***The following interview contains spoilers for 3.05***
On the most recent episode of
Star Trek: Picard, which was released today on Paramount Plus, paranoia over the Changlings continue as a Bajoran crewman from Picard (Patrick Stewart)’s past, (Michelle Forbes) boards the ship and he faces a court martial by Starfleet. He must decide if she can be trusted, and how far the Changling infiltration goes.
By the end of the episode, it’s quite clear that if they are going to make it out of their situation, that captain of the Titan, Liam Shaw, played by
12 Monkey’s Todd Stashwick, is going to have to trust and work with Picard and Riker (Jonathan Frakes) moving forward as they are on the run from Starfleet. “By the time we hit the end of episode 305, it's survival, and he is smart enough to know he needs all hands on deck, and he needs their experience,” the actor told SciFi Vision during a recent interview. “He needs their counsel; he needs their advice…I think going forward when he suddenly realizes that they are fugitives and they collectively have their backs against the wall, because they just witnessed how compromised Starfleet is, he's no dummy. He's going to need all of the advice and counsel that can be given.”
Stashwick was a fan of
Star Trek long before getting a part on Picard. “In many ways, I've been pretending to be a captain since I was six,” he quipped, also speaking of how the writers on the series know how to write specifically for him after working with them for four seasons on
12 Monkeys. “I was very fortunate to have the writing support of Terry Matalas, Sean Tretta, Chris Monfette, Oliver Grigsby,
12 Monkeys writers. So, stepping into the role and saying the words felt like I had been speaking like this forever, because those guys know how to play my instrument, if you will…They had been writing in Shaw's voice prior to me actually even hitting a moment on the soundstage, which doesn't usually happen. Often…[writers] will create a part, then they cast an actor, and then they get to know that actor and start kind of tailoring the words to them and to their strengths as a performer. This was the inverse of that. They already kind of knew how to write to my voice before I ever showed up.”