George Takei Comments On Feud With William Shatner

Star Trek star George Takei is opening up about the supposedly longstanding feud between himself and fellow Star Trek star, William Shatner.

Takei and Shatner were co-stars through three seasons of Star Trek: The Original Series and six movies that followed. There’s been well-documented tension between the actors, as well as Shatner and some of his other co-stars, dating back over the franchise’s entire 50-year history.

Speaking to the Edmonton Journal, Takei says that entire situation has been overblown.

“This is silliness,” Takei says. “There’s unanimity among the cast mates, we’ve all had difficulties with Bill, but we’re all teammates and we work together. When Brad and I got married, I asked Walter Koenig, who played Chekov, to be our best man and Nichelle Nichols to be our matron of honor. Nichelle said, ‘I am not a matron! If Walter is the best man, why can’t I be the best lady?’ We said, ‘Of course you are.’

“We thought the most natural thing to do would be to extend invitations to everybody. We sent Bill an invitation. There might have been some mistake in the mail. If he would have called us before the wedding, we would have happily had him. We do conventions and we do cross paths. I’ll say, ‘Morning, Bill.’ And he’ll say, ‘Morning, George.’ And that’s it.”

In the past, Takei has accused Shatner of using this supposed feud as a means of drumming up publicity for whatever new project he may be trying to sell.

However, on-set feuds aren’t unique to the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series. Star Trek: Voyager star Jeri Ryan has spoken about a feud she had after joining the show in its third season, and while she never names the individual, most have assumed the feud was with her own captain, Kate Mulgrew.

“I remember this one time, in particular, I had this one scene with this person, just the two of us,” Ryan said. “We do their coverage first, and shoot their side of this really dramatic scene, and then it was time for my coverage. Before every close-up, the hair and makeup and wardrobe teams come in and do touch-ups and everything to make sure everything’s right…[The co-star] shut the door to the set, and said, ‘She’s fine. LET’S GO.’ Wouldn’t let them in. Just stupid, stupid stuff like that.

“Another time, I don’t even think it was the same day, but a different scene with that person on the same set — we do their side first, and then it’s my coverage on close-up for this really intense scene. The literally sat off-camera picking their nails, thumbing through a book, and just haphazardly saying their lines off camera without even making eye contact.”