Red Shirt - Television Tropes & Idioms

A Red Shirt in his natural state.

Kirk: All right, men, this is a dangerous mission. And it's likely one of us will be killed. The landing party will consist of myself, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Ensign Ricky.
Ensign Ricky: Ah, crap.

-Family Guy

"For every deep character like Adam Dodd, you find about five shallow stocks from the Friday the 13th series whose sole purpose is to engage in meaningless dialogue and wait for the nearest Jason to gruesomely murder them."

— Survival Of The Fittest character Quincy Archer on... Survival Of The Fittest.

Boone: Red shirt. You ever watch Star Trek?
Locke: No, not really.
Boone: The crew guys that would go down to the planet with the main guys, the Captain and the guy with the pointy ears, they always wore red shirts and they always got killed.
Locke: Yeah?
Boone: Yeah.
Locke: Sounds like a piss poor Captain.
—Lost

The color of shirt worn by the nameless security personnel on the original Star Trek series. Their only job was to get eaten/shot/stabbed/disrupted/frozen/desalinated, and give William Shatner or DeForest Kelly a corpse to emote over.

A Red Shirt is the good cousin of Evil Minions - set filler for our heroes' side. Their purpose is almost exclusively to give the writers someone to kill who isn't a main character, although they can also serve as a Spear Carrier. They are used to show how the monster works, and demonstrate that it is indeed a deadly menace, without having to lose anyone important. Expect someone to say "Hes Dead Jim", lament this "valued crewmembers senseless death", and then promptly forget him.

In mass quantities, they make up the Redshirt Army.

Anyone Can Die is the polar opposite of this trope.

Compare to The Worf Effect where, once again, a character is brutalized to show the enemy's power, with the notable difference that it is a main character, and they don't die.

Examples:

