Kendra Shaw

2008-04-13T14:00:57Z

Raja99: typo fix

{{Character Data
| title= Kendra Shaw
| photo= KendraShaw.jpg
| age=
| colony=[[Caprica (RDM)|Caprica]]
| birthname=
| callsign=
| nickname=
| seen= Razor
| pseen=
| death=Destroying the [[Guardian basestar]]
| parents=[[Marta Shaw]]† (prior to the [[Fall of the Colonies]])
| siblings=
| children=
| marital status=
| role= Executive Officer of ''[[Pegasus]]''
| rank= Major
| actor= [[Stephanie Jacobsen]]
}}

'''Kendra Shaw''' is an officer from the [[Ministry of Defense]] who is assigned to ''[[Pegasus]]'' as [[Helena Cain]]'s aide when the battlestar puts in for an overhaul at the [[Scorpion Fleet Shipyards]]. She sees the assignment as a stepping stone to her real goal, which is Fleet Command.

Shaw's mother, [[Quorum of Twelve (RDM)|Quorum]] delegate [[Marta Shaw]], recently died of cancer prior to the lieutenant's posting to ''Pegasus''. It is insinuated by Cain upon her first meeting with Shaw that she receives this posting due to her mother's influence. Shaw also claims to be a "lapsed Classics major" upon recognizing that [[Gina Inviere]]'s last name is old [[Gemenon|Gemenese]] for "resurrection", suggesting that she may have never completed college or merely switched to another major.

Never having served on a battlestar before, she quickly draws Admiral Cain's attention, initially becoming the victim of a twisted joke relating Shaw's inability to find her way around a battlestar. During the crisis, she becomes one of Cain's most trusted officers — Cain sees in a potential to become molded into a "razor". Cain's confidence in her abilities gets her promoted to captain.

Together with Fisk, she leads a boarding party to the civilian ship ''[[Scylla]]'' in order to strip it of resources and suitable personnel. When the civilians are unwilling to cooperate, Shaw shoots one of them in order to coerce the others, which leads to the deaths of nine more.

After Cain's death, she is not particularly liked by her succeeding commanding officers, [[Jack Fisk]] and [[Barry Garner]], because she does not give them her respect. Garner dislikes her so much that she is demoted and assigned to kitchen duty following his ascension to commanding officer.

Later, Commander [[Lee Adama]] chooses her to become his [[executive officer]] after taking command of the ship and promotes her to the rank of major, noting that she received glowing reports from Cain, but bad ones from Fisk and Garner. Adama appreciates her scathing honesty about him and his predecessors and choses Shaw because he needs someone close to him who upholds Cain's legacy to the crew, despite his aversion for that legacy.

Shaw proves to be a very hard but competent XO. Not unlike [[Kara Thrace]], she is strong-willed and has some problems with authority, which leads the two to clash over various issues, particularly over her tactical decision that almost destroyed Thrace's and [[Marcia Case]]'s [[Viper (RDM)|Viper]]s during their first encounter with the [[Guardians]]. She is still haunted by her actions during Cain's command, especially the shooting on the ''Scylla'', and tries to cope by taking drugs.

In the [[Battle of the Guardian Basestar|attack on the Guardian basestar]] she leads Starbuck, Sergeant [[Erin Mathias]] and several Marines to the basestar in order to rescue a captured Raptor crew. In a firefight with Centurions she is seriously wounded. Instead of being evacuated with the others, she decides to stay back and forces Starbuck to hand over a nuclear device at gunpoint. Shortly before detonating the weapon to destroy the basestar, she finds an [[First Hybrid|ancient Hybrid]], who addresses her by name. He knows or deduces her desire to seek forgiveness for her deeds and delivers a [[The Destiny|cryptic warning]] about Kara Thrace ([[Razor]]).

==Notes==
*Shaw's [[Insignia (RDM)#Other patches|shoulder patch]] has been unseen in the series, but is apparently the same patch worn by the [[Armistice Officer]] in the [[Miniseries]]. It is yellow on yellow and reads "Ministry of Defense" at the top and "[[Kobol (RDM)|Kobol]] HQ" at the bottom. The "Kobol HQ" reference may be part of a last-minute change in the central storyline of an early Miniseries script, where the Twelve Colonies of Kobol were actually ''on'' Kobol until [[Ronald Moore]] rewrote the storyline to make the Colonies individual worlds for the final script.
*Despite being a major, she wears a colonel's [[Uniforms (RDM)|uniform]] with white/red trim. As shown on Doctor [[Cottle]] earlier, a major's uniform only has a white trim.
*In early interviews, Shaw's surname was Taggart.

{{start box}}
{{succession box||before=Eventually, [[Jack Fisk]]|title=Executive Officer, ''[[Pegasus (RDM)|Pegasus]]''|after=Eventually, [[Anastasia Dualla]]}}
{{end box}}
{{Characters}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Kendra}}

[[Category:A to Z]]
[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Characters (RDM)]]
[[Category:RDM]]

Battlestar Wiki - User contributions [en]

Kendra Shaw