I'm a Shatner fan all the way. Always have been, always will.
IIRC, there was an interview that he did with Walter Koenig (part of a series he did, interviewing famous people - Mind Meld, maybe?) around the time the latter also started publicly attacking the former out of the blue. I never saw it, and wanted to badly, but I recall reading that the first words out of Shatner's mouth was, "Walter! WTF?" Walter supposedly immediately acquiesced and admitted that Takei pressured him into shit-talking Bill. Not long after apparently regretted getting involved with the decades-long feud and came clean about it.
Before this, I was willing to give Takei a minimal benefit of the doubt, as Shatner was always known to be quite self-absorbed, particularly early on in his career. No more. If he's willing to manipulate his former co-workers in order to keep his own image in the public spotlight of relevance for whatever agenda he has, I have no time for that petty childish BS. I still would like to see the episode some time to ascertain definitively what was said, but it definitely sounded like some underhanded shit going on.
I greatly credit Nichelle Nichols for having the courage to slap some sense into Bill when he was writing his first "Star Trek Memories" book - the infamous "But wait, don't you want to hear about why everyone hates you?" exchange, right as he was getting up to leave her portion of the interview. That was a pivotal shatter-point in Bill's life. It could be argued that it was BS that he never realized how people truly felt about him. That may be of some concern, but IMO that's irrelevant now. Since that time, he has bent over backwards to try to make things right with his old cast members. Most who had issues with him have forgiven him that I'm aware of. Even Doohan, on his deathbed, was said to have buried the hatchet. There was even a point, to my recollection, that even Takei was said to have finally accepted the millionth apology. Yet he still seems unsatisfied, harboring the same tired old grievances, and continues to stoke the flames. Meh... tired of hearing about it. Bill's done his penance. To his own statements during an interview about his upcoming documentary, "You Can Call Me Bill", it's obvious he's not long for this life. Let him finish up his life and career in peace, with honor and dignity, FFS!
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