Thanks to filming on location at the Anaheim convention center, a number of photos from the location shoot for Star Trek: Picard have surfaced. Everyone’s talking about the uniforms, so here is TrekMovie’s breakdown of the uniform, created by artist Aaron Harvey. He didn’t have a trailer to go on, as he did when he created a similar graphic for Star Trek: Discovery, but he looked at the photos and pulled together a best guess based on what’s out there.

The Starfleet uniform from Star Trek: Picard

Design Notes

Division colored shoulder/yoke

High collar

Mock turtleneck, possibly with a subtle texture

Rank pips have been moved from collar to right breast (similar to uniforms seen in Star Trek Online and from the 2009 “Countdown to Star Trek”, movie tie-in comic book)

Combadge is larger than its TNG-era counterpart. The little bit we can see in the CBS Upfront image suggests an open framed delta similar to the “All Good Things…” combadge. The rotated oval is a homage to the combadges of TNG and the promotional delta imagery used to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Trek in 1996.

While it would be odd to have a split delta AND split background, it does seem that Starfleet’s “bifurcated delta” as established in Star Trek: Discovery is, for the time being, the delta of choice. This is supported by a closer look at the Starfleet Headquarters banners that have been seen in the recent pictures from the location shoot for Star Trek: Picard.

The uniform consists of 3 pieces: undershirt, pants, and a zippered uniform tunic/jacket.

The pants appear fairly similar to the TNG-era uniforms: full-length pants covering all but the heel, with a subtle triangular-cut opening for the top of the foot and toe.

This uniform feels oddly plain, considering it’s from a modern, 2019 show. It lacks the detail most contemporary genre shows heap onto their costumes—the result of using super high-resolution cameras, and larger-than-ever home theaters. That perhaps indicates that this is not the final iteration of Starfleet uniform that will be seen in the full series. This could be an early mock-up of the uniforms used for a brief clip specifically filmed for CBS All Access’ UpFronts for advertisers. Similar footage was made and used for the same purpose for Star Trek: Discovery in 2017. It could also indicate that this series will be something quite different from all earlier Star Trek series, one that won’t feature Starfleet or its uniformed personnel as heavily in the past

Design Influences

This new Starfleet uniform has a lot of influences from the 24th (and early 25th) century; it’s a bit of a mashup of designs we’ve seen before.

The Next Generation

Perhaps the most obvious influence is the Next Generation season 3 uniform with its trademark Mandarin-style collar, which makes a return in Picard. Also, this new uniform is a two-piece design, like the TNG uniform.

Countdown

The collar in the Picard uniform is higher and has a deeper V-neck than the TNG uniform, somewhat resembling the collars seen in the semi-official Countdown graphic novel prequel to Star Trek (2009), which shows the Prime universe events that led to the destruction of Romulus in 2387. The Picard design also borrows the similar positions of the rank pips—on the right breast, rather than on the collar.

Deep Space Nine/Voyager

Perhaps the second most recognizable design influence is that the division color is on the shoulders while the rest of the uniform is black, a lot like the more utility-focused jumpsuits seen on Deep Space Nine and Voyager.

Star Trek Online

Lastly, there’s a bit of the enlisted uniform from Star Trek Online as well, especially in the neck area, with the idea of an undershirt that you can see through the “V” in the collar. The division color is on the shoulders, like the Picard uniform.

Aaron Harvey is a graphic designer from Los Angeles and co-author of the upcoming book “Star Trek: The Official Guide to the Animated Series.” He also studies improv at Impro Studio in Los Angeles and will be in a fully-improvised show in the style of ’90s Star Trek, “The Improvised Generation: Night Shift.”

Star Trek: Picard is expected to be released in late 2019. It will be available on CBS All Access in the USA. Space and CraveTV in Canada, and on Amazon Prime Video for the rest of the world.

Keep up with all the Star Trek: Picard news at TrekMovie.