The first broadcast episode of Star Trek ("The Man Trap") has a body count of four minor crewmen, most of whom of course become monster chow shortly after beaming down to the planet. Ironically, the casualties are two blues, a gold and one unknown wearing a hazmat suit.
- In fact, no red shirt deaths occur until the seventh episode. The dubious honor goes to Crewman Mathews, who is pushed into a bottomless pit in "What Are Little Girls Made of?"
This RPG motivational poster explains it all...
Parodied in Space Quest 5, where miscellaneous crew members all wear blue shirt, and Roger Wilco, the protagonist (and ship's captain) is the one who wears a red shirt. Guess who gets shot at all the time?
Droole: This may be dangerous, lets split up so we can cover more territory.
Roger: Don't you think we should stick together?
Droole: Only if you do a quick wardrobe change, sir.
Roger: This is hardly a time play Fashion critic.
Droole: It's not that, it's your shirt... it's... well... so red... It's bad luck.
(They separate, only for Roger to be attacked later.)
In Crime And Punishment shows, the newly deceased Red Shirt only has one week left to go before retirement. At the opposite end of a career-span, the first CSI episode had a Red Shirt who had only been on the job for a week. (Also done in The Bill.)
Redshirts getting killed just because are rather standard in pretty much any fiction portraying a battle or war, possibly somewhat reasonable, because... well, it is a battle or war, after all.
This trope was parodied very effectively in Galaxy Quest in the character of Guy Fleegman, "Crewman Number Six" — who is the only cast member NOT killed during the climactic final battle! (Although a bit of time travel makes everyone else better). Lamp Shade Hanging at its finest (also see Plucky Comic Relief).
- The Captain survives too. He has to if he's gonna hit the reset button. Hurt isn't killed.
A film that seriously plays with the concept is Aliens. Hey, who can forget Hudson's "Four more weeks and out" tirade?
- Everyone who fast forwards past it because he's a whiner.
  - Aliens kinda plays it straight with Crowe and Wierzbowski; one line from Crowe (said when he's offscreen), and no lines from poor Ski except a scream.
During the conversation in the page quote, on Lost, Boone was tying red shirts to trees. Eight episodes later, he died (and was the first main character to do so.) Lampshade Hanging and Foreshadowing at the same time.
- This scene is even more ironic because the actor who played Locke had been in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which he wore, you guessed it, a red shirt. He didn't die in the episode. Being that his Star Trek character got court martialed and imprisoned for his poor decisions as Captain, he probably doesn't have the right to call Kirk "a piss poor Captain" (although Kirk had his fair share of court martials as well).
- The show itself performs many a Lampshade Hanging on its actual red shirts. The characters Scott and Steve, for instance, are always confused by important characters, even after one of them dies (Hurley's eulogy for him boils down to "Sorry I could never remember your name.") The character Dr. Arzt is introduced near the end of season 1 and complains about how everyone (i.e., the main characters) acts like a high school clique.
- A final point of irony in this quote comes from the fact that J.J. Abrams (the show's co-creator, writer, executive producer, and director) went on to direct and produce Star Trek XI (coming out 2009.) This troper wonders how many red shirts will be killed in the movie.
- It's taken to pretty much the ultimate level in a season four episode where one Red Shirt after another comes running out of a house during a huge gun battle, and each one is immediately mowed down. What makes it gold is that Sawyer screams at each one to go back in the house, and none of them listen.
Parodied in Futurama, "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", in which the entire Star Trek The Original Series cast is threatened by a jealous energy being, but only Welshy (a parody of Jonas Quinn for Scotty), who's dressed in the classic Red Shirt, gets killed. Three times over. Additionally, Zapp Brannigan's entire brigade all wear red which accurately shows how he often sacrifices them freely and considers all missions suicide missions.
- In the same episode, a flashback of the so-called Star Trek Wars is shown where some officials are throwing redshirts in a volcano while chanting "He's dead Jim."
Parodied in Kim Possible, in the Trapped In TV Land episode called "Dimension Twist", when Kim is temporarily sent to a Star Trek-esque tv show and appears in a red uniform:
Wade: This is the part of the show where they pick series regulars to go on a mission. Just make sure you're not the one wearing...
Kim: ...a red shirt?
Pseudo-Kirk: And... (to Kim) you! You're expendable.
Star Trek Voyager - Elite Force lampshades this by giving the "Redshirt Award" to the teammate who died the most during a Capture the Flag or Team Deathmatch game.
The Finnish Star Trek/Babylon 5 spoof Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning put the Trek redshirts against the B5 security forces. The carnage was horrible.
- The redshirts throughout the Star Wreck series are also given names that reflect their expendable nature, such as "Lt. Suicide," "Sgt. Manshield," and "Lt. Cannonfodder."
Subverted in the webcomic Schlock Mercenary, where the appropriately red-shirted Lieutenant (later Lieutenant-Commander) Der Trihs (Red Shirt spelled backwards) is repeatedly injured in various grievous ways, including being reduced to a head-in-a-jar a couple of times, but never actually dies. Instead, he actually 'wins the game' by retiring from the mercenary business to live with a pretty girl on a paradisaical vacation-planet. It is revealed at one point that his skull is quite nearly impervious to harm.
Parodied in the same Family Guy episode that the quote at the top of this article comes from: when Peter is running in the road with William Shatner, the latter gets hit and killed by a car. The camera then pans to Ensign Ricky, who declares: "I did not see that coming."
