History Fridge / Redshirts

!FridgeHorror
* In ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' science officers wore blue shirts, only engineering and security personnel got the lethal red shirt. Shouldn't Dahl's status as a linguist in an exobiology department make him a blue shirt? It's a sort of subversion of the title in a meta sense for a really meta book. Dahl has to be a MauveShirt because if he was an actual RedShirt, like Davis, then he'd die before we even got a story.
** The title may refer to the point in the novel where [[spoiler:the actor playing Dahl {{Lampshades}} this Trope, calling his own character a RedShirt in the process.]] The confused reaction from Dahl and the other characters who heard the comment suggested to me that they weren't ''literally'' wearing Red Shirts, despite the book's cover suggesting otherwise. That, or ''everyone'' on the Intrepid wore red uniforms, with rank/department being marked out by some other form of insignia, so they didn't understand why their wearing red shirts was in any way linked to their being singled out for punishment. As for the fact that Dahl and co. are actually Mauve Shirts [[MindScrew (possibly wearing Blue Shirts)]] - not as many people are familiar with this phrase, whereas most people even passingly familiar with ''Franchise/StarTrek'' and its influence on popular culture know what a RedShirt is, so that's the phrase that's used in the novel. Of course, and most importantly, ''Red Shirts'' makes a much cooler (and more immediately understandable/culturally relevant) title than ''Mauve Shirts'' or ''Blue Shirts''.
** It's also worth noting that the red shirt thing has always been more CommonKnowledge than actual Trek practice. Not a single Red Shirt dies for the first three or four episodes of the show (the first on-screen deaths were a Gold Shirt in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and a Blue Shirt (who [[HilariousInHindsight lost the]] [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith will to live]]) in "The Naked Time." Also, while Red Shirt deaths are common in the original show, they are also the ''least'' likely to die when the distribution of shirt colors is factored in (more Red Shirts die on screen because there are more Red Shirts on the crew). To make it more confusing, as soon as ''The Next Generation'' premiered, they had swapped the uniform colors around so that the command staff mostly wore Red Shirts and it was the Security and Engineering guys who wore Gold and were subjected to attacks by angry aliens and difficult engineering challenges.

* Every time the characters meet a [[spoiler:cast member who played one of their deceased friends from the show]], it turns out they have [[spoiler: gotten out of show business and seem to be happier for it.]] Hester [[spoiler:discovers that his actor, Matt Paulson, is in a coma on the verge of death]] and decides to risk his life to save him. [[spoiler: The codas imply that Matt is about to get his life in gear and move on as well.]]

* Is it a coincidence that the character who first has an inkling of what's going on is the one [[spoiler:played by the head writer?]] Or does [[spoiler:Jenkins]] understand how flimsy their universe is because [[spoiler: Nick Weinstein]] knows how flimsy it is?

* Every time the characters meet a [[spoiler:cast member who played one of their deceased friends from the show]], it turns out they have [[spoiler: gotten out of show business and seem to be happier for it.]] Hester [[spoiler:discovers that his actor, Matt Paulson, is in a coma on the verge of death]] and decides to risk his life to save him. [[spoiler: The codas imply that Matt is about to get his life in gear and move on as well.]]

* The [[SandWorm Borgovian Land Worms]] can't be fought off with pulse guns because pulse guns just drive them into a frenzy. Late in the book, it's revealed that [[spoiler: the Land Worms were written in by a writer who was a fan of ''{{Franchise/Dune}}'', and the similarities were strong enough to result in a lawsuit. Sure enough, in the ''Dune'' books, laser guns can't be used in the desert because they drive the sandworms into a frenzy.]]

* Every time the characters meet a [[spoiler:cast member who played one of their deceased friends from the show]], it turns out they have [[spoiler: gotten out of show business and seem to be happier for it.]] Hester [[spoiler:discovers that his actor, Matt Paulson, is in a coma on the verge of death]] and decides to risk his life to save him. [[spoiler: The codas imply that Matt is about to get his life in gear and move on as well.]]

