PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE COLONIAL UNIFORMS

 

Taken in natural light outside a sound stage at Universal, this photo of Maren Jensen and others taken in the same session show the actual color of the tan warrior uniform, which is a much lighter shade than seen in most fan uniforms, many of which are nearly ochre. Notice also that Maren  is wearing a pair of Sidi Full Bore motocross boots. Larry argues in his article that the boots were dark brown and there is a photo of a dark brown pair claimed to have been used on the series on a website devoted to motocross boots, but these boots appear to be black (compare them to the gunbelt and waist belt, which we know to be black, and the black railing Maren is posed by) and in fact the boots on the series usually look black; I consider it not impossible that both colors were used. Maren  is fully kitted out with a sidearm and flight computer (the flight computer appears in several publicity photos of Maren, Richard Hatch, and Rick Springfield, but was not used in the series).

Maren Jensen as Athena wearing the beige warrior uniform
Female and male tunics compared Larry notes in his article that the collar piece on the male and female tunics was pretty much the same size, with the difference being in the shoulders; these two pictures show that fairly well. Also note how much the color of the tunic varies with the lighting. Maren’s tunic is its correct color of a very light tan, Dirk’s tunic, lit by red studio lighting, is darker and closer to the color many fan tunics are.
Lorne Greene wearing his full dress blue uniform; the color is affected by the lighting of this publicity photo (there are numerous photos of Lorne, Richard Hatch, and Dirk Benedict from this same shoot with this odd lighting). For his usual daily wear Adama would usually wear only his pants and tunic, sometimes adding the long coat that he wears here under his cape. The cape was added for full dress and is fastened with silver cords and lined in white silk. The solid silver braid is double-width compared to the warrior capes.  Really one of the handsomest uniforms of the series, and well suited to Adama’s dignity as Fleet Commander and President.

Lorne Greene as Adama wearing his full dress uniform

Richard Hatch as Apollo in his full dress blue uniform

This photograph of Apollo in his blue uniform shows the color of the material to better effect. Note that his cape is lined in black material. A shame we didn’t see Richard dressed in this uniform more often as it suits him well.
A familiar publicity shot of Dirk Benedict showing close to the proper color of the flight jacket, which is lighter than most fans believe it to be but not quite as orange as this picture suggests. Dirk’s flight jacket cuffs are unhooked, as was frequently seen in the series. Notice the standard military-style belt used on his pants. The gun belt looks like a possible surplus military strap of some kind, dyed black, with the holster riveted on, and non-adjustable, so each gunbelt would have been cut to fit the actor. The gold objects are actually felt tip pens! Dirk Benedict as Starbuck in his duty uniform.

Richard Hatch in dress uniform

Taken at the same time as the photo of Adama above, this is Richard wearing the warrior full dress uniform. Again, the lighting makes the cape look lighter than its actual color. Notice the mirror-imaging of the checkerboard braid on the cape. The dress medallion was fastened by safety pins under the cape (!), and the cape itself fastened to the tunic with bar eyes sewn on to the tunic. An interesting detail very visible in this particular shot is the padded front of the tunic, visible here just above Richard’s belt.
Dirk’s safety pin is showing here...this closeup also shows how the collar pins are correctly worn, with the handle of the sword just extending over the braid at the neck.

Safety pin holding on a dress medallion

Lloyd Bridges as Commander Cain

No surprise that Commander Cain would go off the deep end regarding his uniform.... In this familiar publicity photo, Lloyd Bridges is wearing a standard warrior tunic with an ascot; his warrior jacket is also standard except for the gold braid on his epaulets, and appears in this photo pretty much in its accurate color.  Not visible here are Cain’s pants, which were apparently made of the same color material as the flight jacket.

Battlestar Galactica images copyright 1978, Universal City Studios

BACK TO UNIFORMS

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1