Star Trek Sneaked a Fan-Favorite, Classic Starfleet Uniform Into Short Treks

Star Trek: Short Treks released a new episode on Thursday. Titled “The Trouble with Edward,” the short stars Rosa Salazar and H. Jon Benjamin and stands out for a number of reasons. One is that it’s almost a pure comedy set in the Star Trek universe. Another is that it reveals the secret origin of tribbles. Yet another is that it features Star Trek‘s first post-credits scene. But now there’s one more thing to note about the episode. It stealthily featured the return of the unisex skant-style Starfleet uniform, modified to fit into Star Trek: Discovery‘s vision of Star Trek‘s 23rd century.

The skant is a blink and you’ll miss it kind of Easter egg in the episode. A science officer can be seen wearing a skant uniform in the background of a shot in which Capt. Lynne Lucero (Salazar) and Capt. Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) are walking down a corridor aboard the USS Enterprise.

Some eagle-eyed fans caught the skant while watching the episode. Take a look below.

Here’s a closer look:

In Star Trek: Discovery Season Two, Cmdr. Nhan (Rachael Ancheril) wore a skant at one point, though for many it would seem to be just a skirt. The skant was notable because it was worn by both men and women, and this is the first example of a male-presenting Starfleet officer wearing a skant in the Discovery era.

Star Trek: Discovery costume designer Gersha Phillips had teased that the skant would be making a comeback in Star Trek: Discovery. “They haven’t come out yet, they’ll be later in the season,” Phillips said. “I was looking for a particular character to do it on, and we didn’t have anybody specific. It’ll come up closer to the end, but we did do it and we will try to do it going forward.

“It’s true that it’s always been there for Star Trek – you know, apart from the original series and the J.J. [Abrams] remake, they have maintained a really cool non-binary look throughout. So I think that for us going forward, it was really important to do that as well. The tunic will come back because so far Nhan’s the only one that’s worn them on our ship. She wore the blue Disco one, which turned out really cool. But yeah, our intention is definitely to do them for both men and women.”

What do you think of the return fo the skant? Let us know in the comments. Star Trek: Short Treks are now streaming on CBS All Access.