Do we like William Shatner?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Warm to queer fans and loud on climate, but with a few clumsy culture-war moments and one old workplace claim that never got a public answer.
Shatner was born in Montreal in 1931 and became Captain James T. Kirk on the original Star Trek. He went on to win two Emmys, for The Practice and then Boston Legal, where he played Denny Crane. He's also written books, made records and hosted TV, and nearly 60 years on he's still working. Hardly a one-trick pony, though the trick was a good one.
On the queer side of the ledger he's pretty warm. At a Star Trek convention in Las Vegas last year he was asked what he'd say to LGBTQ+ fans and answered 'Keep on queerin'!'. In 2021 he got shirty with people who wanted Kirk read as bisexual, calling them 'moronic people' who judge the past by today's values. He also said he'd be fine with the franchise writing Kirk that way now.
The less flattering moment was 2018, when he talked about #MeToo. He said he backed it for exposing hidden abuse but that 'it's become hysterical'. People online objected to the word, and as of that report he hadn't apologised. It's a clumsy line from a bloke who clearly means well, but it did land badly.
On the planet he's the real deal. He told the Hello! website in August that he admires Prince William's environmental work and said he'd consider working with him. He called climate denial 'like saying, I'm not going to die'. He thinks space exploration could help clean up Earth, which not everyone agrees with, but nobody's calling it denial.
The legal record is thin. In 2012 two former household staff sued him and his wife in Los Angeles. They alleged they were harassed and berated, and that this followed a dispute over a waiver after an injury. No response from Shatner appeared in the report, and I found no later outcome. A radio host's $170 million defamation suit against him was dismissed with prejudice in 2018.
This year he also got dragged into the Star Trek culture war. After White House aide Stephen Miller posted that the franchise was in a sorry state and urged Paramount+ to give Shatner creative control, Shatner didn't take the bait. He replied with a joke about the crew's eyesight in the 32nd century. Fans of both sides can read that however suits them.