chekov star trek nationality

Pavel Chekov

Although he was always a promising officer with a career to bear it out, the young Chekov was prone to hot-heated actions and romantic attachments. While attending Starfleet Academy his involvement with fellow cadet Irina Galliulin broke off when she dropped out of the service before graduation in disdain for its structure. Years later they met again when she and other Eden-seekers with Dr. Sevrin were aboard.

Following the end of his first five-year mission, Chekov was promoted to lieutenant when he was assigned as security chief aboard the refit U.S.S. Enterprise. Assigned to the U.S.S. Reliant in 2377 and promoted to commander within eight years of that, he was first officer to the ill-fated Captain Clark Terrell during the Genesis Project incident and Khan Singh's grab for it. For the next few years he remained one of Kirk's trusted officers and stood with the group in the theft of the Enterprise to refuse Spock's body and katra, and then faced the UFP Council when those charges were dropped.

Chekov suffered serious wounds when time-traveling to 1986 during an attempted escape from the U.S.S. Enterprise naval aircraft carrier when suspected of being a Soviet spy of the time. He would have died if left to contemporary medicine, but was saved thanks to McCoy and went on to help secure the Khitomer Peace Accords - followed shortly by his shocked witness to Kirk's apparent death at the christening of the newest U.S.S. Enterprise, 1701-B.

Pavel Chekov is a human Starfleet officer, born in Russia on Earth in 2245. He served as Navigator and Science Officer aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 and U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A under Captain James T. Kirk , and eventually became Security Chief on the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A.

External Links

• Pavel Chekov at Memory Alpha
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• Appears in The Original Series

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Facts about Pavel Chekov

Pavel chekov biography.

Ensign Pavel Chekov was added to the crew of the spaceship U.S.S. Enterprise in 1967, during the second season of the TV series Star Trek . Played by actor Walter Koenig , Chekov was a young and enthusiastic navigator with a haircut vaguely reminiscent of The Beatles , who were wildly popular at the time. Chekov and his ripe Russian accent joined the multinational stew on the bridge of the Enterprise , which already included characters named Scotty (of Scottish heritage), Sulu (Japanese), Uhura (African) and Spock (Vulcan). Chekov appeared in seasons two and three of the original Star Trek series and has been a dependable presence in subsequent Trek feature films and books.

Extra credit

Chekov’s name is similar to that of Anton Chekhov , the Russian author of The Cherry Orchard and other plays.

Related Biographies

• Anton Chekhov
• The Beatles
• Walter Koenig

3 Good Links

• Memory Alpha: Chekov Whew! Giant wiki encyclopedia for and by Trek fans
• Russian Crewlette Examines the rumor that Chekhov was created in response to a Pravda editorial
• BBC Online Cult: Star Trek Nice little history of Chekov, amongst a much grander page for Trek

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Was Star Trek's Chekov Inspired by Pravda?

Legend holds that the character of pavel chekov was added to 'star trek' in response to an editorial in the russian newspaper pravda., david mikkelson, published march 22, 1999.

About this rating

In the days before cable TV (and the myriad other entertainments that have since sprung up to sap our attention), the networks reigned supreme in the television industry. Landing a series in the prime time line-up of one of the "big three" (CBS, NBC, and ABC), where competition was fierce for the few slots that opened up each year, was a TV producer's ultimate achievement. Keeping his series on the air after having secured a network spot for it was a TV producer's next greatest achievement.

It was with justifiable pride, then, that Gene Roddenberry found himself considering ways to enhance the popularity of his new Star Trek series in September 1966. After years of planning and effort (including the unusual circumstance of his having to produce two separate pilots with two different casts), Roddenberry had managed to convince NBC to take a chance on something outside the usual tried-and-true westerns and family sitcoms that dominated network schedules: a non-anthology science fiction series set on a space ship three hundred years in the future.

The chances of landing such a show with a network had been slim; the chances of keeping it there were even slimmer. So it's no wonder that after only two episodes of Star Trek had been aired, its creator/producer was already thinking ahead its next season. With an eye towards higher ratings, Roddenberry wrote a memo to casting director Joe D'Agosta on 22 September 1966 which said:

Keeping our teenage audience in mind, also keeping aware of current trends, let's watch for a young, irreverent, English-accent "Beatle" type to try on the show, possibly with an eye to him reoccurring. Like the smallish fellow who looks to be a hit on The Monkees. Personally, I find this type spirited and refreshing and I think our episode could use that kind of "lift." Let's discuss.

If the wording and date of this memo are accurate, Roddenberry was prescient indeed. By 22 September 1966, The Monkees (which, like Star Trek, was never much a ratings winner during its original run) had aired but two episodes, both of which had lost their time slot in the viewership contest to Gilligan's Island. And "Last Train to Clarksville," the Monkees' first record, had yet to crack the Top 40 on Billboard's singles chart. Roddenberry must have been following the television industry (and the teen market) quite keenly to have caught on to Davy Jones' nascent popularity so quickly.

