Leonard Nimoy funeral: William Shatner dubbed 'Captain Jerk' for missing Star Trek co-star's ceremony

The actor, who played Captain Kirk in the sci-fi series, came under criticism

William Shatner found himself the unlikely target of Star Trek trolls after he was unable to attend the funeral of Leonard Nimoy.

One particularly large trolling came in the form of a New York Daily News headline, which dubbed the actor “Captain Jerk” for missing the memorial event on Sunday.

Nimoy died on Friday at the age of 83 after suffering from chronic lung disease.

Shatner, also 83, tweeted that he felt “awful” for his absence, but said he had already made plans to appear at a Red Cross ball in Florida.

"Here I am doing charity work and one of my dearest friends is being buried," he said.

Baiting himself somewhat, he shared an image of the NYDN’s front page on Twitter and invited his followers to discuss it.

"One of the other misconceptions seems to be that folks think flights to LAX occur all night long," he replied to one fan, who asked why he didn’t catch a late night flight there.

He also shared his own memories of Nimoy, who played his sidekick Mr Spock:

The Shatner family was, however, represented at the funeral - William’s daughters Melanie and Lisabeth attended the event.