Elizabeth Shelby

Shelby was a human Starfleet officer. She was noted to be a highly ambitious officer, on the fast track to promotion to the captaincy of a starship.

In 2366, Lieutenant Commander Shelby was placed in charge of Starfleet's defensive planning for a potential Borg invasion. When the Federation colony on Jouret IV was destroyed, Shelby was dispatched to determine whether or not the Borg were responsible. Following confirmation of a Borg presence in Federation space, she stayed aboard the USS Enterprise-D to develop strategies for facing the imminent attack.

Borg invasion
Upon hearing that Enterprise first officer William Riker had been offered command of the USS Melbourne, Shelby set her sights on gaining the appointment as Captain Picard's new first officer. However, her fast and loose style clashed strongly with Riker's safe and by-the-book tendencies; for example, she led an unauthorized away team to Jouret's surface (hoping to get an early start on locating evidence of the Borg attack) without receiving approval from Riker first, and she went 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 several away teams that attempted to rescue him. When Riker was granted a temporary promotion to Captain, he appointed Shelby to be his first officer despite their differences; he later noted that they made a good team.

Following the destruction of the Borg cube, Shelby returned to Starfleet Command to lead the task force that would rebuild the fleet following the disastrous Battle of Wolf 359. (TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I", "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II")


 * Shelby was played by Elizabeth Dennehy. She has also been featured as the first officer of the Excalibur in the Star Trek: New Frontier series of novels, where she also received the first name Elizabeth (and new assignments as the captain of the Exeter for six months before taking command of the USS Trident'' NCC-31347).

Captain Shelby of the Sutherland
In 2374, Captain Shelby was the Commanding Officer of the Federation starship USS Sutherland.

During a resupply visit to Deep Space 9 that same year, Captain Shelby returned a favor to her friend, Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax, by granting Lieutenant Manuele Atoa some free time so he could perform his Samoan firedance at Dax's wedding party. (DS9: "You Are Cordially Invited...")

Later career
By 2388 Shelby had become an admiral and saw a lot of action commanding several fleets during the Federation-Romulan War.