Commander Shelby

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

Officially, we don't know - IIRC, Shelby's first name was never given onscreen. In the novelverse, it's Elizabeth, named for the actress who played her (Elizabeth Dennehy).



Shelby's problem was NOT that she was assertive. It's that she was smug.

She openly gloated that she would one day have Riker's job. She was rubbing everyone's face in it. Like an interstellar nanny-nanny-boo-boo.

Except that she was right in her assessments. Riker was obstructing ideas that could save the entire Federation - because he had a grudge with her. At that moment, he didn't deserve his position. He redeemed himself later on, but only when he was left with almost no other choice. She wasn't rubbing anything in anyone's face. Those exchanges with Riker were 1-on-1.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Except that she was right in her assessments.

Irrelevant.

However right Shelby might have been, or however wrong Riker was (or both)...Shelby was enjoying rubbing his face in it. As if she was laughing at him.

 

[Mojochi]

Shelby's problem was NOT that she was assertive. It's that she was smug.

She openly gloated that she would one day have Riker's job. She was rubbing everyone's face in it. Like an interstellar nanny-nanny-boo-boo.

How so? All she did (At 1st) was privately express her intention to replace Riker, a notion I'm sure she got from Hanson's attitude that Riker ought to be leaving, & she should be his replacement. Note how she didn't assume she had the job, just that she had to convince Picard she's the best to fill the vacancy

That's not gloating. It's a misunderstanding, that if anyone is to blame for, it's Hanson. He's brought her there specifically for that reason, to air her out for a potential new captain. I saw nothing smug about her behavior there, a little overexuberant, & perhaps indelicate, but why would she have to be delicate with the big dope, if she thinks he's done there?

Now, because Riker gets his feathers ruffled about it, & has the dumb bravado to invite her to a poker game, she ended up besting him in, it worsened relations imho. Then he gets his panties in a bunch over her taking a command action of moving up her survey to avoid changing planetary conditions, even though Hanson had already set the precedent that she'd have "Wide Latitude" to conduct affairs without the kind of chaperoning Riker sees fit to establish. Again, this is what she was brought there to do, & very likely given to understand she wouldn't have to answer to the entire chain of command on the visiting ship, over every last detail, least of all, the guy who should be leaving. If she must, then she was merely mistaken, again, because of how she was brought in by Hanson

It's after that & some more trouncing by Riker, over how she's managing the job she was sent to do, that she finally gives him the "Your in my way" wake up call. It's not like she was throwing that in people's faces from the get go. It came from somewhere legitimate imho

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

In the original script for BOBW part 1, Shelby was also someone that would sleep around a lot as well. The part was removed from the final script.

So glad they removed that and had it she got where she was through raw talent alone.

 

[Herbert]

It would have been interesting to see Shelby as Picard's exec going forward. Will was settled, comfy, and mature. Picard could sit in the ready room reading Shakespeare or go on leave to Risa and Enterprise would get along just fine.

Shelby, on the other hand, would have forced him back into taking a firmer grip on the reins as captain for a couple of years. She was smart and capable, but also young, impulsive, and willing to take risks that Picard probably wouldn't have been comfortable with. He would definitely balk at going on leave and leaving her in command, at least at first. In time, she'd 'season' nicely like Riker and be ready for her first command.

I think her career path would have ended up similar to Riker had she become Picard's #1. It's highly likely that the writers would have softened her considerably and she would have become as comfortable as Riker. Look at Riker in season 1. He starts out as an ambitious hotshot with one goal in mind, command of his own ship. Seven years later he's still 1st officer on the Enterprise. Why? Because his character changed and the show changed and Frakes wasn't going to leave because it made sense for Riker to leave. The Enterprise bridge crew became a family and Riker was content to stay there, despite the ambition of his earlier years. If you wanted realism, then Riker should have left Next Gen when his first command opportunity came around. He didn't though and then passed up other ops. Shelby would have followed the same path. The writers would have seen to that and Shelby would have become one of the gang playing poker and hanging out in ten forward, just like Riker was.

 

[Farscape One]

I think in a roundabout way, "The Pegasus" also explains why he never took a command until NEMESIS. I think he felt like he didn't fully earn that right due to all that happened on that ship, which definitely could explain him not taking the Drake before getting the XO spot on the Enterprise.

We don't know if he got offered one after the Melbourne and before Titan, but the Pegasus incident would cost him some respect, as Picard said. He may not have been offered one until Titan, and by then, he was older and I think he finally was at peace with himself that he earned it.

 

[Spot261]

You'd have thought commanding the flagship of the fleet to prevent an existential threat to the federation would have earned him a few brownie points.

 

[Tom]

You'd have thought commanding the flagship of the fleet to prevent an existential threat to the federation would have earned him a few brownie points.

That, and Riker would have been in even higher demand because Starfleet now had to build about 40 new ships to replace the lost ships in Wolf 359. That would be about 40 new captains to promote through the ranks. I'm sure one of those new ships went to Shelby to captain. I think she stayed at the full commanders rank (that Riker promoted her to in part 2) when she left the Enterprise to work on the Fleet rebuild project, then got her on ship from there.

She could have easily been the captain of Voyager (one of those 40 new ships I assume, given the timeline, about 4 years since BOBW) instead of Janeway, they would have synced up Voyagers pilot well to TNG also.

In fact, Janeway may have been Captain of Voyager simply do to the mass promotions they had to do after Wolf 359. So no Borg, no Voyager, No Captain Janeway. The would have been cool if that was a Voyager time episode where they could have made Wolf 359 never happen.

