For all its style and energy and momentum, 2009's Star Trek reboot was sorely lacking in one area: William Shatner. While Leonard Nimoy got to make a well-publicised cameo as a weather-beaten future version of Spock in the movie, Shatner just didn't get the call. There may have been plans for him to appear in a brief flashback scene, but, judging from the film-maker's account of the matter, they seem to have disappeared the instant Shatner started throwing his weight around. And to say that William Shatner took this badly would be a colossal understatement.

For months it seemed like Shatner was locked into a sustained, anguished wail over his exclusion from the film. One minute he'd be berating the bad business sense of ignoring someone as popular as him, the next he'd make bitter little videos where he'd directly tell Abrams how wounded he felt. But it was all for nothing. The Star Trek reboot came and went without so much as an ounce of Shatner.

But now, with a sequel due next year, William Shatner has decided to change tactics. If ranting couldn't get him a part, then perhaps some shamelessly sad-eyed martyrdom will. This would explain why Shatner recently told Australia's Sunday Herald Sun that "I would be so interested in doing it, especially with that wonderful director JJ Abrams, but I don't see how it's possible and maybe we all have gone beyond that." The hope, it seems, is that if William Shatner spends long enough forlornly pawing at the restaurant window in the rain, JJ Abrams will eventually crack and invite him in for a bite.

Whether or not this new approach will work is anybody's guess. But perhaps the bigger question is this: does William Shatner deserve a role in Star Trek 2 anyway? There are plenty of cases for both sides of this argument. For instance:

The case for: if Star Trek was serious enough about its past to offer Nimoy a cameo, then surely William Shatner deserves the same treatment. Even in the later movies when he had TJ Hooker hair, Shatner's Kirk was just as iconic as Spock. And, now that age has finally lent him an air of vulnerability and constant mockery has finally taught him the concept of self-awareness, he's arguably a better actor than he's ever been. And even if he isn't, how much more fun would Star Trek 2 be if it starred a belligerent octogenarian in a corset who can't stop getting off with all the scantily clad female aliens?

The case against: an appearance by William Shatner would overshadow everything else that Star Trek 2 had to offer. You can ask an audience to suspend its disbelief for many things – like spaceships and aliens and monsters and laser-guns – but not the sight of William Shatner's face. He simply isn't Captain Kirk any more. He is Shatner: ironically beloved singer, sitcom star and occasional beat poet . You don't want to see him impart wisdom to a younger generation of space explorers. You want to see him to do another overwrought version of Hey Mr Tambourine Man and nothing else. Admit it.

So which is it: should William Shatner be allowed a role in Star Trek 2 or not? Your thoughts below, please.