056. REDSHIRTS (2012).

REDSHIRTS by John Scalzi (2012).

Newly assigned Ensign Andrew Dahl and his friends in spaceship Intrepid, Universal Union’s flagship, finds out that they just might be extras of the badly written, Star Trek rip-off, TV show from other Universe in which everyone, except captain and his four men crew, constantly get killed for no apparent reasons than to get the story going.

Sounds crazy?

Not if it is written by amazingly talented (and funny) John Scalzi who is one of those writers who can balance the insane imagination and reality like demi-God!!

The entire story hold up brilliantly as a space action comedy and satire of old SF TV show.

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layers. – Andrew Dahl. A hero and a leader of the story. A smart one who figures out the problem and comes up with all the good plans. 

He is originally some sort of a religious monk but decides to join the force to explore the universe and so on….

Speaks several foreign alien languages and again, is the brain of the whole crews who try to survive the crazy situation.

Maia Duvall.  The only female in a team. Hot-headed and short temper.

James Hanson.  The son of the third richest man in entire universe which means he probably owns one quarter of the entire universe. Literary, he is richer than God.

After realizing Andrew is the only person he has ever met who doesn’t care about his money, he approaches Andrew and becomes a good friend of him.

Finn. Wise-ass guy who acts and talks tough but actually a quite good man.

Hester. Just one of those guy who is just there and doing nothing really special until the circumstance turns him into the biggest piece to solve the situation.

Jenkins. After his wife’s death by a strange accident, he spends day and night trying to figure out why.

However, after he DID find out what’s going on in “Intrepid”, he got so scared, he decides to hide somewhere behind the wall of warehouse block in order to hide from ………..destiny, I think.

He is completely isolated from outside until Andrew finds out where he is.

Some sort of crazy, reclusive genius who provides answers to all the questions surrounding Intrepid which, by the way, sounds so insane, only Andrew is open enough to believe them.

The Universal Union Capital Ship “Intrepid”. Flagship of the Universal Union since 2456. It is in front of almost every deadly mission where dead body piles up like dirty laundries. Enterprise-kind of ship.

Here is the list of five crew members who always come back alive from their missions.

Q’eeng. Science officer.

Capt. Abernathy. 

Admiral Davis.
Chief Engineer Paul West.

Lieutenant Kerensky. He gets nearly-killed with every mission he is in but never dies no matter what. Ever.

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lace. –Earth. Past and present. Literary. I’ll explain it later.

And also, Intrepid, off course. Intrepid is a spaceship which could be come right out of any Star Trek episodes.

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lot. – This is where the genius of John Scalzi shines. 

After assigned to famous Intrepid, team of main characters lead by Dahl discovered that, with some kind of inter-dimensional twist, they are actually part of stupid TV show called “Chronicles of the Intrepid” which is aired in US during early 21th century. So they are basically characters from that show and their collective lives are totally depend on the episodes, or more specifically, the writers and producers of that show.

What is worse is that none of them are Main Characters!! Which, off course, means that Andrew and all his friends who are the main characters in this book are in fact just extras in “Chronicles of the Intrepid” , therefore can be replaced(killed) whenever writers/producers think they need some actions in the storyline. 

Now, if you watch any old episodes of Star Trek, you will notice that no matter what happen, Main Characters never get killed. It is only the extras that get burned, shot and exploded at the end of each episodes. And That is what’s been happening in Intrepid for years. 

So, Intrepid is getting new recruits and putting them in dangerous missions with Main Characters constantly and one by one, they (only rookies, off course) get killed spectacularly by space worms, aliens, manic robots, viruses or whatever makes it interesting for the show.


After they figure out the situation, Andrew and Jenkins concludes that the only way to fix the problem is going back to the 21^st century and stop the show before it gets everyone killed. 

I know the plot sounds crazy but, you know what? If you actually start reading it, you won’t feel like going through some cheap SF show or stupid kiddy book. THIS BOOK ACTUALLY WORKS!! 

And believe or not, there are some good storyline in between the actions involving a friendship, sacrifice, self-discovery and long lost love.

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erdict. This book is a strong proof that if 

1. you know what you are doing 

2. you are trying really hard to nail down all the details

3. and also extremely GREAT at your craft,

then you can pretty much write about anything about whatever you want!!

I haven’t had a chance to read any other books written by him. But at least for this book alone, John Scalzi is a master of his own unique 9and funny) universe!! 

This is a genius at work!!

ps) The title REDSHIRTS comes from original Star Trek where they dress up poor dudes who always get killed before first commercial break with a REDSHIRT. So if you get to wear a REDSHIRT, you will either get vaporized or shot to dead real soon. Therefore, the moral of the story is NOT to wear a REDSHIRT.