Saturday, 23 April 2022

Star Trek: Voyager - Season 3 (1996)

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), Enterprise (2001 - 2005), Pushing Daisies (2007 - 2009), Mockingbird Lane (2012) )

The third and fourth seasons Star Trek: Voyager would generally keep Neelix in the outfits he was wearing in the previous two seasons, with two new additions - the most striking being this deal, the 'watercolour suit'. This particular costume is markedly different in design to his previous suits, being an open jacket with lining adorning it over the sides and back, and worn a greyish neckerchief-like collar and red waistcoat. However, it is the suit's colour scheme that makes it especially striking, being made of a watercolour patterned fabric of blue, red, pink and green.
The second new outfit Neelix gets is this mottled green deal, worn over either another mottled green shirt, or a more colourful patterned shirt - this suit pretty much the same cut as the geometric patterned greyish suit he sported in the previous two seasons however.
Kes (Jennifer Lien) mostly wears muted dull blouses in this period, but in some episodes wears a rather sleek red catsuit, with panelling over the chest as well - not quite as elaborate as some of the various catsuits seen throughout the various 90s Star Trek series!

'Basics, Part II'

This episode was a follow-up to the previous seasons cliffhanger, but the only notable new costumes in it, worn by some Talaxian helpers enlisted by Tom Paris, are barely even seen in the final episode! A shame, as they are fairly pleasing designs, being tunics made of shiny fabrics with lining around the chests.

'The Chute'

The only genuinely noteworthy costume in this episode is worn by the ambassador Liria (Robert Pine) - this costume was reused in the Enterprise episode 'Desert Crossing', also worn by an ambassador on a viewscreen. The costume is blue, with sloping blocks of blue and teal material over one side of the tunic, including the sleeves.

'False Profits'

This episode was weirdly enough a sequel to 'The Price', an episode of The Next Generation, with the main antagonist being the Ferengi officer Arridor (Dan Shor), who had after the events of that episode establoshed himself on a primitive planet pretending to be a deity from their mythology, and of course using it to hoard up wealth. Arridor sports perhaps the most over the top outfit any Ferengi in the series had up to that point, wearing a bright pink tailcoat adorned with golden medallions and beads, and worn with blue and golden pantaloons and pointed shows - as you can guess, this episode is spoofing cliched Middle Eastern aesthetics. When presenting himself to the natives who worship him, Arridor also sports a shiny blueish cloak as well.
Alongside Arridor is his assistant Kol (Leslie Jordan), who sports another wonderfully over the top (even for Ferengi standards) outfit - a diagonally patterned green and yellow jacket of a coarse pattern, with alternating coloured bands on the sleeves, and worn over green patterned pantaloons and pointed shoes, fitting in with the jokey Middle Eastern theme of the episode.
Of course, the Voyager crew will not stand for this exploitation, and so send Neelix down to infiltrate, disguised as the 'Grand Proxy', an officious Ferengi title, to sort things out - Neelix's Grand Proxy costume is absolutely a delight, calling to mind the one worn by the first Grand Nagus Gint in the Deep Space Nine episode 'Body Parts', but much more elaborate. The red tailcoat is coated with golden floral patterns, and is worn over a golden waistcoat, as well as shiny red trousers - also of note is the iridescent collat piece, as well as golden cloak he is seen wearing (which I'm sure is reused from the aformentioned Gint's costume).
Of course, Arridor and Kol are surrounded by maids in very revealing and elaborate outfits that seem to be a riff on the traditional image of the harem, one of the most striking and elaborate outfits being the one with some rather gratuitous undershots of the woman's breasts no less - a counterpart to the scantily clad Da'bo girls that were always in Quark's bar in Deep Space Nine.

'Remember'

In this episode, the Voyager is visited by the Enarans, a telepathic species whose members all wear tunics with an indent between the shoulders and collar, as well as piping around the sides. These tunics were later reused in the episode 'Living Witness'.
The Enarans are responsible for a genocide on their homeworld, which was carried out by their security forces who are all clad in dark blue or olive-green uniforms with the shoulders being constructed in a similar manner to the civilian tunics.
When the Enarans are introduced, there is a celebration where the Voyager crew get to ditch their uniforms for some civvies - Tuvok in particular wears a patterned blue gown with a stiff collar.
The rest of the Voyager crew instead wear an array of futuristic suits, with Chakotay in a suit jacket that makes me think of tweed fabric, Paris wearing a coloured vest, and Kim sporting a jacket with no buttons except at the neck.

'Sacred Ground'

In this episode, the Voyager crew come across an alien culture's religious site, overseen by a magistrate wearing stiff suit made of a navy blue patterned material.

'Future's End'

In this episode, the Voyager and its crew end up travelling back in time after being attacked by Braxton (Allan G. Royal), a Starfleet captain from even fututher into the future - the future Starfleet uniform is a brown tunic and pants, with the tunic having a pale blue colour block over one side of it going over a sleeve.

