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Post #655962

Author
Gaffer Tape
Parent topic
All Things Star Trek
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/655962/action/topic#655962
Date created
22-Aug-2013, 4:40 PM

Shatner has bear hands?  Holy crap!  I never noticed.

But, yeah, I've read Shatner's book, as well as Takei's and Doohan's.  I read Shatner's first, and I do agree it legitimately seems like he was just completely unaware of how he came across to his co-stars.  And it makes sense that Nimoy and Kelley were his friends.  Kelley's character had really good standing, and he was usually pretty magnanimous about his role in the spotlight being often eclipsed by the other two, and Nimoy's character's popularity rivaled even Kirk's, so he was in no position to feel overshadowed.

The thing is, when I read the latter two autobiographies, I expected quite a bit more detail about Shatner's faults.  I'm not saying I wanted a bash fest over him, but I did expect to come out of them knowing exactly why the rest of the cast harbored such enmity towards him.  Sadly, I never really felt I learned that in as much detail as I liked.  I think Takei and Doohan were really pulling punches, really trying to come across as professional.  In the case of Takei's, it felt like, "Well, you know, Bill was doing that stuff that you all know Bill does.  You don't really need me to explain it to you, right?"  And in Doohan's, he flat out says, "I don't like Bill," but he too doesn't go into much detail as to why that is.

There are a few good examples in Takei's book, though, like what was supposed to be the Captain Sulu scene in TWOK.  That Shatner just didn't seem interested in doing the scene and really just phoned it in because it wasn't about him, and it really offended Takei.