George Takei Calls Star Trek Costar William Shatner a 'Cantankerous Old Man' amid Years-Long Feud

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George Takei's feud with his former Star Trek costar William Shatner is going strong after more than 50 years.

Takei, 85, has reignited by public scrap by calling Shatner, 91, "a cantankerous old man" after his former costar alleged that he was using his name for publicity.

"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," Takei said of Shatner in an interview with The Guardian. "I have much more substantial subject matter that I want to get publicity for, so I'm not going to refer to Bill in this interview at all."

He added, "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."

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Takei recalled that Shatner, who played Captain Kirk on Star Trek, was "self-involved" and "enjoyed being the center of attention" when they were costars on NBC sci-fi series from 1966 to 1969.

While answering if he got along with his Star Trek costars, Takei alluded to Shatner's on-set behavior: "Yes. Yes. YES. Except for one, who was a prima donna. But the rest of us shared a great camaraderie."

He added, "One of the gifts from Star Trek was not just longevity but colleagues that became lasting friends. My colleagues were part of my wedding party in 2008. Walter Koenig, who played Chekov, was my best man. We asked Nichelle [Nichols, communications officer Uhura] to be our matron of honor but she said: 'I am not a matron! If Walter can be the best man, why can't I be the best lady?' So she became the best lady."

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Takei's comments came after Shatner said he was a "bitter" person in an interview with The Times earlier this month.

"I began to understand that they were doing it for publicity," he explained, per Entertainment Weekly. "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."

"These people are bitter and embittered. I have run out of patience with them," he added. "Why give credence to people consumed by envy and hate?"

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Back in October, Takei didn't pull any punches when he commented on Shatner becoming the oldest person to travel to space during a roundtrip with Jeff Bezos's aerospace company Blue Origin to the edge of space.

"He's boldly going where other people have gone before," Takei told Page Six at the time. "He's a guinea pig, 90 years old and it's important to find out what happens."

"So 90 years old is going to show a great deal more on the wear and tear on the human body, so he'll be a good specimen to study. Although he's not the fittest specimen of 90 years old, so he'll be a specimen that's unfit!" he added.

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Shatner and Takei have kept up a purported feud over the decades, after they've both opened up about butting heads with each other on the set of Star Trek. But Takei has claimed that there's no real feud between them.

"It's not tension, it's all coming from Bill," he told The New York Times Magazine in 2015. "Whenever he needs a little publicity for a project, he pumps up the so-called controversy between us."

"It's difficult working with someone who is not a team player," Takei added. "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."