History Literature / Redshirts

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: The entire book has the characters keenly aware that some piece of media is affecting them. Dahl only thinks that [[spoiler:he is actually the main character of a novel which they are participating in.]]

* MeaningfulName: Dahl is a pun on "doll" - as in, something being controlled by someone else. In his case, the Narrative. His first name, Andy, is shared with the popular doll, Raggedy Andy. Dahl being a pun on "doll" also helps to explain his [[CelibateHero curious sexlessness]] - just ask [[Franchise/{{Barbie}} Ken]] what male dolls are most famous for ''not'' having.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Nick Weinstein has small breakdown when he realizes that [[spoiler:the universe for the sci-fi show he writes is ''real'' and that every pointless, stupid death he writes actually happens there.]]

-->“What we’ve been told,” Collins said, “is that as the flagship of the Dub U, the ''Intrepid'' takes on a larger share of sensitive diplomatic, military and research missions than any other ship in the fleet. Because of that, there is commensurate increase of risk, and thus a statistically larger chance crew lives will be lost. It’s part of the risk of such a high-profile posting.”

* OnlySaneMan: Finn describes himself as the 'lone voice of sanity' when trying to convince his fellow redshirts that they can't ''really'' be [[spoiler:characters in a science fiction TV show]]. [[spoiler:He's wrong. [[JustForPun Dead wrong.]]]]

* ShowWithinAShow: [[spoiler:The final twist of Part One. Dahl, putting the hints together, realizes that ''Chronicles of the Intrepid'' is a Show Within A Book and that ''he's'' the main character of the book. Hanson's real purpose is to be the AuthorAvatar inserted into the story to confirm Dahl's guess.]]

* TrollingCreator: Invoked in the [[spoiler:last two chapters, when Scalzi [[SuddenDownerEnding kills of all the characters]] by having the ''Intrepid'' hit an asteroid, then immediately retcons it by saying he was just fucking with the reader.]]

* TakeThat: ThatOtherWiki gets a dubious nod.

* TrollingCreator: Invoked in the [[spoiler:last two chapters, when Scalzi kills of all the characters by having the ''Intrepid'' hit an asteroid, then immediately retcons it by saying he was just fucking with the reader.]]

** [[spoiler:At the end, it’s Dahl’s own PlotArmor that helps him figure out he’s the main character of the book.]]

* RealWorldEpisode: [[spoiler:Dahl and the others travel to the real world in order to get ''Chronicles of the Intrepid'' cancelled. Later subverted when Dahl realizes the people in the "real world" are just as fictional as he and the rest.]]

-->'''Dahl:''' I had a hunch.\\

** The senior staff's names are all shout outs to scifi works or writers- Captain Abernathy to Robert Abernathy (A golden age scifi writer), Q'eeng to Stephen King, West to...several individuals with that same last name (Most likely Billy West, but could also be Adam West or Herbert West), Chief medical officer [[Creator/WilliamHartnell Hartnell]] is named after the [[Series/DoctorWho First Doctor's actor]], and Lieutenant Kerensky shares his name with the Kerenskys of Battletech.

In February 2014, a [[http://www.deadline.com/2014/02/redshirts-novel-tv-series-fx/ television adaptation]] of ''Redshirts'' was announced. ([[MindScrew We'll wait while you untangle the levels of meta involved at this point.]])

** The senior staff's names are all shout outs to scifi works or writers- Captain Abernathy to Robert Abernathy (A golden age scifi writer), Q'eeng to Stephen King, West to...several individuals with that same last name (Most likely Billy West, but could also be Adam West or Herbert West), Chief medical officer Hartnell is, well, noted under StealthPun below, and Lieutenant Kerensky shares his name with the Kerenskys of Battletech.

* StealthHiBye: Most of the ''Intrepid'''s crew has learned to do this [[spoiler:out of necessity, to avoid assignment to deadly away-missions]].
* StealthPun: [[Series/DoctorWho Doctor]] [[Creator/WilliamHartnell Hartnell]] is named after the First Doctor's actor as a ShoutOut.

