Star Trek: Picard's Todd Stashwick Yelled At Patrick Stewart And Lived To Tell The Tale [Exclusive]
The following article contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Star Trek: Picard."
Everyone loves a good villain, and "Star Trek" villains can be especially fun to hate. From John de Lancie's Q to Louise Fletcher's Kai Winn, the franchise has had some seriously fun baddies, but they're rarely part of Starfleet. Sure, you get your occasional rogue admiral who engages in some evil plan, but you don't often get real nastiness or arguing between Starfleet officers, especially not with Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) around. He's not the kind of Starfleet icon who solves his problems with yelling, but in the latest episode of "Star Trek: Picard," he bears the brunt of one seriously angry tirade courtesy of the Captain of the U.S.S. Titan, Captain Shaw. Shaw, played by Todd Stashwick, is a gruff and grumpy captain who wants nothing to do with the ridiculous adventures of Picard or the Titan's previous captain, William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes). When he took command of the Titan, he deleted all of Riker's jazz music, voicing serious disdain for the free-wheeling musical style. But in the most recent "Picard," he did something even more unthinkable: he straight-up yelled at Picard.
/Film's Vanessa Armstrong interviewed Stashwick and asked him about that tense moment and if it's terrifying yelling at a living legend. The tongue-lashing that Shaw gives Picard is brutal, and even though everyone involved is a professional, it has to be weird yelling at Patrick Stewart. Stashwick totally nails the scene and chews poor Picard a new one, and he shared what it was like filming that shocking scene.
One person's hero is another's greatest villain
Captain Shaw clearly isn't a huge fan of Picard, and he makes that evident the moment the senior officer steps onboard the Titan. He treats Picard, Riker, and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) with absolute disdain, commenting on Riker's "loosey-goosey" life choice and referring to Seven as an "ex-Borg." He clearly detests the Borg and makes a few small references to this fact, but it's nothing compared to how he lets loose on Picard, whom he first encountered when the admiral was assimilated and acting as Locutus of Borg. Things aren't exactly going well on the Titan, as they're trapped in a no-win, Kobayashi-Maru-style situation where they're facing down almost certain death, and Picard and his estranged son Jack Crusher (Ed Speelers) take to the holodeck to try and make up for lost time.
While reminiscing about another no-win situation with Jack's namesake many years before, Shaw enters the holodeck and shares a memory of his own. The first time he met Picard, it was when the captain was a part of the Borg collective. Shaw's ship was about to be destroyed during the infamous battle of Wolf-359. 50 of them made it to the lifepod deck, but there were only 10 seats. Somehow, Shaw was picked to survive, and it's clear he never forgave Picard. He tells Jack Crusher:
"11,000 dead. Do you know where your old man was on that day? He was on that Borg cube, setting the world on fire! Forget about all that weird s*** about the Stargazer, the real Borg are still out there, and they have a name for you: Locutus of Borg. The only Borg so deadly they gave him a goddamn name."
It's enough to make Picard get up and leave, ending his attempt at mending things with Jack. Ouch.
'That was a scene where they allow this character to peel back a curtain and reveal his pain in a big way'
Shaw even knows he went too far, commenting that at some point he replaced charm with "being an a**hole," but thankfully the experience filming the scene was less painful for Stashwick:
"Those kinds of scenes and that kind of writing is a rare thing. We often, especially in television, it's just 'got to keep moving.' But because it's a 10 episode show, we get to let moments breathe. And that was a scene where they allow this character to peel back a curtain and reveal his pain in a big way. So it was humbling and an honor to get a scene like that in this franchise."
Jonathan Frakes directed the episode and Shaw said he was given plenty of room to play with the performance, trying different variations from beginning to end to see what worked best. Even though Stewart and Speelers didn't have any dialogue during his big moment, they still gave him plenty to work with and react to. And it wasn't too tough to yell at Stewart, either, because he's a "silly heart off-screen." Stewart even gave him a nice gesture of reassurance afterward that he crushed the scene, and everyone is still friendly even if their characters aren't. It will be interesting to see how the dynamic between Shaw and Picard changes in the coming weeks, as new episodes of "Star Trek: Picard" stream Thursdays on Paramount+.