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AndrewLyon

Why do red shirts die?

Alright, anyone who is a fan of Star Trek, the original series, knows if you wear a red shirt, you must die. Now someone has done an interview with a guy who watched every original episode, and predicted the chance of you biting the dust if you wear a red shirt if certain events happen.

 

Want to know more about the Red Shirt death phenom?

 

Then download episode #25 of the Stuph file

 

You can find the Stuph file at peteranthonyholder.com/podcast-0025.htm

 

Edit: To give none imbeded link.

Edited by Cmdr JFarrington

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In Star Trek Red-Shirts die because you can't very well kill the re-curring cast... yet you need someone to show that the situation is "Dire". So blast an unnamed Red-Shirted Security or Engineering dude and wah-lah "Crap's gone bad" "Situation Dire" "The End"

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Because they wanted to make a running joke that would last for centuries? But in all seriousness, pretty much what the guy above me said.

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Okay, downloaded the hour-long episode and dug the ten minutes of redshirt meat out of it. Sum of it is:

 

42% Redshirts die onboard due to some "alien" attack or whatnot.

Over 60% Redshirts die because they went on a landing party with Captain Kirk.

 

Redshirt deathrates drop to 16% when Captain Kirk meets an alien woman.

Redshirt deathrates drop to 0% when the alien woman is green.

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The idea of killing a no name character for the sake of showing a dire situation is good and all, but TOS over did it to the point of ridiculousness, when there was a redshirt, you expected them to die. There was a comic, or youtube vid or something I saw a while back that made me lol on the situation.

 

Kirk: "Alright, myself, Bones, Spock and ensign Ricky are heading down to the planet. I wont lie. Things look dire. There's a good chance one of us wont make it back."

 

Ricky: "$@!*"

 

In the end, Kirk was the one that died, which was what made it so lulzy, but still.

 

Anyway, I think you get my point. I think BSG did a much better job of this. While they never killed off any title characters (Besides Starbuck, but that doesn't really count) the characters that did die over the series were people we saw in most of the episodes. They had speaking lines. When they were gone, you noticed it, unlike poor redshirt #31.

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I thought SG did it even better, title characters did die.

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Okay, I looked up statistics and the facts are that:

 

1) Redshirts die LESS than blue and yellow shirts in season 1.

2) Redshirt deaths spiked into slaughter in season 2.

3) Redshirts were EXCLUSIVELY massacred in season 3.

4) Redshirts tend to die in groups.

5) Redshirts tend to die if there is a fight.

6) Redshirt fatalities drop if Kirk gets a girl.

7) Redshirts die more on landing parties than onboard.

 

So, I suppose it'll be safer if the Enterprise visited peaceful, women-dominated cultures by bringing them onboard.

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So, I suppose it'll be safer if the Enterprise visited peaceful, women-dominated cultures by bringing them onboard.

 

::scribbles plot notes::

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