William Shatner has hit out at his former Star Trek co-stars after years of them criticising his behaviour on the 1960s sci-fi set.
The actor, 91, who famously played Captain James T Kirk in the hit series as well as in seven films, says he now realises they ‘do it for publicity’.
Speaking to The Times he said: ‘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’.
Adding: ‘I began to understand that they were doing it for publicity.’
Even when the actor recently went into space thanks to billionaire Jeff Bezos, George Takei said he was a being sent as a ‘guinea pig’ to assess the impact of space on an ‘unfit’ specimen.
‘George [Takei] 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?’
MailOnline have contacted George Takei’s representatives for comment.
In his memoir Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder William said that he was shattered when late co-star Nichelle Nichols, who played lieutenant Ulhura, accused him of being ‘cold and arrogant’.
He wrote: ‘I was horrified to learn this, ashamed that I hadn’t realised it.’
William was also close friends with Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock, however their relationship became strained before his death in 2015 – for reasons unbeknown to the Kirk actor.
However according to the Giant Geek Robot friction began between the two when William made a 2011 Star Trek Documentary and interviewed many actors who have been apart of the franchise, however failed to include Nimoy.
It comes after William said said seeing Earth from space aboard Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin rocket was a profoundly sorrowful experience, but one which inspired him to cherish the beauty of our planet.
In an excerpt from his memoir he writes he was was struck with one of the ‘strongest feelings of grief’ he had ever experienced.
Former friends: William was also close friends with Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock, however their relationship became strained before his death in 2015 – for reasons unbeknown to the Kirk actor
Going on to say that rather than being filled with awe, as he expected to be, the sight of Earth’s warm blue glow surrounded by the cold black of space left him feeling like he was at ‘a funeral.’