I should remind everyone to begin with that while I do not consider myself a trekkie exactly, I do have a lot of exposure to Star Trek, having seen nearly every episode ever created. Exposure to the Star Trek universe gives a few insights into some of the inside jokes of the series (which was made fun of in Galaxy Quest.) Oen of these is the red shirt, the character that shows up, usually with very little dialogue and then ends up dying in short time. Over the series the creators realized what they were doing and toned it down a little on the Red Shirts, but even in the reboot of the Star Trek franchise a few years back, one goes to jump with Kirk and Sulu for their outer space freefall onto Vulcan, and promptly dies.

As I was reading the most recent issues of Dejah Thoris, it occurred to me that Dejah has her own version of a red shirt, that being pretty much every male character other than someone related to her. In this single issue, one was killed by giant wasps and another by a giant lizard (the Martian versions). The people of Helium are ready to sacrifice for their rulers, but outside of the fourth wall, it can be hard to watch these people volunteer for missions with Dejah, knowing that only she comes back alive.