The redshirt trope is one of the most beloved quirks not just in Star Trek: The Original Series, but across TV in general. Nowadays, the term readily applies to any stock character whose sole purpose is to get killed as a means of highlighting the danger faced by the main heroes.
By their very nature, redshirts rarely covered themselves in glory. Most of Star Trek‘s redshirt deaths could have been prevented with simple precautions – don’t go near that weird-looking plant, stop standing still and shoot the damn cloud, etc. The most ridiculous redshirt demise in Star Trek: The Original Series, however, belongs to poor Lieutenant Grant from season 2’s “Friday’s Child.”
Lieutenant Grant Is Star Trek: The Original Series’ Most Ridiculous Redshirt
At the beginning of “Friday’s Child,” the landing party beams into a situation they already know to be volatile. McCoy explains at the top of the episode that inhabitants of Capella IV are a near-superhuman warrior race who routinely carry small blades called kleeats. Kirk acknowledges that the Capellans have a number of taboos crew members must avoid violating at all costs, and any show of force is off the table. The Enterprise is also aware that Klingons have been spotted nearby.
Given that vital context, it’s amazing that Lieutenant Grant manages to draw his phaser within, literally, 30 seconds of arriving on the surface of Capella IV, breaking a number of different protocols and local laws in the process. Needless to say, Grant gets a kleeat to the chest in response, which is hardly surprising.
The trigger-happy redshirt’s total inability to read the room is prompted by the presence of a Klingon among the Capellan delegation. But it really is the mere presence that provokes Grant’s aggression. The Klingon, completely unarmed, simply walks toward the front of the crowd, and Grant stupidly moves to shoot him.
At this point in the Star Trek timeline, the Federation and Klingon Empire are undoubtedly enemies and locked in a Cold War situation, but are not actively fighting. The Federation-Klingon war ended ten years prior, and the “Errand of Mercy” conflict had been resolved the previous season.
Firstly, Grant shouldn’t be as jumpy as a chilly tribble and attempt to shoot a Klingon on sight. That’s a rather dystopian, discriminatory stance that clearly isn’t shared by Kirk, Spock, or McCoy. Secondly, Grant shouldn’t try to shoot a Klingon who isn’t armed – again, this goes against everything Starfleet stands for. And, finally, Grant should respect that the Capellans are free to negotiate and host representatives from factions beyond the Federation. Phasering a Klingon on Capella IV is like phasering a guest you don’t like at someone else’s house party.
Lieutenant Grant Helped To Cement Star Trek’s Redshirt Trope
Plenty of redshirt deaths in Star Trek: The Original Series were silly, but most of these doomed officers managed to wander around the planet’s surface a little before meeting their untimely ends. Redshirts were also killed typically because they had the misfortune of encountering the episode’s “threat” before the main Enterprise crew members.
Lieutenant Grant’s death stands out because neither of those factors apply. He doesn’t get even a minute of screen time, and he never leaves his captain’s side, yet still manages to get killed. It really does feel like Star Trek: The Original Series was contractually obliged to have an officer die before the opening titles. Combined with the complete and utter lack of common sense on display, Grant unwittingly becomes the final evolution of redshirt deaths, going a long way toward establishing the iconic rule that redshirts always die.
- Release Date
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1966 – 1969-00-00
- Showrunner
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Gene Roddenberry
- Directors
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Marc Daniels, Joseph Pevney, Ralph Senensky, Vincent McEveety, Herb Wallerstein, Jud Taylor, Marvin J. Chomsky, David Alexander, Gerd Oswald, Herschel Daugherty, James Goldstone, Robert Butler, Anton Leader, Gene Nelson, Harvey Hart, Herbert Kenwith, James Komack, John Erman, John Newland, Joseph Sargent, Lawrence Dobkin, Leo Penn, Michael O’Herlihy, Murray Golden
- Writers
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D.C. Fontana, Jerome Bixby, Arthur Heinemann, David Gerrold, Jerry Sohl, Oliver Crawford, Robert Bloch, David P. Harmon, Don Ingalls, Paul Schneider, Shimon Wincelberg, Steven W. Carabatsos, Theodore Sturgeon, Jean Lisette Aroeste, Art Wallace, Adrian Spies, Barry Trivers, Don Mankiewicz, Edward J. Lakso, Fredric Brown, George Clayton Johnson, George F. Slavin, Gilbert Ralston, Harlan Ellison
