Star Trek has achieved many things since its creation in the late 1960s, from influencing modern technology, to creating a vast and blossoming universe that has been the inspiration for the plethora of Star Trek TV shows and movies. While the shows have changed a lot over the year, veering away from the classic show that Gene Roddenberry envisioned right from the start, that’s not to say the effect of The Original Series is not felt today.
The good old days of space pioneering is referenced a lot within the modern iterations into the franchise, but they are also referenced a lot with modern day culture. From memes about Spock, to that famous, albeit misquoted, "beam me up Scottie," they’re all common knowledge to those who haven’t even seen the shows. However, there is one misconception that has spread through the internet like wildfire: A red shirt means death.
Where The Red Shirt Curse Comes From
The misconception has produced various memes and even catchphrases to those watching The Original Series, and stems from the perception that if a crew member was wearing a red uniform, they are far more likely to die than the other members of the crew. (This is specific to The Original Series specific, as in later additions into the Star Trek universe, the uniforms changed: red became the color of command positions, with yellow switching to security.) It’s often joked that in a scene where there is an officer in red, they will most likely meet their demise in whatever mission they were being sent on. Fans joke that crew members would tremble in their boots upon hearing they are not only going to be going to fight some deadly Gorn for example, but that they were going to be donning the cursed red uniform.
To a certain extent, this is true. The Original Series shows the untimely demise of 25 redshirts in total over the three seasons that it aired, where only 10 gold-attired officers, and eight blue-uniformed officers died. While this may seem like confirmation of the redshirt curse, it’s important to remember what these uniforms meant. In The Original Series, as well as the Kelvin timeline Star Trek films, gold uniforms were reserved for those in positions of command, including the one and only Captain Kirk, and helmsman Lieutenant Sulu. Blue uniforms were worn by the science officers, including the medical staff and the ever so cheerful Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy. Lastly, red was for the real nitty-gritty, hard workers of Starfleet. This included engineering and, most notably, security.
It makes sense, then that with security in red, the redshirts were more likely to perish. Simply put, they were the ones whose job it was to be in harm's way. When Kirk would need a team of people to scout a planet or area out, he wasn't going to send down a whole load of doctors; he would send the highly trained and often deadly team of security officers. While these people were not quite at pre-heartbreak Worf levels of greatness, these were still the best fighters Starfleet had to officer. It was also a great way for the show writers to show how dangerous a situation was, to kill a non-vital character who just so happened to be a security officer. It’s also worth noting here that the red uniform color was also shared with engineering. Both the the groundbreaking Uhura and tough nut Scotty survived the entire show, despite their red attire.
Why The Curse Isn't Real
So why is the redshirt curse a misconception, despite it being proven that more redshirts die than any other color? This comes down to the wonderful world of mathematics and statistics. While 25 redshirts sounds like a lot, the crew of the USS Enterprise comprised, at least to begin with, 239 redshirts on active duty. This means that approximately 10% of the redshirts perished during the three seasons. Compare this to the 55 yellow-shirted command officers, 10 of whom died — this makes the mortality rate of yellow uniforms around 18%, almost twice as high as the redshirts. It seems to be far more dangerous to work in command during these dangerous Federation missions. Meanwhile, only 6% of blue shirts died during the show — it seems this is the safest color.
Star Trek has created a world rich with history, a lot of it taking on a life of its own and transcending the confines of the fiction world into the real one. With warp drives being researched seriously in modern science, and the almost universally recognized hand gesture for living long and prospering, it’s only fair that over the years things will have been exaggerated somewhat. While a lot of red shirts do die during the show, donning the red uniform strangely gives one a greater chance of survival than being in command. They really should have told Kirk about this before his expedition started.