MU Starfleet Duty Uniforms

The description to follow is a continuation of the historical background I came up with for a new version of the Terran Empire, the villainous, tyrannical Mirror Universe counterpart of the Federation of Planets and the amoral antagonists of my 'Star Trek' multiverse idea.

When we left off, the newly-formed Terran Empire of the Betaverse AU had sworn that it would conquer the galaxy in the name of mankind.

However, this would soon prove to be more easily said than done. Early, largely unregulated attempts by a frustrated anti-Nazi resistance movement to use genetic engineering to create a breed of super-soldiers resulted in the devastating Eugenics Wars, when several of the new generals crafted by the program nearly brought down the Empire before being defeated, put into suspended animation and exiled to the depths of space. And although the capture of Vulcan technology from that race's next attempt to make first contact significantly advanced the Terrans' military development, allowing them to assault several of their neighboring races including the Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites and Orions, the Empire's grip on its member worlds was unstable and Starfleet's forces were spread thin. Alien resistance was stiff, and only a miracle would ensure the continued existence of the Empire. It wouldn't get one miracle, but two.

The first is the famous incident documented in the two-part Enterprise episode, "In a Mirror, Darkly." The Tholians had discovered that they could create a rift through space and time by detonating a tricobalt warhead in the gravity well of a dead star. Too afraid of the risks of venturing through themselves, they instead sent a false distress call through the rift, resulting in the phasing of the U.S.S. Defiant, a mid-23rd century Federation starship from another universe, into their own. The ship was captured, impounded, and about to be stripped down, but the Terran cruiser NX-01 Enterprise, having been commandeered by first officer Jonathan Archer, arrived on the scene. Enterprise was lost in the ensuing scuffle, but her crew reactivated and made off with the Defiant, eventually bringing her back to Earth, where communications officer Hoshi Sato promptly used her overwhelming technological and military superiority to seize the reins of the Terran Empire, establishing the foundations of the Sato Dynasty.

The Defiant herself would be carefully studied by the Terran Starfleet, which immediately began to reverse-engineer the advanced technology found aboard her for use on its own vessels. In the meantime, the LCARS database of the Federation vessel confirmed, for the first time, that the multiverse theory was indeed true. Believing its Federation counterpart Earth to be weak and contemptible for seeking peace and alliance with other cultures, some theoreticians in the Terran Empire began to postulate the invasion and conquest of its counterpart as part of a grand scheme to dominate not only the galaxy, but the entire multiverse. Unfortunately, because the Terrans didn't yet have the technology to cross between universes in a tightly controlled manner, these plans were shelved for the time being.

(To be continued)

---

When you're envisioning any sort of grand story, it's always fun, yet so very difficult, to try to come up with the "bad guys," especially when your villains are a twisted version of the heroes they oppose!

As I explained in my last Terran Empire posting, I had always imagined the costumes worn by the cast of characters that populate this "evil" version of Starfleet to be a brightly colored, overtly militaristic twisted mockery of the simple and elegant red jackets worn by their noble counterparts. Because of this overriding design doctrine, I tried not to shy too far away from the structure of the classic double-breasted jacket. Instead, I chose to play with the colors, insignia, and other details to create a look that was similar, yet strikingly different - something that would plainly show anyone who saw it that there was something terribly wrong with this universe.

The first thing I did was to use more a more varied color palette. I made a solid rule to stay away from the color red, because that color has become so evocative of the 'good guys' that it would not serve to make their villainous doppelgangers stand out. Instead, I chose to use a sort of 'graded' color scale according to rank; as characters go up in rank, their uniforms change from a sort of bright lavender, to a darker purple. Finally, the upper line officers and admiralty ranks wear uniforms with royal blue and/or black colors and get to wear special outfit choices such as 19th century-style overcoats. All officers also wear an armband over their upper left arms featuring a Starfleet emblem.

In addition, different groups of personnel such as lower-ranked line officers, political officers, starship captains, admirals, NCOs, and enlisted personnel, wear different badges. All of the badges featured in these sketches can be seen in another page of doodles I put up on this site that feature all sorts of alternative badges I created, both for the Terran Empire and for our Federation heroes. Imperial badges can be easily identified because many of them feature the Iron Cross, a throwback to the Empire's roots in the WWII German military of this dark universe.

In spite of the clear differences, the Imperial uniforms do share a few influences with their UFP counterparts. Some officers wear sashes over their uniforms, a touch that was inspired by, strangely enough, the live-action television version of the "Sailor Moon" franchise. I had been discussing the fact that I used the anime version of the Shitennou costume to create special details I used on the Delta-universe Federation costume with a friend, who proceeded to show me how those costumes were altered in the live-action version. Among other changes, they featured large diagonal sashes running down one side of the uniform. I felt that this element could add an extra sort of flamboyant, old-world militarism to the outfit, so I incorporated it into my work.