Costume designer Robert Blackman sketches at his desk, which is littered with swatches, fabric samples and photos of prototypes. He has been designing costumes for the Star Trek series franchises for nearly a dozen years, working on "Next Generation," "Voyager," "Deep Space Nine" and now "Enterprise." The designer spent a total of about two weeks sketching out his ideas for the "Enterprise" uniform and another week doing research and development on fabrics.

The "Enterprise" uniform is the first of the Star Trek series to boast mission or ship patches. Blackman championed the idea because he felt it was a nod to NASA. "I really pushed hard for these," he says. "If you look at NASA astronauts, they look like race car drivers. Their suits are covered with patches. This is a ship patch and it's the only one we're going to have on our suits. I wanted name patches too, but this is a start."