Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1, Episode 13 – “All The World’s A Stage”Red Shirts getting killed is a Star Trek: The Original Series running joke, but Star Trek: Prodigy unexpectedly gave one Red Shirt a better story. In Star Trek: Prodigy season 1, episode 13, “All The World’s a Stage,” the USS Protostar lands on a planet to discover that the natives call themselves Enderprizians, and they model their society after Captain James T. Kirk’s (William Shatner) USS Enterprise. As the episode continues, it incredibly reveals itself to be a sequel to the Star Trek: TOS season 2 episode, “Obsession.”
Among the shocking reveals in Star Trek: Prodigy episode 13, the Enderprizians became aware of Starfleet thanks to Ensign David Garrovick (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) from “Obsession.” Garrovick volunteered for a solo mission but crashed the shuttlecraft Galileo on the Enderprizians’ homeworld. The natives saved the injured Starfleet Ensign, and his mission logs ended up informing them all about the Starship Enterprise, which, in turn, inspired their society to become the Enderprizians. Although Garrovick eventually died, as all Red Shirts must, and he’s long gone by the time the USS Protostar arrived a century later, Star Trek: Prodigy broke the laughable tradition of Red Shirts pointlessly dying to give Ensign Garrovick a better outcome that literally inspired and taught a world about Star Trek.
Red Shirts Dying Is A TOS Running Joke
Every fan of Star Trek: The Original Series snickers whenever Red Shirts accompany Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) on an away mission. In the 23rd-century Starfleet, Red Shirts typically denote Engineering, Communications, or Security personnel. But on Kirk’s Enterprise, wearing a Security officer’s red shirt is a guaranteed death sentence. Red Shirts are usually the first to die – randomly and often horribly – whenever Kirk encounters his Star Trek enemy-of-the-week. Audiences quickly caught on to Star Trek‘s Red Shirt trope, and it’s been an enjoyably campy staple of watching TOS ever since.
Why Star Trek: Prodigy Gave One TOS Red Shirt A Better Ending
Star Trek: Prodigy has displayed a deep love and reverence for Star Trek: The Original Series since the get-go, and the story of Ensign Garrovick is the latest example. In TOS, David Garrovick (Stephen Brooks) was the son of the late Captain Garrovick of the USS Farragut, who was Captain Kirk’s former commanding officer. Captain Garrovick and 200 crewmen of the Farragut were killed by a dikironium cloud creature in 2257, and David attempted to avenge his father’s death. Kirk and Garrovick eventually killed the monster, and David’s success already bucked the trend of the Red Shirt dying in TOS.
Star Trek: Prodigy writer and producer Aaron J. Waltke told TrekMovie.com that he struck upon the idea of making Ensign Garrovick a focal point of “All the World’s a Stage” because he wondered whatever happened to Garrovick after he and Captain Kirk made a connection in TOS. David simply vanished after his episode and was never seen again. Since Garrovick was already one of the only Red Shirts to survive a TOS landing party, structuring Star Trek: Prodigy episode 13 as a sequel-of-sorts to “Obsession” was a stroke of genius that gives closure to a minor but impactful Star Trek character 54 years later.
Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
