{"id":103,"date":"2010-09-15T11:43:03","date_gmt":"2010-09-15T18:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hotnerdgirl.wordpress.com\/?p=103"},"modified":"2024-02-27T07:50:36","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T07:50:36","slug":"red-shirt-blue-shirt-gold-shirt-no-shirt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/2010\/09\/15\/red-shirt-blue-shirt-gold-shirt-no-shirt\/","title":{"rendered":"Red shirt, blue shirt, gold shirt, no shirt"},"content":{"rendered":"
Oh captain my captain, what has time done?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now there’s a Dr. Suess book I could get behind.<\/p>\n

Poor, poor redshirts<\/em>. They never stand a chance.<\/p>\n

If I was a gal going in to Starfleet Academy in the year 2267, I would request a job that required a blue or gold uniform.\u00a0 Why were the redshirts<\/em> always the first to go?\u00a0 I could give you the technical answer about how red uniforms are worn by Engineering and Security personnel and one or more of them would be required to go on away missions to protect the Captain or go in first to investigate.\u00a0 But let\u2019s be honest.\u00a0 It\u2019s the \u201cblack dude dies first\u201d rule but since Star Trek is so enlightened they had to find another way of going about it.<\/p>\n

You know it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

At my first Star Trek Convention in San Francisco we were treated to some short films produced by fanboys.\u00a0 One of them (and by far the most popular) was one about redshirts<\/em>.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if this was the exact one but it is equally as humorous:<\/p>\n

[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=M3cL1Aofy90&fs=1&hl=en_US]<\/p>\n

The term \u201credshirt<\/em>\u201d has embedded itself in pop culture.\u00a0 Anyone expendable is now a redshirt<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Personally, I like to think about how Ensign Ricky would have felt about all this.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure his mama would be proud that her brave young son will always be remembered for taking one for the (away) team.<\/p>\n

By 2364 the red and gold uniforms had been swapped. I think this was a good move.\u00a0 Red is more regal and commanding than yellow is.\u00a0 It demands respect.\u00a0 The Next Generation understandably didn\u2019t want to become a joke by continuing the redshirt<\/em> joke.\u00a0 But they still needed a way to show that the bad guy was bad without killing off the main characters (Tasha Yar being the exception, but hey, she wanted out).<\/p>\n

*bitch slap* "Don't you know who I am? I am the borg! Resistance is futile, A**HOLE!"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is where The Worf Effect<\/em> comes in to play.<\/p>\n

Worf is the biggest and most badass of the good guys so if a bad guy can throw Worf across the room (which they often do) they MUST be really bad!\u00a0 Of course, Worf is a Klingon so he never really gets hurt (they leave that to falling cargo containers \u2013 far more deadly than the Borg apparently \u2013 but wait! He\u2019s got back up organs!)<\/p>\n

So the goldshirt<\/em> never really took off like the redshirt<\/em> did.\u00a0 Which is probably for the best.<\/p>\n

The blue uniforms have always been for Medical and Science personnel.\u00a0 Let\u2019s face it.\u00a0 They are far less interesting.\u00a0 Sure Dr. Crusher and Councilor Troi were hotties but Crusher covered hers up with a lab coat and Troi ditched hers altogether after the first two episodes in favor of cleavage.\u00a0 If it wasn\u2019t for Spock, the blueshirt<\/em> wouldn\u2019t even be purchased by fanboys for ComicCon and Halloween.\u00a0 It\u2019s a fact.<\/p>\n

And lastly, the no shirt.<\/em> Made famous by Captain James Tiberius Kirk.\u00a0 Whichever Orion slave girl made his uniforms had an ulterior motive because there is no reason for his uniforms to fall apart at the seams during every episode while everyone else\u2019s stay intact.\u00a0 Even while battling Spock in \u201cAmok Time\u201d Spock\u2019s uniform manages to stay in one piece while Kirk\u2019s is ripped to shreds.\u00a0 I\u2019m not complaining, I\u2019m just saying that shirt shredding should be equal opportunity amongst all of the handsome men\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026and maybe some of the women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now there’s a Dr. Suess book I could get behind. Poor, poor redshirts. They never stand a chance. If I was a gal going in to Starfleet Academy in the year 2267, I would request a job that required a blue or gold uniform.\u00a0 Why were the redshirts always the first to go?\u00a0 I could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12,13],"tags":[129,223,551,580,633,781,878,885,1027,1082,1093],"class_list":["post-103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sci-fi","category-star-trek","tag-borg","tag-crusher","tag-kirk","tag-leonard-nimoy","tag-mccoy","tag-redshirt","tag-spock","tag-star-trek","tag-troi","tag-william-shatner","tag-worf"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}