# Magic: The Gathering Star Trek Perfectly Captures the Sci-Fi Show’s Most Brutal Running Joke

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/magic-the-gathering-star-trek-perfectly-captures-the-sci-fi-shows-most-brutal-running-joke/
- Published: 2026-11-07T11:00:17+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-07T11:20:07+00:00
- Original publisher: Polygon
- Original article: https://www.polygon.com/star-trek-redshirts-tokens-explainer/
- Topics: Celebrity, Entertainment

## Key points

- Red Officer tokens nod to Star Trek’s redshirt trope.
- The trope began with expendable security and operations staff.
- In Magic, the tokens can protect or support other cards.

## Summary

The *Magic: The Gathering* Star Trek set makes many cards create red 1/1 Officer tokens, even when the cards themselves are other colours. The choice reflects the Star Trek “redshirt” joke: unnamed security and operations officers often died on away missions, signalling danger while the main characters remained safe.

In *The Original Series*, red uniforms marked security and operations staff, while gold and blue denoted command and science or medical roles. The trope endured even after *The Next Generation* changed uniform colours, and later appeared in works such as John Scalzi’s novel *Redshirts* and the film *Galaxy Quest*. In the game, the Officers can be sacrificed or used to block, but also help with effects such as stationing spacecraft or finding one with Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

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