A rift that never healed: William Shatner once named his “greatest regret”
Working with someone over an extended period of time doesn’t necessarily mean lifelong friendship is on the cards, something William Shatner knows all too well, having run afoul of several notable castmates during a career that’s enjoyed plenty of ups and downs but has always been defined by Star Trek.
As easy as it’s been for people to rag on Shatner’s signature exaggerated acting style that sees him deliver line readings like nobody else – something that’s equally applicable to his truly bizarre secondary career as a recording artist with a penchant for unique cover versions – he’s endured as an icon of the science fiction space regardless.
That doesn’t mean he’s always been the easiest person to get along with, though, and George Takei has gone on record numerous times to voice his displeasure with the erstwhile Captain Kirk. The star believed Shatner’s ego and unwillingness to cede the spotlight came to the detriment of many other major Star Trek characters, but that being said, Leonard Nimoy’s Spock did just fine.
Whenever anyone thinks of the original series of Gene Rodenberry’s sci-fi staple, it’s always Kirk and Spock who come to mind first. If it wasn’t for Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard, then there arguably wouldn’t be anyone else in the conversation when it comes to naming the two most notable heroes the long-running multimedia franchise has ever produced.
They were firm friends for a long time, but once the cracks began to appear in the relationship between Shatner and Nimoy, it became a deep-seated rift that never truly healed. What makes it even more tragic is that the bad blood between them started completely innocuously, with a documentary serving as the catalyst for the breakdown of their friendship.
In his memoir Boldly Go: Reflections On A Life Of Awe And Wonder, Shatner revealed that during the production of the 2011 documentary The Captains – which he also wrote and directed – Nimoy was captured in convention footage and grew irritated that his likeness was going to become a part of the film despite not having given consent.
Even though the point of the doc was to deal exclusively with those who’d captained various Starfleet craft at various points during the franchise’s existence, Shatner claims “Leonard was miffed” despite his long-time co-star maintaining that “I had no intention of trying to sneak Leonard into the film.”
By that point, he’d already refused to be a talking head subject in The Captains, with Shatner admitting, “I thought he was kidding,” when the colleague he’d been so close with flat-out rejected the opportunity to take part. Deciding to take it upon himself to sneak some behind-the-scenes convention clips into the end result, Nimoy never forgave Shatner for including him after he’d made himself perfectly clear.
In one of his final televised interviews before his death, when he was asked about his standing with Shatner, Nimoy confirmed they were no longer friends by saying, “We don’t have that kind of relationship anymore.” He passed away in February 2015 without the fences between them being mended.
Shatner was left with no other choice but to concede that “one of my greatest regrets is that Leonard and I were not as close as we had been during those last few years of his life”. Not to sound too harsh, but that wouldn’t have been the case had he simply done what Nimoy had asked and not put him in The Captains.
