William Shatner has never been afraid to speak his mind, and he has been doing that when it comes to his feelings for the way some of his old Star Trek co-stars have spoken about him since their time working together. Shatner has had spats with a number of stars from the show and in a recent interview with The Times he slammed George Takei and the rest of the cast, who he called “these people”, that have criticized his on-set behaviour when filming stopped.
Shatner’s comments about Takei stemmed from his former co-star’s opinion of his trip into space with Jeff Bezos. At the time Takei was asked about Shatner’s flight and what his opinion was about it. Pulling no punches, Takei said, “He’s boldly going where other people have gone before. He’s a guinea pig, 90 years old and it’s important to find out what happens. 90 years old is going to show a great deal more on the wear and tear on the human body, so he’ll be a good specimen to study. Although he’s not the fittest specimen of 90 years old, so he’ll be a specimen that’s unfit!"
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Now Shatner has given a blistering response, saying that Takei has never stopped “blackening” his name, and he continued to blast everyone else from the show that has constantly brought up how he allegedly used to act on the set of Star Trek when not on camera. He told The Times:
“Sixty years after some incident, they are still on that track. Don’t you think that’s a little weird? It’s like a sickness. I began to understand that they were doing it for publicity. George [Takei] has never stopped blackening my name” Shatner said. “These people are bitter and embittered. I have run out of patience with them. Why give credence to people consumed by envy and hate?”
William Shatner and George Takei Have Traded Barbs Before
As William Shatner suggested, he has crossed words with George Takei on a number of occasions over the years, the most recent occurrence being around the time Shatner was ready to go into Space. As well as his comments about that, Takei also took aim at the former Captain Kirk for being jealous of co-star Leonard Nimoy’s popularity on Star Trek. He said:
Shatner didn’t take long to respond to that dig saying:
“It got more and more intense. How do I put it? It began from the TV series. There was one character whose charisma and whose mystery was like a magnet. It was Spock, the strange alien with pointy ears. That intrigued the audience and women thought ‘I’m the one who can arouse him.’ His fan letters were this many, and Leonard’s were that many, and that created a tension, that insecurity [within Shatner].”
Having gone on for so long, it seems that the unrest between Shatner and his surviving co-stars from his Star Trek days is not about to just fade away. As his latest interview has proven, Shatner looks to want to ensure that he has the last word on the subject, even if that means his interviews boldly go to many places they have been before.
“George needs a new hobby. Now he’s making things up. We never saw fan letters. That’s why there’s so many secretary signed photos. We barely saw George. He was in once a week at most-how would he know anything? The only person with jealousy is George.”
