this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2024
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You're in the ballpark with that stuff, but you're also significantly off on a lot by my readings and understandings. For example:
Shatner's co-stars were annoyed with him not because he was rude to them per se, but because he was a line-hog, which could actually cut in to their future opportunity & salaries because they had less content online via ST. I'm not trying to excuse that, but let's call the situation for what it is, and let's also not forget that he took ownership of that later on, and had good relationships with Nichols, Kelly, Nimoy, and Koenig, with Takei and Doohan scorning him.
Yes, he was arrogant, and I believe always was, but so are a tonne of leads, big stars, and very talented people. Yes, in an ideal world it wouldn't be like that, but... what are you going to do? Reinvent humanity?
He and Nimoy did NOT hate each other for any significant years AFAIK. In fact from my readings they clashed early, found a way to work it out, and were in fact fast friends for many decades until they had some kind of falling out late in Nimoy's life. Please let's not get it twisted, dude.
Takei has outright said, repeatedly, that Shatner was a prick. Not line hogging or bad directing. That he was actively a shitty person to be around in any form and that he didn't respect anyone around him. This is backed up by his having footage made of someone for a movie. Someone who, ahead of time, said he did not consent to the footage.
Just because other people are pricks does not give him a pass to be one. Plenty of people work in positions just like him and aren't nightmares to work with.
That some kind of falling out is what I just described above. Shatner was making a Trek documentary and asked Nimoy to be a part of it. Nimoy categorically said no. Shatner then discretely recorded footage of Nimoy anyway, against his consent, and used that footage in his movie. Nimoy was furious and never spoke to Shatner again. Shatner then wrote a book about his friendship with Nimoy where his name was almost as big on the cover as Nimoys. In the book he admitted to doing this and them not talking.
In that same book, Shatner demonstrates repeatedly why he's an asshole by such things as getting angry that Spock got more fan mail than him.l and says the only reason they had any basis of a friendship was because Shatner saw Nimoy be a hard ass with contract negotiations so they started negotiating together.
I have no problem with the accuracy of any of that, and appreciate you laying out the details based on your readings and knowledge.
For my part, putting this all together in to 'Shatner is a bad person' is going way too far. To me he's got his positive qualities and negative ones, and the negative ones mainly involve him being an asshole and little more. Well, I can live with that and appreciate his art and career no problem as opposed to people like Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein, who were obviously way, way more than just assholes to people.
Hollywood is filled with egoistic jackasses, and Shatner's behavior is just a blip on the radar to me. Not to mention, he's great fun to mock in certain ways! To wit, the greatest blog I've ever read: https://shatnerstoupee.blogspot.com/