** [[spoiler:The whole thing gets turned on its head at the end, as Dahl discovers that he is the main character, and Abernathy, Q’eeng, West, and Hartnell are the real Heroes of Another Story.]]

* DoomMagnet: Captain Abernathy, Chief Science Officer Q’eeng, Chief Engineer West, Medical Chief Hartnell, and Lieutenant Kerensky, who seems to get nearly-fatally injured every other week. Heavily lampshaded and discussed by the other characters.
-->'''Jenkins:''' Statistically speaking there's something highly aberrant about them. When they're on an away mission, the chance of the mission experiencing a critical failure increases. When two or more of them are on the same away mission, the chance of a critical failure increases exponentially. If three or more are on the mission, it's almost certain someone is going to die.\\

Dahl made a small choking sound at this.

-> ''"Within five minutes of getting to my new post I heard three different stories of crew buying the farm on an away mission. Death by falling rock. Death by toxic atmosphere. Death by pulse gun vaporization."''\\\

--> [[spoiler:Dahl turned to Paulson. "Hester stays behind," he said. "We take your son with us. We go back to our time and our universe, but he" -- Dahl pointed at Weinstein -- "writes that the person in the shuttle is Hester. We don't try to sneak him in or have him be another extra. He has to be central to the plot. [[NominalImportance We call him out by name.]] His full name. Jasper Allen Hester."]]

--> '''Duvall:''' Like what?\\

--> '''Chen''': It's just a cave. What could possibly be in there?
-->'''Davis''': Bears? Wolves? Any number of large predators who see a cave as shelter from the elements? Have you never been camping?
-->'''Chen''': There are no bears on this planet.

* CrazyEnoughToWork:
--> "I want to warn you that this sounds like a crazy idea," Jenkins said.
--> "I'm amazed you feel the need to say that anymore," Hester said.
--> Jenkins nodded, as if to say, ''Point''. Then he said, "[[TimeTravel Time travel]]."

--> '''Jenkins''': Statistically speaking there's something highly aberrant about them. When they're on an away mission, the chance of the mission experiencing a critical failure increases. When two or more of them are on the same away mission, the chance of a critical failure increases exponentially. If three or more are on the mission, it's almost certain someone is going to die.
--> '''Hanson''': But never any of ''them''.

--> '''Trin''': Counter-bacterial? Don’t you mean a vaccine?

-->'''Dahl''': What did you do?
-->'''Finn''': Quite obviously, I knocked her out.
-->'''Dahl''': I though you said the pill was ''very mild''.
-->'''Finn''': I lied.

--> '''Dahl''': In the past three years, Kerensky’s been shot three times, caught a deadly disease four times, has been crushed under a rock pile, injured in a shuttle crash, suffered burns when his bridge control panel blew up in his face, experienced partial atmospheric decompression, suffered from induced mental instability, been bitten by two venomous animals and had the control of his body taken over by an alien parasite. That’s before the recent plague and this away mission.

-->'''Kerensky''': I get all confident and it seems like there’s a perfectly good reason for a goddamn astrogator to take medical samples, or fight killer machines or whatever. Then I get back on the ''Intrepid'' and I think to myself, "What the ''[[PrecisionFstrike fuck]]'' was I just doing?’ Because it doesn’t make sense, does it?

--> “What we’ve been told,” Collins said, “is that as the flagship of the Dub U, the ''Intrepid'' takes on a larger share of sensitive diplomatic, military and research missions than any other ship in the fleet. Because of that, there is commensurate increase of risk, and thus a statistically larger chance crew lives will be lost. It’s part of the risk of such a high-profile posting.”

--> '''Abernathy''' (during a commercial break): And see if we can't find some power spike dampeners or something. There's not a damn reason why everything on the bridge has to [[ExplosiveInstrumentation go up in sparks]] anytime we have a battle.
--> Dahl made a small choking sound at this.

