In keeping with the seasons festive spirits, why don't we celebrate Star Trek's itchy trigger finger 'Red Shirts' with a burst of nostalgia. Many of us already know, the curse of the Redshirt began with Captain Kirk's five year mission enforcing peace in the galaxy, firing phasers first and asking questions later. Fans know that the USS Enterprise NCC 1701 has standing orders to investigate all interstellar phenomena wherever they may be which is totally cool.
Kirk's starship has afterall an endless supply of 'marines' to serve and protect which is really neat. When things get dicey, Kirk calls in the 'Red Shirts' to scope out mystery alien planets etc just in case. Which usually pays off big time until you add the fatalities up.: At the start of Star Trek TOS, the USS Enterprise NCC 1701 had a Starfleet family of 430 men and women.
Remember Rayborne? Poor fellow was assigned as a security guard to protect Kirk's Enterprise. While on a landing detail to Exo III, Raybourne is left at the entrance of a cavern while Captain Kirk and Nurse Chapel are led by Dr Brown to meet Dr Roger Korby. All is never what it seems in star trek. The music steps up a few beats and a strange creature steps out from within Exo's shadows. Unfortunately Raybourne meets Ruk, an ancient, advanced 'old one' left over from a byegone era. Android Ruk does his job only too well and protects!
So you see of the 430 Enterprise crew, 59 Starfleets died during the call of duty. Among our fallen heroes 6 were goldshirts. 5 were blueshirts and 4 were from Scotty's engineering dept (RED) but get this, 43 died defending their ship because they were 'REDSHIRTS.' To put it in Dr Mc Coys lingo, 'Hes dead Jim.'
To roll in with some cosmic festive fun heres a list of Redshirts that fell honorably during Enterprise duty . Can you tell which ones survived Captain Kirk's reign of exploration and LIVED? Who escapes a court martial but is later killed by a Ceti Alpha V creature?
1. Lieutenant Compton - 'Wink of an Eye' Ageing/Cellular damage.
2. Lieutenant Desalle - 'Arena', 'The Squire of Gothos', 'This side of Paradise', 'Catspaw'.
3. Lieutenant Galloway - 'Miri', 'A Taste of Armageddon', 'The City on the Edge of Forever', 'The Omega Glory'. Phaser blast
4. Ensign Garrovich - 'Obsession'.
5. Lieutenant Commander Giotto - 'Devil in the Dark'.
6. Ensign Harper - 'The Ultimate Computer'. Vaporized
7. Lieutenant Grant - 'Friday's Child'. Speared
8. Lieutenant Kaplan - 'The Apple'. Lightening
9. Lieutenant Kyle - 'Tomorrow is Yesterday'.
10. Yeoman Landon - 'The Apple'.
11. Lieutenant Mallory - 'The Apple'. Explosive Rocks.
12. Crewman Marple - ' The Apple'. Clubbed.
13. Lieutenant Marla McGivers - 'Space Seed'. Madness.
14. Crewman Montgomery - 'The Doomsday Machine'.
15. Ann Mulhall - ' Return to Eden'.
16. Lieutenant O' Herlihy - 'Arena'. Phasered.
17. Lieutenant Osborne - 'A Taste of Aramegeddon'. Disintegration Chamber, Stay of Execution
18. Lieutenant Palmer - 'The Doomsday machine, The Way to Eden'.
19. Crewman Raybourne - ' What Are Little Girls made of?' Thrown off a ledge.
20. Ensign Rizzo - Obsession'. Salt Vampire.
Holiday Long and Prosper, Trekkies and Trekkers.
8 comments:
Forty-three red shirts died in the line of duty? That was a huge chunk of the population on the Enterprise.
Spacerguy, you have an awesome Christmas!
brilliant, red and missed!
Redshirts typically ended up losing out to alien lifeforms, monsters, strange anomalies and even poisonous dart plants! Thanks Alex
Amazingly Jeremy, Star Trek's creator Gene Roddenberry flew 89 combat missions during WWII. Star Trek speaks up for every Redshirt who serves and protects the nation for the greater good.
Wow... I never knew Roddenberry was a combat flier... that's pretty awesome - and that his ashes were flown into space, right?
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy non-red shirt wearing New Year :)
Red Shirts are a classic Star Trek tradition. I was surprised when I found out Martin Goldsmith (Most interesting man) was a red shirt and survived!
Roddenberry really is the 'Great Bird of the Galaxy' Mark.
Redshirts typically die hard and fast scoping out dicey scenarios. When one survives its like wow, Maurice. The actor's survivor story is always so unique.
What an awesome tribute to the fallen Red Shirts. At least they dress appropriately for the holidays! :)
I wanted to include female 'redshirts' too, although technically one could argue a real 'redshirt' dies fighting on the front lines.
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