

'Rightful Heir'

This episode once again involved more trouble with the Klingons internal politics, with a pair of Klingon priests attempting to challenge the Klingon leadership by 'resurrecting' Kahless, the founder of Klingon society. These priests are both in ridged green robes, again fixed with the large pointed collars typical of Klingon dress sense following on from Robert Fletcher's designs, with metallic pieces on the chest and shoulders as well.
The priests are joined by several pilgrims, who count Worf among their number, and all are clad in robes with rounded collars made of a variety of mottled materials with brown tubing around the shoulders.
'Kahless' (Kevin Conway) is dressed in a slightly primitive fashion, wearing a tunic made of alternating white and tan strips, the white portions being made out of fur no less, and worn with beige versions of the typical Klingon trousers designed by Robert Fletcher.

'Second Chances'

Troi is briefly seen wearing this purple dress made of a ridged material which together with the stiff cut, makes it seem almost segmented like a shell.

'Descent'

The season's finale episode (that of course led into the opening episode of the following and final season of the show), this one involved a group of rogue Borg, who are now being led by Data's sociopathic twin brother Lore. Lore spends the entirety of this two-parter in a bulky black armored bodysuit, with angular segments designed to resemble torso muscles, as well as a pointed collar piece as well.

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