Quote:
Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel
that's a hilarious story. but can you explain what "red-shirted" means ?
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Sure. It comes from the original
Star Trek series. They'd beam down to a planet with the usual main characters and a security officer or two. The security guy (or guys) would always die before the first commercial. Security wore red shirts.
So... characters whose sole purpose is to be a spear carrier who gets killed (perhaps after a few lines) quickly became known as "red-shirts." And authors began offering the opportunity to be "red-shirted" in their books -- written in as an extremely minor character who gets killed -- as an item in charity auctions as SF conventions.
Similarly, being "Tuckerized" is having your name (and possibly physical description and/or personality) written in as a less-minor character who (presumably) doesn't get killed. Tuckerized got its name from well-known fan Wilson Tucker, because... um... OK, I've reached the end of my knowledge of the subject. Someone else will have to help me out here!
Xenophon
P.S.
Ringo used it as a red-shirting opportunity to drum up votes for the "best romance novel" thing. But only after he stopped laughing hysterically over having
Ghost nominated in the first place. His name for
Ghost is "the wanker book," which may tell you his attitude about it.