'Warlord'

In this episode, Kes ends up being possessed by the intelligence of a former warlod of the Ilari, Tieran, and when taking power again using Kes' body swaps Kes's dreary blouse for a sleek and slightly kinky jumpsuit of an asymmetrical cut round the top half - this particular costume is a bit similar in design to the one worn by the fascist mirror universe counterpart of Major Kira in Voyager's sister series Deep Space Nine, but this one is a bit more complicated in design especially with the different use of materials and shades of brown.
Tieran's followers are in similarly asymmetrically designed tunics, with Nori (Galyn Gorg) wearing a tunics of similar design and materials as the Tieran-possessed Kes. The tunic is worn with spandex pants as well.
The second of the conspirators, Adin (Anthony Crivello), wears a tunic of similar design to Noris, but with plain black trousers instead of spandex pants, as well as the tunic having a bit more of an abstract design, with strips of vinyl forming lines all over.
The motif seen on Adin's tunic is continued with the rest of Tieran's underlings, with the most striking one being worn by Resh (Charles Emmett) whose tunic is split into pointed segments of various shades of brown, seperated by grey lining and the bottom of the tunic being cut at a slant as well,
Tieran (Leigh McCloskey) himself appears inside Kes's mind, wearing a symmetrical brown and grey tunic, the grey sections being of a heavier padded material, and seperated from the brown material with black lining - this tunic is worn with shiny black trousers.
The various other officials of the Ilari are in similarly symmetrical (contrasting to the asymmetrical uniforms worn by the possessed Kes and her cohorts) tunics of various colours and patterns, with a lot of them not really being seen properly in the episode itself. Of special note is the tunic worn by the unlucky leader who is killed by Tieran in his takeover, wearing a red tunic covered in panels of mottled fabric over most of abdominal area, the panel going over the waist too.
Ameron (Karl Wiedergott) sports a tunic similar in design to the one worn by his doomed father, with mottled fabric panelling over the chest and strips of leather or vinyl going down from the collar.
Meanwhile the government loyalist Demmos (Brad Greenquist) sports a tunic of a slightly more simple design of a blue-green colour, with the coloured fabric going over the chest and shoulders.
At the start of the episode, Adin and Nori both are disguised as loyalists, with Adin wearing a blue-green tunic with black lining in a diagonal shape, whilst Nori wears a brown suit with a trailing skirt, with black lining just like Adin's.
There is also the tunic worn by Tieran's previous host, who was wearing a tunic of a mottled brown material that makes me think, weirdly enough, of dead wood.
Lastly are the various guards and servants for both regimes, with gray fabric going over the top or bottom of the tunic, worn with a hat and veil as well - rather an interesting choice for a guard uniform!
The episode also starts off in a hologram sequence where Neelix gets his own personal Talaxian masseur, who is wearing a technicolor strapped bikini and leggings under a translucent pink skirt - bit of a shame this didn't get more screentime (and the photos are, as usual, from auction websites), because its very charming in my opinion.

'Macrocosm'

In this episode, a representative of the 'Tak Tak' appears very briefly, wearing a bizarre costume of blue and grey that looks like its falling to bits! Apparently the costume itself was made with having special effects propsthetics attached to it everywhere, truly making a bizarre costume.

'Fair Trade'

In this episode, Neelix meets an old friend of his, Wixiban (James Nardini), who seems to share a bit of his fashion sense judging by his multicoloured coat and shirt, the coat in particular being made of a pattern consisting of alternating coloured squares.

'Blood Fever'

This episode doesn't really have much in the way of costumes other than a new form of Starfleet jumpsuit, that has ridged silvery lining down the sides.

'Rise'

In this episode, the Voyager crew help the Nezu out which results in a battle for survival inside a space elevator - the various Nezu officials are all in bulky and stiff pinstripled tunics, with visible padding around the shoulders - taking the idea of the 'power suit' a bit too far, perhaps!
The Nezu technicians meanwhile wear padded grey overalls, over ridged grey shirts that have a similar design around the collars as the suits - usually I don't include jumpsuits of this design, but the cut and shirt design slightly appeal to me.
For this adventure, Neelix has to dress a bit more modestly, in a burgundy and mustard jumpsuit with a side-flap no less! Still a bit flashier than the job should call for!

'Favorite Son'

In this episode, Harry Kim ends up being taken by the women of the Taresian people, who all wear a variety of colourful dresses all adorned with black lining - the dresses come in a variety of designs, most of them being fairly simplistic in design barring asymmetrical cuts or ruffled segments.
The men of the Taresians, such as Harry Kim as he is led to believe, just wear plain grey smocks with deep collars and black lining on the front, worn over black tights.

'Distant Origin'

In this episode, a scientist of a reptilian species known as the Voth ends up on the Voyager spaceship as part of his research into how his species evolved. The scientist, Forra Gegen (Henry Woronicz) wears a mottled green gown that is designed in a way that suggests scales almost, fitting the character's reptilian nature.
The other members of the Voth are dressed very similarly, with the minister Odala (Concetta Tomei) wearing a deep red jumpsuit worn with a cloak, as well as Gegen's assistant Veer (Christopher Liam Moore) wearing a blue version of his superior's outfit.

'Displaced'

In this episode, the Voyager's crew ends up being replaced one by one with members of the Nyrians, who are all clad in long gowns of various colours with angular patterns stitched onto the front, worn with an array of conical hats as well.
This episode also has Tom Paris briefly wearing sportswear, which in this case is a unitard with greenish panelling over the chest and shoulders.

'Worst Case Scenario'

This episode was a sort of return to the Maquis plotline of the first season, with the villain being a holographic version of the duplicitious Seska (Marth Hackett) whose Maquis garb consists of a black jacket with panelling of grey and coloured patterns, worn over a blue wraparound shirt and leather pants.