Star Trek: The Original Series: William Shatner calls out George Takei for jealousy

Every Star Trek: The Original Series fan knows there is dissension between William Shatner and George Takei.

After fifty plus years it would seem the simmering anger George Takei has toward William Shatner would have died down by now, but Takei’s recent appearance on David Tennant Does A Podcast With eradicated that notion. The former Lt. Sulu once again spoke of issues on the set of Star Trek: The Original Series, and, specifically, he brought up the fan letters which the actors supposedly saw each week, letters that purportedly brought up insecurity in Shatner as Leonard Nimoy received quite a bit more.

William Shatner took to Twitter to clarify that “we”, presumably meaning the popular actors, “never saw fan letters.” In addition, Shatner suggested that Takei “get a hobby” and goes on to say that Takei was on set once a week at most. Then the prolific actor asked how Takei would know anything because of his lack of time on the set.

His comment was liked over 3,500 times and stirred up quite a conversation among his fans, most of whom feel that Takei needs to “let it go.”  To most it appears that Takei is jealous of Shatner’s extremely successful career. While Takei has spent most of his career in voice acting since Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country aired, Shatner is well-known in the industry for far more than his Captain Kirk role. In fact, it was his role as Denny Crane on The Practice and Boston Legal that earned him two Emmys.

Of course, fans can be wrong, and perhaps Takei isn’t speaking from jealousy, but whatever happened on the set of Star Trek so many years ago is long past. But it will remain relevant unless it is packed away like the old scripts from the series.