--> '''Kerensky:''' A shame, really. [[UpToEleven He was going to be married, too...]]\\

-->“Shooting the panel?” Hester said, incredulous. “That was your big idea?”
-->“I had a hunch,” Dahl said, putting his pulse gun away.
-->[[NoOSHACompliance “That the space station was wired haphazardly?” Hester said. “That this whole place is one big fucking code violation?”]]

* TakeThat:
--> '''Kerensky:''' For all we know, this "Wikipedia" database is compiled by complete morons!

--> '''Hanson''': Is it a shark made of ice? Or a shark that lives in ice?
--> '''Dahl''': It wasn’t specified at the time.

** Later on, Jenkins gives another one with a solution to their problem: "[[spoiler:Time travel.]]''
* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong:
--> '''Chen''': It's just a cave. What could possibly be in there?

* DirtyCoward: This is what the veteran crew members have become due to a nasty bit of natural selection. The only way to survive is to avoid going on away missions and the GenreSavvy crew members have learned how to be conveniently absent when an officer is looking for away mission personnel. However, ''someone'' has to go on the mission, so many decide to sacrifice the NewMeat by not giving them any warning about what is going on. Those that refused to do so ended up dying on away missions and thus only the cowards remained. When Collins is ordered on an away mission she gets out of it by 'volunteering' her two friends instead. When Dahl calls her out on it, she transfers him to the bridge crew -- which she knows full well means that the Narrative will eventually destroy Dahl.

''Redshirts'' is a HugoAward-winning novel by Creator/JohnScalzi which takes the concept of the RedShirt, examines it, deconstructs it, and tears it inside out, taking an in-depth look at what would happen if the eponymous expendable extras ever discovered why the universe treats them as its own personal [[TheChewToy Chew Toys]].

** [[spoiler:Dahl figures this out, and exploits it by kidnapping Kerensky for their trip to the real world, knowing that a main character would never die off screen during an unimportant scene, therefore allowing them to break the laws of physics and use a black hole to travel through time.]]

* MagicMushroom: Xeno-pseudoagaricus, the alien fungus Finn was caught dealing.

* MetaGuy: Jenkins at first, then Dahl joins him, followed by the rest of the ensigns.

* AMillionIsAStatistic: Lampshaded. Kerensky has caught a flesh-eating disease on a planet which is suffering a deadly plague. Captain Abernathy is concerned about Kerensky. Oh, and also the planet. Abernathy isn't ordinarily this callous -- it's another sign that the Narrative (which considers Kerensky important and millions of offscreen aliens completely expendable) is in charge.

* MonsterMunch: Ensign Davis in the prologue exists purely to be eaten by a Borgovian Land Worm. Another unnamed ensign got eaten by an ice shark off-screen. Since the book's premise is turning the eponymous trope inside-out, the presence of MonsterMunch shouldn't be surprising.

* MrExposition: Several characters, though Ensign Tom Davis in the prologue in particular. Lampshaded in that, whenever the Narrative takes control, random information about the plot at hand will pop into a character's head, whether or not they have any way of knowing that information, and they will even sometimes automatically say it out loud to their own surprise.

* PlotArmor: Abernathy, Q’eeng, Kerensky, West, and Hartnell. They're not invulnerable to harm, but they ''are'' essentially unkillable.

* PoorCommunicationKills: This is a major source of the deaths and is an EnforcedTrope due to the Narrative.

* PostModernism: The main characters figure out they're characters in a television series, and things only get more meta from there.
* {{Precursors}}: The Borgovians, in the prologue.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Believe it or not, [[TheCaptain Captain Abernathy]]. When the Narrative stops controlling him, he visibly becomes much more sensible and caring towards the people under his command.

* RunningGag: Decks 6-12 are lethal for people without PlotArmor.

* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler:Ensign Finn]]

* ShoutOut: The name itself is a shoutout to the Trope RedShirt, codified and named by ''Star Trek''. In addition, this very site itself got its own shout out in a ''New York Times'' article advertising the novel, claiming that the author had himself gotten the name from...TV Tropes!

