The feud between George Takei and his former Star Trek co-star William Shatner rages on! Shatner came out and blamed the Star Trek feuds on his “bitter and embittered” co-stars saying: “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.”
Well now in a recent interview with the Guardian. Takei is saying that there was a healthy camaraderie on set among his cast members “except for one, who was a prima donna.” When asked if any of the cast got along with Shatner. Takei responded, “No, none of us.” He went on to say:
“I know he came to London to promote his book and talked about me wanting publicity by using his name. So I decided I don’t need his name to get publicity. I have much more substantial subject matter that I want to get publicity for, so I’m not going to refer to [Shatner] in this interview at all. Although I just did. He’s just a cantankerous old man and I’m going to leave him to his devices. I’m not going to play his game.”
Back in 2021, Takei publicly mocked Shatner’s space flight on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. “He’s boldly going where other people have gone before. He’s a guinea pig…he’s not the fittest specimen of 90 years old, so he’ll be a specimen that’s unfit!”
It’s comments like that that pressed Shatner to speak out saying: “I do find it sad that a handful of day players who were on set for maybe 20-30 days a year total spent 50+ years creating fantasies to get noticed in the press. Why did actors in other shows I was in not have the same issues? I stupidly allowed them to do it I guess. No more!”
As a huge fan of Star Trek and the characters that these actors played, it’s sad that this is what it’s all come to.