Captain James T. Kirk has faced Klingons, Romulans and Tribbles but the actor that portray"s Star Trek"s original captain, William Shatner, was apparently not able fight off Google"s Terms of Service. Tech Crunch reports today that Shatner has had his personal Google+ account banned. Shatner revealed the ban via his Twitter page, stating, "My Google+ account was flagged for violating standards. Saying hello to everyone apparently is against the rules maybe I should say goodbye?"
There"s no word on the specifics of Shatner"s ban from Google"s recently launched social networking service. Tech Crunch speculates that a number of Google+ users might have sent a notice to Google stating that Shatner"s user account was fake. In any case we suspect that Google might have to do some damage control in order to get Shatner back online with its Google+ service.
Shatner, in the meantime, seems to be a very busy man. Later this week the Epix pay cable movie channel will have the world premiere of The Captains, a two hour documentary where Shatner interviews all of the actors who have had the lead roles in all of the Trek TV series. The Captains also has Shatner interviewing his younger doppelganger, Chris Pine, who played Kirk in the 2009 Star Trek reboot movie. The movie debuts on Epix this Friday. If you are going to the San Diego Comic-Con this weekend you can see a panel about The Captains on Friday featuring both Shatner and Star Trek Deep Space Nine"s Avery Brooks.
Update: Shatner"s Google+page is now back online. Shatner writes, "I am back plusers! I still do not know what happened but I will refrain from saying hello again for a while just in case. My best, Bill."