William Shatner Reflects on Complex Friendship With Leonard Nimoy On Milestone Star Trek Anniversary

This September 8th marks the 55th anniversary of the beginning of Star Trek, with the airing of the first episode back in 1966. Paramount + the streaming platform that carries most of the shows and movies from the beloved franchise filmed a special to commemorate the date. In it, 90-year-old William Shatner recalls his friendship with his late co-star Leonard Nimoy who played Mr. Spock. These days Shatner seems to only remember the good parts of their relationship. According to other sources their friendship off-camera didn't always have the continued success of their hit show.

In the special William Shatner only remembers the good times that the pair had together. We're not sure if literally at this point he can't remember some of the issues that went down over the years. Potentially though, with the special being put together to commemorate the series it wouldn't make sense for Shatner to criticize the late Nimoy in his interview. Shatner said about Nimoy,

"Leonard was my dearest friend. I loved Leonard Nimoy. We had success, envy, anger, love, passion,” That part about envy and love may have been a bit more serious than Shatner remembers. He also mentioned, "I loved Leonard as my dearest brother, when he died, a part of me died.”

Although Shatner even wrote a book on his friendship with Nimoy the two had drifted apart in later life. Shatner to this day mentions that he does not remember why they had stopped talking in their later years. There was certainly some animosity between the two. Even though William claims that a part of him died with Nimoy, Shatner was nowhere to be found the day of the funeral. He would excuse himself saying that he was too hurt to attend. However, it would later come out that Captain Kirk was actually at a charity event that he was potentially paid to attend the day of the funeral. Nimoy's son Adam mentions on the relationship,

"I think Bill and Dad loved each other, but they had their ups and downs,”

At 90 years old Shatner is still hard at work participating in his own TV show where he explores all sorts of unexplained phenomenons. Although he's a hard-working man he's potentially someone who is hard to get along with. The man was going through a divorce at almost 90 years old, which should say something about his character. Another Star Trek alumn, though, George Takei, has also criticized Shatner. Calling him self-centered. While Walter Koenig, who played Ensign Pavel Chekov in the original series declined to interview for a Shatner biography unless pictures of Shatner f*cking a horse could be included in the book! If his relationship with Nimoy soured, the ones that he had with the rest of the case weren't any better.

Whether they had a falling out or not it seems that Shatner does still hold fond memories of the man who played Mr. Spock. We are not just saying this for the kind words that he had to say about Nimoy for this new Star Trek special. Shatner has mentioned in the past, that he had not kept any type of memorabilia from the original show. However, the one that he does have from his days on the SS Enterprise is a token of his friendship with Nimoy,

"I have nothing of Leonard’s. I have no ‘Star Trek’ memorabilia at all. [All] I have a picture of him and me laughing in my office,”

https://youtu.be/mdknOoG6K4c