In the second episode, Troi loses the cheerleader outfit. A good move. It seems like they had a lot of trouble keeping her dressed. Lol. But, I was okay with it. As the ships councilor, I always assumed that she was dressed more casually to promote the idea that the crew would need to feel comfortable around her when they needed her services.
I believe the popularity of the early seasons of TNG was helped along by the fact that the 80's were so colorful. Bringing back the primary color scheme of red, gold, and blue that worked so well in the sixties couldn't have been timed any better. I miss the bright colors of the 80's, but I'm a little biased since that was the decade of my transition into my teenage years. And really, she wore the short tunic well. But, since women's roles included more action, this would've been a very impractical costume to sport throughout the series.
Of course, this gray thing wasn't very flattering at all. Although I liked the waist color options... sometimes red, sometimes green. And they put her hair in an elaborate bun which never looked right to me. She had all that beautiful hair and the late 80's early 90's was the time of "big hair," so although they were trying to make her more exotic as beautiful telepathic alien, this get up was by far the worst attempt.
Enter: the unitard phase. I'm not sure which one came first. It was either this one or the purple choice.
The blue dress and tights combo was my favorite. I haven't done a poll or a survey or anything, but I think this may be everyone's favorite. It's a shame they didn't hit upon this idea earlier in the series.
But, lets face it, she looked good in uniform as well. And why shouldn't she don the uniform from time to time? She earned her pips and deserved the same sort of respect as the other senior officers. She probably didn't get less respect in her casual garb, but in uniform she makes the audience want to take her more seriously as an officer.
Excellent stuff. Thanks. I'm currently in a Media Criticism class (Mass Communications, B.A.). I might want to cite some of your work here for a paper about the many (unknown) stories that the uniforms told, if the idea gets approved by my professor. I've found some interesting information that I was not previously aware of, like, apparently, Roddenberry originally wrote the character as having four breasts and this was his original intention on the show. I haven't verified this yet, but read it somewhere earlier tonight.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the most memorable uni for me was her in the grey, I don't know why. Memory is malleable. Maybe I watched more episodes during the time she wore it. I personally liked the burgundy unitard best at the time though. I remember that well enough. I was a teenage male at the time. I can appreciate the teal dress now. It's lovely, even all these years later.
All the best.