The term Red Shirt refers to security personnel from the USS Enterprise in the original Star Trek series, sent along on Away Teams, presumably to protect the more familiar characters. Unfortunately, they usually just ended up being killed, often times off-camera, by whatever was menacing the ship and crew in that particular episode. Thus, to suffer a Red Shirt Death is to be killed quickly, pointlessly and ignonimously.
by Ozzwepay May 14, 2009