Shatner Takes Aim at Takei, Again

Just when you thought the acrimony might just be dead and buried, the long and troubled history between William Shatner and his co-stars from the original series of Star Trek has flared up again.

Shatner lashed out at George Takei in a video posted recently on his website and on YouTube, charging that Takei's unreasoning animosity toward him – which Shatner called a "sickness" and a "psychosis" and professed not to understand – led to Takei not inviting his onetime co-star to his marriage ceremony on Sept. 14.

Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig, among others, attended the wedding at the Japanese American National Museum, in which Takei tied the knot with his longtime partner Brad Altman.

Takei says Shatner was invited but never replied back. "It is unfortunate that Bill was unable to join us for our wedding as he indeed was invited to attend," Takei responded, in a statement on his website. "It is our hope that at this point he joins us in voting no on Proposition 8, which seeks to eliminate the fundamental right for same-sex couples to marry in California."

Shatner and Takei have been trash-talking each other for years.

In an April 2008 appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Takei talked about how Shatner never got his name right and how he thought Bill’s acting "sucked." At the Comedy Central roast targeting Shatner, Takei seemed to relish the opportunity to toss off a string of jokes at Shatner's expense. ("Bill is a generous actor. He gave Nichelle Nichols herpes!")

Takei has said returning to Trek to do the movies was not all good, because it meant dealing with Shatner. "Bill's behavior was the reminder to me that coming back to Star Trek also meant coming back to meddlesome irritation."

Shatner also attacked Takei's decision to come out of the closet later in life, apparently thinking Takei made too big a deal out of it. "Who cares?" Shatner said. "Be gay. Don't be gay. That's up to you, George."

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Takei was frank. "I think his stability is quite questionable," he said, expressing amazement that Shatner griped he and Takei never knew each other. "We've done six movies together," Takei marveled. "We did three seasons of television together, we've been doing Star Trek conventions together for the last 40-plus years."

The invitation was an attempt to bury the hatchet, Takei said. "We keep reaching out and reaching out, and he takes that and twists it and crumples it and turns it into something that's rather ugly."

In an interview a year ago with the British Daily Record, Takei explained the Trek alumni were all friends, except with Shatner. "Bill is a magnetic actor but he is not the easiest person to work with," Takei said. "Working with him made for trying times and we wasted hours trying to resolve those difficulties. But we are professionals and when we appear we are there as professionals. However, Bill has lost out on a friendship with us. The rest of us have a wonderful relationship and he’s been deprived of that."

The new flare-up has led to a lot of unflattering press and internet snarking about both men. Chicago Tribune columnist Barbara Brotman was inspired enough to write up a mock Trek episode based on the feud. Meanwhile a faux "Leonard Nimoy" has expressed his feelings about the spat in a satirical blog. "So you guys are mad at each other again," the blogger writes. "Big news. My inbox is full of septuagenarian whining."

There's one last twist of bitterness in this latest round of Trek recriminations, and it's my favorite of them all. Shatner later told Fox News that he was waiting for J.J. Abrams, director of the forthcoming Star Trek prequel feature film, to call him up and tell him about the wedding. That's a dig, too – Shatner's previous public meltdown was over Abrams's decision to cast Shatner's old friend Leonard Nimoy in the movie, but not Shatner himself. Everybody's excluding poor old Shat these days.