William Shatner mistakes Steve Wozniak as an inventor of the iPhone - CNET

This weekend, the first-ever Silicon Valley Comic Con is underway in San Jose, Califoia. It's the brainchild of Steve Wozniak, the electronics genius who co-founded Apple. He's managed to attract guests as influential and diverse as Astro Teller (the head of Google's moonshot division) and Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) to speak and sign autographs at the show.

But Friday night was all about William Shatner, best known for his role as Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise. And Shatner started by introducing his host as the inventor of the Apple iPhone.

"Can you imagine inventing the iPhone?" Shatner asked the crowd, to suggest that Wozniak's accomplishments far surpassed his own. But while Woz did single-handedly design the very first Apple computer -- the Apple 1, built in 1976 -- he left the company a full 22 years before the iPhone was announced. I couldn't help shaking my head in disbelief that Shatner didn't know. Looking around the room, it seemed I wasn't the only one.

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Then, Shatner announced that he wanted to embarrass Woz by having the Apple co-founder -- a longtime Shatner fan -- ask him a question in front of the packed house.

If you've ever met Wozniak, you'll know he's one of the most approachable celebrities you can imagine. He's a humble, down-to-earth guy who simply loves his gadgets, and always seems surprised by the fact that he's a celebrity at all.

On Friday evening, he genuinely didn't seem ready to have a conversation with Shatner in front of the huge audience. He couldn't come up with a question on the spot. I sat five feet away from Woz, and I watched the sweat drip down his brow.

But Woz kept his cool, and as a result we witnessed a thrilling, awkward and genuine standoff between two of the world's greatest geek heroes. The L.A. Explorer captured the whole thing on video:

The rest of the evening showed that Shatner can be humble and approachable, too. Instead of regaling the audience with prepared jokes, he spent the rest of the evening taking questions from fans in and out of costume, including a number of young boys and girls.

"There won't be any glasses in the near future," he told one spectacled 13-year-old girl. "The awe and wonder of science and invention could be yours."

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The Silicon Valley Comic Con runs this weekend, March 18-20, at the San Jose Convention Center.