Star Trek: Picard’s Todd Stashwick Says Goodbye to Captain Shaw (Exclusive)

A lot happened in Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 9, “Vox.” The Borg are back, and Geordi has been secretly restoring the Enterprise-D at the Fleet Museum for years. It’s a good thing too, since the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew needs a ride. Amid all of that, Captain Liam Shaw, commanding officer aboard the USS  fell to phaser fire from his assimilated young crew while allowing The Next Generation crew to escape. In his last moments, he addressed his first officer as “Captain Seven of Nine,” suggesting how far the character had come from his earliest appearances.

Todd Stashwick played Shaw throughout . ComicBook.com had the opportunity to speak to Stashwick about being a part of Star Trek: Picard‘s final season. Here’s what he told us:

I imagine you were very excited to join Star Trek. What was your reaction when Terry Matalas, or whoever it may have been, broke it to you that you weren’t going to make it to the end of the season?

Todd Stashwick: Yeah, I mean, because the decision to have that as part of the story arc did not come right away. That was something that was decided later in the season. So of course, you have a bit of a funeral in your heart because you’re like, “I just want to go on and on.” [Update: Stashwick reached out to clarify these comments, stating that the writers always had a plan for Shaw, he just wasn’t aware of it. He says, “The best way to put it would be ‘They had a plan for Shaw all along but I would only get the scripts a couple weeks before I was shooting the episodes so I didn’t know.’”]

I would be remiss to say that it didn’t hurt my heart a little bit, understanding that it serves a greater story, and then we are here to tell good stories. And karmically, there is a full circle to this, where Shaw gets to repay the debt that was given to him early in his career. So I see all of the narrative reasons for it.

Selfishly, as an actor, I was like, “Oh man, okay.” No one ever wants to hear that. No one ever wants to have that happen. As a character, you just want to go and on and on and on and on and on.

But I get it and I find it … I think it is a beautiful and poetic conclusion to his time on Picard. What did you think?

There’s kind of a pattern with these new Star Trek shows and sending off captains. After Star Trek: Discovery‘s first season, we got the “Find Prime Lorca” campaign, and after season two, we got the “Give Us a Pike Show” campaign. Are you anticipating some sort of campaign where fans try to retroactively save Captain Shaw’s life?

If I expected any of this, it would say way too much about my psychological profile. I expect nothing. I expected nothing. I had a blast shooting this, and I was overwhelmed by the response to the character.

I made a joke to Terry. I said, “We should make an in memoriam video where you show Spock’s death, Data’s death, Picard’s death, and then Shaw’s death.”

Look, it’s science fiction, so if they ever narratively need to have Shaw show up again, they know where to find me. But there are a million ways they can find a way to see this man again if they saw fit if the story broke that way. The fans are powerful, they’re able to do many things, but if all I get in my Star Trek experience, I’ve said this before, is my time on Enterprise and then this season of Picard, man alive, what a gift already. Anything else would be icing.

I’m really fascinated now that you said that wasn’t written originally–

Well, I think as they’re sussing out the story and they’re breaking it, I think they have a rough idea of what they were going to do. But I don’t think he was written to be killed.

It’s interesting because it’s on streaming. I know that there have been examples back when seasons were still in production and being written as they were airing where characters who were slated to die ended up surviving because were such hits with fans. Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer comes to mind as an example. Do you think if this was a 26-episode series on television Captain Shaw would’ve found a different fate, had the writers seen how people reacted to him?

I mean, we wrapped a year before it ever aired. So I think we were all kind of pleasantly blindsided at how people responded to the salty bastard. There was no way you could know.

I knew what I was doing in the room and on set, and I knew the character they had written for me was delicious to play, but I had no idea people were going to respond to him the way they did, and I don’t think they did either. I think they were thrilled and pleasantly surprised. And I think you still got to tell the story you got to tell. I mean, it hasn’t aired yet [at the time of the interview], so I don’t know what people are going to react. Maybe they’ll be like, “Thank God. Get rid of that salty bastard.”

No, no, I predict riots in the street. But for those who want to toast Captain Shaw for having given his life, what is, to you, the most appropriate beverage to toast this “dipshit from Chicago?”

Well, look, he drinks Malbec. I am not a red wine guy, so please raise a glass of whiskey. That’s just me though. That’s Todd going, “What was I going to pour?” But in the spirit of Shaw, you would probably have to have a Malbec, but I’m like, “You know what? Grab a bourbon.” That’s what I’ll be having during the finale.