* StealthPun: [[Series/DoctorWho Doctor]] [[Creator/WilliamHartnell Hartnell]].
** Actually, the last names of the entire senior staff are this and Shout Outs.

* TechnoBabble: Anything scientific said under control of the Narrative. Also, everything put out by the Box until Q'eeng gets a hold of it and it's put in the ship's computer.

** Later on, Jenkins gives another one with, "[[spoiler:Time travel.]]''

* WhoWritesThisCrap: Jenkins concludes that [[spoiler:not only are they all stuck in a sci-fi TV show, it's not even a very well-written one.]]
** [[spoiler:Ironically, Jenkins had been played by the show's head writer in a [[CreatorCameo cameo]] appearance.]]
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: A rare heroic example in the prologue, as Davis wonders why he hasn't thought to shoot the Borgovian Land Worms with his pulse gun (it turns out there was a pretty good reason, as pulse guns just drive Borgovian Land Worms crazy).

* AccidentalMisnaming: Abernathy is prone to doing this.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: Throughout the book, characters speculate on whether they are a "real" universe that the Narrative occasionally intrudes upon, or if they sprung into existence when the show was created, and all their lives and history are fabrications. [[spoiler: This is unresolved by the end, and is indeed further compounded by Dahl's realization that he's the protagonist of the novel itself. Regardless, the narration assures us that our heroes go on to live happily ever after, masters of their own destiny for possibly the first time ever.]]
* AngstWhatAngst: Lampshaded in-universe in regards to Kerensky. Dahl points out that, never mind Kerensky shouldn't be alive after all the crap that has happened to him, he couldn't possibly still be sane after it all. He barely gets better from one thing before he gets sick from another.
** Played with, in that later Kerensky (while drunk) goes on a rant about all the crap that happens to him.

* BaitAndSwitch: The Narrative does this with [[spoiler: Finn's death. At first, they all think it's Duvall's death episode, because she had been previously stationed on the ''Nantes'', but as soon as Finn knocks her out to take her place on the away mission, we find out he knows the perpetrator of the hijacking from his last posting.]]

* BlackBox: The Box, a device resembling a microwave oven that, if given a sample of any xenobiological problem, will hum [[RuleOfDrama until it's dramatically appropriate]], then go 'ding' and provide the solution. Truly unusual, considering [[spoiler:the writer for the show doesn't even know about it, since it never appears in any scene that is filmed. It just appeared out of nowhere so that all the miraculous cures needed in the show (often for Kerensky) are possible.]]

* BookEnds: A character on the verge of death has an epiphany, catching a glimpse of the Narrative's plan and the dramatic effect their death will serve, only to declare they want to live anyway. [[spoiler: In the prologue, Davis dies anyway. In the ending, Dahl does not.]]
* BrickJoke: Later on in the story, we find out Ensign Davis died in the prologue [[spoiler:just so the uncle of the executive producer of the show could renew his SAG insurance.]]
** And in the first of three epilogues, [[spoiler: Davis turns out to be the only dead redshirt among hundreds who's infuriated at the ''fact'' of his death rather than the pointless stupidity of the ''cause'' of death.]]

* CelebrityParadox: [[spoiler: All the characters have doppelgangers in the real world: the actors who play them. Most of the resolution to the book's plot consists of them finding various ways to exploit this.]]
** [[spoiler: At one point one of the characters searches through the ''Intrepid'''s database to find out what show they're on, but can't find it. He and his cohorts assume this is because the show itself wouldn't exist in the universe in it.]]

* CelibateHero: Dahl is aptly described by Duvall as a prude - especially so for a sci-fi action-adventure protagonist. Duvall's distinctly flirting with him once or twice, but his tendency to [[CosmicPlaything end up recovering from severe injuries]] prevents a relationship. (And once they learn that The Narrative and its thousands of voyeurs could kick in at any moment, some hesitation is understandable.)

