Star Trek Redshirt Moments - Episode 93

70s Trek: Star Trek in the 1970s

Their job is to die! These characters serve the role of giving the writer someone to kill so the main characters don’t have to. Of course we're talking about the "Redshirts."

The term “Redshirt” in our culture has taken on the meaning of an unimportant person who can be sacrificed. Of course, it originated on Star Trek as fans watched red-shirted security officers die over and over again.

In fact, the idea of "redshirts" has become so popular that author John Scalzi wrote the book, Redshirts. It was published in 2012. It’s a spoof on Star Trek and tells the story of a low-ranking, red-shirted officer posted on a starship. He realizes his colleagues in security are all dying off on away missions. He’s afraid he might be next. Sound familiar?

The book was a New York Times bestseller.

This week co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto take a tongue-in-cheek look at redshirts on the show. For their purposes, they define “redshirts” as any insignificant character that gets killed as part of the story. The color of the uniform shirt doesn’t matter.

The Bloodiest Redshirt Episode

The Star Trek episode with the most Redshirt deaths is the Season 2 show, Obsession. Five security officers lose their lives in this episode. The most notable is Mr. Leslie, played by actor Eddie Paskey.

While we think Leslie is gone forever, he actually returns to be seen in the background of 19 other Star Trek episodes! Such was the practice of TV producers in the 1960s.

Total Redshirt Deaths

The unofficial, non-scientific survey of redshirt deaths conducted by 70s Trek stands at 44. Of course,