William Shatner, famous for playing Captain James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise, trash-talked rival sci-fi series Star Wars after seeing a photo that was recently posted to NASA's HiRISE Twitter account. The photo features a "dune footprint" on the surface of Mars that bears a resemblance Star Trek's Starfleet logo.The tweet reads, "Enterprising viewers will make the discovery that these features look conspicuously like a famous logo."
"Long ago, there were large crescent-shaped (barchan) dunes that moved across this area, and at some point, there was an eruption," The University of Arizona explained. "The lava flowed out over the plain and around the dunes, but not over them. The lava solidified, but these dunes still stuck up like islands. However, they were still just dunes, and the wind continued to blow. Eventually, the sand piles that were the dunes migrated away, leaving these “footprints†in the lava plain. These are also called “dune casts†and record the presence of dunes that were surrounded by lava."
Many people noticed how much the "dune cast" looked like the Starfleet logo, including Shatner, who tweeted, "Hey [Star Wars]! Will you hurry up your Rebel Scums? We beat you!"
The official Star Wars Twitter account fired back shortly thereafter, tweeting, "We're 'far far away' from that tiny red planet." Additionally, the tweet was accompanied by a GIF of Han Solo's famous line of, "Great, kid! Don't get cocky."
Mark Hamill, famous for playing Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films, joined a fray later on, getting into a brief back-and-forth with Shatner. "Looks like a boomerang to me. #Meh," Hamill tweeted in regard to NASA's original photo.
This prompted a reply from Shatner, who himself tweeted, "Don't be jelly, Mark."
Hamill then quote tweeted Shatner's reply, adding, "Actually - it looks more like a crescent roll, which are yummy with jelly! #LiveLongAndUnfollowMe."
The whole exchange continues the friendly, half-serious rivalry between the cast and crew of the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises. Notably, this is not the first time Shatner has gone blow-to-blow with a Star Wars actor over their franchises.