The new character Roddenberry suggested did show up during Star Trek 's second season in 1967-68 in the person of an ensign serving as the ship's navigator and junior science officer, as portrayed by actor Walter Koenig. The character's Beatlesque/Monkeesque origins were demonstrated by the "mop-top" wig placed atop Koenig's head for his first few episodes until his own hair grew out to a suitable length. (As William Shatner recalled, "the rather bushy toupee he was forced to wear will illustrate the Monkee mimicry point beyond a shadow of a doubt." And Koenig himself complained that "swallows kept trying to nest in the wig they gave me.") However, rather than employing a Manchester accent similar to Davy Jones', Koenig's character affected an eastern European accent, one that went with the character's name: Pavel Chekov. So what happened to the "English-accent type" Roddenberry had so eagerly spoken of adding to the cast a year earlier? Herb Solow, the Vice President of Production at Desilu Studios, where Star Trek was produced, later explained:

Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, had criticized Star Trek as being "typically capitalistic" and questioned why there was no Russian crewman aboard the Enterprise. After all, the Soviets were doing quite well in the race for outer space. Roddenberry liked the idea. By having someone from behind the Iron Curtain on "our side," he intended to show that people with opposing philosophies not only could learn to get along, but could in fact set aside their differences and cooperate to bring about a better future for humankind.

This was the same explanation of Chekov's origins that had been offered in the Roddenberry-vetted book The Making of Star Trek, published back when the series was still in production:

The Chekov thing was a major error on our part, and I'm still embarrassed by the fact that we didn't include a Russian right from the beginning. However, now it's Russia's turn to be embarrassed. After we wrote Chekov into the show, we sent a long, polite letter to the minister of cultural affairs in Moscow, apologizing for the error and telling him about Chekov. That was over a year ago, and they still haven't answered us. So we're square.

Thst circumstance explains Chekov's transformation from an Englishman to a Russian quite nicely. Or does it?

Did Pravda really run an editorial critical of Star Trek 's lack of Russian crew members? It seems rather unlikely, given that Star Trek didn't air in the Soviet Union during its original run, and the decidedly pro-American Cold War allegories that furnished the plots for numerous episodes of the series weren't exactly the sort of material the Soviets would have wanted to be associated with. Moreover, evidently nobody associated with Star Trek ever saw the alleged editorial — everyone merely heard about it from someone else. Roddenberry himself said he hadn't seen the editorial; he claimed he had been told about it by one of the show's actors around the end of 1966. (Roddenberry didn't identify which actor told him this, but it's doubtful that anyone in the Star Trek cast would have been reading Pravda .) If Roddenberry truly wondered why nobody in Moscow answered his letter, perhaps it was because they had no idea what he was talking about?

William Shatner (or his ghostwriter) wrote the whole thing off as a publicity stunt in his book of reminiscences about the show, Star Trek Memories :

You've heard this story, I'm sure: In early 1967, the Soviet newspaper Pravda writes a long, angry editorial, complaining that even though the USSR was first in space, there is no Russian aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise. Gene Roddenberry gets hold of the scathing condemnation of his xenophobic American television show, reads it over several times and finally comes to the conclusion that the paper's arguments are well founded. With that in mind, he goes back into his office and immediately creates the character of Ensign Pavel Chekov. That's the story. Here's the truth: This long-established, widely believed bit of Star Trek history is entirely false, and was simply the product of an overzealous public relations department.

What to believe? Roddenberry was famous for his myth-making, so this tale certainly sounds like something he could have made up. William Shatner, star of the series, claimed it was a public relations stunt, but we wouldn't necessarily give his word too much credence: actors aren't necessarily privy to off-the-set dealings, and Shatner likely was merely repeating something he heard second-hand long after the fact.

However, apparently there is at least something to the Pravda story, as the 1996 book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story (by Desilu executive Herb Solow and Star Trek Associate Producer Robert Justman) reproduces a 1967 letter from Gene Roddenberry on Star Trek letterhead to the editor of Pravda, informing the latter of Chekov's addition to the cast. Unless the letter was a latter-day forgery created to lend support to a publicity stunt, it would indicate that Roddenberry at least believed Pravda had run such an editorial, whether they genuinely did or not.

All of this conflicting information makes it difficult to assign a "True" or "False" status to the claim stated at the top of this page. In a strict sense, one could say it isn't true that the Chekov character was added to the Star Trek cast because of a editorial in Pravda (whether or not such an editorial was ever actually published), since Gene Roddenberry had already been thinking about creating a part for "Monkees-like" actor in the show. However, one might impart some truth to the claim in the sense that Roddenberry's belief that Pravda had run such an editorial might have influenced his decision to make the new character's nationality Russian rather than British. On the other hand, one might maintain the claim is literally false, since there is no evidence (other than hearsay) that Pravda ever published an editorial critical of Star Trek 's lack of Soviet crew members.

