Where have all the redshirts gone?

[Bryan Moore]

I'm sort of of the opinion that the producers likely kept the redshirts off the away teams because they had already been so cliched as being a guaranteed death. Moreover, if you look at the TNG away missions, they're very often of a far more diplomatic nature than in TOS. WHile I agree it makes sense to send security along, the TNG series was far less Captain-centric (yes, I'm using that as a word), and the plots weren't centered around the captain getting into a fight with an alien or getting into a humping match with a hot alien woman, making the whole away formula of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Ensign Billy a lot less necessary.

[Mark]

So, instead they have the "Standard Issue" away team. Of course, in TNG we didn't see them beam down to planets like Kirk & co. and make first contact as they did in TOS. They barely EVER lost a member of a landing party. It seemed like they had all the answers by TNG.

[Tyyr]

You also have to remember that they spent a lot more time doing Federation busy work in TNG. TOS spent a lot more time on the frontier. Quite a bit more intrinsic danger for the TOS redshirts.

[Mikey]

IU, we also saw a fair bit of technological improvement from TOS to TNG. I daresay that there's a lot of info that could be gotten from orbit in TNG that required an away team in TOS.

[JudgeKing]

Natural Selection rang true and the redshirts became better therefore increasing their survival rates. Evolution in action I tell you.

Sorry to necro.

[Mikey]

Natural Selection rang true and the redshirts became better therefore increasing their survival rates. Evolution in action I tell you.

Sorry to necro.

Or, they all just Darwined their way out of the gene pool.

[Tyyr]

Of course it could just be a Kirk thing or a Picard thing. Maybe one or the other of them is the exception. Maybe Kirk just took redshirts as a matter of habit while Picard let Riker and company run around without them.

[Vic]

And Picard's plans to get rid of Riker failed time after time, foiled by the character shield Riker seemed to be able to call up at will.

[Sionnach Glic]

Of course it could just be a Kirk thing or a Picard thing. Maybe one or the other of them is the exception. Maybe Kirk just took redshirts as a matter of habit while Picard let Riker and company run around without them.

Or maybe it's a change in Starfleet procedure. Back in TOS, it was probably standard practice to take guards with you on a mission. In the more pacifistic TNG Federation, it's possible they dropped that requirement of away teams.

[Captain Seafort]

Or even banned them, so as not to appear hostile.

[Tyyr]

That's just stupid enough to be plausible.

[Mark]

I think it has to do more with a show of faith and good will. They don't bring "bodyguards" as the are MUCH more diplimatic than the TOS Federation. Plus, how many honest to goodness first contacts did we see in TNG vs TOS? Kirk and co. were exploring a brand new planet all the time, where humans never set foot before. Not so much in TNG.