 

[Spot261]

That, and Riker would have been in even higher demand because Starfleet now had to build about 40 new ships to replace the lost ships in Wolf 359. That would be about 40 new captains to promote through the ranks. I'm sure one of those new ships went to Shelby to captain. I think she stayed at the full commanders rank (that Riker promoted her to in part 2) when she left the Enterprise to work on the Fleet rebuild project, then got her on ship from there.

She could have easily been the captain of Voyager (one of those 40 new ships I assume, given the timeline, about 4 years since BOBW) instead of Janeway, they would have synced up Voyagers pilot well to TNG also.

In fact, Janeway may have been Captain of Voyager simply do to the mass promotions they had to do after Wolf 359. So no Borg, no Voyager, No Captain Janeway. The would have been cool if that was a Voyager time episode where they could have made Wolf 359 never happen.

Ooooohhhhhh.....would that mean Voyager never happened either?

 

[Makarov]

What's up with this assumption Riker was wrong about the saucer separation plan? Maybe he was right and it would be too dangerous. And then Picard comes along and takes the middle ground and only wants it as a backup plan. Maybe with Shelby in command without Picard's judgement there they would have separated too soon and blown up.

I think Shelby didn't make the best moves when confronting Riker about leaving, if she had instead somehow played up the idea of him taking command as a positive thing and that he was ready for it, she would have had a better shot at than putting him on the defensive and saying he sucks. She clearly doesn't have a problem with him being in his position by the end of BOBW though.

I think it's also kind of sketchy that she was deliberately messing with a person who had important stuff to do there at a critical moment with the borg crisis and trying to call into question his judgement. Everyone should have been focused on the tasks at hand and not worried about their future jobs

 

[Nyotarules]

In Universe Shelby made it up the promotion pole faster than Riker, maybe Peter David liked the character

 

[DonIago]

Or Shelby was more ambitious and never felt comfortably settled as Riker did aboard the E-D...

 

[Mojochi]

What's up with this assumption Riker was wrong about the saucer separation plan? Maybe he was right and it would be too dangerous. And then Picard comes along and takes the middle ground and only wants it as a backup plan. Maybe with Shelby in command without Picard's judgement there they would have separated too soon and blown up.

I think Shelby didn't make the best moves when confronting Riker about leaving, if she had instead somehow played up the idea of him taking command as a positive thing and that he was ready for it, she would have had a better shot at than putting him on the defensive and saying he sucks. She clearly doesn't have a problem with him being in his position by the end of BOBW though.

I think it's also kind of sketchy that she was deliberately messing with a person who had important stuff to do there at a critical moment with the borg crisis and trying to call into question his judgement. Everyone should have been focused on the tasks at hand and not worried about their future jobs

The task at hand was everybody's future's. It's why Hanson showed up, & why he brought Shelby. Future postings was the very subject at hand for him. They wanted Riker to move up. If he's as good as everyone thinks, then he is wasted holding down a backup chair. You go into command to get command, not to hold in limbo & hassle people on the fast track, who might do the very thing Hanson said they'd be doing, make him look like he's standing still. The guy standing still is the last person to be telling others to slow down on their risk taking.

Riker was wrong about the saucer separation plan, because he shot it down entirely, mostly because he didn't like some hot shot youngster blowing through town shaking things up, but in truth, whether it was actually going to work or not, Picard's decision to keep it as an option proves that it is not the kind of thing to just throw out entirely, & that's why Riker got all bitchy about Picard's decision, because it proved him wrong, to reject it outright.

You want to have options, when you face unknown challenges. If she were in command and thought of it as the only course of action, then yes, that might be too risky, like Riker said, but no one said she's ready to be a captain yet. However, these are the kinds of options a captain's staff should be bringing to him imho, & Riker is a petty sap to block them from reaching there. Something tells me Picard wanted him to feel a little sting about it, because he needed to get thinking about himself & his station

 

[Makarov]

The guy standing still is the last person to be telling others to slow down on their risk taking.

I don't think that really fits the message of TNG where everyone looked up to Jean Luc Picard, not some hot shot that blasted his way up the ranks quickly due to sheer risk. That may be young Kirk in the new movies, but here the show took the angle that experience teaches these people things, so when Riker makes a judgement call there's meant to be some value there. Plus Riker only had an issue after she went around him, not that she floated the idea. At the end of the day he's the one who ends up using the plan with his own spin on it.

 

[Verteron]

I don't think of Admiral Nechayevas a bitch either, I think of her as war criminal who ordered a subordinate to commit genocide.

How can you commit war crimes when your enemy has no civilians?

 

[gakelly]

Another thing about Riker becoming complacent...Frakes gained a lot of weight after season1 or 2....can't remember which one...I know it was the actor who gained the weight, but it could be said that Riker didn't have the drive and became fat and stagnant.

 

[Farscape One]

When I was younger, I looked at season 5 as Riker's "Fat Year". He did get a little portly that year.

 

[DarKush]

I'd loved to have seen her as Voyager's Captain.

I've long thought the same thing. I wonder if it was every considered? I mean, Shelby is a memorable TNG guest character that still had a lot of backstory and character development to fill-in. And that TNG tie was a way to carry over a character from that show, like DS9 did with the O'Briens and later Worf. And I feel Shelby encountering the Borg would've had more of an emotional impact than what we got (which wasn't bad, however it didn't evoke the BOBW memories as much as it would've if Shelby had been there). Also Shelby's relationship with Seven of Nine would've had more resonance to me.

 

[DonIago]

I wonder whether, similar to the Paris situation, there would have been concerns about royalties in such an instance.

 

[Takeru]

I wonder whether, similar to the Paris situation, there would have been concerns about royalties in such an instance.

BOTW was written by Michael Piller so it probabably would have been fine.