John Scalzi’s Hugo Prize winning novel, Redshirts is heading to limited series thanks to FX. If you’re the captain of a 25th Century starship and are heading on a potentially hazardous away mission, you choose you’re security officer, perhaps a lieutenant and a redshirt. The purpose of this redshirt is to, well, die. Obviously, they’re not going to be saying; ‘Right Ensign NoName, come with us to die’. Instead the redshirts are a convenient plot point to show the crew in danger without actually killing off anyone we know and love (unless you’re Lieutenant Yar, and are killed by mud). 

While I may have lost the point somewhere there, you get the picture. Redshirts die. This is what Scalzi’s novel is centred around. Following the escapades of a group of new recruits on board the Starship Intrepid in the 25th Century, and they begin to realise that an unusual amount of death goes hand in hand with away missions. Whilst investigating they begin seeing links between the goings on and the plots of a 21st Century TV show.

The show is to be produced and directed by Ken Kwapis, who directed the final of The American Office, and his partner Alexandra Beattie. Also on board to produce is John Shestack (Air Force One). Shestack has gone on to describe the story. “Redshirts is a madcap, hyper-meta tale,” with Kwapis adding, “If Jorge Luis Borges had been a staff writer on the original Star Trek, he would no doubt have concocted a story like Redshirts.”

If the show has been picked up by FX, it can be assumed that we’ll see it in the UK on Fox. It might draw in the die hard trekkies who will go crazy for the references to series past. As of now, the show has yet to be set a release date, but we’ll keep you in the loop.

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