Thursday, 14 April 2022

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

Costume Design by:

- Robert Blackman ( notable efforts: The Running Man (1987), Star Trek: The Next Generation (Seasons 3 to 7), Deep Space Nine (1993 - 1999), Voyager (1995 - 2001), Enterprise (2001 - 2005), Pushing Daisies (2007 - 2009), Mockingbird Lane (2012) )

- Sanja Hays ( notable efforts: Blade (1998), Beowulf (1999) )

Note: Robert Blackman was the designer for the new Starfleet uniforms, whilst Hays was assigned to the rest of the characters. However, Hays enlisted costume illustrator Rosi Gabl to help realize her ideas for the costumes, and these designs do all feel indebted to Blackman's various costume designs for the then-ongoing television series Deep Space Nine and Voyager.

The third movie based on Star Trek: The Next Generation involved Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the Enterprise crew protecting a primitive planet from a plot to have them forcibly removed by the Federation. The start of the film lets us see the new Starfleet uniforms, which again were specifically designed by the TV series costume designer Blackman for this film, and are a dress uniform with the cut slightly similar to a tuxedo, consisting of a gold-lined white jacket worn over a ridged shirt that is either white or grey, and worn with gold-lined black trousers.





The movie starts off with several Federation workers getting into a scuffle with Data, all of them clad in simple but smart hazmat suits with streamlined helmets - these suits are only seen at a distance with prop auctions showing them properly
What is particularly curious though is that there was a bright green version of the suits as well - was this for greenscreen purposes? Or just a prototype?
When going on their 'insurrection' as per the film's title, the crew opt out of their uniforms for drab civilian wear - only Worf is distinguished by wearing bands over his grey jacket.
At the start of the film, Picard is greeing the Regent Cuzar (Peggy Miley), whose outfit is sadly never seen in full, though her servants briefly are - their outfits are starched and abstract, with Cuzar sporting a large collar with her outfit, the stiff parts being shiny, and the sleeves underneath coated in bead-like pieces.




The Ba'ku are threatened by the grotesque Son'a, who are led in this mission by Ruafo (F. Murray Abraham) - Ruafo's outfit consists of a shiny metallic jumpsuit, with the collar section adorned with markings, and worn with a dark green vest, hood and small helmet, with the vest and boots covered in metallic strips. Also note the flashing plastic piece worn on his glove. The rest of the Son'a, including Ruafo's deputy Gallatin (Gregg Henry), are dressed all identical to Ruafo, with the only differences being the colours of their vests - Gallatin's is red, and everyone else is in the same metallic green as their jumpsuits - and the helmets worn over their hoods. According to an interview with Star Trek Communicator, Hays' reasoning for the Son'a uniforms was to 'suggest a military nation that is rich and materialistic', with the implication that the vest strips and helmets used to be armor, but were now just ornamental.







The Son'a have servant aliens that they use as crewmen, these being the Ellora and Tarlac, who both are dressed in identical ridged jumpsuits, the only difference being the Ellora's jumpsuits are blue, and the Tarlac's jumpsuits are grey - both jumpsuit variants look as if they were made of the same material as the vests worn by the Son'a, and bear more than a resemblance to Blackman's various costume designs for the Star Trek shows at the time.







There are also the various maids attending to the needs of the Son'a, including having to do their plastic surgery in grotesque procedures. The maids are clad in tight shiny catsuits, with also bear more than a slight resemblance to some of Blackman's more form-fitting designs at the time (in particular, the catsuits worn by Jerri Ryan as Seven of Nune), with tubed collars, and the trouser part ending in flares.




Lastly is the multicoloured swimsuit worn by Deep Space 9's Quark (Armin Shimerman) in an ending scene that was cut before the final release and sadly has never actually surfaced, with only the YourProps auction site showing any photos.


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