[Editors Note: This article contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Episode 4, “No Win Scenario."]This week,Star Trek: Picardhas delivered another home-run episode filled with tense action sequences and emotional character moments as well as incredible revelations that reach back over two decades into the franchise’s history.Season 3, Episode 4, “No Win Scenario,“sees the Titan freefalling inside the nebula’s gravity well with no clear means of escape or survival as power and life support drain the further they fall. In this episode, Captain Shaw (Todd Stashwick) is still recovering from the leg injury he received in their confrontation with the Shrike, effectively on leave from command as Riker (Jonathan Frakes) takes over the captain’s chair.
“No Win Scenario” also unlocks a key moment from Shaw’s backstory that explains a lot about why he’s so uncomfortable around Picard and Seven (Jeri Ryan). In a reflective moment, Shaw confronts Picard and Jack (Ed Speleers) in the holodeck, revealing that his resentment for Picard is rooted in losing everyone he cared about in the battle of Wolf 359—Starfleet’s most deadly encounter with The Borg. Recently, Collider’s ownMaggie Lovittsat down with Picard Season 3 showrunnerTerry Matalasto unpack this moment, among other juicy details from Episode 4. During their conversation, Matalas referred to this particular scene as “TheJawsSpeech,” explaining that both this moment and Shaw’s name are references to the iconicSteven Spielbergblockbuster.
The first four episodes of Season 3 came together very quickly according to Matalas who said “fortunately, I had a rough sketch of this thing in my head real quick, because I had to pitch it to Patrick, and the studio, and the network, and I had one through four quickly because we had to break it fast.” The writer and showrunner explained that he knew from the jump that the reveal of Shaw’s backstory being linked to Wolf 359 would be a “key moment.” He told Collider:
“I also knew the best moment for that to come out would be for in front of Picard’s son, the darkest part of Picard’s past needed to be exposed at this key critical moment, in which he is trying to bond with his son. It felt like, ‘Oh, that’s a bad time for that to all come out.'”
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Captain Shaw’s Namesake IsJawsActor Robert Shaw
Shaw’s monologue about his personal experience at Wolf 359 plays out in the same way as Robert Shaw’s Indianapolis monologue in Jaws—a charming moment between friends slowly turns dark as the character delves into a horrific moment from their past with the whole room falling quiet with reverence. Matalas explained that they frequently called this “the Robert Shaw speech,” saying, “it went from being Captain Stashwick [which] is what we would call him in the writer’s room to Captain Shaw, and then we were like, ‘Let’s just keep it Captain Shaw.’ It was a placeholder that we meant to change, and we were like, ‘Why change it? It just works.'”
Lovitt also recently sat down with Stashwick to discuss his work as the new, grumpy yet charming captain of the Titan, and they also discussed theJawsinspiration behind this pivotal moment. Shaw’s primary experience with Picard being such a devastating moment in his life is something that has shaped his whole worldview. As Stashwick explained:
“Some of the inspiration for the character was – specifically talking about that scene, obviously—some of the inspiration for that scene was [Sam] Quint’s monologue about The Indianapolis, fromJaws. Hence, his name’s Shaw after Robert. I knew that going into the whole project, that that was his connection to Picard, and that he has this life-altering experience that is deeply connected to Picard. An experience that shapes his entire worldview going forward.”
From the first episode of Season 3, it was pretty easy to mark Shaw down as a stuffy, by-the-book captain that we don’t like because of the way he speaks to Picard, Riker, and Seven. However, over the course of these first four episodes, he’s been working his way into the hearts of fans as someone they can understand and even relate to. This revelation serves as a bit of a turning point for Shaw and how the audience views him. Stashwick points out our view of Shaw shifts after we see this “defining moment.” In his words, “There’s how you see him before, then that scene, and then how you view the man after that scene because I think it changes the audience’s perspective and how they receive him.”
New episodes of Star Trek: Picard go up on Paramount+ every Thursday. Be sure to check out our full conversations with Matalas and Stashwick when they go up. In the meantime, check out another chat we had with Stashwick and Ryan down below.
