Costume Design by:
- Robert Fletcher ( notable efforts: The Scarecrow (1972), The Taming of the Shrew (1976), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), The Last Starfighter (1984), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Fright Night (1985), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) )
The first movie to be based on the famous Star Trek television series, itself the result of Rodenberry lobbying for the series to continue as a film series after it had been cancelled, Star Trek: The Motion Picture was a much more self-serious affair compared to the original TV series, with the film's plot involving a mysterious entity - calling itself V'Ger - heading towards the Earth, with only the Enterprise, commanded by the now admiral James Kirk (William Shatner) being able to communicate with the creature. The more serious tone of the film led to a change in the visuals, with the bright colours of the original show eschewed in favor of more muted visuals, with this of course translating to the costume design of The Motion Picture as well.
Due to the costume designer of the original series, William Ware Theiss, already working on another picture at the same time, and so instead Robert Fletcher - a designer with a long career in theatre and television - was brought in to act as costume designer (starting a rather sizable contribution to the Star Trek franchise, as he would be costume designer on the next three movies, and his designs would be reused in the remaining movies and series), and as such tasked with redesigning the famous Starfleet uniforms in the process.
The Motion Picture is partly still mocked for its use of mostly muted colours for the new Starfleet uniforms, which were a stark contrast to the vibrancy of the original designs by Theiss - instead of the original colour coding of gold-green, blue, and red, this time the colours used would be pale blue-grey, beige and white, though these uniforms would have more of a sleek and rounded design, with the circular collars and the round edges of the tunic, as well as the belt buckle fixed to the tunic. These uniforms were also rumored to be deeply uncomfortable for the actors to wear on set, requiring effort to take off for restroom breaks, something that would become a bit of a regularly occurrence with costumes in Star Trek (such as the new Starfleet uniforms in the first season of The Next Generation, or Jerri Ryan's various catsuits as Seven of Nine on Voyager). A variant of this uniform, worn by Bones McCoy (DeForrest Kelley), has an open collar rather than a closed circular one.
A second unfirom is worn by various Starfleet crewmembers in the film, this one being a rather form-fitting jumpsuit (regularly derided as 'space pajamas') with rectangular pieces on the shoulders, as well as the same belt bucket worn around the waist, and coming in three main colours - blue-grey, beige and white.
The last of the three 'main' uniforms consists of a short-sleeved and open-collared shirt worn with either grey-blue or beige trousers, the shirt also having the rounded cut of the standard uniform, as well as the belt buckle.
One of the smartest uniforms seen in this film is worn by Kirk when he arrives on the Enterprise, wearing his flag officer's uniform, consisting of a loden green (that appears in photographs and on camera as a blueish grey) tunic and trousers of roughly a similar cut to the standard uniform. but with a pointed sealed collar, and a white strip going on the front and back - this uniform as intended by Fletcher to be worn by the entire crew of the Enterprise and there was prototypes made (as the photo of the tan version shows), but in the final firm was only worn by Kirk as an officer's uniform.
The medics, such as McCoy, are just in rather simple open collar tunics with the same strips on the shoulders - this particular uniform would be reused in the following films, but with a turtleneck sweater - the same kind worn by the cast as part of the new Starfleet uniforms introduced in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - underneath it. Also of note is the orange lined white toga that Spock wears when he is recovering from his journey inside V'Ger, which is only really seen better in a behind the scenes costume test photograph.
When journeying onto the surface of V'Ger's core, beige jackets are worn over the Starfleet uniforms, these jackets having tubing round the sleeves, as well as a rectangular rank strip on one sleeve - a sort of predecessor to the uniforms introduced in Wrath of Khan with their rectangular stripes on one sleeve.
A costume design that would be reused in the following films would be the armored guards seen protecting various high security rooms, who are seen wearing rounded brown leather-like helmets and armor (the armor having a white section in the middle), the armor over white jumpsuits fitted with large boots - this uniform would be seen again, though changed significantly, in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock - but we'll save that for when we get to that film.
Another costume design that would be reused in later films would be this worker's jumpsuit, fitting with rounded segments on the sleeves and legs, as well a plastic piece fitting on the front and back - this uniform would make only fleeting appearances in later films, but even here is only seen once during the Enterprise briefing.
Perhaps one costume that would see significant reuse in later films would be the white protective suits worn by the Enterprise's engineers, which would be slightly tweaked in Wrath of Khan, but would be relatively unchanged from the design introduced in The Motion Picture (all that would be added was some more patches, as well as a red collar piece), which had a ridged rounded collar, over a white suit with curved sections on the front, as well as piping on the arms and legs, and sometimes worn with a plastic helmet.
Even more elusive (and seen so briefly in The Motion Picture that that one shot is not worth a screenshot to post on here) are the red engineer suits, which made only very fleeting appearances in the next few movies - the general design is the same as the white engineer suits, but with the same collar pieces - though in their brief appearance in The Search for Spock, the collar piece is red!
There is an even more elusive uniform worn by the technicians in the San Francisco tramway, which is a brown jumpsuit fitted with a panel of tubed material over the chest, as well as a headpiece made of the same material too.
