William Shatner has shot back at George Takei after the Star Trek alum criticized Shatner's trip into outer space with Jeff Bezos. Shatner is best known for his portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek series in 1966. Takei was among the original crewmembers to appear alongside Shatner and played Starfleet Officer Hikaru Sulu. Both Shatner and Takei have made no secret of their disdain for each other in the decades following the end of their tenure on Star Trek. Many trace the feud back to the release of Takei's 1994 memoir, To The Stars, in which he claims Shatner's behind-the-scenes behavior towards him on the Star Trek set was not respectful.
Shatner recently made headlines for his trip into outer space aboard Amazon Founder Jeff Bezo's Blue Origin spacecraft. At 90 years old, the voyage made Shatner the oldest person ever to travel into space. However, Takei brushed off the achievement and said Shatner is "boldly going where other people have gone before" and then claiming Shatner is nothing more than a "guinea pig" for examining the effects of space travel on a 90-year-old man. Takei then went on to say that Shatner is "not the fittest specimen of 90 years old."
Taking to Twitter, William Shatner responded to Takei's criticisms and took a few jabs of his own. Shatner claims that "the only time [Takei] gets press is when he talks bad about me," before bringing up an alleged incident where Takei was angry about 30 seconds of lost air time on Star Trek. Shatner claims he's making it up to Takei now by "letting him spew his hatred for the world to see." Shatner mockingly signs his tweet with a pig Emoji, referencing Takei's guinea pig comments. Check out Shatner's original Tweet below:
Shatner and Takei's feud is one of the longest-running in all of Hollywood and, judging from their most recent exchange, and it doesn't appear it will be ending anytime soon. Interesting to note is the disparity between Twitter follower numbers between the two actors. Shatner has primarily been correct in his previous claims that Takei was more or less a "day player" on Star Trek, with his appearances on the show numbering far fewer than Shatner's. However, Takei has amassed over 3.2 million followers on Twitter, while Shatner has 2.5 million. However, both actors have their die-hard fans, with clear delineations apparent between those who defend Shatner and those who support Takei in the Tweet's comments.
Ultimately, it seems that both Takei and Shatner would be better off burying the hatchet at this point. With Shatner at 90 years old and Takei at 84, maintaining a decades-long feud over Twitter doesn't feel like necessarily the best or most rewarding use of either actor's time. Of course, taking occasional jabs at each other over social media does put both Star Trek alums back in the headlines for a few days. It generates conversation, which perhaps is a reward in itself.
Source: William Shatner/ Twitter
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