Shran

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Shran
Jeffrey Combs as Commander Shran
Species:	Andorian
Gender:	male
Home planet:	Andoria
Affiliation:	Andorian Imperial Guard
Posting:	Kumari commanding officer
Rank:	Commander General
Portrayed by:	Jeffrey Combs

Thy'lek Shran is a recurring character in the science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise. Shran is a member of the Andorian species, played by longtime Trek actor Jeffrey Combs. Shran is a highly capable and decorated officer in the Andorian Imperial Guard. He holds the rank of Commander, and when first seen was the commanding officer of the starship Kumari. His first name was revealed from computer records of the USS Defiant (NCC-1764) in the episode "In a Mirror, Darkly (Part II)"[1].

Shran's first contact with humans — who, like most Andorians, he refers to as "pink-skins" — came in 2151, when Shran led a commando team in a raid on the Vulcan monastery at P'Jem. Shran and his people were convinced that the Vulcans were secretly using P'Jem to spy on the Andorians — a suspicion which later proved true when Captain Jonathan Archer exposed a secret Vulcan listening post at the monastery. Shran was indebted to Archer for this, and later returned the favor by rescuing Archer and his officers from a terrorist attack on the world of Coridan.

Shran, like most Andorians, did not trust Vulcans, believing them to be duplicitous and sneaky. Shran and his team led an attempt to reclaim the planet Weytahn, which the Andorians had colonized but which the Vulcans also claimed as their own. Captain Archer was the only person whom Shran felt he could trust to mediate the dispute.

Later, Shran repaid this debt as well, by leading his starship into the Delphic Expanse to help Archer and his crew steal a prototype super-weapon constructed by the Xindi. However, Shran had his own agenda - his superiors had ordered him to steal the prototype and claim it for Andoria. Shran obeyed, but when his military tried to bestow a medal upon him, Shran angrily refused, regretting the fact that he had been forced to double-cross a trusted ally. Shran later returned to aid Archer and Earth by helping to destroy the real Xindi superweapon before it could do the same to Earth.

In 2154, when Romulan spies threatened to start a war between Vulcan and Andoria, Shran captured Vulcan ambassador Soval and reluctantly tortured him to find out the location and strength of the Vulcan fleet. When Soval refused to give in, Shran found a new respect for the ambassador. Later, Shran's help was invaluable in exposing Romulan attempts to infiltrate the Vulcan government, and war was averted. Shortly after this, Shran became romantically linked with his tactical officer Talas. She initiated the pairing; Shran later told Jonathan Archer that he had the choice between arresting her and mating with her. He chose the latter.

Later in 2154, Shran was devastated when the Kumari was destroyed by a remote controlled Romulan prototype ship. Nearly Shran's entire crew were lost, and his lover, Talas, later died from wounds she received in a firefight that occurred when Shran, under the mistaken belief that Tellarites were responsible, attempted to coerce a confession from the Tellarite ambassador. To avenge the deaths of his crew and Talas, Shran demanded to fight the ambassador in ritual combat, but at the last minute Captain Archer claimed the right to substitute himself in the Tellarite's place. Shran considered Archer a close friend and did not want to fight him, but Archer insisted, and fought Shran nearly to the death. Though Archer declined to kill Shran, the ritual was completed (when Archer sliced off one of Shran's antennae, incapacitating him) and Shran's desire for revenge was satisfied. Later, Shran helped Archer contact an offshoot race of the Andorians, the Aenar, which led to the destruction of the Romulan prototype. On his way back to his homeworld, Shran wondered whether he would ever get another starship command, as the Andorian military tends to come down hard on any commander whose ship is lost. However, the future did hold some surprises for Shran, as computer records taken from the USS Defiant (NCC-1764) reveal that Shran eventually reached the rank of General.

While initially resentful of the "pink-skins", Shran found that he actually admired and respected humans, particularly Captain Archer. He also has warmed to Vulcans, particularly Soval and T'Pol, whom he considers honorable people. It is likely that Shran, like Archer, will prove invaluable in helping to form the United Federation of Planets. Shran even made Archer an honorary member of the Andorian Guard, sometime after Archer became Earth's ambassador to Andoria.

The final episode of Enterprise, entitled "These Are The Voyages...", takes place a few years in Enterprise's future, where Shran has a wife, Jhamel (an Aenar whom Shran had earlier befriended) and a daughter, Talla. In 2161, Shran — by now calling Archer "pink-skin" more as a term of affection than of derision — once again enlists Captain Archer's aid when Talla is kidnapped by criminals who think Shran has stolen a priceless artifact from them. This request comes as a surprise to Archer, as Shran was believed killed several years earlier. Shran later revealed that he had faked his own death in part to protect his family from criminal elements Shran had worked for after leaving the Andorian military.

Talla is successfully recovered from Rigel X, but the kidnappers later attack and board Enterprise; Commander Tucker sacrifices his own life to stop them.

Considering Shran's later association with Archer (as revealed in the Defiant's historical logs), it is presumed that he later reestablished himself with the Andorian government.

[edit] Apocrypha

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In the novel The Good That Men Do (by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin), Shran has a significant role. He is not, as "These Are The Voyages" suggests, married to Jhamel (the events of that episode are said to be largely faked), although he has a latent telepathic bond with her. They do not have any children, although by the end of the novel Shran joins Jhamel's bonding group, so Talla could conceivably be born "for real" sometime later. Shran aids Enterprise crew in recovering a group of Aenar who had been kidnapped for use as slaves by the Romulans (the episode's use of Talla as a substitute in the holographic coverup is to prevent the exposure of Section 31's mission into Romulan territory to recover the Aenar). Shran's telepathic bond with Jhamel is employed in order to search for the Aenar and recover them from Romulan custody.

Unlike in the episode, the criminals who board Enterprise are not looking for Shran, and do not think he has stolen anything from them; the pirates were actually hired by Archer in order to fake Trip's death, by giving Trip an excuse to sacrifice his own life to stop the pirate "attack". Shran's ultimate fate is unknown, although the novel leaves open the possibility that he could rejoin the Andorian military (as the series itself suggested).

Also, in the novel, Shran has a different given name: Hravishran th'Zoarhi. This was done in order to give Shran a name more in line with those used in current Trek novels; furthermore, since Thy'lek was never clearly visible onscreen anyway, its canon status is debatable.