Startrek timelines

The Kelvinverse movies didn’t use the traditional uniforms; they use two updates of the TOS uniforms, but they’re different in numerous ways. Once you’re familiar with the differences, you can spot the difference between them at a considerable distance (uniform-spotting is part of how I’ve passed the time at Star Trek conventions between demo games). Part of that difference is accounting for modern, high-resolution digital cameras, rather than 1960s film.

In both cases, they’re reimaginings, updates using modern costuming, modern budgets, just like the versions seen on the Enterprise in Discovery season 2 (my favourite reimagining of those uniforms); a new take on an old design.

And “new take on an old design” is what I expect from modern Trek, at least aesthetically, and it’s what Discovery seems to be leaning towards, particularly in season 2 (right down to having footage from The Cage used in a “Previously on Star Trek” segment in front of one episode). Expecting everything to look exactly as it did in the 60s creates something that would look laughable on modern TVs - new Trek is being made to be seen on 4k, High Dynamic Range TVs, so the level of detailing in makeup, costuming, and set design - to say nothing of CG and other VFX - needs to be massively increased.

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