Our estimation is that the story about Pravda was not cooked up as a publicity stunt, due to the simple fact that it wasn't publicized at the time. The account of how the Chekov character was added to the Star Trek crew to put those complaining Soviets in their place wasn't trumpeted in the media at the time it supposedly happened — as far as we can tell, it was only mentioned in the book The Making of Star Trek (not exactly a best-seller) over a year after Chekov's debut, hardly a timely or effective way of creating buzz with a cooked-up PR invention. We doubt Pravda actually did run an editorial about Star Trek, but we also doubt that even Gene Roddenberry would have forged a back-dated letter to support the claim that they did, so we think it likely he genuinely believed they had. How much any of this might have influenced Roddenberry's decision to make the added Star Trek character played by Walter Koenig a Russian, we can't tell at this remove.

Shatner, William.   Star Trek Memories .     New York: HarperCollins, 1993.   ISBN 0-06-017734-9   (p. 224).

Solow, Herbert F. and Robert H. Justman.   Inside Star Trek: The Real Story .     New York: Pocket Books, 1996.   ISBN 0-671-00974-5   (pp. 343-345).

Whitfield, Stephen E.   The Making of Star Trek .     New York: Ballantine Books, 1968.   ISBN 0-345-34019-1   (pp. 249-251).

By David Mikkelson

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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Interview: Walter Koenig Talks New Memoir, Closure With William Shatner, And Putting Chekov Behind Him

| May 18, 2020 | By: Anthony Pascale 103 comments so far

Walter Koenig appeared as Pavel Chekov in Star Trek: The Orginal Series as well as in seven Trek feature films. The actor has just released Beaming Up and Getting Off: Life Before and Beyond Star Trek , an update to his 1998 autobiography Warped Factors . TrekMovie spoke to Koenig about the new book and his time in the final frontier.

What prompted you to do the update to your autobiography?

Well, I was approached by Jacobs Brown Publishing and it sounded like a fun project. Writing an autobiography is a lot different than writing fiction. I don’t have to worry about story structure. I don’t have to worry about relationships. It’s just all from memory, and I can just go in chronological order. I enjoy the process of writing, so when they approached me, I was otherwise at liberty as they say and said, “Sure!”

The 1998 autobiography got positive reviews and was lauded for its honesty, perhaps even brutal honesty. But was there anything you held back for this one?

Not really. I was pretty candid. It’s not masochistic. It’s not like I am pointing to failings in my character that I have burdened with over the last two decades and finally decided that I would therapeutically put it down on paper. Over twenty years have passed and there have been events and situations and people that were introduced into my life that were not there previously. Also, I felt looking back and evaluating how I felt then with how I think now might be interesting for folks. We all transition during the course of a lifetime and develop attitudes and habits and philosophies, etcetera, that may have been incipient early on but develop to a way leading one’s life. Although I don’t think what I have written is terribly profound, it is the current state of my mind and what I project as far as the future is concerned.

In that vein, have your views on Star Trek and your time with the franchise changed in that last two decades?  

Yeah, I think it has. I was always very pleased when we were shooting the show and the motion pictures, to be identified with Star Trek . I thought we were putting forward some very trenchant socio-political philosophies that needed to be articulated. I think we did that by projecting problems that were current into the future where it was more admissible. I was always pleased that we were dealing with issues of mankind and humanity and how we can achieve a better moral society and be inclusive of all races, creeds, sexes, philosophies, etcetera.

But there was always something a little nagging in the back of my head and that was while we shooting the shows and the feature films I felt this is current and part of my life and I could, without reluctance, take a bow or two for whatever small participation I had in the show. But I have been somewhat detached from the creative process for quite a while now. So, when I go to conventions and people tell me how much they not only love the show but how much affection they had for my character, I feel a little awkward, a little uncomfortable.

That is really dealing in the past. I don’t want to wallow in the past. I want to be a creature of the present and the future. I don’t think I am done. God knows the industry may not have the same sentiment, but I don’t think I am done. And I don’t just want to rest on past laurels. When I go to make public appearances, I would love to be able to present a current list of accomplishments and unfortunately, they have been in less abundance [laughs] before I wrote the first autobiography.

Walter Koenig as Chekov in TOS “Spectre of the Gun”

Speaking of conventions, your updated memoir has a recent story regarding yourself and a candid conversation you had with William Shatner backstage. Your first memoir also had a few candid Shatner stories as well, do you think this recent, and somewhat awkward moment backstage at STLV, is going to be as good as you get for closure with Bill?