- In the episode "There's Something About Paulie", it is more subtly parodied. After Louis’s and Peter's car get blown up with a valet inside, Peter remarks that nobody important got hurt, while the valet's red vest slowly falls to the ground.
Subverted in the Star Trek Expanded Universe novel The Eyes of the Beholders, by A.C. Crispin. The apparent red shirt for a mission not only survives but saves the rest of the away team.
Another literary example: Brilliantly skewered in the James Alan Gardner novel Expendable.
Cleverly spoofed in a short Star Trek parody film, ''Steam Trek: The Moving Picture'' (premise: Trek as it would be done 100 years ago by George Melies), where the expendable member of the away team wears a shirt with a target on the back.
- Also, this character is listed in the opening credits as "Ensign Expendable." For some reason, the opening credits were cut out of the You Tube version, but the full parody film can be seen here, under "Films."
Lampshaded in Stone Trek: Every time a redshirt dies, a "Dead Redshirt Count" is shown.
A discreet spoof in the movie The Running Man: Two contestants wore yellow jumpsuits while two wore red. Guess who died?
Parodied many times over in filk, from Leslie Fish's "Landing Party Blues" to "Redshirt's Lament":
Tis a gift to wear a gold shirt or a blue, you see
But look, my dear, what they have done to me
Even Engineering would a blessing be
But no, they've made me Security
Whe-en the landing party's gone
I'll be there with my red shirt on
I'll make sure my estate's all orderly
Because that is the last that you'll see of me
- And played with in Trek fanfic. Typical example here.
The amateur PC Adventure Game Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment, which is pretty much what it sounds like, takes the trope to its logical extreme by making redshirts into a commodity cloned and sold in 5-packs. They die in a great number of interesting ways. In fact it's actually impossible for an away mission to end any way but the death of the redshirt.
Similarly, the Tabletop Games Paranoia has the players taking the roles of Troubleshooters tasked with the job of shooting trouble wherever it should arise in Alpha Complex. The starting rank is "Red". As each character is part of a six-pack of clones, the body count can rack up astronomically quickly...
In Star Munchkin, there is a hireling called a red shirt. Their only use is to die when you lose a battle, thus preventing the "Bad Stuff" from happening to you. However, they have, on a success, a one in six chance of getting overexcited and sacrificing themselves anyway.
In one issue of Toyfare's Twisted Toyfare Theatre, Kirk returns from a mission in which "only a dozen redshirts died," to find himself in the Mirror Universe, where the meek and pragmatic Mirror Kirk is protected by the immortal Redshirts.
The countless native African servants and carriers in the Allan Quartermain movie adaptions exist only to be eaten by crocodiles or killed by traps so that the danger can be demonstrated without killing off a main character.
The Red Shirt gets his revenge in Robot Chicken with a Star Trek sketch. When the crew teleported down to a planet to survive the Enterprise exploding, the crew reasons that to survive one of them must be sacrificed as food. Obviously they choose the Red Shirt first, but the Red Shirt tells them off by saying "On behalf of all the redshirts that fell before me, it makes me proud to say the following sentence... I'm the only one who brought a gun." He proceeds to kill and eat them all.
Jean Jack Gibson, from SNATCHER. His outfit is more of a burgundy-orange, but it doesn't change the fact that his only purpose in-story is to be brutally murdered half an hour into the game.◊
Played straight in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series and averted in one notable example: Helo was originally supposed to die during the miniseries, but the fans took a liking to him so the writers brought him back. Helo has since gotten his own season-long subplot, his own episode and has started a family with one of the core characters, as well as displaying morality that is more admirable and consistent than almost any other character on the show.
Random military types in Doctor Who often are used as cannon fodder. UNIT personnel are frequent victims. In the New Series, they have red hats too.
- This has been subverted a few times too. At least twice the redshirt army has beaten aliens the Doctor claimed they couldn't.
Any CTU field agent who isn't Jack Bauer or the season's Colonel Makepeace is a red shirt. In season 4 and part of season 5, CTU HQ's security officers actually wore red shirts - that is, until they were all killed at once in a nerve gas attack.
In Combat! they aren't so much red shirts as Redemption Equals Death shirts. In fact, a good way to tell if someone will die is if they are given a name.
- You did that on purpose, didn't you?
In Gears of War, Carmine (whose name is a shade of red) is a faceless rookie squadmember (he's the only character to wear a helmet and mask). He's also the first squad member to die in the game (and actually 1 of the only 2 characters who die), shot in the head by a sniper after the first couple of levels.
- This troper knew that Carmine was going six feet under the moment he appeared in the game. First, he's got a helmet, which means he's faceless. Second, he's young and energetic (overly so). Third, he's clearly impressed and awed to be working the renowned Marcus Fenix. It was only a matter of time before he got sniped.
- Funnily enough, he is supposed to return in Gears of War 2... although exactly how hasn't been revealed yet.
- I've also been told Carmine's death is an inside joke for the developers, as wearing a helmet that covers everything aside from the eyes is asking to get flanked and shot.
- It's his brother, Ben, does much better as well, helps wend he keeps freaking out that's he's going to die, sadly he had to mention he has two other brothers, all gears.
