George Takei
(Picture: Getty Images)Former Star Trek actor and activist George Takei, 84, blasted his decades-long feud with his former onscreen captain William Shatner into the atmosphere after calling him “a guinea pig” and not the fittest specimen after his recent flight aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin capsule.
In a report from Page Six, the outlet asked Takei about his thoughts on Shatner’s excursion to the edge of space at the opening of the upcoming Broadway play Thoughts of a Colored Man, the first play to be entirely written, directed and acted out by Black creatives.
“He’s a guinea pig, 90 years old, and it’s important to find out what happens,” Takei told the outlet.
He also noted that Shatner, who is “not the fittest specimen,” will show more “wear and tear” on the body, so he’ll be great to analyze.
“He’ll be a specimen that’s unfit!” Takei added.
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In the midst of his space trip, the Canadian actor Shatner did experience a moment of weightlessness on the spacecraft and delivered a monologue about the historic moment, saying, “Everybody in the world needs to do this – it was unbelievable... I’m so filled with emotion about what just happened. I hope I never recover from this.”
Both Takei and Shatner have quarreled for years, with Takei even accusing him of disregarding his presence on set and changing the script for Star Trek V, so Takei’s character, Hikaru Sulu, would not command the ship.
Shatner also called out Takei to Page Six, alleging that there’s some “psychosis there.”
There must be something else inside George that is festering, and it makes him unhappy that he takes it out on me … It’s sad. I feel nothing but pity for him,” he said, in part.
Despite people believing that Shatner and Takei would try to make amends, this might be a spat that will stick around as long as the sci-fi legends do.
