Star Trek: 10 Hated Characters You Grew To Love

The debate rages on over Captain Liam Shaw. His first appearance in Star Trek: Picard's third season opener The Next Generation led to memes galore (see the thumbnail for this very article!) However, from the jump, it was clear that he had every right to be annoyed - his ship was being hijacked.

His animosity toward anything Borg-related made him harder to sympathise with. As an audience, we are predisposed to feel a kinship with Picard and Seven of Nine, neither of whom Shaw seems to offer much respect towards. He is openly hostile to Picard while refusing to call Seven anything but Annika Hansen.

As the season progresses, Shaw's disgruntled behaviour is played for laughs, pushing him into a more lovable camp. There's more than a hint of Han Solo about him, even if he's a bit more orderly than his counterpart from a galaxy far, far away.

It is the reveal that Shaw was using Seven's human name simply to push her buttons that hurts his case. He is a highly engaging character, one who is presented with a stick up his butt the size of a warp core, but one who comes around. He is undeniably loved by much of the audience now, thanks in no small part to Todd Stashwick's performance.