Elizabeth Shelby was a Human female who served as a Starfleet officer from the mid-24th through the early 25th centuries.
During the 2360s, she was noted to be a highly ambitious officer, on the fast track to promotion to the captaincy of a starship. Although her manner was abrasive, she earned considerable respect when she proved to be a valuable asset while serving temporarily on the USS Enterprise-D when the ship faced the Borg. (TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds") By the 2380s, she had attained that goal. (LD: "An Embarrassment Of Dooplers") She eventually rose to the rank of fleet admiral by 2401. (PIC: "Võx")
Starfleet career[]
Early career[]
In 2366, Lieutenant Commander Elizabeth Shelby was assigned to Starfleet Tactical. She was in charge of Starfleet's tactical analysis and defensive planning for a potential Borg invasion. Under the supervision of Admiral J.P. Hanson, Shelby proved the first who was able to put the project on a productive track. Thereafter, Hanson worked extremely closely with Shelby, spearheading all efforts to develop defenses against the Borg.
Serving aboard the Enterprise-D[]
When the Federation colony on Jouret IV was destroyed, Shelby and Hanson were dispatched to consult with Jean-Luc Picard and determine whether or not the Borg were responsible. Following confirmation of a Borg presence in Federation space, she stayed aboard the Enterprise-D to develop strategies for facing the imminent attack.
Upon hearing that Enterprise first officer William T. Riker had been offered command of the USS Melbourne, Shelby assumed Riker would accept and set her sights on gaining the appointment as Captain Picard's new first officer. However, when she arrived on the Enterprise, she got off on the wrong foot with Riker when she said she intended to become his replacement. She remained at odds with Riker, largely because her fast and loose style clashed strongly with his safe and by-the-book tendencies. Hoping to get an early start on locating evidence of the Borg attack, she led an unauthorized away team to Jouret's surface without receiving approval from Riker beforehand, going over Riker's head to propose combat strategies to Captain Picard himself. Shelby also demonstrated her keen senses when she beat Riker in a poker game by calling his bluff.
Once the Borg attack came, Shelby proved herself to be an extremely capable officer. When Captain Picard was kidnapped by the Borg, she led an away team in an attempt to rescue him. When Riker was granted a promotion to captain, he appointed Shelby to be his first officer and promoted her to commander despite their differences. In the ensuing battle to stop the Borg, Shelby played a critical role and Riker noted that they made a good team.
Following the destruction of the Borg cube and Picard's return as captain of the Enterprise, Shelby returned to Starfleet Command to lead the task force assigned to rebuild the fleet following the disastrous Battle of Wolf 359. (TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds", "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II")
Career as a Starfleet Captain[]
Captain Elizabeth Shelby in 2381
In 2381, Shelby was the commanding officer of a capital ship. That year, she and her first officer attended the Command Conference on Starbase 25. Ensign Brad Boimler, posing as William Boimler, spied her at the afterparty in Ballroom Alpha chatting with Captain John Anderson. She was, again, chatting with Anderson when the Doopler emissary was beamed into the ballroom and began dooplercating. (LD: "An Embarrassment Of Dooplers")
Frontier Day and death[]
By the early 2400s, Shelby had obtained the rank of Fleet admiral. In 2401, she led the opening celebrations for Frontier Day while in command of the USS Enterprise-F, wherein she gave a speech to the entire fleet. However, she was interrupted by Jean-Luc Picard in a failed attempt to warn her about an imminent Borg attack. It was too late, as a Borg signal simultaneously activated assimilation DNA that the Changelings had input into the Federation's transporters, infecting all younger officers with it. Shelby noticed the younger crew members depart their stations and demanded to know what they were doing. She was then shot in the chest by two assimilated lower-ranked officers before on-screen communication with the Enterprise-F was lost. (PIC: "Võx")
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Appendices[]
Appearances[]
- TNG:
- LD: "An Embarrassment Of Dooplers" (background only)
- PIC: "Võx"
Background information[]
Elizabeth Shelby was described in the script for "The Best of Both Worlds" as being in her late twenties. She was "very beautiful, energetic, extremely motivated and ambitious." [1]
Shelby was played by Elizabeth Dennehy.
Shelby's first name was never mentioned during her appearances on TNG in 1990. The name "Elizabeth," used in licensed novels since 1997, became canonical only with its inclusion in the Picard episode "Võx" in 2023. [2]
According to Terry Matalas during a Reddit AMA, Shelby was the ceremonial CO of the Enterprise-F and that her permanent captain was probably a different Television canon version of Va'Kel Shon (β). [3]
Apocrypha[]
Shelby reappears in Peter David's novel Vendetta, as first officer of the Excelsior-class starship USS Chekov, serving under Captain Morgan Korsmo. She recounts the battle over Earth to her bridge crew and is reunited with Riker when the Chekov and Enterprise-D combine forces to halt a new Borg invasion. For some reason, David describes her as having thick red hair, rather than blonde.
David re-used the character as the first officer of the USS Excalibur in the by John Ordover conceived Star Trek: New Frontier series of novels, where her full name was revealed to be Elizabeth Paula Shelby. Later in the New Frontier series, she became captain of the USS Exeter for six months before taking command of the USS Trident (NCC-31347). For more information, please see her New Frontier character entry.
Regarding the reference to a "Captain Shelby" in DS9: "You Are Cordially Invited", Ronald D. Moore commented:
- "My intent when I wrote the line was that this was indeed the same Shelby from BOBW. I thought it was a cool reference to throw in for the fans, but I had completely forgotten that John Ordover and Co. had very specifically and very politely asked us if we had any intention of ever using this character again and we (including me) had said, "No way – do what you want with her." This very salient fact was pointed out to me after the show had aired and I had a rather sheepish conversation with Paula Block over in licensing and with John via e-mail explaining what had happened. Since I only used Shelby's last name in the episode, you're free to look at this either way – it's really her or it's someone else with the same last name (it's a big fleet, after all)." (AOL chat, 1997)
David later wrote passages into a New Frontier novel explaining that there were two unrelated Shelbys in Starfleet, clarifying the discrepancy introduced in "You Are Cordially Invited".
According to the video game Star Trek: Starship Creator, Shelby was born in 2336 in Lawrence, Kansas to parents Anita and Brian Shelby.
External links[]
- Elizabeth Shelby at StarTrek.com
- Elizabeth Shelby at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works