- It's also interesting to note that in the credits of Gears of War, one of the characters listed is named "Redshirt Gyules," who was killed in the final chapter of the first act by a Berserker.
Almost every friendly NPC in the first-person shooter Half Life was a redshirt. The security guards would tag along and give support, but their low hit points and wimpy pistols meant they never lasted long. And the scientists, oh those poor scientists. Almost all of them only existed to die in scripted set-pieces to remind you of how insanely dangerous everything was.
- One of the guards, however, got his own spin-off. You don't mess with Barney.
Occurs in Gundam Seed, in which Athurn's buddy Rusty (who never shows his face or has any dialog) is killed. He's wearing Red, which ironically is supposed to be the uniform of ZAFT's elite.
Funimation voice actor Vic Mignogna wrote a song about the Red Shirt anime equivalents, called "Soldier A":
Soldier A, Soldier A
The unsung hero of anime
Hip hooray for Soldier A
He only has one line but saves the day
He's called upon to grunt or yell or scream
Even if his mouth is never seen
Through the fray with ne'er to say
He'll lead the way, he's Soldier A
Lampshaded endlessly in an episode of The Venture Bros, where Mauve Shirt Henchmen #21 and #24 repeatedly taunt the previously unseen Henchman #1 for his red shirt status. By the end of the episode, #1 is beaten to death by Brock Samson, as the genre savvy #21 and #24 miraculously escape harm.
Finding creative ways to kill off redshirts was part of the fun for some of the writers of the Leagueof Intergalactic Cosmic Champions (other writers thought we were sick.)
Cheat Commandoes parodies this with its Green Helmets. "We've got, like, fifty of them!"
Parodied several times in Sluggy Freelance:
- This strip from the "Stick Figures in Spaaaaace" series of stick-figure Filler Strips.
- And this one.
- During Oceans Unmoving, Quartermaster Flipp complains about not getting any characterization... and is knocked overboard to certain death in the very next strip.
Subverted during "Garbage Trek", a Star Trek-mocking episode from The Backyardigans. Tasha wore a red dress◊ (meaning she was the captain), yet she survived.
In a Twisted Toyfare Theater action figure comic, Kirk and Spock go to the Mirror Universe, where Kirk is a wussy virgin, Klingons are logical, Vulcans are warlike, and Uhura never dances with fans, ever. A Vulcan attack on the ship is foiled by their secret weapons: the mirror red shirts, who are immortal, unkillable badasses.
As Quincy states in the page quote, not every character in Survival Of The Fittest can get a piece of the spotlight, and many handlers who make multiple characters create at least one who dies off within a week (real-time) of their introduction. Additionally, characters who don't get introduced by their original authors and go inactive will get usually get this treatment, too.
Star Trek Voyager. Averted in the early seasons by giving some screen time to crewmembers who were slated for death in later episodes (i.e. Hogan, Jonas, Carey). But eventually they reverted to bumping off anonymous ensigns by the shuttleload. A notable subversion however occurs in "Latent Image" where the Doctor is guilt-ridden over his choice to save Harry Kim as opposed to the expendable ensign.
- And Harry Kim seems to have been intended as a subversion, as an Ensign without much of a real job on the ship, yet he's a major character.
Star Trek Enterprise. The crew never suffered any fatal casualties in the first two seasons (despite incidents like a Romulan stealth mine blowing away a section of the hull), no doubt so as to avoid the 'phaser fodder' cliché. All this changed in the third season Xindi war arc, with eighteen killed in "Azati Prime" alone. The trope is lampshaded in "The Forgotten", when Trip has to write a letter to the parents of a dead crewmember but can't remember much about her, so he keeps getting her mixed up with his Dead Little Sister. There's also two classic redshirt incidents: in "The Council" an away team takes along a MACO when entering one of the mysterious Spheres, and in Season 4 "Daedalus" Reed goes searching through a dark room for a Negative Space Wedgie with an unnamed crewmember – no guessing who gets killed on both occasions. Deliberately parodied in "In A Mirror, Darkly" where Mirror Reed puts on an Original Series redshirt with fatal consequences.
Perfectly parodied in the South Park episode "City on the Edge of Forever" the school bus is trapped teetering on the edge of a cliff and the bus driver leaves to find help, ordering the kids to remain on the bus or else a big black monster will eat them. After a long time of waiting, the children grow nervous and antsy. One of the kids- a child wearing an actual Star Trek red shirt outfit can't take the waiting and leaves the bus to find help. No black monster appears and the kid even waves back to the other kids, causing remarks from the main characters about how the bus driver must have lied... only for the big black monster to immediately appear and eat the red shirted kid.
Star Wars The Clone Wars made use of this trope in the episode Lair of Grievous, in which Jedi Master Kit Fisto was accompanied on his mission by his never-before-mentioned Padawan Nahdar Vebb and a group of clone troopers. Predictably enough, each of them had died a horrible death by the end of the episode. The writers may have actually been aware of this convention, given that the clones wore red-striped body armour.
I Was Kidnapped By Lesbian Pirates From Outer Space features at least two strips lampshading this trope, as seen here.
In the Hell Boy movies the random back up B.P.R.D. agents who accompany the titular big red guy on his missions all but define redshirt.
The Web Comic Intragalactic has its Enstant Ensigns, who are apparently mass-produced disposable clones is stylish red outfits. They work hard and die with great efficiency, some even climbing into their disposal Ensacks before the ship crashes, to save time. Then, when the ship docks, they are taken off to the Ensignerator.