!FridgeBrilliance:

** One big red flag that the Writers' Universe was also fictional was that the black hole trick worked in both directions. If it were RealLife, [[RealityEnsues the crew would have died from trying to fly too close to a black hole. ]] Not to mention the fact that the "atom thing" was ever a real threat at all.

* Every time the characters meet a [[spoiler: castmember who played one of their deceased friends from the show]], it turns out they have [[spoiler: gotten out of show business and seem to be happier for it.]] Hester [[spoiler: discovers that his actor, Matt Paulson, is in a coma on the verge of death]] and decides to risk his life to save him. [[spoiler: The codas imply that Matt is about to get his life in gear and move on as well.]]

* Every time the characters meet a castmember who played one of their deceased friends from the show, it turns out they have gotten out of showbusiness and seem to be happier for it.

* FridgeBrilliance: Early in the book it's established that the ''Intrepid'' universe is a 'parallel' one created by somebody in (from their point of view) the past. If that's true, however, traveling into the past ''shouldn't'' insert them into the Writers' Universe: they should have ended up in the past of the Fictional Universe just as Abernathy, Q'eeng and so forth have done in previous Narrative incidents. ''Yet time travel worked.'' This is because the ''meta-''Narrative, the one that Dahl later deduces must exist (using other facts) - the one written by Scalzi and read by you - requires Dahl and his companions to make the continuity jump.

* Is it a coincidence that the character who first has an inkling of what's going on is the one [[spoiler:played by the head writer?]] Or does [[spoiler:Jenkins]] understand how flimsy their universe is because [[spoiler: Nick Weinstein]] knows how flimsy it is?

** It's also worth noting that the red shirt thing has always been more CommonKnowledge than actual Trek lore. Not a single Red Shirt dies for the first three or four episodes of the show (the first on-screen deaths were a Gold Shirt in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and a Blue Shirt (who [[HilariousInHindsight lost the]] [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith will to live]]) in "The Naked Time." Also, while Red Shirt deaths are common in the original show, they are also the ''least'' likely to die when the distribution of shirt colors is factored in (more Red Shirts die on screen because there are more Red Shirts on the crew). To make it more confusing, as soon as ''The Next Generation'' premiered, they had swapped the uniform colors around so that the command staff mostly wore Red Shirts and it was the Security and Engineering guys who wore Gold and were subjected to attacks by angry aliens and difficult engineering challenges.

* FridgeBrilliance: Early in the book it's established that the ''Intrepid'' universe is a 'parallel' one created by somebody in (from their point of view) the past. If that's true, however, traveling into the past ''shouldn't'' insert them into the Writers' Universe: they should have ended up in the past of the Fictional Universe just as Abernathy, Q'eeng and so forth have done in previous Narrative incidents. ''Yet time travel worked.'' This is because the ''meta-''Narrative, the one that Dahl later deduces must exist (using other facts) - the one written by Scalzi and read by you - requires Dahl and his companions to make the continuity jump.

** This Troper got the impression that the title referred to the point in the novel where [[spoiler:the actor playing Dahl {{Lampshades}} this Trope, calling his own character a RedShirt in the process.]] The confused reaction from Dahl and the other characters who heard the comment suggested to me that they weren't ''literally'' wearing Red Shirts, despite the book's cover suggesting otherwise. That, or ''everyone'' on the Intrepid wore red uniforms, with rank/department being marked out by some other form of insignia, so they didn't understand why their wearing red shirts was in any way linked to their being singled out for punishment. As for the fact that Dahl and co. are actually Mauve Shirts [[MindScrew (possibly wearing Blue Shirts)]] - I guess not as many people are familiar with this phrase (certainly I for one have only ever encountered it on TV Tropes) whereas most people even passingly familiar with ''Franchise/StarTrek'' and its influence on popular culture know what a RedShirt is, so that's the phrase that's used in the novel. Of course, and most importantly, ''Red Shirts'' makes a much cooler (and more immediately understandable/culturally relevant) title than ''Mauve Shirts'' or ''Blue Shirts'', I guess?

