William Shatner can't stop trolling Star Wars fans

Today is William Shatner's 86th birthday. 

He's a man with many strings to his bow - classically trained Shakespearean actor, film director, producer, author, singer - yet despite his varied career, he will always be best known for his performance as Captain James T Kirk of the USS Enterprise.

Now well into old age, he maintains a busy schedule, continuing to act while also appearing at conventions, performing charity work and, last year, publishing a well-received book about his 50-year friendship with Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy.

And somehow, amid all this activity, he still finds time to regularly tease Star Wars fans on the internet.

Understandably loyal to the Star Trek universe and its many fans, Shatner seems to take huge delight in criticising the Star Wars franchise and those who rate it over his own series.

In November last year he marked the anniversary of the much-maligned Star Wars Holiday Special's broadcast with this scathing tweet:

Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca in Star Wars, responded with a tweet of his own mocking the Shatner-directed Star Trek V: The Final Frontier:

This was only the latest of many anti-Star Wars barbs from Shatner.

To mark Star Trek's 50th anniversary last September he posted this image on the Star Wars forum on Reddit, saying 'So I decided to commit a heinous act! :-P':

Ahead of the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens he posted a series of mocking "What Bill learned from the Star Wars trailer” images on Twitter:

When the final poster for the Force Awakens came out he accused the film of borrowing heavily from other sci-fi franchises:

 And his Twitter account features endless digs at Star Wars and Star Wars fans: 

However, Shatner's concerted mischief-making is almost certainly meant affectionately - and during a 2016 convention appearance he made some rare positive comments about Star Wars, telling the audience that “Star Wars created Star Trek.” 

When the first Star Wars was released, its huge success prompted studio execs to cast about for other sci-fi properties - and it's thanks to that that the (at that time cancelled) Star Trek was revived for a new movie, leading on to several more big screen outings for the USS Enterprise and its many spin-off series.

On the difference between the two franchises, Shatner said: “Star Trek, at its best, tells human stories. Star Wars was grand, like opera. It was huge with great special effects. It was a marvelously entertaining film, but it wasn’t specifically about people the way those Star Treks were.”

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