‘Star Trek: Picard’: Jeri Ryan & Todd Stashwick Talk Start of ‘Begrudging, Mutual Respect’ Between Seven & Shaw
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Episode 4 “No Win Scenario.”]
Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and Shaw (Todd Stashwick) butted heads for most of the first four episodes of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 — she deserves the respect he’s not giving her — but the two do manage to get a very important job done in “No Win Scenario.”
With a Changeling on the ship and no one knowing the Titan better than he does, the two team up and draw out the imposter, looking like Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut). As Seven points out, the real Sidney calls her Commander Seven out of respect, not Hansen, as Shaw does. Elsewhere in the episode, Shaw, in front of Picard (Patrick Stewart), tells Jack (Ed Speleers) how he became one of 10 to survive the Battle of Wolf 359 on his ship.
Ryan and Stashwick discuss their characters’ dynamic and more.
Episode 4 is when we see Seven and Shaw working together, probably in the most cordial way we’ll ever see them together. Reluctantly working together to get a necessary job done is probably the best this dynamic can be, right?
Jeri Ryan: Pretty much.
Todd Stashwick: It sort of runs the gamut of their relationship. We also, in that episode, get a glimpse of why there might be a bit more grit between them that I don’t even think Seven knows about Shaw. So yeah, that’s a pivotal episode, I think, for these two characters going forward, and it definitely shifts a paradigm for Shaw as well.
Can Shaw change enough to apologize in such a way that Seven should accept, and will he ever give her the respect she deserves and call her Seven?
Ryan: You’ll just have to watch the rest of the season.
Stashwick: Probably not. He’s immovable. No, yeah, I’m just going to defer to the boss here.
Is there anything that Shaw can do at this point where Seven would be willing to accept an apology?
Ryan: Absolutely. There’s definitely — and you see it a little bit there already — a begrudging, mutual respect.
Stashwick: Their relationship has a distinct arc, and it’s quite beautiful. It was a treat to read, and a treat to then get to perform.
Trae Patton/Paramount+
Jeri, how would you describe Seven and Raffi’s (Michelle Hurd) relationship at this point, and what does that mean for Seven’s journey this season?
Ryan: [At the beginning of] the season, Seven’s on a Starship. And we are not entirely sure, when we first see Raffi, where exactly she is or what’s happened, if she’s fallen off the wagon, or what exactly is going on with her. But for me, from a character perspective, for Seven at least, this is the most realistic way to play out this relationship, I think, for these characters.
Seven has been such a maverick and rebel, and loner her entire life. So to think that suddenly she’s going to [decide], “OK, great, I love this woman, I’m going to settle down, and I’m going to suddenly just be…” That’s not who she is, and I wouldn’t have believed that if that’s what was written, knowing this character for so many years and playing this character for so many years. So for me, this is a very realistic way to play out their story.
There will always be mutual love, and there will always be a very close connection between these characters. But Seven is not the “settle down and be in a happy relationship” type. I just don’t see that for her. But the characters come together at some point during the season, and you’ll continue the story, and I think it’s pretty cool by the end of the season. I think it’s pretty satisfying.
Todd, talk about filming Shaw opening up about his past to Picard and Jack. It’s such an emotional scene and a different side of your character.
Stashwick: Yeah, it might be the first time that character verbally visits it out loud in front of other people except maybe a therapist. It was such a gift the writers gave me of that scene, and then the fact that they kept the whole thing and the final cut was wonderful. Jonathan Frakes was directing that episode and just gave me the room to sing the song that they wrote in that scene. And Patrick was there as my scene partner, even though he’s silent through the whole scene, just beautiful to do that scene with him. And then at the end of that scene, he breaks me the way he backs away and then the way he leaves looking so small, like frail, and it’s beautiful, and again, to get that kind of material as an actor is a rare and wonderful thing, and I was humbled to be trusted with it.
Star Trek: Picard, Thursdays, Paramount+