** [[spoiler: In-universe it's Hester, in that he doesn't have an interesting background or much character development, nor does anyone know his first name, yet in the "real world" he's played by the producer's son, who also happens to be in a coma. Through the liberal application of HollywoodScience and DeusExMachina, Hester and the son are able to switch bodies, leaving the son healthy once again and Hester healed once he's back in the ship's sick bay.]]
** [[spoiler: Hanson, who seems to be a mere tag-along for the other three until the last chapter (of Part One), in which he turns out to be a FourthWallObserver who's aware that Dahl is the main character of the book.]]

* ClarkesThirdLaw: Collins refuses to call The Box magic, and says they must have just found a piece of technology that was so advanced that they could not understand it.

* TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: Finn is the most vocal about how batshit insane everyone's explanations for the weirdness around them. He ends up being wrong about [[spoiler: the notion that a redshirt must die on the away mission that he ends up dying on.]]
* ContrivedCoincidence: Several of the "episodes" run on this, the characters even sit around talking about the coincidences that led to [[spoiler:Finn's death]]. Of course, this makes sense given [[spoiler: the low quality of the show their universe 'hosts'.]]

* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Jenkins.

* DeconstructedTrope: Of {{Red Shirt}}s.
* DecoyProtagonist: Ensign Davis in the prologue.

* EmbarrassingFirstName: [[spoiler: '''Jasper''' Allen Hester]]

* ExplosiveInstrumentation: Lampshaded when the captain calls down to Engineering to get some surge suppressors on the bridge consoles and complains that there is no reason the bridge should look like a fireworks display every time the ''Intrepid'' gets into a firefight. (This is after the Narrative has released control of him.)
* {{Expy}}: Abernathy, Q'eeng, West, Hartnell and Kerensky for [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Bones, and Chekov]]. [[spoiler: Justified in-universe since ''Chronicles of the Intrepid'' is pretty much a ''Star Trek'' ripoff/remake.]]

* FriendInTheBlackMarket: Finn. In his previous posting, he was known as the guy who could get you technically legal drugs, until his XO had a bad reaction to the fungus and he was transferred.

* GenreSavvy: Jenkins is inadvertently this, as he has [[spoiler: divined the reason behind the anomaly that is the ''Intrepid'': Namely, that they're inside a (badly written) TV show]]. He tries to use this knowledge to assist the crew, but as is pointed out to him later in the book [[spoiler: giving the senior crew knowledge of how to avoid dying as Redshirts just meant that they were throwing the new meat under the bus. Keep in mind, his wife died because she was a victim of this attitude]].

* HandsomeLech: Kerensky, [[spoiler: this may or may not apply to his actor as well.]]
* HappilyEverAfter: [[spoiler: The real ending.]]
* HeroOfAnotherStory: The entire concept of the book is to tell that "other story."

* HollywoodHealing: Kerensky, as part of his constantly getting injured. Again, lampshaded. [[spoiler: Literally in the case of Paulson's son.]]
* HollywoodScience: Anytime the Narrative takes control, the science team pulls out the Box, which ignores any and all laws of physics to find the solution to the problem, oftentimes producing results that cannot be replicated under any other circumstances. [[spoiler: Also, using black holes to travel back in time/to the real world]]

* IdenticalStranger: [[spoiler: The result of going back in time to 2012. The character's actors are of course 100% identical, but they are completely different people. Justified, as the crew of the ''Intrepid'' are played by the actors on their television show.]]

* IdiotPlot: In-Universe, the Narrative forces the characters into these, forcing them to situations that they know are completely moronic. Explained when Jenkins concludes that [[spoiler: their show is not a very well-written one.]]

* ItsALongStory: Dahl, to Duvall, when she asks why he went to the academy late. Subverted in that they immediately go and get lunch and he tells her the story.

