UPDATE: William Shatner Blocks – Then Unblocks – Jason Isaacs On Twitter

Another Star Trek feud appears to be brewing, this time between the first and latest captains. Jason Isaacs, Star Trek: Discovery’s Captain Lorca, announced on Twitter that he has been blocked by William Shatner, Captain Kirk of the original Star Trek.

For his part, Shatner has made no mention of the blocking, even though he has been active on Twitter since Isaacs made the announcement, which has been picked up by many in the media. However, Shatner did take a sort of swipe at Isaacs on Saturday.

This is not the first time the two Star Trek actors have clashed. In August, Shatner took to Twitter to express concern (via emoji) over reported comments about Isaacs disparaging Shatner’s “legacy.” Later, when he clarified his statement, Shatner seemed satisfied.

In general, Isaacs has been very deferential to Trek’s first captain, even going as far as calling Shatner’s work on Star Trek “genius.” Some in the media think Shatner’s block may be a reaction to Isaacs’ comments earlier this month about being opposed to the idea of Shatner doing a cameo on Discovery. However, in his recent interview with TrekMovie, Shatner expressed the same concerns about such a cameo.

Hopefully the pair will be able to work things out and be social media friends again.

UPDATE – 11/28

Apparently the Shat has forgiven Isaacs and has unblocked him on Twitter. 

Isaacs quickly forgave him, taking the opportunity to take a swipe at another celebrity Tweeter. 

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he seems to block on a whim

These celebrity twitter wars such a farce…
Next up on Star Trek: Dynasty, Kate Mulgrew comes for Michelle Yeoh, says Janeway would have listen to Michael Burnham and would still be alive. Read Yeoh’s twitter rant here… http://www.foolishness&nonsence.com
lol

Keep ’em talking, keep ’em hooked. Two marketing masters at work.

Good point. Any publicity is good…right?

Pretty much, yeah. I remember Shatner and Carrie Fisher having a fake feud, and the fans ate it up.

Exactly. I think Bill enjoys people scratching their heads over it because at the end of the day, they’re talking about Shatner. It’s still so weird but it is what it is.

Jason Isaacs strikes me as a pretty cool dude who doesn’t suffer fools gladly. James Kirk will always be my childhood hero, but I stopped confusing him with Bill Shatner decades ago. I’d much prefer to serve under Kirk than Lorca, but I’d rather hang with Isaacs.

Perfectly sums up my feelings as well. Meeting William Shatner in person felt… mercenary.

So much this!

This holds true for so many stars. My wife loves meeting them, I always stand back and snap photos if she wants. I have no interest in meeting them, they are not the characters I love and most of them are not people I want to know.

They both seem to be keeping their tongues firmly in cheek.

I hope it gets brutal ;-)

Shatner disparaged Shatners legacy by cashing the check for Generations. He’s been believing his own PR for way to long now….

I’m thinking this is just a coordinated ploy to keep people interested in the show, and the two actors during the downtime until season two begins in January.

Season 2 won’t be out till 2019. January is just the rest of season 1.

Season two doesn’t begin in January.

Wow Shatner being a big baby again. It would be truly sad if he blocked him because he said he shouldn’t be on Disocovery. Get over it Shatner, you’re not playing Kirk ever again outside of a skit on SNL!

You seem ignorant of his age. Shatner can do what he wants…he’s earned that right. Sadly…he’ll be gone soon. His place in history as an icon is without debate. If anyone disagrees, they are simply wrong. It’s foolish to argue that point.

What are you trying to say? That Shatner is old enough to make his own decisions? Sure he is. He can do what he wants. But if what he does is stupid he can be called out for it. He’s not above criticism no matter his age. As for his “place in history”: He’s an actor who’s somewhat famous for maybe 2 or 3 roles: playing Kirk, maybe for playing Danny Crane (got him some critical acclaim), and playing William Shatner.

If you’ve ever seen THE INTRUDER, that is proof enough that in the right role, Shatner isn’t just good, he is very very good. That’s more important to me than what he might be famous for, although I think he certainly messed up some good parts (he is the weakest link in THE ANDERSONVILLE TRIAL, which I otherwise adore, by essentially delivering Kirk again in the one role this side of RAY BRADBURY THEATER and AIRPLANE II that could have truly transcended expectations.)

Except for stuff like saving the whales (which I think was probably more due to his second wife than any natural interest on his own part, given his earlier predilection for hunting), Shatner has been mostly on the wrong side of social and political issues (remember Bo Gritz?), and was even defending the US against Nimoy’s anti-VietNam involvement stance (‘How can America be in an immoral war? It’s America!’ is I believe what he admits he said back then.) So you’re fine in calling him on stupid stuff, whether it be in his role as actor OR on non-performer issues.