Shaw has that last moment with Seven of Nine where he finally addresses her as Seven of Nine, and I feel like there are two ways to interpret that. The first is that he is genuinely in this last moment, sincerely seeing who she sees herself as and sincerely saying that. And then there’s the more practical interpretation that he’s just telling her what he thinks she wants to hear because she’s about to have to take command and lead the survivors out of this mess.

Oh, I don’t think he’s trying to — when you’re gasping for breath, you’re trying to — because when you tell somebody what they want to hear, it’s because you’re trying to curry favor for yourself later down the road. I think his catharsis began, I think, in episode four when [Seven of Nine] says, “She calls me Commander Seven, out of respect.” And then he says something to the effect of, “Good for you.”

I think that the process of his catharsis is starting to begin there, and catharsis doesn’t happen overnight. It builds to a point. And I think recognizing that if they had gotten on the other side of this harrowing experience intact from that point forward, he would’ve been addressing her as Seven anyway. But I think in his dying breath, he wanted to make sure that she knew that she changed him.

I know you filmed over a year ago now, as you mentioned, but now that we’re at the end for Shaw — assuming you don’t get put in a vault somewhere — is there a particular memory, scene, or whatever it may be from your time on Picard that you feel like is going to stand out in your mind for a long time?

Well, it’s the gestalt of the experience, I think ultimately. What a ride that I was invited to go on. The only other thing I can kind of liken it to is when I was asked to be part of the Seinfeld reunion on Curb Your Enthusiasm. It’s just a rare moment of television history that I was asked to be a part of and then contribute to and then create new television.

But memories? I loved shooting the Wolf 359 monologue. The support that I was given and the copy was pretty incredible. And my scene partners with Ed and Patrick, and then Jonathan behind the camera, that was a very special day.

I really enjoyed just being backstage with Jonathan and being silly with Patrick and Jeri and Ashley and Steph and Gin and Joe. It just was special. It was special.

I’ve been asked, “What does Star Trek mean to you?” and it means family. Family is what introduced me to the show back in 1974. I made a new family by being invited to be part of this project, and then I met a whole new family with the fans. So the whole thing is just, it just changed my life and enhanced — I already had a great life and it just added another beautiful sparkle to the galaxy of my existence here.

With that in mind, was there a vibe on set when you had to film your death scene? Was it a little bit sad?

Well, it’s weird because it’s in the middle of the day, and they’re shooting a bunch of other things, and so I don’t think it was… I don’t think it was the last thing that I shot though. I’m not sure. I’d have to go back and look because it was just Jeri and myself and Michelle. Terry Matalas was there because he was directing the episode. He would’ve been there anyway. And then I got to go out and step onto my bridge and have this wonderful goodbye. And Michelle does this really special thing where she represents everybody on the Picard cast and she gives the big goodbye, and then I threw up a Vulcan salute and I had a few words and I had a few tears, and it was just beautiful because I’m standing on my bridge surrounded by the cast and crew sending me off, and it was very special.

Given how sweet a sendoff that sounds like, and you mentioned that you played a role in Enterprise, do you feel like you could go the Jeffrey Combs route and continue playing different characters, maybe different aliens? Or do you feel like this would be better left as a singular experience for you?

Yeah, I don’t see myself kind of … Denise [Crosby] did the same thing, where she came back as other characters. I don’t think they would do that. I think it is now too … The shape of the characters is too specific, and I don’t think the fans would abide me in any other role.

So again, it’s science fiction. There are a million ways that we could see Shaw again. The joke I make is I am Aragorn and they have my sword. Anytime that they need it, I am ready and willing to show up and do whatever it is that they need for me. I belong to Star Trek.

What does your future look like now? Having done this stint on Star Trek, are you eager for more genre stuff, more space, and more weirdness, or are you hoping to vary it up and do something more grounded?

My pat answer is usually, “I’m always eager to do the thing that I don’t see coming.” And if you had told me at the beginning of 2021 that I would end up the captain of a starship, I would’ve gone, “You’re crazy.” And yet, here we are now. So there’s something in front of me that I don’t know is there yet, and it’ll surprise me and it will exceed my expectations, like every other thing in my career that has surprised me that I didn’t see. I just look forward to the unknown.

How to watch Star Trek: Picard

The final episode of Star Trek: Picard premieres on Thursday on Paramount+. All previous Star Trek: Picard episodes (as well as all episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and every other episode of Star Trek television) are streaming now on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Picard streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on Amazon Prime Video in over 200 countries and territories. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave.

This interview has been edited and modified for length and clarity