Misc. Observations and Errors, part 3

An additional variation amongst the vests is the use of a communicator (or lack thereof); Captain Picard always wore the communicator on his vest in First Contact (and the deleted scene in Insurrection):

First Contact

Insurrection ("Working Lunch" deleted scene)

However, the Sisko sometimes wore a communicator on his vest, and sometimes he didn't; there didn't appear to be any rhyme or reason ... 

He wore the vest right off the bat in Deep Space Nine's early/mid-fifth season episode "Rapture," when the show upgraded to the DS9/NEM uniforms recently introduced in First Contact, but he didn't wear his communicator on it: 

DS9, 5x10 "Rapture"

... except for one scene, when he did ... 

DS9, 5x10 "Rapture"

A dozen or so episodes later that season, he did consistently wear his communicator on his vest: 

DS9, 5x22 "Children of Time"

DS9, 6x2 "Rocks and Shoals"

But early the following season, during the brief period in "Rocks and Shoals" that he wore his vest without his jacket, he didn't wear his communicator on it: 

The next time we saw the vest, though, Sloan wore his communicator on his: 

DS9, 6x18 "Inquisition"

DS9, 6x19 "In the Pale Moonlight"

But then, the very next episode, the Sisko wore his vest without a communicator for nearly all of his monologuing scenes: 

The Sisko wore the vest one last time in the penultimate episode of Deep Space Nine, once again without a communicator: 

DS9, 7x24 "The Dogs of War"

So ...

An issue that arises from this for costuming purposes is, of course, whether or not to wear a communicator on one's vest. It certainly seems like one should, but technically, either way is screen-accurate. 

Of course, the issue is somewhat complicated if the costumer is planning to wear both the jacket and the vest; at that point one's options are to wear the communicator on the jacket but not the vest (such as the Sisko's ensemble at the beginning of "In the Pale Moonlight"), or wearing a communicator on both garments (which seems unnecessarily redundant but gives the wearer the option of easily shedding the jacket at some point during the day). 

Switching the communicator back and forth between the jacket and the vest as needed is certainly an option, but we don't recommend it unless your communicator is held in place with magnets; a communicator with pins will obviously poke holes in your garments, which is already a risky decision, but to do so repeatedly only invites larger holes, tears, frays, and other undesirable issues. And if a communicator attaches with Velcro (or other hook-and-loop tape), then not only will both garments require an opposite strip to the communicator, but one of the garments will always have the Velcro exposed.


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