Thursday 4 February 2021

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

Costume Design by:

- Nilo Rodis-Jamero ( notable efforts: Return of the Jedi (1983) - most of Rodis-Jamero's career was in visual effects and production design)

The much maligned fifth entry of the Star Trek film series, The Final Frontier involved the crew of the Enterprise having to rescue a group of ambassadors by the religious cultist Sybok (Laurence Luckenbill) on the backwater planet Nimbus III. The costume designer (as well as art director), Nilo Rodis-Jamero, was a newcomer, but his costumes for this film would be following the design sense that Robert Fletcher established in the previous four movies. This can be seen clearly with the outfit worn by Spock when on holiday with Kirk, as Spock wears his traditional Vulcan attire under the more conventional jacket. The jacket feels slightly contemporary, but is is distinguished by the bright green padding. The troushers also have bright green suspenders, with red markings at the ends of the legs.
Kirk's outfit also feels rather contemporary, consisting of a blue jumper with a panel of ridged orange material around the neck giving a slightly futuristic feeling. The trousers also have green streaks at their ends too.
One of the most notable outfits in this film in my opinion is the one worn by the captive Earth ambassador Talbot (David Warner), who is clad in a white jacket (appearing beige in the auction photos thanks to aging) adorned with green lining on the sides, that is worn over a wraparound grey shirt and green-lined white vest.






The Romulans' ambassador, Caithlin Dar (Cynthia Gouw), is clad in a flowing silver dress, with a purple sash trailing down from the waist, and worn with a black belt, with a golden necklace that is actually trailing from a golden headpiece, the bands trailing down from her ears.






The Klingons are still unchanged from Robert Fletcher's original designs first seen in The Motion Picture, with one of their number, Klaa (Todd Bryant) only distinguished by not wearing any furred underclothes with his armor, not really worth including here. The Klingon ambassador, Korrd (Charles Cooper) wears the same officers uniform that Kruge wore in The Search for Spock, but is distinguished by wearing a large coat of grey and black lined fabric, adorned with several medals. This coat would make several reapparances in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, worn by other Klingon leaders.



One notable member of the Klingon taskforce commanded by Klaa is his lieutenant Vixis (Spice Williams), who is in a more form-fitting version of the Klingon armor with a modified collar, as well as no fur sleeves.






We seen some Vulcans again, only this time in a flashback sequence Spock endures thanks to Sybok, but we only see a brief appearance from a younger Sarek (Jonathan Simpson) - both of their outfits are barely visible in the film itself thanks to a combination of dark lighting and close-ups, but this particular Vulcan robe (supposedly designed by Robert Fletcher for The Search for Spock) on the YourProps website bears more than a resemblance to the outfit worn by Sarek here - perhaps, this was originally a background robe for that film's Vulcan sequence, and was briefly reused here?



Lastly is the the deluded Sybok, who for most of the film wears a gown that also looks rather similar in design to the ceremonial gown Spock wore in The Motion Picture's Vulcan ritual scene, though Sybok's has a triangular design motif, with various coloured stones adorning it in a pattern, giving him the feeling of being an alien prophet...which, in a way, he is.





Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

Costume Design by:

- Robert Fletcher ( notable efforts: The Scarecrow (1972), The Taming of the Shrew (1976), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), The Last Starfighter (1984), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Fright Night (1985) )

Perhaps the most famous of the original Star Trek movies, mostly on account of 'being 'the one with the whales', The Voyage Home was the fourth entry in the series, and followed on directly from The Search for Spock, with the Enterprise crew having to save Earth from an alien probe that is trying to communicate with Earth's now extinct whale population. This would be the last of the Star Trek movies to have Robert Fletcher as costume designer, and most of the work in this film was the then-present day Earth of 1986 (and nothing really worth noting costume-wise on Earth either, unfortunately) - but there was still some new futuristic fashions on display, among the reused outfits of the previous film. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is still in the same outfit he was wearing when reborn on Vulcan, but minus the shouldered garment - this gown is sealed with a metallic carved piece, similar to all the metallic pieces carved on Vulcan garments as designed by Fletcher.




The start of the movie takes place on Vulcan, where we are treated to an appearance of Spock's mother, Amanda (Jane Wyatt), who is in a silver-lined grey dress, worn with a grey veil and with a skullcap fitted with a shiny metallic piece on the front.





Some Vulcan workers are briefly seen as well, wearing white tunics and trousers, but mostly notable for the headwear they are sporting, the same sort of phrygian cap designs that were worn by background Vulcans in the previous film.



This film introduced one more addition to the Starfleet wardrobe - the black utility vest worn by Scotty (James Doohan), which was introduced in this film and would be worn by the character in the remaining movies, as well as his appearance in the Next Generation episode 'Relics'.





There is also one more new addition in the clothing of the Enterprise crew's civilian attire - Chekov (Walter Koenig) has ditched his pink and brown outfit seen in The Search for Spock (which reputedly, the producer hated so much he wanted it never to be seen on camera again), and is now wearing a brown leather ensemble, with matching jacket and trousers.




There are several sequences on Earth, where the Federation Council's President (Robert Ellenstein) is trying to manage the chaos caused by the alien probe - the president is clad in a uniform consisting of a black suit fitted with an ornate white patch over the front, and worn with a black cape also adorned with patterned white material - this outfit actually slightly resembles the suit worn by the the 'Star League' president in The Last Starfighter, which Fletcher had acted as costume designer on two years previously. The suit part was reused in the later Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country a few years later, again worn by a Federation president.








Also of note are the two presidential aides seen at a distance behind him, in white and black wraparound tunics with padded material on one of the sleeves.



Whilst on the Earth of 1986, the Enterprise crew befriend the scientist Gillian (Catherine Hicks), who they take back with them to the twenty-third century, where she is briefly seen wearing a white and lilac tunic with an open collar, and a round black line over the front, as well as with black trousers.




The various background aliens seen in the Federation Council scenes aren't really worth noting due to them pretty much being reused costumes from the first film - the one exception is perhaps this rather doll-like alien humanoid, who wears a golden patterned dress with a metallic collar.
However, there is a brief appearance from the Klingons in the form of the Ambassador (John Schuck), who wears a grey-blue tunic with white fur stripes, a metallic shoulder piece, and an armored sash over it, as well as a spiked medallion over his neck, with the tunic also being covered in threaded strips that form a sort of skirt almost - this outfit would be reused again in The Undiscovered Country five years later, again worn by the Klingon ambassador.