George Takei has responded to the barbed comments made about him by former Star Trek costar William Shatner.
During an appearance on Friday’s The Graham Norton Show in the UK, Takei, age 85, said the moment would be “The very last time I talk about him” in response to a question from the host on the Shatner relationship.
Takei said that the feud is “tiresome,” and said the 91-year-old Shatner is a “cantankerous old man.”
The actor is out promoting his musical, Allegiance, which is based on his childhood experience and family history.
“When Bill has a book to sell, he needs publicity and accuses us of using him,” said Takei. referring to his fellow Star Trek castmates. “My subject is more substantial and important.”
He added, “He is a cantankerous old man and I will not talk about him anymore. I vow that this is the very last time I talk about him.”
EARLIER: As they near the final frontier, there’s apparently still some scores to settle between the castmates of the original Star Trek television and film franchises.
Speaking to The Times of London for an interview that ran Friday, William Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk on TV and in seven films, gave a few jabs back at one of the people he worked with on those projects.
At 91, Shatner hasn’t forgotten the criticism of his behavior when the cameras were not rolling.
“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,” he said of the criticism. “I began to understand that they were doing it for publicity.”
George Takei was simply the latest. The actor, who played Sulu in the shows, claimed Shatner’s 2021 trip on Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket was done to have a “guinea pig” to assess the impact of space on an “unfit” man.
“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?”
Takei, who is very active on Twitter, has yet to respond.