One of the more famous sequences of the film is the surreal sequence where Spock investigates the innards of V'Ger (which bears more than a slight resembles to the spacegate sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey - it should be worth noting that Douglas Trumbull was responsible for the visual effects for both Star Trek: The Motion Picture and 2001!), clad in an orange spacesuit, and is then rescued by Kirk who sports a white one. The spacesuits went through several iterations in the production art before the final design was settled on, though are barely seen in this film - it was in The Wrath of Khan that the spacesuits would be seen better, being worn by the unlucky captain Terrell (Paul Winfield) and Chekhov (Walter Koenig) as they accidentally discover, well, the wrath of Khan. The spacesuits themselves are rather chunky designs, with a round helmet, worn over ridged two-tone jumpsuits, and briefly worn with propulsion jets in the space sequences.
The film's spacesuits were actually a secondary design, as there had been two very different looking spacesuits made earlier, and only really seen in deleted scenes - these unused suits have more angular, smaller helmets, and the suits are in solid colours - Spock's is orange, and Kirk's is white.
There are a few civilian fashions seen in the film, such as the very 1970s outfit worn by McCoy when he beams onboard the Enterprise, wearing v-necked white overalls with large collars, and worn with a golden medallion no less!
Another civilian outfit is the casual beige suit and black jumper worn by Sulu (George Takei), which is only very briefly seen in the film - as can be seen from the cast photo from the top of this entry, it seems there was blue-grey versions of this uniform worn too, as seen on Scotty (James Doohan) in the photo.
Some of the film's most creative and vibrant designs are sadly not even seen at all in the final film! During the sequence where Kirk lands at Starfleet HQ, several aliens (including some Vulcans) are seen milling about, but in the film they are only seen very far away, impossible to make out - it is only in the film's promotional material, such as trading cards, the official vinyl soundtrack release, and the 'Make Your Own Costume Book' (how fitting for this blog!) that these various aliens, and their more oddball costumes, were seen properly - Robert Fletcher even named the various aliens too! The first to note are his new costume designs for the Andorians, who white dresses with powder blue lining and large tubed collars as well...
The alien (or so the Enterprise crew think...) probe V'Ger manifests a human form aboard the ship, taking on the appearance of the crewmember Ilia (Persis Khambatta) in a white tunic with flaps on the side, and a high pointed curved open collar, wearing nothing else but some clear sandals. Judging by publicity photos, it seems there was another outfit intended to be worn by V'Ger, this being a loose blue gown with a large open collar, worn with a metallic headpiece.
It was not just the Starfleet uniforms that Robert Fletcher redesigned for The Motion Picture; the Vulcans, who had last been seen in the original Star Trek episode 'Amok Time', appeared in this film, in various ornate and flowing robes, which would remain consistent in their various appearances in the other movies. Spock himself is briefly seen wearing a black lined grey tunic with large flowing sleeves, and worn with black trousers, the tunic having metallic lettering down the front - this particular outfit would be seen again in the next two movies.
The film also treats us to another visit to the planet Vulcan, where more ornate Vulcan attire is worn by the priests attending to the ceremony where Spock must undergo removing all emotion - the priests are in beautiful robes with high-shoulder tabard-like garments worn over them, these garments being adorned with jewel-like pieces, as well as abstract markings. The priestess leading the ritual is in all-white, with her tabard-like garment having an overlapping cut at the bottom, and adorned with metallic markings - the robes shown in the auction photos seem to be a little different with the undergarments, but the tabard-like garment is the same.
Spock himself wears a robe of similar design for the ceremony, though this one is a bit more tattered and worn-out, with far less ornate trappings or colour.
There are several other Vulcan costumes that were made for the film, only seen (or rather, not at all given how brief the shots are, and at a distance at that) in the San Francisco tramway sequence. One notable example is this grey robe with black lining, and layers of panelling around the chest. The hat is from when it was reused in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, as the hats were not developed until the film just before that.
Some more Vulcan outfits of note include these golden-lined gowns, with the elderly Vulcan's gown probably being reused in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country to be worn by Spock - it seems it had the shoulder segments removed for that role though.
Lastly, is perhaps the most lasting costume change that Robert Fletcher contributed to Star Trek with his work for The Motion Picture - his redesign of the Klingons. Fletcher wanted the Klingons to look alien compared to the humans, and via discussing with Rodenberry, they reached a compromise that the Klingons should look like 'hairy lobsters' (he had used the costume he had designed for Jack Palance as Caliban in a theatre adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest as a basis) - hence the forehead ridge with longer hair that was introduced in this film - but Fletcher also totally changed the costumes of the Klingons, who now were clad in metallic armor reminiscent of feudal warlords, with fur lined sleeves. and shiny black bulky armor worn around the wrists and collar. Despite only very briefly appearing in The Motion Picture (and mostly in dark lighting at that), the costumes would be reused to great effect in The Search for Spock (where almost all the Klingon images on this page are from!), and then regularly reused in The Next Generation onwards, Fletcher's design became the iconic Klingon design.
There are several other Vulcan costumes that were made for the film, only seen (or rather, not at all given how brief the shots are, and at a distance at that) in the San Francisco tramway sequence. One notable example is this grey robe with black lining, and layers of panelling around the chest. The hat is from when it was reused in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, as the hats were not developed until the film just before that.
