Why Your Fashion Choices Matter!

Redshirts by John Scalzi (2012) – The starship Intrepid’s new batch of new junior officers discovers that their ship has the highest death rate among junior officers in the fleet. With the help of a crewman hiding onboard, they discover the irrational, illogical cause, and create an equally ridiculous plan to fix the problem.

Why I Liked It – John Scalzi at his hysterical, inventive best.

In the Star Trek universe, the fate of crew members in red uniform shirts is legend. Low-ranking members of the crew clad in red uniform shirts are always a good bet for a sudden, horrible death. While the death rate for “Redshirts” isn’t as bad as the fandom thinks, there’s a definite trend. Scalzi takes the idea and runs with it, cackling insanely. (OK, maybe he only does that in my head.) Here, he has a great deal of fun playing with some of the more obvious logical flaws of the beloved television series.

“Star Trek” fans are well aware of the imperfect science, poor personnel management, and weird story twists that litter the stories of the United Federation of Planets. We just don’t care that much. It’s one more thing to discuss about our favorite show. For me, the one that has never made any sense is the personnel for an away team. That’s the group that is sent from the Enterprise to whatever strange, dangerous, unexplained strangeness is happening on the planet/space station/unknown spacecraft. “We do not know what we’re facing here, except it’s probably pretty dangerous. So who should be in the first group to explore and face that danger?” “Well, the captain, of course.” “Of course. Who else?” “Let’s just load up with a bunch of the senior officers, so that if something CATASTROPHIC happens, we can be left without leadership.” “Outstanding idea! Oh, and grab that dude in the red shirt.”

They finally addressed this a little in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (ST:TNG, or simply TNG), where first officer Will Riker has an ongoing “discussion” on the subject with Captain Picard. For all the wonderful things that came from the brief run of the original series (TOS), it was still mid-1960s television. Some leaps of logic required a low gravity/logic environment. That gives Scalzi lots of elbow room to play.

So, what does the universe of the Universal Union and the fleet’s flagship, Intrepid, have to do with the starship Enterprise of the United Federation of Planets? Directly? Nothing. In its place is a television show called “The Chronicles of the Intrepid” has begun to “seep” over into the Intrepid’s reality. That still results in an always negative, often fatal, effect on the junior officer corps of the latter. The more the Intrepid crew look into the issue, the less sense it makes. Their lives are being sacrificed to a storyline intended to keep television viewers on edge for sixty minutes at a time. You can even tell when the story breaks for commercials!

Here’s the fun part. “Redshirts” is a simple send up of a classic television series. And it’s a lot of fun as that. But it’s also a look at the idea of free will, and what it may take to find the difference between being the main character in their life or an NPC. There are three characters that take a deep dive into those second questions in each of the three epilogues. As such, the book can be whatever you need it to be. A light-hearted romp through time and space with some snappy dialogue? John Scalzi has you covered. A fun read that leaves you with some serious concepts to ponder? That’s an easy brace for the author. Could I interest you in a book that takes you on a ride that doesn’t read like everything else you’ve read this year? That’s the hat trick!

Rating – **** Recommended