Picard's Todd Stashwick Will Never Forget Captain Shaw's Monologue

Listing the aspects that made Captain Shaw's monologue work, Todd Stashwick started at the top: "A, getting amazing material," he began. "B, I was fortunate to have a two-part episode called 'Best of Both Worlds' to be able to visualize the event, from at least externally what I would've seen out of a port window, to see what the sky was doing and what the Borg cube was doing to Starfleet."

The story that he's referring to — generally considered to be one of the best in "Star Trek" history — involves Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) being assimilated by the all-consuming Borg and turned into a weapon that's used to decimate 39 Starfleet ships. Meanwhile, his first officer William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) is forced to deal with the possibility of having to kill his commanding officer and mentor. It's heavy stuff.

Luckily for Stashwick, he was accompanied by two of the people who would best understand the gravity of the story being told: Scene partner Patrick Stewart and the episode's director, Jonathan Frakes. " ... to have Patrick walk over to you and give you that little arm squeeze of approval and say some kind words, it's just like ... You never know how it's going to go," he continued, going on to say "and then Jonathan behind the camera giving me all the room to play, and then also then letting me do it from beginning to end every time."

The farewell season of "Star Trek: Picard" is available to watch on Paramount+, with new episodes dropping every Thursday.