* LargeHam: Captain Abernathy, naturally. [[spoiler: But only when under the Narrative. Otherwise, he's a very normal guy, and appears confused as to why he was so over the top a little while before.]]
* TheLawOfConservationOfDetail: [[spoiler: At the end of the book, Dahl figures out that Hanson, to that point, had been a completely pointless character who had done little, if anything, to further the plot, and therefore must solely exist in the story in order to tell Dahl that he was the actual main character. He was right.]]
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: The entire book.

* LoveTranscendsSpaceTime: See RomanceOnTheSet for an implied case of this.

** [[spoiler: Hanson and eventually Dahl take this to an even greater level by working out that they're not "really" in a TV show, but a book that happens to use a TV show as an element.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Nick Weinstein has small breakdown when he realizes that [[spoiler: the universe for the sci-fi show he writes is ''real'' and that every pointless, stupid death he writes actually happens there.]]

* NarrativeBackpedaling: [[spoiler: The second-to-last chapter before the three epilogues ends with the ''Intrepid,'' finally free of the Narrative that both endangered and preserved it, being destroyed by a random meteor strike. The ''last'' chapter is basically, "Just kidding, they all lived."]]

* OnlySaneMan: Finn describes himself as the 'lone voice of sanity' when trying to convince his fellow redshirts that they can't ''really'' be [[spoiler: characters in a science fiction TV show]]. [[spoiler: He's wrong. [[JustForPun Dead wrong.]]]]

** [[spoiler: Dahl figures this out, and exploits it by kidnapping Kerensky for their trip to the real world, knowing that a main character would never die off screen during an unimportant scene, therefore allowing them to break the laws of physics and use a black hole to travel through time.]]
** [[spoiler: At the end, it’s Dahl’s own PlotArmor that helps him figure out he’s the main character of the book.]]

* RageAgainstTheAuthor: [[spoiler: The characters consider this before deciding that they'd be better off politely asking the creators to knock it off.]]
* RankUp: Near the end of the story, [[spoiler: Dahl is promoted to Lieutenant]].
* RealWorldEpisode: [[spoiler: Dahl and the others travel to the real world in order to get ''Chronicles of the Intrepid'' cancelled. Later subverted when Dahl realizes the people in the "real world" are just as fictional as he and the rest.]]

* RocksFallEveryoneDies: [[spoiler: The second-to-last chapter has the ''Intrepid'' suffering a systems failure and plowing into a small asteroid. The last chapter is just fourteen words, retconning that last part, and Scalzi saying he was just fucking with the reader]].
* RomanceOnTheSet: A bizarre InUniverse example: [[spoiler: Jenkins, whose wife had been Redshirted years before, sends a love letter to the actress who played her in ''Chronicles of the Intrepid'' when Dahl and the others go to the real world. In one of the epilogues, it is implied that she then ends up in a relationship with the actor who played ''him''.]]

** Some of the more ludicrous sources of death are commented on a few times, in particular the "evolutionarily suspect" land worms in the prologue. [[spoiler: The head writer would like it known he was sick that week and was not responsible for the land worms. No word, however, on his level of involvement with the infamous "ice shark."]]

* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler: Ensign Finn]]
* SandWorm: Borgovian Land Worms, which eat two ensigns in the Prologue. [[spoiler: The head writer would like to remind everyone that he was sick that week and the staff writer who did that script was a ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' fan. And the [[Creator/HerbertPropertiesLLC Herbert estate]] sued them for it.]]

* ScrewYourself: They get [[spoiler: the actor who plays Kerensky to help them by having Kerensky seduce him... or not. He actually had a deep and meaningful conversation with him, and is disgusted that the others thought they had sex.]]

* StealthHiBye: Most of the ''Intrepid'''s crew has learned to do this [[spoiler: out of necessity, to avoid assignment to deadly away-missions]].

* ThisIsReality: Because what's more likely, that the flagship of the Universal Union happens to have a higher than average death ratio and some crew members continue to survive by luck, or [[spoiler: you're bit characters in a weekly sci-fi action show]]?

* TrollingCreator: Invoked in the [[spoiler: last two chapters, when Scalzi kills of all the characters by having the ''Intrepid'' hit an asteroid, then immediately retcons it by saying he was just fucking with the reader.]]

