I'm Alive (Not for Long, Though)
Any student of classic Star Trek knows that one's sartorial choices have a direct impact on your potential longevity. So much so, in fact, that the term "redshirt" has come into general usage in sci-fi fandom to denote "the minor character who won't make it to the end of the episode." As evidence that color choices matter, allow me to present this amusing video montage:
The music is "I'm Alive" by ELO (that's the Electric Light Orchestra, for you young'uns in the audience). Extra credit to the first commenter who can name the one episode that racks up the highest redshirt body count (a clip from said episode begins this video, if that helps at all).
Comments
Don't know the eposide.
But!
Riker was a redshirt. Picard was redshirt.
Plus the tall blueish-bald dude. Is that the same guy who played the servant in the original Adams Family film? (Carel Struycken looked it up on wiki)
Posted by: Kisintin | August 8, 2008 12:25 PM
Ah, but we're talking classic Trek rules now, the original series. Next Gen messed everything up by putting everybody in red. :)
Posted by: jason | August 8, 2008 12:44 PM
umm, was it "Obsession"?
Posted by: mikeg | August 8, 2008 7:05 PM
Star Trek fans all over the Buffalo area had great cause to laugh when one of our local HMOs unveiled this PR campaign....
Posted by: Jaquandor | August 8, 2008 8:19 PM
UGH, I've seen that episode but I can't remember the name!! D:
Posted by: Jen B | August 8, 2008 10:32 PM
Mike, that's an excellent guess... and actually it's probably got a pretty close body count to the one I'm thinking of... but I'm pretty sure the hands-down winner for redshirt termination has got to be "The Apple," the one with the evil computer in the shape of a giant papier-mache serpent's head. In that one, we see hapless security guards hit with poison thorn-darts, zapped by lightning, blown up by exploding chunks of styrofoam, er, rock, and bashed over the head by vacant-eyed natives.
Jaquandor, that ad is a total hoot! What did those poor people ever do to deserve "the redshirt treatment?" Surely that's something you'd save only for the worst of the worst!
Posted by: jason | August 9, 2008 12:16 AM
Hm. This is interesting. According to Memory Alpha, there are actually three episodes that tie for the number of redshirt deaths, all occurring in the show's second season (bad time to get transferred to the Enterprise!): "The Apple," "Obsession," and "The Changeling" all featured four redshirts getting nuked. So, Mike, you were correct after all! At least as correct as I was...
(The article also notes that in terms of total crew deaths, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," the show's second pilot, wins with 12 killed, but if you want to get really technical -- and geeky -- they weren't redshirts, because no one in that ep had the red costumes. They were introduced later in the show's run. God, I am such a nerd.)
Posted by: jason | August 9, 2008 12:21 AM