Paul Stamets is a rare engineering officer in the Discovery Crew. He’s going to be very useful in using the new summoning ability, and a good officer defending your battleships.
Captain’s Maneuver
Network Navigator: Increase Mycelium Cost Efficiency for Jump and Towing by 20%.
I think this one’s pretty straightforward. It’s a functional ability, that you can increase to 26% with synergy. And if you’re going to be jumping a lot for events, and especially if you’re going to be summoning other ships, this becomes extremely useful.
Paul Stamets Officer Ability
Snarky Genius: When defending against a player, reduce the enemy’s Armor Piercing by (40%, 80%, 120%, 160%, 200%.)
This is an odd ability for Stamets to have. He’s another PvP officer, like Burnham and Saru, but this one’s pretty specific. It’s designed to reduce armor-piercing, which is a battleship trait. So not great on the Discovery.
However, it would go great when paired with Georgiou on a ship like the Augur.
Anthony Rapp Background
Paul Stamets is portrayed by award-winning actor Anthony Rapp. Born in Chicago in 1971, Rapp made his onscreen debut in, of all places, Adventures in Babysitting. Seriously, that’s him with Elizabeth Shue.
And just to show how small a world it is, Adventures in Babysitting also starred Vincent D’Onofrio (Private Pyle from Full Metal Jacket) – see my Michael Burnham article for Sonequa Martin-Green’s mutliple connections to Full Metal Jacket, and Ron Canada.
DS9 Devotees will remember (or probably won’t) remember Ron Canada as Ch’Pok, the Klingon who tried to get Worf extradited for blowing up a transport full of civilians. (Cliff notes version, Worf didn’t do it.) Canada also did guest spots on TNG and Voyager. I guarantee that while you probably don’t know the name, you’ll know the face.
Rapp would later appear in movies and on Broadway in Dazed and Confused, A Beautiful Mind, School Ties, Road Trip, Six Degrees of Separation (stage and film versions), An American Family, Danny Roane: First Time Director, and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
He received his most critical acclaim for his work in the Broadway production, and film version of Rent.
He’s also recorded an album, “Look Around” in 2000.