Warning: SPOILERS forStar Trek: Lower Decksseason 5, episode 5, “Starbase 80?!”
The question of what happens to old Starfleet uniforms has finally been answered inStar Trek: Lower Decks.Star Trek’s changing uniforms started early;Star Trek: The Original Series' color-coded uniforms were replaced by muted unitards inStar Trek: The Motion PictureandStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan’s long-lived"monster maroon".As a prequel series,Star Trek: Enterpriseintroduced a blue jumpsuit grounded in modern flight suits.Star Trek:Discoverybridged theStar Trektimelineuniform gap with a sleek blue two-piece that quickly evolved intoStar Trek: Strange New Worlds' take onTOS’classic uniforms.
InStar Trek: Lower Decksseason 5, episode 5, “Starbase 80?!” the USS Cerritos is forced to make a stop at the infamously terrible starbase to get a replacement navigation part.El-Aurian Commander Kassia Nox(Nicole Byer) explains thatStarbase 80 operates on a mish-mosh of outdated technology from around the 2260sbecause the station isn’t a high priority for Starfleet. The result is thatStar Trek: Lower Decks' basket of Easter eggs for “Starbase 80?!” is curated fromStar Trek: The Original Series—or evenStar Trek: Enterprise, a hundred years before that.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Reveals What Happens To Old Starfleet Uniforms
Star Trek: Lower Decksseason 5, episode 5, “Starbase 80?!” reveals what happens to old Starfleet uniforms when Lieutenant D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) stops to admire a clothing shop stocked with outfits fromStar Trekhistory. There are a few non-Starfleet gems, like a 2260s Klingon uniform and an Edo onesie fromStar Trek: The Next Generation, but most of the shop’s offerings represent the ever-changing uniforms of Starfleet’s past.The store clerk flatly informs Tendi that “these are the uniforms of long dead men”.The phaser burns and a pile ofTOS-era red shirtspretty much confirm that claim.
Starbase 80’s clothing shop also includes Starfleet uniforms fromStar Trek: The Original Series,Star Trek: Discovery,andStar Trek: Strange New Worldson a top rack. Mannequins featureStar Trek: The Motion Picture’s jumpsuit, andStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan’s standard “monster maroon” and the cold-weather variant. An early-seasonStar Trek: TNGscience uniform hangs on the back wall.
In the 24th century, old Starfleet uniforms would normally be recycled by the replicator, but Starbase 80 doesn’t have replicators. At best, Starbase 80 might have a 23rd-century matter synthesizer that makes uniforms, as seen inStar Trek: Discovery, but the station’s general state of disrepair means those probably don’t work that well, if at all.It’s a lot easier for the residents of Starbase 80 to make do with what they’ve been able to repair or scavenge.It’s notthatgrim to strip the uniforms off dead officers and re-use them for new staff, is it?
Starbase 80 Is A Brilliant Throwback To Star Trek: Enterprise & TOS
“Retro-cool” Star Trek Technology Still Works On Lower Decks
With Starbase 80,Star Trek: Lower Deckscreates a brilliant throwback toStar Trek: EnterpriseandStar Trek: The Original Serieswithout the perils of time travel inStar Trek. The USS Cerritos crew has to useEnterprise’s theoretically sexy but ultimately dodgy decon gel before boarding. (Jerry O’Connell’s Commander Jack Ransom is a big fan.)TOS-era wall comms replace comm badges, and the turbolifts have twist handles.It’s a great way to give theStar Trek: Lower Deckstreatment to an era that’s been tricky to honoraside from namedroppingScott Bakula’s Captain Jonathan Archeror Denobulan tourists.
Star Trek Just Confirmed Its TOS & Enterprise Eras Never Went Away
Star Trek: Lower Decks is set 200 years after Enterprise and over a century after Star Trek: The Original Series but both eras live on in Starbase 80.
Star Trek: Lower Decksis great at celebrating the beauty of weird and obscure stuff thatStar Trekhas wrought throughout its history. The often-malignedStarbase 80 being a functioning time capsule of antique technology makes it the starbase equivalent ofStar Trek: Enterprise.Commander Nox and Chief Engineer Gene Jakobowski (Stephen Root) can choose frommultiple styles of Starfleet uniformsworn by dead officers, but they deliberately choose to don 2150s Starfleet uniforms. WearingEnterprise-era uniforms whilecheerily championing Starbase 80 is likeStar Trek: Lower DeckssayingStar Trek: Enterpriseisn’t nearly as “long dead” as it seems.
