The first series of Star Trek obviously looks dated now when we consider the CGI effects available to today's program makers, but at the time it was ground breaking in many respects, and as a big SF fan I lapped it up. It's been parodied many times by professionals and by fans, and certainly the disposable nature of the security personnel has been pointed up more than once.
If you've ever seen the brilliant film spoof Galaxy Quest then you'll know where I'm coming from. These poor souls would beam down to the planet's surface and you just knew they'd be the first in the firing line. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scottie were always going to survive, so if someone had to be killed by this week's threat then it would be the guy in the red shirt. In fact Wikipedia has this to say about red shirts:
"A redshirt is a stock character, used frequently in science fiction but also in other genres, whose sole purpose is to die violently soon after being introduced. Redshirts are a plot device used to indicate the dangerous circumstances faced by the main characters at the start of a narrative without having to kill any of the vital main characters. The term comes from the popular American science fiction television series Star Trek, in which security officers wore red shirts, and were often killed on missions under the aforementioned circumstances."
It follows that if you wear the aforementioned red shirt, changing a lightbulb will not be a simple affair.
Q: How many Star Trek security personnel does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: 3 All of whom will perish in various unpleasant ways ( creature in the darkness, electrical entity in the light socket, the bulb is a shape shifting assassin ) before Kirk, with Spock's assistance, is able to change the bulb without violating the Prime Directive.
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