Why Not More Blue and Gold Shirt Deaths?

[Red Ranger]

People:

It's a TOS cliche that the folks in red shirt are the ones who get killed most often. But I remember, esp. in the early eps, where anyone was liable to get zapped, no matter the color of their shirt.

This was more common in the first season. For example, in The Man Trap, the first few folks killed (Darnell, Sturgeon) wore blue shirts, and Green was a gold shirt. In Arena, in addition to the red shirt, a gold shirt named Lang got zapped. In Galileo Seven, gold shirts Latimer and Gaetano were killed.

I don't recall many gold or blue shirts killed in the second season, other than Commodore Decker in The Doomsday Machine, but I do recall blue shirt D'Amato being killed in the third season ep That Which Survives.

I rather miss the more random pattern of deaths in the earlier TOS eps. Made it less predictable.

Think of some other gold and blue shirts killed. And would you have liked to have seen more just to add variety to the slew of dead crew members?

Red Ranger

 

[Green Shirt]

Gold shirts?

 

[Kirby]

People:

I rather miss the more random pattern of deaths in the earlier TOS eps. Made it less predictable.

Yeah, but it's more fun to know which guy is going to buy the farm and then see how long it takes. I was always amazed when the rare red shirt actually beamed back to the ship safe and sound.

 

[GSchnitzer]

In case anyone is interested, the number of Science/Medical "Blue Shirts" who died in The Original Series is: Seven (7).

Dr. Elizabeth "Hot Lips" Dehner, who died in the line of duty on Delta-Vega after duking it out with Gary Mitchell (in "Where No Man Has Gone Before"):

Also, poor ol' Lieutenant (j.g.) Joe Tormolen from "The Naked Time:"

Crewman Darnell, who was killed by a Borgia Plant, er the "salt vampire" in "The Man Trap:"

Crewman Sturgeon (named after scriptwriter Theodore Sturgeon--who wrote "Shore Leave" and "Amok Time"), who was killed by the "salt vampire" in "The Man Trap:"

Lieutenant Arlene Galway who served in some unknown capacity in "The Deadly Years." She contracted the aging disease on Gamma Hydra II, er, IV. Notice that her case of the aging disease was particularly bad: it actually aged her official Starfleet boots into Little Old Lady shoes.

Lieutenant Karen Tracy, medical technician who gets stabbed over and over again in "Wolf In the Fold:"

Lieutenant D'Amato, senior geologist, has every individual cell blasted from within by Losira in "That Which Survives:"

So, although no place is safe, statistically, Sciences or Command is where you probably want to be.

 

[GSchnitzer]

And here are the six (6) gold/green/avacado folks who got killed. I believe I've captured them all here:

Crewman Green, killed by the "Salt Vampire" in "The Man Trap:"

Lieutenant Robert Tomlinson, killed by exposure to phaser coolant in "Balance of Terror:"

Navigator Lieutenant Latimer, killed by a crude spear in "The Galileo Seven:"

Radiation Specialist Lieutenant Gaetano, killed by a furry anthropoid in "The Galileo Seven:"

Tactical Specialist Lieutenant Commander Lang, killed on Cestus III in "Arena:"

Crewman Lieutenant Jackson, killed while on the landing party to planet Pyris VII in "Catspaw:"

Starfleet duty on board a Starship is hazardous no matter what color your uniform is.

 

[Shaw]

This is what I recall (from memory) of who died (of the Enterprise crew) in which episodes...

(if I'm missing anyone, I'll update the graphic)​

It looks to me like the second season is where the red shirt cliche got started.

 

[Danny99]

Would there be any relation to the USSR communists or "Reds" and some kind of allegory?

 

[Cuhl]

I think it's great that you guys have all this information at your fingertips.

This would make a good picture for the caption contest.

 

[Shaw]

In case anyone is interested, the number of Science/Medical "Blue Shirts" who died in The Original Series is: Six (6).

Joe Tormolen: Years from now no one is going to even remember me.

 

[Christopher]

Would there be any relation to the USSR communists or "Reds" and some kind of allegory?

Hardly. Scotty and Uhura wore red, Chekov wore gold. They just happened to have three different uniform colors, and they happened to assign gold to command and navigation, blue to science and medical, and red to everything else, including security. And as the series went on, they got into the habit of killing off security guards. If security guards had worn green, the cliche today would be "greenshirts." It's just the luck of the draw that red was chosen.

