THAT DARN CATSUIT

April '99

A fairly bizzarre piece about that article of clothing.

***

One of the smartest moves the producers of Voyager have made was exchanging Seven of Nine's silver-blue catsuit for the brown one.

The blue catsuit was great for publicity, easily recognisable and very memorable. It also caught the light well, highlighting significant curves and anatomical regions.

Unfortunately, the same qualities which made the blue catsuit so media-friendly also made it distracting. In the two complete episodes where it was seen -- "Day of Honour" and "Revulsion" -- viewers (in my family, at least) weree more interested in the physics of Seven's costume than the stories. But by "The Raven", a new catsuit had appeared.

The new, brown catsuit was essentially a simplified version of the old, made with a sturdier, thicker material. That was a good move; the old suit was known to reveal more of Ms Ryan's anatomy that this viewer wanted. The warmer, darker colour disguised the painful looking corset, and highlighted instead Jeri Ryan's beautiful face and fantastic hair. Unlike the old design, which looked trashy (it wasn't described as "Vegas-silver" for nothing, you know...), the new catsuit had class (well, a little, anyway).

Of course, there are those, mostly men, who disagree. SFX magazine, which I sometimes suspect is really run by a pack of teenage boys, lamented the loss of the slinky blue number. Jeri Ryan, though, seems happier with the new design; she still can't get dressed by herself, but she feels less exposed in the brown catsuit.

The future of Seven's catsuit seems to lie in a variety of colours and minor variations on the basic design. Why would it change? The catsuit is now as easily identified with Star Trek as the Starfleet Uniform and Spock's ears, and if you took Seven out of it (and put her in something else ... get your minds out of the gutter, people!) you'd simply have yet another beautiful actress. The catsuit, at least, allows Seven to be one of the sexiest women on TV ... while completely covered almost from neck to toe.

Questions, comments, amusingly snide remarks and money can be emailed to elizabeth_barr@yahoo.com.au

Star Trek ® is a registered trademark of Paramount Pictures registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Star Trek: Voyager is a trademark of Paramount Pictures.

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