By George

Continuing its Star Trek referencing, MSNBC featured not one but two interview segments with George Takei on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell.  After the first interview aired, Takei stuck around to continue talking for the web-only feature, "The Very Last Word."  But on Tuesday, that segment was also cablecast on the regular TV show.

Takei talked politics, marriage equality and the internment of Japanese Americans at the beginning of World War II. Anyone who has heard Takei talk about his childhood memories of internment, at a Star Trek convention or otherwise, will remember it forever.  Now he is featured in Allegiance, a musical  opening on Broadway, that's about this deliberately buried part of American history.   He's also been on CBS discussing this show, a video archived at his blog.

It's great to see that among his questionable career choices (The Apprentice?) he's involved in such a project as an actor.  What amazes me about his interviews--and makes him more of a role model--is his ability to speak in fully formed and beautifully expressed sentences, with almost no hesitation.  It's a rare and awesome gift.

In the second Last Word segment, O'Donnell begs Takei to be his regular co-host, but George demurs, saying he's an actor.

(Photo: George with another guest, political commentator Joy Reid, a self-confessed Trekkie.)