FX adapting Star Trek spoof novel Redshirts as limited series

From A.V. Club

In 2012, John Scalzi's sci-fi novel Redshirts introduced us to crew members of a 25th-century starship who realize that not only are they actually characters on a sci-fi TV show, they're those expendable extras who are doomed to die on every mission, existing only to up the dramatic stakes for the main characters. Now Scalzi's novel is being adapted for television by veteran sitcom director Ken Kwapis (who's helmed everything from The Office finale to episodes of The Larry Sanders Show, to films including He's Just Not That Into You and Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants).

Redshirts will be a limited series for FX, most likely airing in 2015. In the accompanying press release Kwapis throws out the inevitable dash of pretension by comparing the novel's "hyper-meta" narrative to experimental novelist Jorge Luis Borges—when in literary terms, the book's concept is probably closer to the legion of stand-up comics who have wondered aloud what the deal is with those guys in the red uniforms. Still, the book was well-received, and FX has a good track record with original series, so there's every reason to anticipate this one.

Ken's Take: I quote the Star Trek themed super group Warp 11 and their song "Rage Against The Federation!"

"To boldly go - don’t you see?
Is just a ploy - it’s a f****** conspiracy
The final frontier
Is just a lie that kills thousands every year
‘Cause you and me - don’t you see
Brainwashed at the f****** academy
This red shirt - I’ll say it loud
It ain’t nothing but a f****** death shroud

The Red Shirts are dying
The Red Shirts are dying
The Red Shirts are dying
The Red Shirts are dying

We beam down, but not back
Before the break we were under attack
“Forward!” Captain cried from the rear and the front rank died
We get the orders - we make it so
We live fast but we don’t die slow
Our bones are crushed - our blood is spilled
The prime directive is to f****** get us…

The Red Shirts are dying
I ain’t lying
What they sellin’ you buying
While the Captain’s satisfying
His itch in a ditch with some green skinned b****
And the federation grows increasingly rich

I woke up
I went up
To where the captain’s gettin’ intimate
I showed up
I strolled up
I looked at him like I don’t give a s***
He looked up
His d*** up
But it fell before my scrutiny
He stood up
He f***** up
He didn’t know it was a mutiny

Mutiny!

So we breathe our last breath
Beamed into space or choked to death
A phaser blast, a Klingon assault
Drained of blood and drained of salt
Bat’leth, poison spores
While the captain gets laid by alien whores
Our essence, understand
Distilled in a shape and crushed in a hand"