* FridgeBrilliance: Early in the book it's established that the ''Intrepid'' universe is a 'parallel' one created by somebody in (from their point of view) the past. If that's true, however, traveling into the past ''shouldn't'' insert them into the Writers' Universe: they should have ended up in the past of the Fictional Universe just as Abernathy, Q'eeng and so forth have done in previous Narrative incidents. ''Yet time travel worked.'' This is because the ''meta-''Narrative, the one that Dahl later deduces must exist (using other facts) - the one written by Scalzi and read by you - requires Dahl and his companions to make the continuity jump.

* FridgeBrilliance: Early in the book it's established that the ''Intrepid'' universe is a 'parallel' one created by somebody in (from their point of view) the past. If that's true, however, traveling into the past ''shouldn't'' put them in the same universe as the Writers' Universe: they should have ended up in the past of the Fictional Universe just as Abernathy, Q'eeng and so forth have done in previous Narrative incidents. ''Yet time travel worked.'' This is because the ''meta-''Narrative, the one that Dahl later deduces must exist (using other facts) - the one written by Scalzi and read by you - requires Dahl and his companions to make the continuity jump.

* In StarTrekTOS science officers wore blue shirts, only engineering and security personnel got the lethal red shirt. Shouldn't Dahl's status as a linguist in an exobiology department make him a blue shirt? It's a sort of subversion of the title in a meta sense for a really meta book. Dahl has to be a MauveShirt because if he was an actual RedShirt, like Davis, then he'd die before we even got a story.
** This Troper got the impression that the title referred to the point in the novel where [[spoiler:the actor playing Dahl {{Lampshades}} this Trope, calling his own character a RedShirt in the process.]] The confused reaction from Dahl and the other characters who heard the comment suggested to me that they weren't ''literally'' wearing Red Shirts, despite the book's cover suggesting otherwise. That, or ''everyone'' on the Intrepid wore red uniforms, with rank/department being marked out by some other form of insignia, so they didn't understand why their wearing red shirts was in any way linked to their being singled out for punishment. As for the fact that Dahl and co. are actually Mauve Shirts [[MindScrew (possibly wearing Blue Shirts)]] - I guess not as many people are familiar with this phrase (certainly I for one have only ever encountered it on TV Tropes) whereas most people even passingly familiar with ''StarTrek'' and its influence on popular culture know what a RedShirt is, so that's the phrase that's used in the novel. Of course, and most importantly, ''Red Shirts'' makes a much cooler (and more immediately understandable/culturally relevant) title than ''Mauve Shirts'' or ''Blue Shirts'', I guess?

* In StarTrekTOS science officers wore blue shirts, only engineering and security personal got the lethal red shirt. Shouldn't Dahl's status as a linguist in a exobiology department make him a blue shirt? It's a sort of subversion of the title in a meta sense for a really meta book. Dahl has to be a MauveShirt because if he was an actual RedShirt, like Davis, then he'd die before we even got a story.
** This Troper got the impression that the title referred to the point in the novel where [[spoiler:the actor playing Dahl {{Lampshades}} this Trope, calling his own character a RedShirt in the process.]] The confused reaction from Dahl and the other characters who heard the comment suggested to me that they weren't ''literally'' wearing Red Shirts, despite the book's cover suggesting otherwise. That, or ''everyone'' on the Intrepid wore red uniforms, with rank/department being marked out by some other form of insignia, so they didn't understand why their wearing red shirts was anyway linked to their being singled out for punishment. As for the fact that Dahl and co. are actually Mauve Shirts [[MindScrew (possibly wearing Blue Shirts)]] - I guess not as many people are familiar with this phrase (certainly I for one have only ever encountered on TV Tropes) whereas most people even passingly familiar with ''StarTrek'' and its influence on popular culture know what a RedShirt is, so that's the phrase that's used in the novel. Of course, and most importantly, ''Red Shirts'' makes a much cooler (and more immediately understandable/culturally relevant) title than ''Mauve Shirts'' or ''Blue Shirts'', I guess?

* In StarTrekTOS science officers wore blue shirts, only engineering and security personal got the lethal red shirt. Shouldn't Dahl's status as a linguist in a exobiology department make him a blue shirt? It's a sort of subversion of the title in a meta sense for a really meta book. Dahl has to be a MauveShirt because if he was an actual RedShirt, like Davis, then he'd die before we even got a story.