Warning: SPOILERS For Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3, Episode 5 - “Through The Lens Of Time"Star Trek: The Original Seriesis famous for killing off red shirts, butStar Trek: Strange New Worldshas changed this with its own trope in its prequel era. Directed by Andi Armaganian and written by Onitra Johnson and Davy Perez,Star Trek: Strange New Worldsseason 3, episode 5, “Through the Lens of Time,” brings a USS Enterprise landing party to an ancient temple on Vadia Nine.
Regularly killing off red shirts - named for theStararfleet uniform colorworn by USS Enterprise security officers - has been a hilariousStar Trek: The Original Seriestrope for decades. Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) often beams onto an alien planet accompanied by red shirts, who are swiftly and violently dispatched. It’sone ofStar Trek’s oldest and most celebrated running jokes.
However,Star Trek: Strange New Worldshas made a subtle adjustment toTOS' red shirt trope, so that a different kind of disaster awaits a certain type of USS Enterprise officer when they beam onto a strange new world.
Strange New Worlds Changed Star Trek: The Original Series' Red Shirt Running Joke
Landing Party Missions Are Now Worth Avoiding
Instead of killing off red shirts,Star Trek: Strange New Worldshas made joining your first landing party mission its running joke, because they have turned out to be tragic. InStar Trek: Strange New Worldsseason 2, Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) yearned to leave the Enterprise for her first away mission. When she finally got her wish, Ortegas was abducted by the Gorn and nearly died trying to escape.
Star Trek: Strange New Worldsseason 3, episode 5, sent a giddy Ensign Dana Gamble (Chris Myers) on his first landing party mission to Vadia Nine. Moments after entering the M’Kroon’s ancient temple, Gamble is blinded by an artifact. Upon beaming back to the Starship Enterprise, it quickly becomes clear Gamble was possessed by a malevolent entity called the Vezda.
Tragically,Ensign Gamble was killed by the Vezda’s takeover of his body.Although Dana’s mentor, Dr. Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) refused to believe it, Gamble and his memories were just a shell the Vezda used to attempt to take over the Enterprise and manipulate its crew.Strange New Worldshas quickly made first landing party missions something to avoid,
Why First Landing Party Missions Have Become Star Trek’s New Red Shirt Trope
Strange New Worlds Does Still Kill Red Shirts
As a prequel,Star Trek: Strange New Worldshas enjoyed evoking and planting seeds forStar Trek: The Original Serieswithout walking in lockstep with the future voyages of Captain Kirk’s Starship Enterprise.Killing red shirtsis synonymous withStar Trek: The Original Series, and that trope is still to come after Kirk takes over the Enterprise from Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount).
Star Trek: Strange New Worldshasn’t made a big deal about how terrible first landing party missions seem to be, but the evidence has always been there. Lt. Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannotte) was quickly injured in his first away mission inStrange New Worldsepisode 2, “Children of the Comet.” Ensign Zac Nguyen (David Huynh) went insane after Captain Pike accidently left him behind on an away mission to Rigel IV.
To be fair toStar Trek: Strange New Worlds, red shirt security officers have also died in the prequel. The Vezda killed red shirts as it tried to hijack the Enterprise. But overall, it appears safer to be a red shirt than to beam down on your first landing party mission inStar Trek: Strange New Worlds.
