YMMV / Redshirts

• Catharsis Factor: The more experienced members of the crew largely survive by avoiding the Interpid's command staff, usually by putting hapless less-experienced crew in their path. The command staff, for their part, are utterly unaware of the correlation between their presence and the deaths of their subordinates. In the climax, Dahl brings Lieutenant Kerensky to the Xenobiology Lab to use The Box, and Kerensky basically tells Collins to shut up and get out of the way when she complains about Dahl's actions.
• Ending Fatigue: The book's plot ends, and then there's a scene that feels tacked-on where Dahl realizes he's in a book, followed by the codas, which stretch on even longer.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The main cast spends most of their time actively avoiding Kerensky until the third act. Nonetheless, fans like him quite a bit for being a humorous Handsome Lech who at least tries to befriend the main characters and has a surprisingly emotional drunken speech about how messed up his life is due to factors he can't begin to understand.
  • Dahl's lab mate Mbeke is no less of a Dirty Coward and Cargo Cult member than the rest of the veteran crew members, but she still has some fans due to having some good lines and a few Pet the Dog moments.
  • Paulson, the producer of the show in the real world, due to how he is going through a scary ordeal and is surprisingly reasonable while dealing with the main cast.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Naming the head writer of the show Weinstein was probably not wise.
• Spoiled by the Format: Averted in the main story, which ends three-quarters of the way through the book.

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