An Ode to Star Trek’s Undershirt Moments

This week, Star Trek: Prodigy dropped the primary trailer for its second season, and it’s stuffed with all of the kind of good Star Trek motion you’d need—much more so if, like me, you’re a Voyager fan. However as a Voyager fan, there was one shot specifically that known as to me: Admiral Janeway, her uniform jacket eliminated, all the way down to her high-waisted pants and a gray, Starfleet-issue tank prime.

It is a ludicrous factor to have your consideration drawn to, however being a Star Trek fan usually includes having reactions and feelings about ludicrous issues. And but, right here I used to be: tank prime Janeway? Oh man, shit’s about to go down. To me, that’s “Macrocosm” Janeway, Ripley-ing her manner by big virus bugs on the compromised Voyager. It’s “Yr of Hell” Janeway, hobbling by Krenim house as her ship and crew are picked aside round her.

Typically the conditions surrounding stripped-down Star Trek moments aren’t dire in any respect; we’ve seen individuals rocking the look casually, on sizzling planets, whereas engaged on one thing significantly strenuous. What, precisely, Starfleet officers wore below their black and division-color-accented uniforms from TNG onwards has at all times been in flux—there’s long-sleeved undershirts, vests like Janeway’s, t-shirts, all with various design variations—however no matter what was below them, whatever the Trek present or the character, each time you noticed them, it felt such as you had been witnessing one thing susceptible, one thing revealing.

We’re so used to the best way the Starfleet uniforms look—and the conditions they’re virtually at all times worn in—that they turn into this image of professionalism-under-pressure that encapsulates Star Trek’s love of competence porn. You’re carrying that uniform on the bridge, you’re carrying it below fireplace, you’re carrying it on the bar, you’re carrying it on away missions, you’re carrying it knee-deep in isolinear chips engaged on some panel within the ass finish of a Jeffries tube. Irrespective of the scenario, arguably irrespective of how impractical, a Starfleet officer does their job in that uniform, wanting like a Starfleet officer. So while you strip away layers of that uniform, out of necessity or out of informal circumstance, you’re stripping away the layers of that mythos round it and revealing one thing in regards to the particular person beneath.

Take into consideration the dishevelled look Sisko has by the top of “Within the Pale Moonlight”, the place, within the interstitial scenes set within the current, he more and more undresses layers of his uniform till he’s in an unbuttoned vest and his command undershirt is zipped all the way down to reveal his chest, embodying his reflection of the ethical sacrifices he’s revamped the course of the episode. Or how Picard in First Contact, the direr the scenario will get, strips down additional till he’s in nothing in his vest and trousers by the point he’s squaring off with the Borg Queen. The uncommon instances we truly noticed one in every of our heroes both in a scenario informal sufficient to not warrant their full uniform, or irritating sufficient that they felt like they had to strip away components of it, are by some means burned into your minds as vital—like they’re for me after I see Janeway in that tank prime, prefer it’s a distinct mode or type of her.

It’s such a small, however intelligent little bit of visible storytelling in Star Trek that doesn’t usually come up all that a lot—however when it does, it hits one thing primal in your Trek-loving mind to attract consideration to its significance.

Need extra io9 information? Try when to count on the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and all the pieces you’ll want to find out about the way forward for Physician Who.