No, we don’t have closure. But yes, I was candid, and what you see in the memoir reflected my sentiment at the time, and they do now. Mr. Shatner comes from a different place and a different philosophy and different set of values. He argues that he is not at fault and not guilty of any social misdemeanor, and I say misdemeanor and not felony because it never achieved that status. They were just little things along the way that were disappointing and disillusioning, but not enough to change my life or go to bed tossing and turning thinking about Bill Shatner. In the book, I also acknowledge his talent and acknowledge his availability and responsibility in making Star Trek the success it was. He was an enormous part of the reason why Star Trek continued through three seasons on television and the six movies.

But yes, there are a couple of stories. And in the new edition of my book, there are anecdotal stories I tell about Bill. But I don’t think they are mean or vicious. I think they are more funny than anything.

Your first memoir was Chekov’s Enterprise , about the making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture . That project went through a lot of changes early on, including the Star Trek: Phase II television series concept, which you were also signed up for. Do you ever think a new television show would have been more fulfilling to you as an actor?

More fulfilling? I don’t know. It is pure speculation. When Gene [Roddenberry] called us all in the spring of ’69 and thanked us for our participation in Star Trek and hoped we could all work together again someday, that was not prophetic, that was just a salutation and a punctuation mark to say our careers involving Star Trek were over. So, I don’t know what would have transpired if we had gone back to doing a television series.

I had some fairly rewarding experiences doing the original series. Many times, I just sat there read a readout on my console. I don’t exactly consider that an artistic achievement. As a matter of fact, I left the show in the third season for a month to do a play, because I felt a little frustrated with the amount of participation I had on the show. In the third season, my contribution was relatively minor. A play gave me a chance to do a leading role and be on stage every day and be on stage opposite Jackie Coogan.

So, it didn’t portend well that if we came back and did a series in the ‘70s that I could anticipate greater involvement. As for the feature films, Star Trek II and Star Trek IV were really high points to me and I am certainly grateful I had the opportunity to perform in both of those films. But I don’t do a lot of reflecting on “What Ifs.” I am pleased with the way things turned out.

You highlighted two of the Star Trek films. Do you have regrets about the other films where you had less to do?

I didn’t have much to do in Star Trek [The Motion Picture] . I had less to do in Star Trek III and [Star Trek] V . And that’s okay. I didn’t have any problem coming to work knowing that the part would be very modest. I thoroughly enjoyed being on the set and working with my compatriots and getting to perform even in a minimal way. I was glad to be there. I was a little frustrated and would have loved to do more.

Star Trek VI was a different situation. With VI I was culpable with my less than present attitude with which I approached the work. I really thought Star Trek VI was our last film. I was bitterly—and I use that word understanding the drama of it—I was bitterly disappointed because since it was going to be our last film, that there should be a curtain call for each of the supporting actors. We should each have some small moment that gave us some insight into who these characters were and would wrap up their stories. That was not forthcoming. It was treated like just another episode without that sense of finality.

Whether I was justified in feeling that way is really a matter of conjecture. As a consequence, I took that to work every day, and boo on me for feeling that way. My first responsibility was to be a professional and to be conducting myself in a manner that reflected that. I don’t think anyone was aware of how I felt. I didn’t throw tantrums, but I was unhappy. I was unhappy that myself and George [Takei], Nichelle [Nichols], and Jimmy [Doohan] didn’t have a little more to do. We were from the start, expository characters. When you belong to an operation like Star Trek that receives such high regard and the recognition extended beyond oceans, you want to feel you are making a contribution that is comparable and commensurate with that kind of popularity. Maybe it is just a little selfish on my part and egocentric and a little neurotic, but that is the way I felt.

You were happy with how much you had to do in Star Trek II , but you were also involved early on, giving the script a review to make sure it fit with the show. Did you ever feel guilty that you didn’t point out that – contrary to the script – Khan never met Chekov on the show? 

That’s a great question because the fact of the matter of fact is in the script for Star Trek II when Spock dies, I called up the new producer Harve Bennett and he didn’t even want to talk to me because I was an actor and I was calling about acting problems. But I explained to him—because I got an advance copy of the script—that there was a fault in the story structure that had to be addressed. I said you cannot have Mr. Spock die in the second act. Along with Captain Kirk and the Enterprise, these three elements are quintessential to Star Trek. They are synonymous with what Star Trek is and you cannot eliminate one of those and not have it be the dramatic ending of the story. And to my utter surprise and bewilderment, nobody had mentioned that to him.

So, he was impressed enough to have me do a “Trekkie run” on the rest of the script and tell him what other missteps there were from what we had established on the Star Trek series. And one of the things I recognized right off the bat was that Chekov had never met Khan because I had not been in the first season of the show when he made his appearance. So, as industrious as I was and as committed as I was to pointing out Spock can’t die in the second act, I was determined not to mention that Chekov didn’t meet Khan as described in the script. I didn’t want the possibility that they would say, “Oh, in that case, we will give the part to Sulu.” [laughs] Yeah, I was aware of it. Never, never did I feel guilty about it. I was prepared to suffer the hostility of fandom over this inconsistency.