Denny Crane is probably more significant historically than you indicate; in a lot of ways, if you remove the empathy Crane feels for Spader’s character and just leave the pretty-much entirely negative aspects, you’ve got a ready template for the current ‘Leader of the Free World.’ We blew through a third rewatch of BOSTON LEGAL in a month or five weeks back in mid 2016, and the similarities were bothersome enough then … although I very much like the series, I think the Trumpness of Crane will keep me from another viewing for quite awhile.

I have never seen Boston Legal. Only read that people thought Bill was good in it.

He was also excellent in JUDGMENT AT NURNBURG

Cameron: You seem to think you made a point.

You did not.

Seth MacFarlane is probably writing him something Kirkish as we speak. I can’t imagine it’ll be better than the cringey skit he did at the Oscars, but I have no doubt that bigger Trek cameos than Robert Picardo are coming. Fox might even pay Shatner the big bucks Rick Berman seemed to laugh at for his proposed “Enterprise” guest appearance.

oi, what passes for news these days…

Fake news amirite

Isaacs will forever strike me as the cooler guy, sorry Bill. I appreciate what Isaacs adds to the discussion.

Isaac the cooler guy? Wow
…you are embarrassing yourself by saying that…and obviously unaware of a lot of other work Shatner has done. That said, Isaac is a fine person also…but he’s no Shatner. Few are or ever will be.

How did he ’embarrass’ himself? He just likes one guy better than the other and truthfully none of us knows these people, its just based on their persona in interviews and in the media. Maybe Shatner would be a cooler guy, or maybe he would be a complete A-hole? Who cares, no one is going to hang around any of these people to know.

Let’s not get carried away.

Cameron: That was a remarkably ridiculous reply. Please try again.

Yes, Cameron, Isaacs IS the cooler guy!

Ditto what Tiger said! Who am I to know either of them? I just think Isaacs is hilarious and has less of an ego lol

Am I missing something? What is this feud about?

It’s about publicity. I think.

Generating content.

Everyone needs to back off of Shatner and remember how you don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Shatner has h paid his dues, and has credibility and credentials others criticizing him can only dream of ever obtaining.He be da man…

No one needs to “back off of Shatner.” If you don’t like the comments here, then feel free to leave. No one is making you read opinions that differ from yours, kid.

Shatner has never fed me anything. He just showed up on a TV show or two that I watch reruns of.

LOL Cameron must be Shatner’s agent or something. These bizarre defenses of him certainly seems like it.

Good, So he should the guy Is a a-hole. He makes Shatner look good.

And that’s saying something!

No way does Shatner write his tweets, unless people honestly think that a super busy 86 year old has time to live tweet multiple tweet genre shows, among other things.

I’ve also seen him make tweets about British things, like references to Tesco and Argos shop chains that I seriously doubt Shatner would have knowledge about.

The account is clearly operated by one or more third parties and it seems to have gotten out of hand.

It’s WIDELY known by pretty much everyone in Hollywood that a certain “Mr. C” writes the Shat’s tweets. This isn’t brain surgery, kiddos.

“Mr. C”?

Yes.

Not “Mr. F”?

That would be none other than notorious right-wing internet troll and human filth receptacle Charles C. Johnson.

This is the same as Ron Goulart writing his TEK novels and the Reeves-Stevenses writing his TREK novels, right? So far as I know, his outline for TREK V was the last thing he wrote on his own (and in an early bio he claims to have sold stories made up on the fly to a producer early in his career, but I’ve never seen any record of him with actual produced writing credits from that point in time.)

Exactly. Shatner isn’t a writer and never was. He didn’t write any of his novels and he doesn’t write his own tweets.

An entirely predictable situation. I’ve always said Isaacs was the new Shatner in terms of unrestrained ego, so it’s hardly surprising the daggers have now started to be drawn between the two of them.

How can one possibly fight in a digital world? Its silly. Just look at something else and move on. In the real world its a bot harder to stay out of ‘trouble’ if trouble ‘confronts’.

Shatner should be cast in STD as old Kirk from JJ timeline who has somehow come back in time to the prime timeline to.. say hello

And… that would be stupid.

It would be much more fun to cast him as old Nurse Chapel, including the go-go dress costume. Looking for Spock. Gives a whole new meaning to alt. universe.

The problem is: don’t have conselour in both ship’s. Just this, friends. Just this. 😂😂😂

Um… what does that even mean? Please try again, only this time in English. Thanks.

Best move Shatner has made in five years. Isaacs is a no-talent hack, and is not qualified to be Starfleet material.

Everything Shatner seems to do is for random media attention, so…mission accomplished? I don’t get it (and I Jason Isaacs and how outspoken he is, just pure British awesomeness) but whatever I guess.

“pure British ‘awesomeness'”? Huh?

I think many people speak out against stuff like this, not just people from the UK.

I am the opposite: I like Lorca, but can’t stand Issacs and his crazy political twitter rants. Liberal Hollywood could keep their opinions to themselves and I would great with that. And like somebody said earlier: I separated Kirk and Shatner a long time ago Thanks to Mignona, Cawley and Pine I have gotten to see Kirk from different angles and really like the guy, but Shatner is Shatner and I am not so sure he’s as likeable as Kirk.

