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Redshirts
On the USS Intrepid, a starship plagued by absurdly high casualty rates among its junior "redshirt" crew, new recruit Andy Dal can’t shake the feeling something’s deeply off. Crewmates vanish in ridiculous, senseless ways—eaten by ice sharks, torn apart by rogue forklifts, devoured by Borgovian land worms—while senior officers miraculously survive every disaster. When Dal teams up with a ragtag group of fellow redshirts, they uncover the shocking truth from reclusive programmer Jenkins: they’re not real humans—they’re background characters in a cheesy 21st-century sci-fi TV show, where their deaths are just cheap plot devices to boost drama. Determined to take control of their fates, the team hijacks a shuttle, kidnaps a main character officer for his plot armor, and travels back to 2012 Earth. There, they confront the show’s creators, strike a deal to end the senseless redshirt deaths, and orchestrate an identity swap that saves a dying boy’s life. Blending sharp satire, heartfelt humor, and clever meta-commentary, *Redshirts* turns sci-fi tropes on their head, asking what it means to be alive—even if you’re just a character on a screen.
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