Walter Koenig as Chekov in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

You are one of the very few Star Trek actors with a Star Trek writing credit – for the “Infinite Vulcan” – during your time with Trek, were you pitching story ideas?

I certainly wouldn’t have done it during the television series days. I was the new kid on the block coming in during the second season. Everything was in high gear. The machinery was functioning very smoothly. It didn’t even cross my mind to do that. There was a moment or two, such as in “Spectre of the Gun” I thought there was a flaw in the logic of the story, and I did bring it up to the story editor. At that juncture, I had more integrity and I mentioned to the story editor that it was illogical for Chekov to be alive before we had discovered it was all an illusion and to my surprise, the story editor said, “We figured that out but we said screw it!” [laughs] That was the only literary contribution I made, and they just ignored it, which I was just as happy about.

After Star Trek V, we seemed to be at an impasse regarding what the next Star Trek film would be about. There was a lot of behind-the-scenes conflict going on and wars being waged over the story of Star Trek VI . Mr. Bennett wanted to junk the cast and start over with a new concept, with new fresh faces. None of us were terribly pleased with that. During that time Nick Meyer was proposing a story that included the original cast. The head of Paramount concurred there was still one more in us. Even though we were all growing a little older, they believed the audience was still up for another Star Trek story with the original cast.

During that period, I wrote an outline for an alternative Star Trek story and submitted it to [Paramount CEO Frank] Mancuso and he tried to call me back and missed me, and then we never made contact. But I did include that at the back of my autobiography. The movie that we actually did was very well written by Nick Meyer, and it was successful with Star Trek fans. They wouldn’t have been happy with mine because I killed off just about everybody except Spock and McCoy. Again, I thought that was the end of our participation, so I felt that was a reasonable ending.

Moving forward to something a bit more recent, a few years back I moderated Q&As for a series of Star Trek movies at a theater in Santa Monica, and when you were the guest for one of them, you chose that day to reveal your true self…

[Laughs] And you want to know what it was like?

Well, I guess I was wondering, why after so many years did you decide that was the time to lose the toupée?

I think it was around 2011. looked at the mirror one day and said what is this 70-year-old man doing wearing a hairpiece? First of all, the hair that I had left was growing more conspicuously lighter in tone and my hairpiece was a real contrast with the real hair on my head. The reason I ever wore the hairpiece, beyond some vanity, was pragmatic. I was supposed to be the youngest member of the crew. The studio wanted to promote the idea of this younger character who could be identified with younger fans.

So, I kept it on and then it became habit. But then the moment came where the vanity was unbecoming and misplaced. Because I have problems with self-esteem, it was a little difficult to do. I was anticipating the first gasp of “Oh my god, look how old he is!” Actually, it was uncomfortable doing it that first day when I was asked to speak at a screening of one of the Star Trek movies with a full audience in attendance. But once having done it, I thought I made the proper choice and decided not to go back to wearing that hairpiece again.

CBS is developing multiple Star Trek projects. At one point there was even some consideration to bringing back Nichelle to play Uhura for one of their new Short Treks . I know you returned to the role of Chekov for some independent films a few years back, but would you consider it for official Star Trek, if approached?

I did a couple of low-budget feature films regarding Star Trek before CBS put the kybosh on that kind of thing. And my stipulation for Star Trek: Renegades was that we killed off Chekov. It’s not that I have any antipathy for him. I have great affection for all of my time I spent on Star Trek and for the character. I did [ Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II “To Serve All My Days”] because it added some dimension to the character. My frustration was always I never really got to fulfill the character and so when I was approached to do that, I decided to do it, even though it wasn’t under the most professional circumstances. And when I did Renegades , I told [producer] Sky Conway, that would be it. I had exhausted everything I needed to say about him that needed to be said.

To answer your question, I would not be very receptive to coming back as Chekov with these new iterations. That is not to say I wouldn’t mind coming back as another character. I would love to perform as another character in Picard or one of the other new Star Trek series. That would be great.

Walter Koenig as Chekov in Star Trek: Renegades

Can you talk about any possible acting projects? I believe you are attached to something called Savage Midlife .

Savage Midlife is kind of fun, but it is one scene and totally different than anything I have got to do. They have cast my wife opposite me. These are folks I have worked with before up in Oregon where we will shoot. But we are also very aware of the circumstances of getting that done with the virus, etcetera. There is another science fiction project that Sky Conway has asked me to appear in, which would be fun. It is not Star Trek and certainly not Chekov. It is a part I can sink my teeth into, and that is what I am looking for. This is what I was trained to do and spent six decades doing. There is a third project which would be really fun to do, playing a cranky old guy who is very funny.

You have remained active on the convention scene. When in-person events return, do you expect to continue with public appearances this year?  

