History Literature / Redshirts

** Further, it's revealed eventually that [[spoiler: Weinstein has gotten no end of backlash over the landworms that killed Davis. He finds this infuriating because [[NotMeThisTime he didn't write that episode]], couldn't veto it because he was on vacation at the time, and the studio got sued by the [[{{Franchise/Dune}} Herbert estate]] over them. [[BerserkButton He doesn't want to hear about the worms.]]]]

** 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 on vacation that week and was not responsible for the land worms. No word, however, on his level of involvement with the infamous "ice shark."]]

* SandWorm: Borgovian Land Worms, which eat two ensigns in the Prologue. [[spoiler:The head writer would like to remind everyone that he was on vacation 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.]]

* ILied: This exchange before the mission to the ''Nantes'':

* 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.]]]]

* LeeroyJenkins: How Kerensky describes being under the the influence of the Narrative. He gets a sudden burst of confidence where he forgets he's the astrogator, and just rushes into dangerous situations without a second thought.

** Lampshaded by Hester during the killer machine away mission, where he screams, “What sort of assholes encode a message about killer machines?” when they discover that there was a hidden signal inside the distress call warning them to stay away.

** In fact, this is part of what clues the main characters that their situation is abnormal; checking their archives, they determine that Abernathy has a solid service record and is ''not'' particularly incompetent or reckless except when the IdiotPlot calls for him to be.

* 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. According to the officers, this is common knowledge, but Davis was caught up in the Narrative's IdiotPlot at the time.

* TakeThat: Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} gets a dubious nod.

* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Naturally, most specifically being the converted cargo carts on the ''Nantes''

* NamesTheSame: Averted -- Dahl and Duvall don't actually have the same last name -- but they do notice the similarity, and figure it's because [[spoiler:somebody upstairs is bad at coming up with different names]].

** [[spoiler: Mbeke, Cassaway and NewMeat Lieutenant Fischer]]. also count as characters who die on away missions but receive a little prominence either during or before said missions.

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

** Further, it's revealed eventually that [[spoiler: Weinstein has gotten no end of backlash over the landworms that killed Davis. He finds this infuriating because [[NotMeThisTime he didn't write that episode]], couldn't veto it because he was home sick at the time, and the studio got sued by the [[{{Franchise/Dune}} Herbert estate]] over them. [[BerserkButton He doesn't want to hear about the worms.]]]]

** 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."]]

* 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.]]

* AmbiguousSituation: Was [[spoiler: Mbeke]] drawing a gun to shoot Dahl or to back him up right before being killed? She'd seemed torn and indecisive throughout Dahl and [[spoiler: Cassaway's]]. argument about whether killing Dahl would satisfy the quota of a RedShirt dying on every mission.

* CargoCult: Some of the veteran crew members have noticed the effects of the Narrative but don't understand it, regarding it as some sort of malevolent force that must be appeased by regularly killing a Red Shirt on an away mission. Because of this, they've started insuring that new crew members are always the ones on away missions, and when they end up on a mission anyway, they decide that what they really need to do is murder Dahl in order to appease the Narrative. It's not really a spoiler to say that they're promptly killed.

** 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]]

* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: Several characters, including Kerensky himself, complain about the absurdity about Kerensky, an astrogator, being sent on away missions that have nothing to do with navigating through space.

** [[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. He uses this again after coming back, taking Kerensky with him to feed Hester's data to the Box and return the extracted MacGuffin: because Kerensky's a major character, he's guaranteed to live long enough to deliver the MacGuffin and save the day while the redshirts aren't.]]

* 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''.]]

->''"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."''\\\
''"Death by shuttle door malfunction."''\\\
''"Death by ice shark."''
-->-- '''Maia Duvall, Jimmy Hanson, and Andy Dahl comparing notes'''

* 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.

* 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.

** The senior staff's names are all shout outs to SFF 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 Creator/BillyWest, but could also be Creator/AdamWest 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 ''TabletopGame/BattleTech''.

* AmbiguousSituation: Was [[spoiler: Mbeke]] dragon a gun to shoot Dahl or to back him up right before being killed? She'd seemed torn and indecisive throughout Dahl and [[spoiler: Cassaway's]]. argument about whether killing Dahl would satisfy the quota of a RedShirt dying on every mission.

* GagEcho: When Kerensky and [[spoiler:the actor who plays Kerensky]] wake up, the first thing they say is "Where are my pants?"

* AccidentalMisnaming: Abernathy is prone to doing this to Dahl. "Dill" is a favorite alternative.

** The senior staff's names are all shout outs to SFF 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 Creator/BillyWest, but could also be Creator/AdamWest 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 ''Franchise/Battletech''.