Original-Cin Chat: Picard's New Captain Todd Stashwick is a Bigger Nerd Than You
By John Kirk
Todd Stashwick’s nerd-lair could very well be my own.
“Here … let me do a 360 tour for you.” The newest cast member of Star Trek: Picard, Season 3, says as he rotates his Zoom camera around what I initially took to be his office.
This isn’t his office. It’s actually his “Nerd-Lair,” as he describes it.
“This is the ‘80’s basement of my dreams. There’s my D&D table here, my dragon … let me see if I can get the dragon to roar.” He pushes a button on a remote control and the ornamental dragon’s head in the corner of his lair starts to spew forth steam.
“This is where I come to play.”
Todd Stashwick, a.k.a. Captain Liam Shaw of the USS Titan, NCC-80102-A
Yeah, I could hang out with this guy. He even tells me he’s playing a charity D&D game in the upcoming weekend. Too bad my transporter is off-line.
After the initial mutual geek-sharing, we started talking Star Trek, and what it’s like to be the newest captain in Starfleet’s ranks, Captain Liam Shaw of the USS Titan, NCC-80102-A.
“Well, I’ve been playing Captain Kirk ever since I was six years old.” He began.
And of course, at this point, I’m sold.
We began by looking at Captain Liam Shaw in detail.
“He’s a no-nonsense guy.” Stashwick says about Shaw’s command style. “He suffers no fools and he commands from experience and his gut. He is not a scholarly person – he’s a boots-on-the-ground type who learned by doing. He doesn’t want any messes. He loves his crew and while he has a crunchy exterior, he has warmth inside. He’d rather not blow anything up but…”
Liam Shaw isn’t a Picard or a Kirk, nor does he subscribe to being influenced by any of the other captains in the franchise. He’s a by-the-book type of person who is a foil to both Jean-Luc Picard and Will Riker.
He doesn’t fawn over them, despite their prolific history. In fact, he disparages them, as we see in Episode One. A complicated simple man as Stashwick describes him – and just the type of character that a fan would love to play against legendary captains.
He’s the everyman Captain that a fan would want to play.
For me though? I want a Starfleet Captain played by someone who believes, and I don’t think I’m alone in that assertion.
It’s this belief that guides Stashwick in this character. Liam Shaw doesn’t gravitate towards any of the other captains in the franchise; he’s his own man and it’s clear that Stashwick wants Shaw to stand on his own merits rather than being compared to “the rest of them”. However, comparisons will always exist in Star Trek.
Duelling nerds, Stashwick and Kirk.
“He isn’t Picard, even though the efficiency of Picard is there. He probably admires that, but he’d never tell him. Picard’s lines are very clean. But Shaw isn’t a risk-taker, the brash brigand. Those are the things he has had to bury in himself … for reasons. His command style – he isn’t unlike Picard, but in terms of external expression? He’s got a little bit of Pike, he’s got a little bit of Kirk. He’s much more roguish, salty and swaggering than Picard. He has a sardonic sense of humour in the way he views the world. A blue-collar elegance to him, if you like?”
I usually get to interview Star Trek actors when they are comfortable in their roles, or when they’ve finished them, so it’s rare for me to talk to one at the onset of their performance. In this case though, getting to know some of Todd’s background not only fills me with an intense amount of confidence that he can play this role well (well, that and I’ve seen the first six episodes of the season), but also that he deserves it.
He isn’t just an actor, he’s also a fan and he belongs to this role. The more I talked with him, the more I believed this.
“I’m yelling things like: ‘Battle stations!’ and ‘Hard left!’ which is the captain-y stuff I’ve been doing in my dreams all my life!”
I don’t think I’m the most accomplished Trek fan in the world, but I’m sure I’m a pretty good representation of the type of fan who would vicariously freak out at learning someone like me is taking the helm of a starship like the Titan-A that has so much gravitas attached to it.
If the measure here is playing Captain Kirk when you were a kid to … oh, I don’t know… now? Then I remember I had to simulate the transporter effect with my friends by everyone closing their eyes while I moved to a different spot. I think the point is: he gets it from an early age and that’s the type of performer I want playing a significant character in the latest version of Star Trek.
Todd’s introduction to this genre of storytelling began with his collection of MEGO Star Trek action figures in 1974. But then, in 1977 he was introduced to the “other STAR” when, like so many of us, were transported to a galaxy, far, far away.
“I’ve been prepared for believing in other worlds since I was six years old.”
Todd has had a plethora of fantasy roles in his history, including roles in Supernatural, Heroes, and Star Trek: Enterprise. He also played the role of Deacon in the 2015 series 12 Monkeys, where he worked with Picard showrunner, Terry Matalas. We talked a little about them and how they prepared him for Star Trek: Picard.
“Well, there was only one Star Trek role, but he was very duplicitous. That was Talok on Enterprise and he was a Romulan disguised as a Vulcan. That kind of job was the ‘guest-star’ job where you get it, and don’t want to disturb the furniture. You know, like you’re a guest in someone else’s home? When I got to Picard, it was just as much my home as it was anybody else’s. I was not a guest star on TNG, I’m part of the cast of Picard – I was welcomed in … and it was beautiful.”
Todd Stashwick gets the sense of importance that his audience expects. This is Star Trek It’s the last time we’ll probably see the cast of The Next Generation together and Todd understands how important it is to be a part of it.
“This is a chunk of my life. In terms of the time I get to spend with this character, the time I get to spend with the other cast and the time I get to spend in that universe and headspace – working with those wonderful humans.”
I asked him if it would be fair to say he had come home, ushering in a vibe from a Star Trek film that die-hard fans would recognize all too well.
“It’s very much home.” He confirmed. “I was sitting in the captain’s chair in between takes and Patrick (Sir Patrick Stewart) is sitting next to me, and Brent Spiner came over. He was doing a make-up test, and he started horsing around with Patrick who then stood up and exclaimed: ‘Oh! Have you met Todd Stashwick?’ Then, he leans in conspiratorially to Brent and says: ‘He’s one of us’.”
That’s pretty much it right there: Star Trek royalty dispensation from on high. If Stashwick fits the bill for being one of them, then he overwhelmingly fits the bill for being one of us.
Goddamnit … he is one of us, and as much as I am envious, I want this D&D playing, MEGO action figure-collecting, dyed-in-the-wool self-proclaimed nerd to be the best Captain Liam Shaw can be.
Star Trek: Picard releases on Paramount Plus and CTV Sci-Fi Channel on February 16th.