Well, I had six conventions planned for this year, and I was drawing the line there. As I mentioned before, it becomes a little awkward to feel all this praise and affection for something I have not contributed to greatly over the course of so many years. And there are a lot of people out there who have no idea who I am. They see this 83-year-old bald guy walking around and they say, “Who is that?” Because their focus is on anime, superheroes, or game players. That’s fine, but I don’t know who those folks are. So I feel I am a little out of date.

However, without the opportunities to do them because we are all in quarantine, I miss them a little. So, if the opportunities to do them are there next year, I would certainly like to take advantage of it at least to the degree I had limited myself to this year, maybe five or six.

Walter Koenig at STLV 2018

Updated autobiography out now

Walter Koenig’s updated memoir Beaming Up and Getting Off: Life Before and Beyond Star Trek is available now. You can pick it up at Amazon in hardcover  and e-book .

Keep up with all the interviews at TrekMovie.com .

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I met Walter at Destination Star Trek in London 2012 and wow what a gentleman- had a great conversation and photo with him – could have spent hours with him.

I will always be amazed that William Shatner could not recall Walter Koenig’s name in a press conference in 1989 for a Star Trek V. He had worked with Koenig for over 20 years by that point. https://youtu.be/g0Kv9d9SuG8

I’m impressed he could remember anyone’s name but his own, frankly.

Haven’t you ever forgot someones name when you were introducing them? I have. It’s embarrassing but it happens. Geez.

I have seen a guy forget his wife’s name he was married to for 40 years. The look she was giving him did not help him any.

Never, ever!

Wow that was painful! And you can tell he literally could not remember him. Yes, it could just be age or nerves, but hearing how he’s treated most of them over the years, no one would be shocked if he really just forgot it.

Like most here I grew up watching Kirk and that character was probably my gateway into Star Trek as a kid. But the more I hear about William Shatner, I have less and less respect for him. I came across a youtube video where Wil Wheaton actually recounted the day he got to meet William Shatner and was totally dissed by him. This was also during Star Trek V and they were shooting both productions side by side. He tells it really well but it makes you realize just how egotistical some people can be, especially when their entire persona is built around one franchise, movie or show they think will live or die because they participate in it.

The video is literally titled William F^cking Shatner if you want to have a listen.

Oh, the infamous press conference. Also the worst looking one in memory. Proves why you should never have actors appear in costume anywhere but on camera. Without that cinematic look, it just looks tacky. ‘Trick or treat!’

He appeared on Conan O’Brian years ago and couldn’t remember the name “Star Trek.” So Conan said, “Star Trek?” Shatner, without missing a beat replied, “That’s the second thing that goes.”

Maybe he just didn’t want to pronounce it incorrectly? And it’s not like Walter’s name had been on the scripts for those 20 years. The guy was just another one of many actors on the bridge.

He had known Koenig for more than 20 years. He should not only have known his name, he should also have known how to pronounce it. Not only was Koenig a co-star of many years, this was a press conference for Star Trek V which Shatner had directed. As director, Shatner should know the names of his actors (even the ones that he doesn’t even have scenes with). I hope that he simply had a mental blackout in that moment. Everything else would reflect very badly on him.

Very thoughtful reflections. And he looks distinguished without the hairpiece — losing it was a good call. Hope to see him at a con one day.

I’m sorry but he looks so much older without the toupee.

He’s 83. It’s okay to look old when you’re 83.

He wore a wig in his first few episodes as Chekov too, so there was that angle for wearing the toupe.

I got to see Walter at a small convention near Binghamton NY 15 years ago…A very kind man and a very charming speaker. I would enjoy seeing him appear again in any “Star Trek” production.

I just finished reading his autobiography, and it is excellent! He has led a fascinating life and writes very openly about himself and his experiences. His writing is witty, engaging, and often laugh-out-loud funny. Highly recommended reading!

I can’t help myself to say this, but the title of this book does sound like an adult male films star’s tell-all autobiography. :-)

Koenig is GREAT PEOPLE. Still so sorry about his son,

“ I was prepared to suffer the hostility of fandom over this inconsistency.” I love this man!

And yet if any current producer were to say that, they would be raked over the coals! I think, ultimately, you gloss over inconsistencies if you think it will serve the story. It’s harder as a fan to justify, if you’re not in love with how the story turned out, though.

I just wish more fans would appreciate what writers and producers are TRYING to do, even if they don’t always succeed.

Because it’s the producers JOB to note and think about these things. Actor’s jobs are to stand on the mark and say the line the best way they can. But yes it happens all the time.

And I can’t blame Koenig at all. TWOK was literally the only time the character just got to do something on his own away from the others and stand out a little. I would be upset too if those scenes were taken from me.

No, it’s not their job to obsess over the details of canon. Their job, first and foremost, is to craft a story. If they have to gloss over a few continuity details to tell it, they should do so, and not care about nerd rage.

Continuity details are not the be all end all. Those who think so are what spawned toxic fandom.

