William Shatner's 'Star Trek' Feuds Continue With 'Bitter' Co-Stars

Star Trek star William Shatner recently spoke out against his co-stars while promoting his new book and slammed the long-standing feud that he holds with several members of the cast who have, in turn, criticized him over the years.

Shatner's Captain Kirk is a legend in the Star Trek franchise, leading the crew of the starship Enterprise over three seasons on television in the 1960s and in seven Star Trek films afterward.

However, in his book titled, Boldly Go, Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder, Shatner mentioned that the late Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura in the show, once told Shatner the cast found him "cold and arrogant." Shatner writes in the book that he was "horrified to learn this, ashamed that I hadn't realized it."

Also alongside him for decades was Hikaru Sulu, played by George Takei, but their off-screen relationship was far from cordial, as the two have publicly feuded for years.

While promoting his book, Shatner recently told The Times UK that he thought the cast members were only talking poorly about him for publicity.

"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. George has never stopped blackening my name. These people are bitter and embittered. I have run out of patience with them. Why give credence to people consumed by envy and hate?" he said.

The feud reportedly began on the set of the original series in the 60s, and Takei, in his 1994 book titled To the Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei, wrote that Shatner would ignore him on set. He also detailed that in the 1980s, Shatner changed the script for the 1989 movie Star Trek V, which Shatner directed, so that Takei's character wouldn't take control of the ship, which was originally how it was written.

In an interview in 2015 with The New York Times, Takei stated that it is "difficult" to work with someone "who is not a team player."

"The rest of the cast all understand what makes a scene work—it's everybody contributing to it. But Bill is a wonderful actor, and he knows it, and he likes to have the camera on him all the time," he said.

In 2008, the pair took aim at one another after it was reported that Shatner was not invited to Takei's wedding. In response, Shatner posted a YouTube video, in which he stated, "It's so painfully obvious that there's a psychosis there. I don't know what his original thing about me was...I didn't know the man, but he's continued to speak badly about me for all these years...There must be something else inside George that is festering, and it makes him so unhappy that he takes it out on me—in effect, a total stranger."

According to Takei, though, Shatner was invited.

"It is absolutely baffling to us because, in fact, we did invite Bill and we didn't hear from him," Takei told Entertainment Tonight in 2008. "But it wasn't surprising because it's true to his history. He's never responded to an invitation. Every time there was something happy to celebrate amongst us...he never showed up."

Over the years, the pair have both accused the other of pumping up the feud for publicity's sake, and in 2021, they commented again on one another after Shatner traveled with Jeff Bezos on his Blue Origin space flight.

Takei told Page Six at the time, "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."

As a response, Shatner tweeted, "Don't hate George. The only time he gets press is when he talks bad about me. He claims 50+ years ago I took away a camera angle that denied him 30 more seconds of prime time TV. 🤷🏼‍♂️ I'm giving it back to him now by letting him spew his hatred for the world to see!"

In a statement to Newsweek, Shatner said, "I have nothing to add because there is no feud. I really don't know that gentleman Mr. Takei. I haven't seen him in years and it's been 60 years since I worked with him. I know he's been making statements to the contrary but that's publicity that I think he wishes to get by you writing the article. He succeeds in that desire."

Shatner has also spoken out about a falling out he had with Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock for nearly 50 years. While not as much of a public affair as Takei, Shatner has stated recently that before Nimoy passed away in 2015, the pair had a falling out.

"I don't know what happened. He wouldn't answer my calls, I wrote him a heartfelt letter saying how much I loved him and I wished him well, because he was dying. I wanted to see him, and I am hurt, and so, devastated," he told Entertainment Tonight in October 2022. "Somebody said they've known people who got ill and didn't want to see anyone, because they were ill, and I'd like to say that was the reason."

Newsweek reached out to representatives for Takei for additional comment.

Update: 11/15/22 1:35 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from William Shatner.