The Fans Have Spoken and Their Favorite 'Star Trek: Picard' Captain Might Surprise You

Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Patrick Stewart (Admiral Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Captain Riker), and Todd Stashwick (Captain Shaw) in STAR TREK: PICARD. Image: Paramount+.

APRIL 13, 2023 - The fans have spoken: Shaw is the favorite captain of Star Trek: Picard season 3

From a storytelling standpoint, Captain Liam Shaw was not supposed to be likable. He’s a stickler for rules and order. He doesn’t let the heroes do whatever they want. He calls Seven by her dead name. He disses Riker’s taste in music and the taste of Chateau Picard. He still holds Picard accountable for the actions of Locutus. He’s bitter and his comments are biting. And, somehow, he stole the hearts of Trek fans.

Shaw, played by veteran actor Todd Stashwick, proved his popularity in a fan poll posted to Twitter by Picard showrunner Terry Matalas. Over the course of five days, 23,793 fans cast their ballots, choosing between Patrick Stewart’s Jean Luc Picard, Jonathan Frakes’ William Riker, Amanda Plummer’s Vadic, and Stashwick’s Shaw.

Shaw easily won out, garnering 53.3% of the votes. His closest competitor was Riker who only managed to pull in 25.4%. Picard came in third with 15.8% and Vadic was last with 5.5%.

#StarTrekPicard Favorite Season 3 "Captain":

— Terry Matalas (@TerryMatalas) April 4, 2023

Shaw’s win appears to have been a no-brainer for at least one of Stashwick’s costars. Replying to the poll, Seven of Nine actress Jeri Ryan had only this to say: “Toldja.”

Not everyone was ready to show Shaw some love, however. Twitter user Herb Reide (@herbhumanity) was particularly blunt in his assessment of the character.

“I personally wish Shaw would be torn apart,” Reide wrote. “His combination of whining and captain obvious comebacks feels like a cosplayer wrote themselves into a fan script.”

For his part, Stashwick is aware that Shaw isn’t the type of captain that Trek fans might be used to. In an interview with startrek.com, Stashwick said that was actually by design.

I have to build this character from the ground up and make him unique and make him my own and therefore, honoring Star Trek by delivering a character that they hadn't seen before in the same way that Janeway, no one seen her. No one had seen Picard. You want to carve out your own space as opposed to trying to be someone else's character. In ‘Imposters,’ you get to see Shaw in full captain mode, red alert and battle stations and all of the captaining of the ship. You got to see him take control and do all the things that you would see if this was the Shaw show.

And if some fans had their way, there would be a Shaw show. The Twitter fan base has been calling for a spinoff focusing on the new characters introduced in Picard’s third season. 

Mica Burton, daughter of Geordie La Forge actor Levar Burton, has appeared this season as Alandra La Forge. In an appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation star Whoopie Goldberg’s talk show The View, the younger Burton discussed the idea. Matalas took to Twitter and responded that he would call the show Star Trek: Legacy, a title shared with a 2006 Trek video game. As the Twitterverse erupted, many fans said they would like to see the USS Titan and Captain Shaw included in such a project.

Speaking at GalaxyCon, Matalas said the current season of Picard will end in a way that sets up the possible spinoff.

Look, I love this time period in Star Trek, the 25th century. I always view it as the present day in Star Trek, for me. It’s where we all left off. And the way we leave this season is a passing of the torch from the last generation to the next… I would certainly love [the spin-off] to happen. We certainly leave it so that you can do that.

Head over to StarTrek.com to read the rest of the interview. And to check out Shaw’s entire run thus far on Star Trek: Picard, warp on over to Paramount+ via the link below. If you sign up for the streamer using the coupon code PICARD, you’ll get a free month. But hurry; this offer ends on April 30.