Takei's Claims About Shatner

I'd suggest revisiting the account, because that Reader's Digest Condensed Version somewhat misrepresents it. Brunton didn't claim to meet Takei at a gay bar and then immediately go home with him, he said they exchanged phone numbers and later, after a night out of dinner and theater, the alleged incident happened over a nightcap.

 

Shatner has always seemed like a guy who personifies the quality 'pleasantly insincere'.

 

It's a sub-category of constructive hypocrisy, which happens to be a bedrock of civilization.

 

To me Shatner is good but Nimoy was a lot more important to and contributing to the show (while some of Shatner's influences particularly TFF were bad, though Nimoy does deserve some blame for the alt Saavik in TSfS) and we've had other good captains and his roles outside of ST were pretty meh so that may well influence me to not particularly like him generally or want to take his side.

Yes but again from Doohan's behavior would you say he also did?

That's in part because Shatner insisted that that be the case. While it's not impossible to increase status and presence, Kelly started out as also recurring guest star, as also being just a "day player", and through his work managed to get himself and his character promoted to main titles co-star.

 

The ship’s captain was always going to be the star. Thats evident right from the beginning when Roddenberry started putting Trek together and pitching it. It might have been Jefferey Hunter, but it went to Shatner. Nimoy and later Kelley became breakout characters that added to the show and even Shatner recognized that.

But the rest never came close to being breakout characters and the show was never modelled to be an ensemble. That said it would have been nice if they could have gotten just a wee bit more screen time like they did early in first season.

If there is a secondary character that could have given the show a bit more impact I think it’s Uhura. As a black woman a little more time for her could have made quite a distinctive progressive statement beyond her just being there.

As much as I like Scotty can you imagine if Roddenberry had had the idea to make Uhura the ship’s Chief Engineer? How could that have played out?

 

I agree that Star Trek was Shatner's best work overall. As far as importance, that's debatable. The series was chugging along just fine in those early episodes with Spock as a more subordinate co star. He became more popular than anyone else, sure, but story wise, the series revolved around Kirk or Kirk's dilemmas for the most part. From start to finish. And in the third year, you can practically feel Nimoy checking out. Shatner is in there holding the series together while Nimoy monotones he way through the year. Unless he's given a reason to emote, he's less interesting than he had been in the previous two seasons. I am assuming he was already told by Roddenberry that Shatner was the star of the series and he was planning his next career step. Even in the late second season, Nimoy seems engaged but not in the final season. Shatner always gave everything.

Shatner was hired to be the star, was paid to be the star and got his 25%. Ergo, he was the star, regardless of audience preference. Unlike Lost in Space, the Trek staff didn't let the breakout character take over the series. However, Shatner wasn't one of the producers and, in the end, he didn't make major decisions and Roddenberry cracked the whip (in the long letter) when even Kelley got out of hand.

George Takei was never gonna be a bigger part of the show. Doohan, who was fired and then rehired before the series started filming, was a bigger character. Grace Lee was supposed to be a larger draw than Sulu. And remember, Sulu was intended to be the lead in "This Side of Paradise" but the production staff - not Shatner - decided that Nimoy was the better choice, both as a character and as an actor.

Kelley? Yup he did great and deserved his promotion. Shatner had no problem with that. Nah, they liked George on set and behind the scenes, but he didn't distinguish himself. He was fine, he was reliable. Not everyone can be the lead. And the 60's was not the era for ensembles.

EDIT: @Warped9 covered most of that while I was typing but meh, I'll keep it.

 

Kelley and Whitney weren't in the opening credits but both actually were on contract if I remember correctly, they weren't day players. And even if they were they were both intended to play larger roles than the others, that's obvious looking at the early episodes, they are both heavily featured.

Takei was always mediocre, forget TOS for a moment, look at his appearance on Voyager, he wasn't good and it was obvious he could never carry a show.

 

VOY was decades after the semi-regular work of TOS and other stuff he did back in the day. Since then other than the Trek films did he ever really get much work as an actor? Takei was serviceable in the 1960s—enough to get by reasonably when called upon, but then his limited ability got rusty. Now so much of his public identity is tied into bashing the star of a series Takei was only a minor part of. That makes him look really small and pathetic.

Shatner has paid his dues. He worked hard at his craft. He doesn’t gloat about being the one who carried the series and his costars—he gives them their due. He doesn’t air his beefs with someone endlessly in public—he mostly keeps it to himself. I have no idea whats posted on Twitter because I’m not on Twitter and I have zero interest to be, so to me it’s largely bullshit.

Takei’s endless bashing of Shatner doesn’t hurt Shatner in the least, but it emphasizes Takei looking ever petty and pathetic.

 

Didn't Nimoy had alcohol problems during those years?

 

When did Kelley get out of hand?

 

I didn't see that he checked out.
I can't see that Shatner was carrying the whole show despite everyone around him being incompetent or drunk. I think Nimoy and Kelley did good in the 3rd Season which wasn't add bad as everyone says. Is Shatner's justification for stealing lines (if he did) was everyone else was crap so I had to steal their lines and be rude to them?
Yes and Shatner does bear his beliefs endlessly in public on Twitter.

 

Is Shatner constantly bashing his former coworkers? I would think we would hear about it if he did.

 

They were, in fact, under contract. Even Takei and Nichols were under contract at one point or another, but not for long.

There's no real evidence for Kelley getting out of hand, albeit Roddenberry included him in "The Letter" chewing out the stars, probably to soften the blow to Shatner and Nimoy and to let Kelley know not to follow their lead.

 

Admittedly the letter was the only evidence I ever heard.

Shatner and Nimoy were apparently the biggest problems.

 

Honestly over the years my opinion of Takei has really dropped. He comes off as a bitter, jealous hack. Only non Trek thing i know of him being in without checking imdb is green berets.

 

Outside of Trek and The Green Berets I’ve seen Takei in Mission: Impossible and The Twilight Zone.

 

^ Takei has in fact been in two different TZ's: the original and the 2019 version.

 

Right offhand, my Takei sightings included The Six Million Dollar Man, and much later he had a funny cameo on The Big Bang Theory. Two of my favorite all-time series. Apart from that, it was all Star Trek-related to me, because his shot on The Twilight Zone was suppressed for decades.

But IMDB shows at least a couple of jobs every year for life. Apparently actors have to work a certain amount every year to keep their heath insurance, and I'm sure that drove him to keep going after the gigs.

 

No I don't believe he does. He just uses his platform to defend himself.

 

Maybe it's his age..?
JB