While Seven of Nine has fully embraced her new identity as a former Borg, her commanding officer, Captain Shaw, refuses to call his first officer by her preferred name.

Instead, Shaw refers to Seven as “Commander Hansen” after her human name. Showrunner Terry Matalas shared the reason for Shaw’s choice and why he was disrespectful to Seven.

At the Battle of Wolf-359, a Borg attack led by an assimilated Picard, a young Shaw was forced to take up the role of captain after his superior officers were killed in action.

Matalas explained that Shaw’s refusal to use Seven’s Borg name stems from this past trauma, and while the captain has grown to respect her, he still has some issues.

Despite allowing Seven to give the triumphant order to destroy the Shrike — Vadic’s massive, well-armed vessel — Shaw still refers to his first officer as “Hansen.”

Although the showrunner didn’t believe Shaw was “withholding, consciously, anything,” he added, “I think he sort of has his own demons that just stop him from doing that.”