By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
While Star Trek: Picard filled its third season with returning actors from The Next Generation, one cast member riled up the fandom early on: Todd Stashwick, who played the cantankerous Captain Shaw. Early on, he is highly disrespectful towards beloved characters like Picard and Riker, but he ultimately sacrifices himself to save their lives and others.
Most fans consider this a traditional redemption arc, but Stashwick recently pushed back against this description in an interview with TrekMovie, insisting that his character “was always a good person” and that “he wasn’t wrong about all this stuff with Picard.”
Shaw & Order
The “stuff with Picard” began early on in Picard’s third season, when Shaw meets with the Enterprise-D’s famous captain and first officer. Things get awkward right away: Shaw invites Picard and Riker to dinner but ends up making fun of Picard’s wine, Riker’s jazz, and their generally reckless conduct as Starfleet officers over the years.
The writing in Picard Season 3 makes longtime viewers hate Shaw early on. After all, he acts downright insulting to Picard and Riker, two of the most beloved Star Trek: The Next Generation characters. Later, we discover Shaw is a survivor of Wolf 359, and he has a special grudge against Picard, who (as the assimilated Locotus) led a Borg attack that destroyed dozens of ships, including Shaw’s.
All of this pays off after Shaw heroically sacrifices himself to save the people he’s been dunking on, and we later find out he left Seven of Nine (the ex-Borg first officer that he keeps disrespecting) a glowing performance review, recommending that she be promoted to captain. All of this has the mouth feel of a traditional redemption arc, of course, and you might be a Borg yourself if you don’t cry hearing Shaw’s praise of Seven.
Redemption, Part None
However, in a recent interview with TrekMovie, Shaw actor Todd Stashwick pushed back against their description of his character having a redemption arc. He believes that Shaw merely experienced “character growth” and doesn’t like the redemption arc label because “redemption means he was a bad person who learned a lesson and became a good person.” Stashwick sees Shaw as someone who “was always a good person trying to protect his people” and was “just a bit disrespectful in his way,” particularly towards Picard, whom his character “wasn’t wrong about.”
It’s an interesting analysis, and it’s hard to really disagree with the actor. Traditionally, Trek redemption arcs involve the rehabilitation of someone truly despicable, like when the Cardassian Damar goes from being a fascist flunkie to a revolutionary leader who dies trying to help fight the Dominion. Or Mirror Universe Philippa Georgiou, who goes from being a mass murdering, evil Emperor to someone who saves the Prime universe from being wiped out by the rogue AI known as Control.
While Todd Stashwick acknowledged that his character did need to grow regarding Seven of Nine (whom Shaw had to work to see as a person, not a Borg), he maintains that even his evolving view of this beloved Voyager character doesn’t represent a redemption arc “because he wasn’t redeeming himself.” He sees his character as someone who “was already ready to sacrifice himself for people” and “was already going to do the right thing for his crew. After all, he “jumped into action to do the right thing” as soon as he learned that Jack Crusher was the son of an admiral.
If It’s Good Enough For Sisko
This is a really reasonable take on Shaw, and Stashwick’s thoughts reveal why so many people now love the character: he’s essentially a good guy, but he has all the rough edges you might expect from (as he calls himself) “a dipsh*t from Chicago.” This includes holding a grudge against Picard for his actions as Locutus, which seems to be a common sentiment among Starfleet members. Even Captain Sisko holds such a grudge against Picard, and fans really shouldn’t hold a one-season character like Shaw to a higher standard than one of the greatest characters in all of Star Trek.
Whether or not you agree with Todd Stashwick’s ideas about redemption (and the lack thereof), he did a pitch-perfect job with Captain Shaw. In what is arguably a career-best performance, he needed only 10 episodes to create one of the most complex and compelling characters in the entire franchise. Now that Star Trek is about to enter a new era, we can only hope it’s filled with actors who have even half this man’s talent, charisma, and humor.
