Space Hippies

Vasquez

Bet you've never seen Vasquez Rocks look like this! Just a little something I whipped up in PSP. Took me about ten minutes.

How Many Costume Changes?

I read somewhere that the most costume changes in TOS was four. Supposedly France Nuyen, Elaan of Troyius, had the most costume changes than any other female guest star. Well, I'm here to dispute that claim. You can double check me on this (and I'm sure you will) but the character who had the most costume changes was Lenore Karidian (Barbara Anderson) in The Conscience of the King. She wore a whopping six different costumes in this one episode. Here's proof.

The Gorn

It was bound to happen sooner or later that my attention would turn to monster costumes. First up is the Gorn costume in Arena.

Since Star Trek designer, Bill Theiss, didn't "do monsters", then who did? Wah Chang designed and built the Gorn costume out of a rubber-like compound that was heavy and not very flexible. In fact, I'm not quite sure the Gorn get-up should be called a costume at all but probably should be called full-body makeup. Anyway, Wah Ming Chang is our man.



Something I could never figure out when watching Arena is why the Gorn didn't simply bite Kirk's head?

I think the Gorn was meant to look like this.

Fugly Files

And now, we go from the sublime to the fugly. What was the costume designer thinking when he made Jadzia's wedding dress? She looks like she's been dipped in blood, not klingon blood though. The holes at the shoulders and cleavage doesn't work very well either.

Let's see, who can be blamed for this monstrosity? Ah yes, Robert Blackman. Despite his winning two emmy awards - this is not one of his best creations.

Shiny

Three examples of the same (well maybe not THE same) shiny stockings worn by different characters in different episodes.

T'Pring, (Spock's would-be squeeze) in Amok Time.

Lenore Karidian in a furry mini-dress and shiny stockings - The Conscience of the King.

Alice from I, Mudd.

And finally, Isis -the cat- in Assignment Earth.

Galactic Trader Pimp

Or Mudd's Women, the space hooker episode. According to Solow and Justman this episode was in contention to be the pilot for the series.

Costume wise: Finnerman used so many different coloured lights that we can't tell what colour Maggie Thrett's outfit was supposed to be. Was it green, gold or taupe? Only Spock knows for sure because he certainly oogled them enough. And what about Vulcan's not being able to show emotion? Take a look at this face. And speaking of that dress, read an excerpt from Solow and Justman's book.

"Actress Maggie Thrett was on of the three space hookers who boarded the Enterprise in the first-season epsiode, Mudd's Women. Gene had spent a goodly amount of time "making their costumes better." But as we filmed Maggie writhing about and attempting to entice our heroes, one of her breasts popped out from behind what little bodice was left of her costume. She quickly stuffed it back in, smiling ruefully. It didn't stay put, however, much to the crew's amusement and her embarrassment."

Perhaps this is the costume in question? And is Bones a dirty old man? Ah, well. You'll just have to watch the episode to find out.

Barely There

In my opinion, this is just about one of the best costumes Bill Theiss created for ST:TOS. It was featured in "Who Mourns for Adonais?" According to Bill Shatner, the gown had to be attached to Leslie Parrish's body with double-sided tape. I've often wondered what this fabric is because it certainly does not look inexpensive.

Same for Apollo's outfit, all shiney and stuff. The fabric looks the same just in gold.

The Creators - TOS

The man responsible for giving the show the creatively unique dramatic lighting and camera angles was Gerald Perry Finnerman. He was directed by Bob Justman to light the sets with wild colors like magenta, red, green and any other color he could find. Bob Justman told Jerry to "go overboard". Backlight the women and make them more beautiful. Take some chances. Throw those wild colors behind the actors, especially when they're in a close shot.

William Ware Theiss was the shows costume designer. Bill designed clothes only as he didn't "do monsters" but he was challenged enough in that he couldn't simply buy clothes for the actors off the rack. Instead he lived in a small apartment one block from the studio where all his creations were put together by an army of seamstresses. Said seamstresses worked throughout the night and the costumes were carried to the set just in time for the actors to shoot their morning's work. Since the Desilu studio gave Bill very little money, he was hard-pressed in finding interesting fabrics within his price range for his other-worldly creations.