Star Trek: Picard and VisionQuest actor Todd Stashwick recently talked about a touching experience he shared with the late Patrick Stewart, and it's warming my heart. We know the actor had a good relationship with many of his TNG co-stars, but he also went out of his way to make his newer friends feel welcome.
He may play one of the best Star Trek characters of all time, but Stashwick assured Movieweb that the star didn't act like he was up on a pedestal above the rest. He recalled a moment they were hanging out on the bridge between takes, and how he was brought into a conversation between Stewart and another Trek legend:
Brent Spiner walked in — and Brent was getting fitted for his contact lenses — and Brent walks over to greet Patrick. They hadn't seen each other since this project started, and they're like, 'Oh, this was this lovely reunion.' Then Patrick immediately stands up. He says, 'Oh, have you met Todd Stashwick?' And then he leans in and goes, 'He's one of us.' I'm like, 'OK, I can just walk into the sea,' you know. Like, the fact that he — and this was early in production — and he immediately christened me as part of the family. It was really special.
Stewart welcomed Todd Stashwick into the Star Trek family, and the fans embraced his Liam Shaw rather quickly as well. The VisionQuest actor became a quick fan favorite, which is saying something considering the main focus of Picard Season 3 was the TNG cast reuniting for the first time in decades. It's good to hear he got along with Sir Patrick, despite Picard's adversarial relationship with Shaw on the bridge.
Liam Shaw was forced to take a backseat when his ship was more or less shanghaied by Picard and Riker as they took on a new threat against the Federation. Though their relationship at the start of the season was adversarial, Shaw and Picard slowly grew a measure of respect for each other as the season went on.
While Patrick Stewart and the cast entertained ideas of a Picard follow-up happening, nothing was able to get off the ground before Stewart's passing. Fortunately, the series remains available with a Paramount+ subscription as a recent final performance in Trek that fans can look back on.
Star Trek will continue without Captain Picard, but I'm sure that either the movie that's in development or a future series will find a way to pay homage to him. We saw similar tributes happen after the passing of Leonard Nimoy, so it'd be a huge missed opportunity for the upcoming movie to overlook it.
Todd Stashwick is just one of many actors in Hollywood paying homage to Patrick Stewart. Like Stashwick, the stories are full of instances in which the actor showed kindness or displayed a humble attitude despite his position as one of Hollywood's most revered actors. It's heartwarming as a fan to read all these stories and see that the man behind one of sci-fi's best characters lived up to the hype in real-life encounters.
Catch all of Patrick Stewart's best moments in Star Trek over on Paramount+ right now. I highly recommend that those who missed out on Picard give it a watch, as it's a fantastic final performance in a show for the great actor.
