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Star Trek’s George Takei is best known for playing Hikaru Sulu. This year, he released a graphic novel memoir They Called Us Enemy. The comic recounts Takei’s family’s time in a United States internment camp during World War II. He also drew on that history during his performance on The Terror: Infamy on AMC. Takei discussed his life in a recent questionnaire in The Guardian. One question asked Takei who he’d invite to his dream dinner party. Takei’s response was, “My colleagues from Star Trek, with one exception.” Takei doesn’t name the exception, but most Star Trek fans will assume it is William Shatner.
Takei and Shatner have for decades been in a well-documented feud. Takei claims Shatner was rude to him on the set of Star Trek and even had a script rewritten to prevent Sulu from gaining a promotion. Shatner has long disputed Takei’s claims. Shatner also says he felt slighted he wasn’t invited to Takei’s wedding. In 2017, Takei stated that the entire feud had been overblown.
“This is silliness,” Takei says. “There’s unanimity among the castmates, we’ve all had difficulties with Bill, but we’re all teammates and we work together. When Brad and I got married, I asked Walter Koenig, who played Chekov, to be our best man and Nichelle Nichols to be our matron of honor. Nichelle said, ‘I am not a matron! If Walter is the best man, why can’t I be the best lady?’ We said, ‘Of course you are.’
“We thought the most natural thing to do would be to extend invitations to everybody. We sent Bill an invitation. There might have been some mistake in the mail. If he would have called us before the wedding, we would have happily had him. We do conventions and we do cross paths. I’ll say, ‘Morning, Bill.’ And he’ll say, ‘Morning, George.’ And that’s it.”
Takei referenced Star Trek in another answer to The Guardian’s questionnaire. Asked what his superpower would be, Takei referenced Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future. “Gene Roddenberry, who created Star Trek, said that the strength of the Starship Enterprise was its diverse team working in concert. I would like to have the superpower to bring that kind of society to ours today.”
What do you think of Takei and Shatner’s feud? How about Takei’s choice of superpower? Let us know in the comments section. They Called Us Enemy is on sale now.