Imagine this scenario: You’re at a sci fi fan expo, and so is Star Trek legend William Shatner. You only have money for one meet and greet, and it’s going to be Captain Kirk. Unfortunately, that sneaky bastard James Marsters bewitched your daughter and she wants to meet him instead. What can you do? Get chastised by Shatner himself about it years later!
This very specific scenario played out on Twitter/X on Thursday when someone said they wanted an autographed picture from the man who’s gone where none have gone before. Is that the saying? Not all of us are Trekkies here.
“Come to a convention,” Shatner replied. Then he announced he’ll be at the Arkansas Comic Con over the weekend. This prompted a reply from Kristen Devally, who shared the poisoned antidote.
“My dad never let’s me forget that several years back in San Antonio, he gave up seeing you and getting an autograph because we only had enough money for one meet and greet. He let me meet with James Marsters after we binged Buffy.”
To be fair, Marsters was a heartthrob for teen women back then, and not many were immune to his chiseled charm. For a teen girl at the height of Buffy mania, there wasn’t even a contest.
Shatner, who recently went to space himself for real aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space shuttle, had some words for the father.
“You went to see James over me? Tell your father he failed as a Trekkie parent.”
This is, by the way, par for the course for the 92-year-old Shatner. He’s never been known to mince words or pull his jabs.
Just last week he took some shots at Elon Musk’s notion that humanity was going to move to Mars.
“Mars is lifeless,” he said. “The mystery of Mars is what took place millions of years ago. It’s obvious that there was water, which may be frozen under the surface. But it’s so difficult to get there. A year-and-a-half of three people in a spaceship. Colonizing a planet other than Earth is a great concept, but practically I can’t imagine it.”
He also recently shared that he was filled with an “overwhelming sadness” after his trip to space. Just look at how open he is:
“It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness. Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna… things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind. It filled me with dread. My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral.”
Well that’s just heavy. Sorry to drop that on everyone. As for his comment to Kristen, it apparently opened some old wounds, because she joked that “My dad’s upset all over again.” Maybe you should’ve let him get that Shatner photo, Kristen.