Redshirt is a term often used in fanon to designate expendable characters, or other forms of casualties on duty. This is derived from TOS episodes, where operations division crewmen wore red uniforms, of which security personnel were the most easily expended, sometimes in great numbers.
Starfleet use[]
By the 25th century Starfleet personnel referred to Security and Tactical personnel as "redshirts", a slang term derived from the color of their uniforms since the 2380s. Operations and Engineering personnel were similarly "goldshirts", while Science and Medical were "blueshirts". (Bait and Switch)
Non-Starfleet use[]
The Romulan Star Navy referred to crewmen of any division as redshirts, because many Romulan uhlans wore wine-red uniforms while in service. The Rihannsu term for redshirt is kunhri. For Romulans, it was considered insulting to refer to redshirts as casualties rather than as crewmen, dead or alive. However, according to the Federation definition of a redshirt, security was the division that yielded the most redshirts. (RIS Bouteina)
Also, the Subytts called the most intelligent people (of any species) "redshirt computers" because they were intellectually likened to computers, in a fashion. However, this term was coined by a Subytt poet. (RIS Bouteina: "Redshirt Computer")
Lyrans defined brownshirts in a similar fashion to how Romulans defined redshirts. (RIS Bouteina: "The Measure of a Romulan")
Redshirt counts[]
- This section assumes the Federation definition of a redshirt is used, i.e. as casualties. All figures shown are for all divisions unless otherwise noted.
- Star Trek: False Vacuum
- 15
- RIS Bouteina
- 356
- Stone Trek
- 22
- Star Trek: The Stoneship Files
- 108 (as of Ancient Horrors)
- Star Trek: The Original Series
- 58
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
- 62
- Star Trek: Voyager
- 44
External links[]
- Redshirt article at Memory Alpha, the canon Star Trek wiki.
- Redshirt article at Memory Beta, the non-canon Star Trek wiki.
- Redshirt (character) article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.