And of course it changes over time. In the TOS movies, command becomes white and security becomes grey, with engineering remaining red, at least in TMP. In TWOK and thereafter, red became the cadet uniforms' color, with engineering becoming gold. And in TNG and afterward, we returned to a three-color scheme that was somewhat the reverse of TOS: burgundy red for command and helm, teal blue for science and medical, mustard for engineering, security, and ship's services.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

In case anyone is interested, the number of Science/Medical "Blue Shirts" who died in The Original Series is: Six (6).

Joe Tormolen: Years from now no one is going to even remember me.

You have no business being remembered! No business!

 

[GSchnitzer]

In case anyone is interested, the number of Science/Medical "Blue Shirts" who died in The Original Series is: Six (6).

Joe Tormolen: Years from now no one is going to even remember me.

Yeah, I'm not really sure how I missed grabbing a shot of Lieutenant (J.G.) Joe Tormolen. So that makes seven blues killed versus only six gold/green/avacados.

 

[Redfern]

I think it's great that you guys have all this information at your fingertips.

This would make a good picture for the caption contest.

"You've been hit by...
You've been hit by...
...a smooth criminal!"



Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Myasishchev]

^ Nice.

 

[T'Girl]

'
Don't forget Gary mitchell had on a gold shirt, but I guess after Kirk dropped that boulder on him it would have been a red shirt.

Blue Shirt: "I need someone to care about me!"
Gold Shirt: Wonder if he's going to finish that sandwich ?

 

[Christopher]

Actually Gary's shirt was kind of a pinkish tan (salmon?). They had three uniform colors in the second pilot, but the tan ones and the mustard ones were so similar that people often mistake them both for gold. Here are Spock, Kirk, and Mitchell together, and you can see Mitchell's shirt is a different color:

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03hd/wherenomanhasgonebeforehd035.jpg

Scott and Kelso also wore the pinkish-tan tunics:

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03hd/wherenomanhasgonebeforehd061.jpg

Note that Alden is in blue. And look!

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03hd/wherenomanhasgonebeforehd501.jpg

Mr. Leslie is in the background, wearing blue. So security and communications wore blue as well as science and medical. Gold seemed to be reserved for command (Kirk, Spock, and the captain's yeoman), with salmon for engineering, helm, and navigation.

So really, security only wore red for a few years, starting in 2266 and ending sometime before 2273. Ironic, then, that "redshirt" has become synonymous with a short-lived security officer.

 

[Middle Earther]

The ever present Mr. Leslie! I always like watching him. He's amazing, too! How he dies and then comes back to life again. Maybe he was an android like Data!!

It was interesting looking at how many died during the run of the series. Less people died during the three year run of the series than I would think. Compare that to shows like Smallville, where people seem to be dying all the time. Or is that just my perception?

 

[Red Ranger]

Actually Gary's shirt was kind of a pinkish tan (salmon?). They had three uniform colors in the second pilot, but the tan ones and the mustard ones were so similar that people often mistake them both for gold. Here are Spock, Kirk, and Mitchell together, and you can see Mitchell's shirt is a different color:

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03hd/wherenomanhasgonebeforehd035.jpg

Scott and Kelso also wore the pinkish-tan tunics:

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03hd/wherenomanhasgonebeforehd061.jpg

Note that Alden is in blue. And look!

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03hd/wherenomanhasgonebeforehd501.jpg

Mr. Leslie is in the background, wearing blue. So security and communications wore blue as well as science and medical. Gold seemed to be reserved for command (Kirk, Spock, and the captain's yeoman), with salmon for engineering, helm, and navigation.

So really, security only wore red for a few years, starting in 2266 and ending sometime before 2273. Ironic, then, that "redshirt" has become synonymous with a short-lived security officer.

Yeah, the color scheme in Where No Man Has Gone Before is terrible! I just rewatched it the other night, and noticed there were a couple of folks wearing a darker green color, in particular, a technician in a green jumpsuit who assists Scotty in the transporter room.

Another interesting difference is it seems all the sciences people have that squiggly like scorpion-tail design in their delta patches (Piper, Dehner, Sulu), associated with operations in the later shows (Scotty, Uhura), while all the operations people have that oval in a circle design in their delta patches (Scotty, Mitchell, Kelso), associated with sciences folks later on (Spock, McCoy).

Red Ranger

 

[Tallis Rhul]

Everything changes in TNG and onwards though surely? As the redshirts become goldshirts due to the division swap...

We so need to do an analysis, I'm sure we'd get recognised by... someone... for it! Hehe.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

"My God Jim, that man is drunk! Stop trying to Riverdance, you'll only confuse him!"