I would say that it’s definitely part of the job.

Google the question “What is the best plotted novel in the English language?”

You’ll likely find it’s by Jane Austen. Arguably, what’s made Austen’s novels so enduring is that they hang together in the characters, the story and the minutia.

While making a conscious creative decision to let something go for something else essential in a new story is fair, not making the effort to know, or just having stories that are incoherent in their own internal structures is appropriate to criticize.

As examples: Brian Miller’s recent interviews show that he didn’t understand at a fundamental level the history of the Many Worlds multiverse in Trek (even if he had some cool ideas that may have worked); Discovery’s writers room conflicts and changes in showrunners have left both seasons with incoherence and inconsistencies in both plotting and characterization (understandable under the circumstances, but still unfortunate).

I disagree. Any producer OBLIVIOUS to the issue would show that they are not thinking about story consistency and are also not familiar with Star Trek’s long history – a sign they are not a good shepherd for the franchise’s latest production. They would be raked over the coals.

On the other hand, someone who said “oh sure I recognize that, I know the series back and forth, but that detail wasn’t worth going into on film because of the bigger themes being developed” would reassure that they understand both the backstory and that Star Trek is more about character and big ideas than minute plot details. They would totally have some people QUESTIONING the decision, but not the outrage you get when an outsider comes along like “durr this is my movie and I’m ignorant of anything past”.

I enjoyed the story that he did not expose the inconsistency because he feared losing lines and screen time. That’s an actor for you! I think I recall hearing that story before. It dinged something in my memory banks. I had forgotten all about it.

Chekov was one interesting dude from TOS. He was a Russian on the Enterprise.

Russia and the United States have always had a adversarial relationship throughout history. Star Trek proves we will go beyond those pretty squabbles to create a better future for humans.

I really like this guy and his story is very touching.

William Shatner is not the guy I would talk to on a Saturday night. This guy is my drinking buddy lol. Like to see him again on Star Trek.

“Russia and the United States have always had a adversarial relationship throughout history.”

They most certainly have not. Set aside WWII and the 1990s. Tsarist Russia had reasonably good relations with the US. In particular, Teddy Roosevelt mediated an end to the Russo-Japanese War in Portsmouth, NH. John Quincy Adams was also ambassador to Russia during the Napoleonic Wars; the Smithsonian Quarterly had an interesting article a few years ago about how he convinced Russia to break with Napoleon’s Continental System (i.e., banning trade between Britain and continental Europe), which was a victory for US diplomacy at the time, since the US was trying to stay neutral.

Russia and US relations are at their worst point since the cold war. Don’t tell me otherwise. I appreciate the history lesson. Russia is not behaving like a civilized country. The US is not a neutral country anymore.

I learned about the Russo-Japanese War from the Japanese perspective. Japan is better than Russia. Maybe the bilateral relationship could improve sooner.

China and Russia are partners in crime.

Governments are governments, but as a nation Russia belongs to the ones I admire most. Russian literature, music and art rank among the best in the world. Russians are great people.

You admire Russia, I admire Japan… We got something to love.

Faze Ninja,

Re: Russo-Japanese Imperialism

The official Japanese version has been sanitized to eliminate their numerous war crime atrocities. You will find a more balanced view from the Koreans where neither Imperialist comes off looking “good.”

Disinvited,

I listen to a podcast called the History of Japan on Spotify. I learned more about the Russo-Japanese war from that. It does talk about Korea at the time of the war.

The Russians and Japanese went to war over China not Korea really. Koreans do play somewhat a role over the course of the war. Port Arthur and all that.

Japan and Korea do share a rich history. Modern Korea under North and South Korea perspectively. Japan did learn from their imperial past.

FAZE NINJA,

One source, especially a podcast, does not an adequate history lesson make. Neither will this missive, but here’s a small sample of some of the nuances that you missed:

The Russians were looking for an ice-free Pacific shipping lanes accessible port, and did not limit the scope of that search to China. They ran the TransSiberian RR and would lay track to and through any number of Asian nations to any Pacific port that they could acquire to that end; be it in China, Korea, etc., and negotiated on several fronts to that end.

The Japanese people had been fully indoctrinated into European racist Social Darwinist thinking and believed themselves the rightful superiors and rulers of all the “other” “inferior” Asians and used it to justify all sorts of horrid acts in pursuit of that psuedo-scientific “right.”

The Koreans might have an opinion or two on that.

I know and the Chinese.

I suggest you study the war also from the Russian perspective before you pass judgment. Saying Japan is better than Russia is an unjustifiable comment regardless. Perhaps English is not your first language and the subtlety of what you wrote escapes you…

Maybe no more Chekhov, but after seeing that RENEGADES photo, I gotta say: Walter Koenig playing Mikhail Gorbachev, anyone? Pair him up with Boris Lee Krutonog as Putin and, I don’t know, Costa Ronin as Yeltsin, and you’ve got a three man show…

The three Russian dictators, brilliant. Putin is a terrible person, feel bad for the Russian people. Russia was never a democracy and probably never will be.

