Jack Bauer and Fifty Guys

I had a chance to meet Jonathan Frakes once. You'll remember him as "Number One" on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He's a film director now. He's directed a couple of Star Trek movies and some kids movies.

I was telling him about "red shirts" which is a term I've used since 1993 for the general fodder bad guys in games (the term has caught on somewhat). The term comes from a Star Trek joke, which I told Frakes. The joke is:

Spock, McCoy, Kirk and a guy in a red shirt beam down to a planet. Which one isn't beaming back up?

Yeah, that's the whole joke.

Well, tonight, while watching 24, I thought of a variation on that:

Jack Bauer, in a T-shirt, and carrying a pistol, along with fifty guys with heavy battle armor and automatic weapons, storm an enemy stronghold.

Which fifty guys aren't gonna make it?

© 2005 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.