William Shatner says Star Trek co-star George Takei has ‘never stopped blackening my name’

William Shatner has reflected on tensions he’s had with his co-stars on the Star Trek franchise, including George Takei.

In his new essay collection, Boldly Go, Captain Kirk actor Shatner writes about the breakdown of his friendship with Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock, and the fact that Uhura actor Nichelle Nichols told him his co-stars found him “cold and arrogant”, writing: “I was horrified to learn this, ashamed that I hadn’t realised it.”

Sulu star Takei previously alleged that Shatner was “not a team player” on set, saying: “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.”

Last year, Takei mocked Shatner’s voyage to outer space, saying he was being used as a 90-year-old “guinea pig” to assess the impact of space on an “unfit” specimen.

Now, Shatner has retaliated. “I began to understand that they were doing it for publicity,” he toldThe Times in a new interview.

“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.

“George has never stopped blackening my name. These people are bitter and embittered. I have run out of patience with them. Why give credence to people consumed by envy and hate?”

Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder is out now.