---
title: "Annoyed William Shatner Weighs in on Claims of Government Harboring UFOs"
description: "\"Star Trek\" legend William Shatner has chimed in, calling recent congressional hearings about UFO reports \"ridiculous.\""
date: "2023-08-03"
modified: "2023-08-03"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/annoyed-william-shatner-claims-government-ufos"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "aliens"
  - "the digest"
  - "ufos"
  - "william shatner"
---

# Annoyed William Shatner Weighs in on Claims of Government Harboring UFOs

!["Star Trek" legend William Shatner has chimed in, calling recent congressional hearings about UFO reports "ridiculous."](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/annoyed-william-shatner-claims-government-ufos.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: John Medina/WireImage/Getty Images\</em\>*

## Peekaboo!

Last week, Air Force veteran and former member of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency David Grusch [made a series of eyebrow-raising claims](<https://futurism.com/david-grusch-congress-ufos>) during a House Oversight Committee hearing: that the US government has not only recovered alien spacecraft and the bodies of their "pilots" over recent decades, but tried to keep their efforts hidden from the public.

It was a tabloid-ready event that drew widespread media attention — and plenty of scrutiny. Even the SETI Institute [chimed in](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/seti-institute-ufo-whistleblower-claims>), calling for Grusch to show evidence for his extraordinary claims.

Now, "Star Trek" legend William Shatner has sounded off as well, calling the hearing "ridiculous."

"You mean, some highly intelligent being goes 10,000 light-years with advanced technology, arrives here and hides?" the [depressed astronaut](<https://futurism.com/william-shatner-space-grief>) [told *NewsNation*](<https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/william-shatner-ufo-hearings-ridiculous-star-trek-space/>). "It doesn’t make any sense."

"If they’re going to make that journey all the way here, it just beggars the imagination that they would hide and make it, like, 'Peekaboo, I’m here, no I’m not,'" he added.

## Bah, Humbug

Grusch's claims, as first laid out in an [exclusive story by *The Debrief*](<https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-retrieved-non-human-craft/>) published earlier this summer, are truly wild and unbelievably far-fetched sounding. He claimed the US government recovered alien spacecraft — and even dead pilots inside them — for decades as part of a top-secret UFO retrieval program that the public never found out about until now.

"I was informed, in the course of my official duties, of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program," Grusch said in his [opening statements](<https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Dave_G_HOC_Speech_FINAL_For_Trans.pdf>) ahead of last week's hearing.

But not everybody is buying his wild assertions. Shatner dismissed the evidence for UFOs as being "filled with imagination and people’s desire."

Instead, he called for answers to some far deeper questions about the universe.

"What’s the universe about? What’s after death? I mean, the monumental questions would abound, and they would be asking the same questions, but they’re not here," he told *NewsNation*.

"If they were, they would make their presence known," he added.

**More on UFOs:** *[SETI Institute Shreds UFO Whistleblower's Claims About Alien Corpses](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/seti-institute-ufo-whistleblower-claims>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)