yeah but the "red shirt" characters are the ones who dont have a last name, the ones who are there just to get killed off, desmond is a main character not a red shirt, hes intregal to the plot these days i dont think he will die soon

Ah, not true! The Red Shirt characters were NOT ALL there just to be killed off. Some of them were pretty significant and some did have last names: Boone Carlyle (say it with me girls: "He's so pretty!") and Leslie Arzt, for instance. I wouldn't say either one of them was there just to be killed off. Each one furthered a LOT of storylines. It's these two in particular that made me wonder if Desmond could die a Red Shirt death in an upcoming season. That and the fact that important characters get killed off all the time on Lost.

yeah, but i was saying in the general scheme of things in shows like star trek etc... how i understand it is what was meant by the red shirts was the ones with no last name who are there just to be killed who are not key characters to the plot much like Mr Artz in lost

i wouldnt have said that boones (who i personally didnt think was very pretty..sawyer on the other hand... ) death was a red shirt death, because it was not evident from the start that he would get killed, like it was with mr Artz he was going on all guns blasing about how to handle dynamite it was obvious hed get killed by it. boone on the other hand his death meant something, it furthered the rift between Jack and Locke, it led to us finding out about Locke being a bit nutty, him seeing boone covered in blood before he actually died and him crying at the hatch going iv done everything you asked of me etc..