The iconic red uniforms from the Star Trek: The Original Series movies were a more militaristic upgrade on the costumes from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. First appearing in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the red naval Starfleet uniforms continued to reappear in episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager. The original Motion Picture uniforms and the TOS uniforms themselves were deemed by Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer to look like "pajamas" and weren't in keeping with the Horatio Hornblower-style story he wanted to tell in The Wrath of Khan.
The uniforms introduced in Wrath of Khan by Meyer and costume designer Robert Fletcher became synonymous with Star Trek's feature films. It's a look that is still replicated by fans cosplaying at conventions. The TOS movie uniforms even got a modern twist in the season 1 finale when one was worn by the alternate future Admiral Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' season 1 finale. Here's how Star Trek's iconic red naval uniforms first came to be.
Star Trek II’s Change To Red Naval Starfleet Uniforms Explained
Wrath of Khan is essentially a movie about a conflict between two naval vessels, in space. Meyer was keen that Roddenberry's futuristic society be recognizable to a modern audience, and so he eschewed the more casual, looser uniforms of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Not wanting to waste the uniforms he had designed, costume designer Robert Fletcher dyed them with a burgundy color. The recolored Motion Picture costumes were worn by the Starfleet Academy cadets and background officers aboard the Enterprise. This enabled Fletcher the budget to properly design new costumes for the senior officers.
Originally, the design had a stiffer collar, but after producer Robert Sallin suggested a turtleneck, Fletcher made the decision to make the turtleneck-style collars out of trapunto. This material was extremely rare, and Fletcher was only able to secure one trapunto sewing needle for the whole wardrobe department. Meyer also decided that each uniform should have some form of military insignia on the shoulder strap to further emphasize the Starfleet structures. Fletcher designed various insignia and produced an instruction guide for his wardrobe department The hard work and scarcity of trapunto needles clearly paid off as Star Trek copied Wrath of Khan's uniforms for many more movies and TV episodes.
Why The Red Star Trek Uniforms Lasted For The Rest Of TOS’ Movies
Given the difficulty Fletcher had in securing trapunto needles for Wrath of Khan, it's not surprising that the blood-red costumes continued to appear in subsequent Star Trek movies. Fletcher was costume designer on both Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and so kept the look of the Starfleet uniforms consistent. Given that those two movies take place in the aftermath of Wrath of Khan, it also makes perfect sense narratively as well as from a budgetary perspective.
By the time of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, the red uniforms had become synonymous with the Star Trek movies. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was influential to the look of the following Star Trek movies due to its huge success at the box office upon release. To change the costumes again would have broken that sense of continuity as the movies wrapped up the stories of the Star Trek: The Original Series crew. It could also have denied viewers of more outings for this iconic look in future Star Trek movies and episodes, which continues to honor Robert Fletcher to this day.