I am not 100% sure of your narrative.
T.J. Hooker was on for 4 years and did OK.
As for the lies, all the “Non-4” (Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty) were the subject of long-held resentments — especially from the extended “no-kill” cast (Uhuru, Chapel, Sulu, Chekov, Rand).
But I had not heard of actual hate. Nichols’ comments were at a roast, but are considered to be only half jest.
There are so many versions of these stories, who can tell what is accurate?
My older brother recently started posting his memories of each of my family members, including me, on FB (first name only — you will never find it).
He gets the narrative correctly but most of the details are wrong, in some instances badly so.
We age, we forget, we forgive, we color, we cast.
In this case, Nichols was and is a trooper. She did extend her 4 year career as Uhuru for 5 decades, but she had/has the talent and beauty to carry it off. Good for her!
I do pray she recovers from this. We are losing so many childhood heroes. Our parents and older boomers lost many to smoking. Now, we consider 80 to be too damn young. And it is.
Shatner starred in Star Trek, T.J. Hooker (four years is three and a half years longer than most shows, but the point is, he was the star), The Practice/Boston Legal (I think he was technically co-star, but his role expanded as the series went on, four seasons), and $#*! My Dad Says (handful of episodes).
Doohan wouldn’t speak to Shatner apart from lines during the movies; this is sometimes attributed to Shatner’s purported role in having a scene cut in “Wrath of Khan”, although I’m not clear about when the scene got cut, or perhaps I’m not clear which one it was. I *thought* it was the “he stayed at his post when the trainees ran” sequence, but I believe that was either not the scene, or it was later restored. The more one looks around, the more one has to wonder if it wasn’t just Shatner Derangement Syndrom.
DeForest Kelley, Leonard Nimoy, and William Shatner are considered by some to be a threesome, and their characters are obviously mission-critical. :’) Walter’s character was skillfully brought in at season two (and that’s one of those nitpicky things about “Wrath of Khan” — Khan and Chekov never met in the series) and added some humor, but basically that part was created in answer to criticisms by the USSR. He remembers Shatner as being easy to work with, but not a friend outside of work. Sounds like any other job.
Shatner was the top-billed star of Star Trek; the spotty careers of his costars wasn’t his doing or his fault. The cast was, taken all in all, selected by affirmative action rules, and may have helped transform society, the same way Groucho Marx did with his insistence on having Latino and black contestants.
Shatner: [snip] They didn’t have great scenes. They didn’t have good lines. There was nothing to nick. But I was shocked. I was interviewing. And I said, well, thank you. Great interview. Good night. They said, well, wait a minute, don’t you want to know how much we despise you? What are you talking about? I thought I was loved... I care that somebody in this world dislikes me. And I care that the enmity has carried over to the point of where we’re talking about it. It’s absolute nonsense. I mean, we’re going to die. Go out the way you came in, with a little innocence. You know? It’s ridiculous. [/snip]