Todd Stashwick explains how a traumatic backstory informed the sharp, sardonic Captain Liam Shaw’s character in Star Trek: Picard season 3.
Star Trek: Picard actor Todd Stashwick explains how Captain Liam Shaw’s traumas shaped the role, transitioning the USS Titan-A’s commanding officer into a character with a heightened protective instinct. Todd Stashwick joined the Star Trek: Picard cast in season 3, teaming up with Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and company to overcome the insidious threat the Borg and Changeling alliance posed at the Federation’s Frontier Day Parade, despite a clear long-running resentment. A Battle of Wolf 359 survivor, Shaw blamed Picard for the conflict’s devastating casualty list, given Picard’s actions following assimilation and transformation into Locutus of Borg.
Joining members of the Star Trek: Picard cast on-stage for the “Picard Panel” on Star Trek: The Cruise VII, documented by TrekMovie.com, Todd Stashwick explained his approach to playing Liam Shaw and how the curmudgeonly Captain’s experiences had shaped the overall character. Immediately at odds with Picard, given their histories, Shaw’s backstory and subsequent hatred of the Borg also put him at odds with his First Officer, former-drone Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). Addressing Shaw’s complexities, Stashwick countered Shaw’s innate confidence with his lived traumas and the resultant need to protect. Read Stashwick’s quote below:
If the traumas that happened had not happened to him, he probably would have been a bit more bold, a bit more daring. And so I think there was understanding that that needed to happen. When you’re so far out in space, you don’t know what you’re going to run into. Trauma, though, put him in a place where he felt the need to protect as many people as he could.
Captain Shaw’s Death Made Him A Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Hero After All
Captain Shaw’s deep-rooted trauma, combined with careful vulnerability and genuine decency, results in a character that is both cynical and somewhat abrasive in nature yet also honest and real. His demise following an attempt to fight back the younger members of an assimilated crew to buy time for an escape via maintenance shuttle is significantly meaningful, redeeming, and tragic. Shot by a Borgified crewmember, Shaw’s final words are both important and acknowledging. Passing command to his troubled First Officer, Shaw finally looks past his trauma-weighted perceptions of the Borg and refers to Commander Annika Hansen by her preferred name: Seven of Nine.
Shaw’s redemption and ultimate sacrifice for the good of others in the face of Star Trek: Picard’s deadly villain alliance cemented his place as a Federation hero.
It’s a significant moment of closure and healing for both characters, firmly drawing a line between the future and the past. Shaw’s death allows for the forgiveness he’s avoided and gives Seven the acknowledgment she needs. This redemption and ultimate sacrifice for the good of others in the face of Star Trek: Picard’s deadly villain alliance cemented Captain Shaw’s place as a Federation hero. In the wake of Shaw’s actions, Todd Stashwick’s solid and convincing performance as the snarky and acerbic yet oddly tender and honorable Captain sets the franchise a distinctive mark and an even more distinctive character in Star Trek: Picard season 3.
