Why Captain Shaw is the Best Character in ‘Star Trek: Picard’ – Review Geek

The animating issue for Picard season three up to now is “Picard wants to avoid wasting Beverly Crusher.” She’s injured on a ship in deep house and despatched the previous Enterprise-D captain a coded misery sign warning him to not contain Starfleet. Picard recruits his outdated first officer William Riker for assist. Riker cooks up a plan to trick the captain U.S.S. Titan into taking them to the sting of Federation house, the place they may take a shuttle to search out Beverly. Picard and Riker board the Titan underneath the pretense of a shock inspection performed by two legendary Starfleet officers forward of “Frontier Day” celebrations.

We don’t meet Captain Shaw till the latter half of the primary episode of Picard season three, but when this season have been structured as a 10-hour film (and it’s), he walks on stage precisely if you’d anticipate him to. And like the principle foil of a very good Star Trek film, he will get a memorable scene to make that entrance. Consider Star Trek II when Khan made his first look—a scene that may finish with a thoughts management bug moving into Chekov’s ear—and Star Trek VI when Common Chang stepped off the transporter pad and greeted Captain Kirk with the road “in house all warriors are chilly warriors,” then proceeded to chew the surroundings whereas quoting Shakespeare within the well-known eating scene that adopted. Captain Shaw will get that stage of introduction, so you understand he’s an necessary character that’s going to stay round some time.

From the start, Shaw is onto Riker and Picard’s scheme. He is aware of their historical past. He’s not silly. He’s a Starfleet captain. Think about this was an episode of Star Trek: Titan, and Captain Shaw and crew are on a routine mission. Then two legendary but inactive officers with an extended historical past of saving the galaxy and getting drawn into harmful conditions seem unexpectedly and begin poking round on the ship. Picard and Riker are enjoying the Evil Admiral trope on that episode of Titan, and Captain Shaw can be silly to allow them to deceive him.

Shaw reveals he’s onto Picard and Riker earlier than they even step foot on his vessel by not greeting them once they board. Titan first officer Seven of 9 informs the pair that Captain Shaw is “catching up with some logs,” and can be part of them for dinner later. Shaw additional disrespects Picard and Riker by consuming midway via his meal earlier than they present as much as dine with him. Claiming that their “popularity preceded you up to now into the room that I began early.”

Shaw’s rudeness continues when he low-key insults Picard’s present of a bottle of wine from his winery, stating that he’s a “Malbeck Man,” and unsubtly jabs at Riker’s command fashion by proclaiming to have “purged the bebop” from the ship’s techniques when he took the captain’s chair 5 years in the past. The verbal jabs don’t let up till the scene ends after Shaw declines Picard’s request to alter course with a easy “No.” Then follows up by saying that he gained’t endanger his ship for this ruse and divulges his distaste for Picard as a “former ex-borg” (It’s unclear if this double-negative was intentional or not).

It’s a riveting scene and reveals the care that showrunner Terry Matalas took to make Shaw a multi-dimensional character fairly than simply somebody who calls Picard names and swears at him—as we’ve seen with different Starfleet officers in earlier seasons of Picard.

A variety of viewers might not personally like Captain Shaw’s gruff demeanor. Not solely is he impolite to Picard and Riker, however up to now, he seems to deal with Seven of 9 with a little bit of disdain. However there are causes for his habits. Most cases the place we see him being less-than-nice towards Seven need to do together with her insubordination in taking the ship off track and serving to Picard and Riker commandeer a shuttle. There stay problems with his insisting that Seven go by her human identify (Annika Hansen) fairly than her Borg designation and his outright disgusted comment about “former ex-borgs.” However I feel we’ll see the genesis of that individual prejudice performed out in additional episodes.

It comes all the way down to the truth that Shaw runs his ship otherwise, with a distinct persona than Trek followers are accustomed to. It will postpone many viewers by design. Suppose again to the basic Subsequent Technology two-parter “The Chain of Command,” when Captain Edward Jellico took over command from the Enterprise-D from Picard, tasked with a secret mission into Cardassian house. In these episodes, Jellico fully reordered the Enterprise in a way harking back to how Shaw instructions the Titan. It’s a really no-nonsense, get-it-done, follow-your-orders fashion. And the crew hated each minute of being underneath the command of Jellico.

The trick about Jellico is that whereas some view him as a “dangerous captain”, he was proper about every thing. If you happen to return and watch that story, you’ll discover that Jellico was vindicated in each choice he made and ended up rescuing Picard by his wits. One thing comparable is going on with Captain Shaw proper now in Picard. Rewatch the primary two episodes of Picard season three and attempt to discover a spot when he’s factually mistaken about one thing. He isn’t. To not say he’ll by no means be, however I’ve a sense we’ll be nicely into the latter half of the season earlier than he makes a mistake—whereas additionally being form of a jerk to individuals.

Nevertheless, for all his gruffness, he’s nonetheless open to recommendation and can change his plan of action. For instance, within the second episode of Picard season three, Shaw decides to maintain the Titan inside Federation house when he is aware of that Picard and Riker are in bother. It makes excellent sense that he would act that means. He knew that his ship can be outgunned if he intervened and weighed the lives of 500 crewmen in opposition to simply Riker and Picard. However when it got here all the way down to the ultimate choice to intervene, Shaw confirmed that he was open to taking Seven’s recommendation (regardless that she had simply helped Riker and Picard of their plot) and determined to go save Picard and Riker.

Trekkies can debate whether or not or not Shaw makes the morally appropriate name right here. Some will come down on Shaw’s aspect, citing that Picard and Riker have been attempting to trick him all alongside, and now a harmful scenario is unfolding like he suspected it would. Others can say that leaving two individuals to certainly die goes in opposition to the rules of Starfleet. However, the wonder is that each side have a strong footing to face on, a very good motive for taking their positions—Captain Shaw as a personality represents that.

The same scenario performed out close to the tip of the episode when Shaw needed to make a crucial choice needed to be made handy over Jack Crusher to the dangerous guys or attempt to make a getaway. All through the episode, Shaw is adamant that he intends to present Jack to the bounty hunters. However when Picard revealed that Jack was his son on the final second, Shaw understood and determined to threat his ship and crew to avoid wasting him. So, as gruff as he’s, he’s not intransigent—an indication of a very good captain.

This may increasingly or might not have one thing to do with Shaw’s character within the present. However there’s simply one thing a few man who instructions a starship just like the Titan-A that instructions respect. It’s a beautiful ship in and out. And arms down, my favourite starship Star Trek Universe has placed on display screen since Discovery premiered in 2017.

It’s clear after simply two episodes that Captain Liam Shaw is right here to remain. The showrunner and writers recognized him as one of many central characters within the plot of the ultimate season of Star Trek: Picard and paid a lot thought and work to creating him a totally realized character.

Within the arms of lesser Trek writers, this character might have turned out to be as bland as a bit of bread like Enterprise-B commander John Harriman in Star Trek: Generations or the f-bomb-dropping Admiral Clancy from Picard season one. As a substitute, we’ve a sophisticated, flawed, and plausible foil to affix us on this journey.

After all, I couldn’t let this text go with out praising the stunningly glorious efficiency of actor Todd Stashwick. We’re solely two episodes in, and he’s delivered a present for the Trek ages. He’s a type of character actors that pop up on TV reveals infrequently, however I by no means knew his identify. However I certain do now, and I’ll most likely always remember it.