In our recent Episode of Voyjourn (Unity) the question was asked about the number of Causalities the USS Voyager has taken since the start of the series. It certainly has been a disturbing aspect of Star Trek culture from the very beginning that so many little known characters can die without further mention or even grief. The casual way such ‘causalities’ are treated has given rise to the “Red Shirt” phenomenon where a crew member who is dressed in red and has a name we have not heard before is in serious danger of becoming a casualty in order to advance the plot or remind us, the viewers, that dangers in this universe are real and fatal.
In Voyager this becomes acutely obvious as there are a limited number of crew to kill off in such a way and yet it still seems that we can move past such fatalities with little more than a nod and a sniff. To honour each of them properly here they are:
Frank Darwin (killed by Suder) Innocense Bennet (died in shuttle crash) Basics I 1 crewmember (killed by Kazon) Probably more… After season 2, there should be at most 144 or 145 crew members left.
Then…
What a list right! you might also notice that most of them are in gold uniforms and that is because Gold is the new Red.
To each of those lost in the line of duty ( or as Elizabeth would say “sticking their noses in where it don’t belong) we salute you.
