IT'S all highly illogical but has boldly gone where no Scottish political story has gone before.

Days after it emerged Alex Salmond found himself in an odd stand-off with airline staff after booking on to a flight under the name James Kirk, the captain of Star Trek's USS Enterprise, the former First Minister has had an even more bizarre Twitter exchange with the man himself, William Shatner.

Clearly seeing the humourous side of his starring role in a political story thousands of miles across the Atlantic, Shatner tweeted the Gordon MP in the early hours of Tuesday, stating: "There are easier ways to ask for an autograph!"

Mr Salmond, a self-confessed proud “Trekkie”, was later able to display his own photo-editing skills, responding to the 84-year-old TV icon with an image of himself in Kirk's classic Star Trek garb and Shatner sat First Minister Questions at Holyrood.

Underneath he wrote: "But who is who? ;-) #SetPhasersToFun."

At the weekend it emerged that Mr Salmond has caused confusion when British Airways initially refused to let him board a flight at Heathrow under the sci-fi alias.

It was reported that it took a series of phone calls for the senior politician to persuade the airline that he should be allowed on board.

The former SNP leader said he often travelled under a false name for security reasons and he liked to use Captain Kirk's name as he is an avid Star Trek fan.