William Shatner says Prince William is 'missing the point' on space travel

Watch: William Shatner hits back at Prince William's criticism of space travel

Star Trek’s William Shatner has said Prince William has got the “wrong idea” after he appeared to criticise the space race.

The royal suggested in an interview with the BBC this week that repairing Earth needs to take priority over space tourism.

“The idea the space race is on at the moment, we’ve seen everyone trying to get space tourism going, it’s the idea that we need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live,” he said.

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However, Captain Kirk star Shatner – who made history this week when he became the oldest person to go into space – has said he thinks the prince was “missing the point”.

The 90-year-old told Entertainment Tonight: “He's a lovely, gentle, educated man, but he's got the wrong idea."

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Shatner, who travelled to space with Blue Origin, the company founded by Jeff Bezos, said: "I would tell the prince, and I hope the prince gets the message, this is a baby step into the idea of getting industry up there, so that all those polluting industries, especially, for example, the industries that make electricity... off of Earth."

The US actor said that he did agree with Prince William that there were problems on Earth that needed to be addressed.

But he added that you "can curl your hair and put lotion on your face at the same time".