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In the intro of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, the commander is seen greeting different people and species through time on the ship. However almost every time his and the guards uniforms are different.

I don't think it's explained, is it because the space station keeps coming under new management, or they dress up specific to each receiving guest, or that they just have a style crisis?

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    I guess the aim was to show that the scenes were spread over different periods of time and hence the uniform change.
    – Ankit Kante
    Commented Dec 1, 2019 at 18:57

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In real life, military uniforms have evolved over the years for a number of reasons, including:

  • Improvements in materials
  • Designs for specific campaigns
  • Requirements for specialist roles

As shown in the image below, in the space of 244 years the US military design has changed considerably:

[Evolution of uniforms[1]

Given that Valerian's montage covers hundreds of years, it seems reasonable that the uniforms would be updated over time to reflect changes to the city, those living there, those in charge, and new and visiting species.

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As Ankit Kante pointed out in his comment, the intro is spread over a very long time period. Over this entire period the official uniform aboard the ship has changed multiple times.

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  • Also, you can see that the space station has grown a lot between each new arrival.
    – Mr Lister
    Commented Dec 2, 2019 at 14:26
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Using the visual cue of aging the actors, and changing the uniforms provides an enhanced sense of time passing - it's been so long they have different uniforms, and look, the commander is getting old.. They want a sense of history passing. If they wore the same uniform for centuries, it would be even stranger.

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