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Rereading some of the feedback I received in my vignette 'A Hard Bargain', I noticed a few folks here are Anti-Shran and believe the blueskin was responsible for Trip being killed. Personally, I don't see it. Trip died of a bad plot in a horrible episode. Shran may have gotten them involved with the pirates, but he truly believed Enterprise had left them in the dust.

Anyhow, am I just reading too much into this or is there a general Anti-Shran sentiment in TnT fandom. Is there other reasons you don't like Shran? Come on, give me some feedback on the guy. Personally I like the character. Outside of Lorian, he's my favorite guest character.

I didn't see anything specifically antiShran myself. Was pretty much just pointing out one of the many contrivances of *the_abomination*, and how Shran could be seen as at least partially responsible for Trip's death because of the business he was caught up in and draged Enterprise into. I also saw a few people quite correctly pointing out that Shran and T'Pol never got along and that the best they ever did was to tolerate one another.

I really do not see it myself.

As the thing that aired after the finale was some odd TNG holo novella it bears no consideration.

In the series it seemed that Shran had evolved into tolerating some Vulcans, Sovol and T'Pol but not much else. Sovol also seemed to have developed a fellow warrior type of repsect for Shran and had reevaluated his prejudice regarding Andorians some. T'POl seems less enthusiastic regarding Shran in specific but seems to tolerate him. She also seems somewhat less open to accepting other Andorians than Sovol. Why is not known but it may be considered she had some direct adverse experience regarding Andorians in the past.

BTW, Trip isn't dead.

HtH

What anti-Shran sentiment ?
The guy is loved by most of the ENT fandom ,i didn't see no one saying nothing but praises for Shran and the guy that played him,and i agree ,its hard not to love his carachter ,but i didn't say i blaim him for Trip's "death" ,i said T'Pol blaims him on some level .

I generally agree with the above and think you're reading too much into it. For the most part, the episodes with Shran in them were among the best in the series ... or at least turned a mediocre or bad episode into something that was watchable. His interactions with Archer often turned the usually annoying as hell captain into someone remotely tolerable.

That said, if one accepts the plot of the "valentine" as accurate, I don't see how either Archer or T'Pol could not, in some way, blame Shran for Tucker's death. (But then, I also don't quite understand how T'Pol wouldn't blame Archer in some way either since it was Archer's latest round of ignoring her advice that led to the entire situation to begin with.) Given Trip's "death" was intimately tied to the aliens who were after Shran, it just seems logical to assume that the Andorian is going to get some share of the blame, regardless of his guilt or innocence.

Pro Shran here. He has some of the best lines. And Combs plays him so well.

Hey, I like Shran too. Would have loved to see more of him if the series continued. I thought the Andorian ambassador in the TOS episode Journey to Babel was great. His accent was good. (The real ambassador, not the Orion disquised as an Andorian). I always wonderede why the later series did not have more Andorians and was glad to see ENT start featuring them again.

Shran was made to look like a jerk and an idiot in *the_abomination* but that's not really what he's like. I'm curious what people think of my characterization of him in YMAM I... I tried to get him nailed down. I think he's a great character.

Elessar wrote:Shran was made to look like a jerk and an idiot in *the_abomination* but that's not really what he's like.

And he sure wasn't they only one in *the_abomination* portrayed in a way that was totally inconsistent with the character we know.

I'm very much a Shran fan. However not as much of a fan as most other ENT fans are of him. My favourite re-occuring character on ENT was Soval, with Shran second. And I wouldn't want Shran as a part of the NX-01 crew had there been a fifth season.

Nothing anti-Shran about me.

Athough, I don't see why anyone should even care if a group of people collectively hate a character.

Write about the characters you like and want to write about - I don't remember who said this, but it was a very wise *puplished* author who said "Better to write for yourself and lose your audience then to write for your audience and lose yourself."

I must agree with the posts above: I don't think the viewers or readers really blamed Shran. As presented, he was just a father trying to save his child (and yes, the whole plot was incredibly lame). Given his relationship with Trip, I'm sure, though, that his daughter's safety had to come with such a steep price.

I don't really see T'Pol as someone who's going to start apportioning blame. As presented, I think she'd be more inclined to spend her time considering what might have been with Trip and ruing her decision to distance herself from him.

I think that person playing the blame game would probably be Archer. He spent four years ignoring his officers' advice and taking foolish chances, and it finally caught up with him. Even if he and Trip had slowly drifted apart, I think he would be devastated by Trip's death. Too bad nobody saw that on the show. Viewers probably blamed Archer more than they did Shran.

One other person might have earned a portion of the blame, and that's Malcolm. One common gripe about the Abomination is the poor response time of security personnel. That jerk up in the bleachers wasn't really Malcolm. The Malcolm we know would be weighed down by guilt that he had failed his friend.

But hey, it's nothing but a holodeck farce anyway. Every character was utterly and totally screwed up. What a sad, sad joke.