** Later on, Jenkins gives another one with, "[[spoiler: Time travel.]]''

* WhatMeasureIsAMook: Quite a large one, when the mooks are the focus characters. [[spoiler: The head writer for ''Chronicles of the Intrepid'' suffers a HeroicBSOD over this when he learns that people actually die when he writes death scenes. He gets over it after a dream in which all the Redshirts he's ever killed talk to him and explain that what they hate isn't the fact that he killed them, but the fact that he killed them in idiotic ways and that their deaths served no purpose except to up the dramatic tension.]]
* WhoWritesThisCrap: Jenkins concludes that [[spoiler: not only are they all stuck in a sci-fi TV show, it's not even a very well-written one.]]

* WrongGenreSavvy: The xenobiology veterans who are aware of the perils of away missions seem to believe that one person has to die each time, so [[spoiler: killing Dahl]] will let them live. They are wrong.
* YouCantFightFate: [[spoiler: Finn's]] death. He tries to spite the Narrative by [[spoiler: drugging Duvall and taking her place on the away mission]], but just ends up dying himself when it turns out the Narrative was targeting him instead.

* PrescienceByAnalysis: The first battle after [[spoiler:Jenkins tells the protagonists that they are bit-characters in a TV show]] plays out exactly according to his predictions, which are based on previous events and what would best follow the RuleOfDrama.

* PrescienceByAnalysis: The first battle after [[spoiler:Jenkins tells the protagonists that theyare characters in a TV show]] plays out exactly according to his predictions, which are based on previous events and what would best follow the RuleOfDrama.

** The first time Dahl meets Jenkins, and is told, "Stay off the bridge. Avoid the Narrative. The next time you’re going to get sucked in for sure. And then it’s all over for you.”

* AcousticLicense: During a battle, Chief Engineer West replies to comments by Abernathy and Q'eeng just after entering the bridge, meaning he was somehow able to hear them through a door, with red alert sirens blazing.

* DirtyCoward: This is what the veteran crew members have become due to a nasty bit of natural selection. The only way to survive is to avoid going on away missions and the GenreSavvy crew members have learned how to be conveniently absent when an officer is looking for away mission personnel. However, someone has to go on an away mission so many decide to sacrifice the NewMeat by not giving them any warning about what is going on. Those that refused to do so ended up dying on away missions and thus only the cowards remained. When Collins is ordered on an away mission she gets out of it by 'volunteering' her two friends instead. When Dahl calls her out on it, she transfers him to the bridge crew -- which she knows full well means that the Narrative will eventually destroy Dahl.

* SlutShaming: The group tries to do this to Duvall for sleeping with [[ReallyGetsAround Kerensky]], but she just counters by saying that none of them had stepped up to the plate to serve her "needs."

** Possibly [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the Narrative screwing with science again.

[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQIuapbeh0I The book even has its own theme song]], written by JonathanCoulton, no less.

* OnlySaneMan: Finn describes himself as the 'lone voice of sanity' when trying to convince his fellow redshirts that they can't ''really'' be [[spoiler: characters in a science fiction TV show.]]. [[spoiler: he's wrong. [[JustForPun Dead wrong.]]]]

* PlotArmor: Abernathy, Q’eeng, Kerensky, West, and Hartnell. They're not invulnerable to harm, but they ''are'' essentially unkillable.

* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: Jenkins is inadvertently this, as he has [[spoiler: divined the reason behind the anomaly that is the ''Intrepid'': Namely, that they're inside a (badly written) TV show]]. He tries to use this knowledge to assist the crew, but as is pointed out to him later in the book [[spoiler: giving the senior crew knowledge of how to avoid dying as Redshirts just meant that they were throwing the new meat under the bus. Keep in mind, his wife died because she was a victim of this attitude]].

* GenreSavvy: The story is essentially about the main characters acquiring this and learning how to use it for their benefit to survive.