‘Star Trek’ legend George Takei talks Nimoy’s directing, the future of exploration, and his sad plastic umbrella (interview)

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has a serious appetite for science fiction films in February, as it launches its “To Infinity: Space Travel In The Movies” series just as Artemis 2 is about to take four astronauts for a trip around the moon and back sometime next month (hopefully).

Their month-long screening lineup runs from Jan. 30 to Feb. 28 and spotlights “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,” “The Right Stuff,” “Solaris,” “High Life,” “Sunshine,” “Apollo 13,” “Contact,” and “Interstellar.” Academy Award-winning actress Jodie Foster and astrophysicist Nivedita Mahesh will attend the 35mm screening of “Contact” on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026.

This out-of-this-world film series kicked off with a 40th anniversary showing of 1986’s “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”, complete with an honored guest, the USS Enterprise’s Lt. Hikaru Sulu himself, George Takei, and we connected with the legend just before showtime.

“Well, Leonard [Nimoy] directed it, but we have a long history of working together,” Takei tells Space.com on opening night.

“Three seasons with the TV series and we had three movies in the can before ‘Star Trek IV.’ So we knew each other, and Leonard was a very competent director. He knew all of us well enough to have a way of communicating based on our long professional lives together.”

Speaking on Nimoy’s directing style, Takei reminisces that “Where there were tweaks that he wanted, he would talk to you. He trusted all of us for what we could do. It was the whispered conversation of suggesting ‘look over there’ or ‘think of such and such.’ Leonard was a sensitive and diplomatic director, respecting the actors to bring their unique experiences and talent to the scene.”

In addition to his honorary role in this Academy Museum event, Takei was also a VIP riding the ‘Star Trek’ 60th Anniversary float “Space For Everyone” during last month’s rainy Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s Day.

“I’ll tell you, I’m an energetic and athletic guy, but that rain and the cold was intolerable,” he notes. “They gave us a plastic transparent umbrella to hold and protect us from the rain. So I was holding that light umbrella and making the Vulcan greeting for fans. But it was so cold that halfway through, the umbrella felt like it was about fifteen pounds. It was a float built for flowers, of course, and they had me in this big wooden throne that was very wide and very deep and freshly painted.

“So it got very slippery and also had a pile of plastic cushions on it. Here I am holding this umbrella and slipping further down. By the time we were partly along the route, I was almost lying on my back. This became so heavy that I was exhausted holding it up.”

On this night celebrating sci-fi cinema, we wondered what the intrepid man who steered starships to strange new worlds, and where he thought the genre’s next frontier lies, as we head into the future.

“Science fiction is all about the imagination,” Takei notes. “And it can be exploring space or exploring that mysterious organism called our bodies. Like Raquel Welch in that movie Fantastic Voyage, where she’s shrunk down to a tiny size. There is an incredible journey going on every day, all day in our bodies. My grandniece is a graduate of Brown University and spent two years at Mass. General working in their emergency ward. Now she’s going to the University of California in San Francisco, and she’s going to be an explorer inside our body and our mind.

“Space is a fascinating challenge as well as a dangerous one. But sometimes our most destructive adversary is within us. We see the excitement of our genius, but we also see the failure and danger within this incredible organism that we inhabit.”

“To Infinity: Space Travel in the Movies” is a film screening series that showcases films and creators who “have looked outside the scope of our earthbound existence to imagine a place beyond the stars”. It began on January 30 with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and will run through to Feb 28. Check out the trailer below:

To Infinity: Space Travel in the Movies Film Series | Jan 30 – Feb 28, 2026 – YouTube

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For a complete schedule of “To Infinity: Space Travel In The Movies,” visit the Academy Museum’s official site.