‘Liberal Hollywood’ is under no more obligation to remain mum about politics than, say, the Heritage Foundation. The good news is that you don’t have to look at Isaacs’ Twitter feed (which I enjoy immensely), any more than I have to read Shatner’s. If you don’t like the fact actors and producers have a platform from which to dispense their wisdom then by all means create one of your own. Simple.

Lets see, there’s something in the Constitution about equal representation, so those liberal Hollywood types are just as entitled to their opinions as the conservative ones are. The relevancy of those opinions will always be up for debate – that said, if Clint Eastwood talking to a chair is your idea of cutting edge debate, you get to explain that, not me.

“Liberal Hollywood” is under no more obligation to remain mum about politics than Chris-who-likes Lorca, for that matter.

Gotta love Jason Isaacs! : )

No, we don’t.

Well, we do. Speak for yourselves.

Yep, he’s pretty awesome.

Twitter; about as useful as a ziplock bag of air. I guess it’s what a celebrity and politician turn to when they can’t get enough narcissism from facebook. Deleted that app in 2013.

Captain Kirk talking about Tesco tickles me in an unexpected way… 😂

Tesco is UK biggest supermarket in terms of market share, a clear leader actually. Its also a shop I generally avoid for some reason. I don’t like the store layout I surpose, a lot of them seem dirty – Asda is sometimes not far behind in that area either.

Even though pricier, Sainsburys does it for me. Better customer service, usually well designed and kept stores. Morrisons is OK, usually great for meat and fish. And Aldi offer great value with regards household essentials and fruit and veg especially.

I’m a Waitrose guy myself, although the 24-hour Tesco near Earls Court is a godsend.

Just Shatner being Shatner.
No biggie.
The man likes hisTrek feuds

He really does. He’s such a diva. This whole thing is hilarious!

But he likes Patrick Stewarts!

He was always a narcissist, but in his eagerness to pick petty fights more and more he reminds me of Donald Trump. (In the scowling photograph that fronts this article he even looks like Trump.) Sad!

What fight did he pick here? Blocking someone is sort of the opposite of picking a fight. William Shatner is extremely gracious with his social media time. He can choose to respond or not respond as he sees fit.

We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one, then. In my book, ignoring someone is the opposite of picking a fight with them. Shatner could have done that or, better yet, engaged with Jason Isaacs regarding whatever was bothering him. As has been noted elsewhere, as iconoclastic and frank in his opinions regarding politics and the fanbase as he’s been, Isaacs has been nothing but respectful and deferential to Shatner with respect to his work on Trek. Some spirited but respectful give-and-take between the two captains might have been fun and informative, and certainly better publicity than James Kirk taking his marbles and going home like a spoiled child (or Donald Trump).

I actually think Shatner could outdo Alec Baldwin in portraying Trump in a movie about the less-than-great campaign of 2016. Baldwin should play Al Gore.

Twitter = much ado about nothing.

Anything to keep fans on the hook till the mid-season break is over…

Actually he already unblocked him. I guess he realized it was kind of silly or just got over whatever was bugging him.

I can understand why Shatner would block him. He’s crass, crude and disrespectful to old school Star Trek fans.

I’m just about as old-school as they get, and for my money everything Isaacs has said about Trek, the fans and his predecessors in the franchise has been spot-on. So, respectfully, please speak for yourself.

Agreed, Michael.

Oh by old school fans, do you mean some of those whiny entitled brats on Twitter who can’t live unless they’re complaining about Discovery?

Yeah, he treats them with the level of respect they deserve.

Shat, my man!

Shatner is the master of self promotion. He got thousands of people to talk about him, and dozens of articles to be written about him, for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Self-demotion in this case, I fear. He just comes off as petty and spiteful, whether the reason for the blocking was their political differences or Isaacs’ very reasonable concerns about stunt casting. Contrary to popular myth, not all publicity is good publicity.

Sorry, who cares?

Team Shatner.

I LOVE YOU JASON ISAACS

bc I love a man with a great sense of humor

Here, Here!

If you disagree with Shatner on anything, he will block you. Believe me, I know. He’s a bitter old man who thinks he should never be challenged. I believe his castmates, he’s a dick.

Not just his former Trek colleagues but, sad to say, many who have worked with him.

Like who?

We just need to get these two together on a stage somewhere.

I was considering following Isaacs, but all the man does is whine about Trump and spew politics. I’d be interested in his career, but not his politics.

So when Isaacs tweets about Trump, that’s whining. I see. What do you call it when Trump tweets about, well, virtually everyone else?

Yes heaven forbid that someone express concern about a racist lunatic being in charge of the free world.

Welcome to the club! I have been blocked by William Shatner, too.

I click on and read this if I gave AF.

I remember when Star Trek actor had integrity.