Where have all the redshirts gone?

[Lighthawk]

I brought this up in the Security Overhaul thread, and it's been bugging me more and more as I think about it.

In TOS, we saw Kirk routinely take security along with him. And it makes sense, the captain should have some protection on hand if he's going into a potentially dangerous situation.

In TNG and on though, security seemed to all but disappear. Away missions seemed to become the providence of the XO, which does make some sense, but how come no security? The XO might not be as important as the captain, but only just barely.

I'm trying to think of any time we saw security, aside from Worf, come along on away missions in TNG. The standard team seemed to Riker and Data, with Worf, Georid, or Crusher when their specific talents were needed. Even when they were purposefully heading into combat, they never took along any security officers besides Worf.

The only time I recall seeing security was A)When someone was in the brig, B) when picard wanted someone thrown off his bridge C) On the rare occassion Worf called for backup.

So what happened between TOS and TNG? Why did security just seem to vanish into the background, to be called upon once in a blue moon? They took a step forward in supplanting the captain with the XO on dangerous away missions, but then took a massive leap back by removing the security personal. (As poor a job as they did, they were at least good meat shields)

[Aaron]

IU? No idea really, maybe they got tired of paying out death benefits.

OOU-nothing comes to mind.

[Lazar]

In TOS, we saw Kirk routinely take security along with him. And it makes sense, the captain should have some protection on hand if he's going into a potentially dangerous situation.

Well yeah, but it would make more sense not to regularly send your captain out on landing parties. The assault on Paradise City in TFF was probably the most head-bangingly awful example of this.

[Lighthawk]

In TOS, we saw Kirk routinely take security along with him. And it makes sense, the captain should have some protection on hand if he's going into a potentially dangerous situation.

Well yeah, but it would make more sense not to regularly send your captain out on landing parties. The assault on Paradise City in TFF was probably the most head-bangingly awful example of this.

Agreed, Kirk had no business going on half the away missions he did, but at least he brought some body guards. Riker seemed to think he was such hot shit as to not even need that much.

[Sionnach Glic]

IU: They forgot the concept of actualy being careful.
OoU: They didn't want to pay more extras.

[Captain Seafort]

IU: They forgot the concept of actualy being careful.

I suspect it's a bit more than that, and probably linked to the cultural change in Starfleet and the Federation as a whole.

During TOS, the Federation was only a century old, whereas the Klingons, Romulans, etc, had been around for centuries. Humanity's view of space was that it was very big and very dangerous, plus they still had the fairly recent institutional memory of the Romulan War, the disastrous first contact with the Klingons, and probably other incidents similar to the Gorn. They didn't know what they'd encounter on beaming down to a planet for the first time, so taking a bit of backup made sense.

By TNG that attitude had dissipated. Starfleet had taken on the Galaxy and won - the Klingons were allies, the Romulans were shut up behind the Neutral Zone, and the rest of the neighbours were no match for Starfleet. They were also, collectively, a lot more experienced, and Starfleet's attitude seems to have changed from "let's see what's out there" to "we're the Federation, we're the best thing since sliced bread, let's go and introduce ourselves and the locals will bow down to our obvious superiority". Hence the lack of security - the attitude was that they were superior, therefore no-one would want to shoot at them, therefore they don't need any ability to shoot back.

[Mikey]

Excellent point. Add to that the fact of the UFP's monomaniacal dedication to keeping up appearnaces of peacefulness and benign intentions - the late 24th-century UFP is insane about not appearing threatening or warlike, and would have a neurosis about sending people who might be viewed as soldiers on a non-military away mission.

[Sionnach Glic]

Well said, Seafort.

[Mark]

I was always under the impression that they considered Data to be more than enough protection when paired with Worf (or Yar in Season 1).

Which raises a point.......if Data is an android and can compute trajectories with his superior eye hand coordination...........how could he miss with his phaser?

[Sonic Glitch]

Where have all the redshirts gone?
A generations' passing
Gone to goldshirts everyone.
When will they ever learn?

[Lazar]

Redshirtku:

Young Ensign Ricky
Nervous features, crimson shirt
Dead before first break

[Mikey]

Which raises a point.......if Data is an android and can compute trajectories with his superior eye hand coordination...........how could he miss with his phaser?

Deus ex typewriter.

[Tyyr]

Maybe they finally killed them all off and had to find other ways to look for danger other than "send in a redshirt." Could explain why everyone in TNG spent away missions with their heads in a tricorder.

[Sionnach Glic]

Hell, they probably suffered severe recruiting problems trying to get new redshirts, so decided to stop killing them all off.

[Sonic Glitch]

Hell, they probably suffered severe recruiting problems trying to get new redshirts, so decided to stop killing them all off.

This makes me think of a more correct edit of the song than what I did earlier:

"Where have all the Redshirts gone?
Gone to graveyards everyone
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?