Mikhail Gorbachev was the leader of the Soviet Union before it collapsed. Yeltsin was pretty descent.

If Russia was a normal country, then that wouldn’t be so bad LOL

Dictatorial comedy worked well in THE DEATH OF STALIN (starring our own Captain Lorca as Marshal Zhukov) and even JOJO RABBIT!

I’m sincerely surprised that folks are focusing on the Russian dimension given that isn’t Koenig’s ethnicity.

Let’s not typecast him.

(BTW, I’m with odarek in terms of appreciating Russia’s great cultural heritage. I sincerely grieve nonetheless the governments it’s had through much of its history. To Ninja, I suggest that you read some of the accessible Russian histories. Doing that, as well as travelling in Russia has helped me come to understanding.)

I’m aware of Russian history but that doesn’t change my opinion of Russia as a country. I would love to visit Russia one day.

Ok, I’m just going to interject that I have been in the same room as both of them! (Koenig and Gorbachev, 30 years apart)

it’s too bad that he’s so melancholy… i get it but he’s no different than all these other actors who were supporting characters on popular shows… they show up for work and read lines for a few years and decades later fans get excited to meet them. even though many of those actors didn’t really participate in the creative process. but i think many enjoy the fan experience. i know some actors personally who do. they get a kick out of it. he seems to be a creative guy that needed or needs more outlets.

when did short treks consider doing one with nichelle nichols’ uhura? i missed this bit of news.

I read this on another site, but believe it or not that Short Trek is what gave us the Picard show! :)

Basically this was going to be in the first season of those stories and someone came up with a story of Picard meeting Uhura and she was going to give him an assignment of tracking down the Borg. I don’t know the time frame if it was before Q Who or not but wanted Stewart and Nichols so I’m guessing the story was suppose to happen much later on? Anyway Stewart had said no when they approached him so that idea died before it started. That’s when they got the idea of doing a full on show instead and wanted to see if he would be interested in doing something bigger. And the rest was history!

But it also proves that Short Treks are open to anyone or character, so the possibilities are endless. I doubt we’ll ever see Nichols play Uhura again but we could see Uhura herself or anyone do those.

yeah im shocked they aren’t (or maybe they will) going back to classic trek characters… goto quark or garak or bashir or geordi or whoever is on voyager… you can do cool 15 minute story of where these characters are now. fans would love it and i’m sure there’s ton of writers who would love to take that on. have ira behr write a short trek. they could use the short treks to open up the entire trek universe and update fans. i know it’s a low budget thing by reusing sets and existing cast but still would be super fun.

I think it will happen eventually. I think originally Short Treks was mostly done to keep Discovery on people’s minds being off the air for so long and to promote second season. But season 2 they really broadened the stories a bit more so my guess is in time they will start doing short stories around VOY, DS9, ENT etc.

But a lot of people also point out these stories are mostly built around the sets they have lying around so that’s probably a big factor too. But I’m guessing as the franchise expands they will bring in more past characters in time. They can do SO much with it, especially characters who may not make it on Picard or other shows.

Even if it would be expensive to recreate old sets, they can always bring back old characters in animated Short Treks.

True as well. Would give anything for an animated Enterprise Short Trek to show off bits of the Romulan war if its not feasible in live action.

Who am I missing, it’s just Shatner, Koenig, and Takei left. Shatner would want millions, and it seems highly unlikely Walter and George would want to be in the same building with him. Can’t really think of any other minor TOS character who needs fifteen minutes of fame in their twilight years….

Not sure if this was a reply to my post but if it was I was talking about the CHARACTERS, not just the original actors who play them. Yes, I think with the TOS cast, their time is done. But as we seen just recently with Discovery and now SNW we are probably going to see more TOS characters in the next few years since the Kelvin movies. And its nothing wrong to introduce them in a Short Treks, especially if they won’t it make onto the other shows any time soon.

I would love to see a side story of how Kirk and Bones met for the first time for example. Normally I WOULDN’T care about seeing things like that in a show and feel its just more fan minutiae. But something like Short Treks is designed for things just like that as we saw with Spock and Number One first introduction.

Something has to be off on that, Ms. Nichols has been in declining health for years now….

This was back in 2018 and Nichols was still acting then. She was in that Star Trek parody movie with Snoop Dog and other Trek actors that same year in fact.

But yes I think since then her health has gotten much worse.

It sounds pretty farfetched but maybe whoever pitched it wasn’t aware of Nichols’ health.

As I just said, she was STILL acting at that time. On IMDB, she had 2 acting credits in 2018 and another one just last year (although I’m guessing that was shot earlier maybe). She was working pretty regularly up through 2017. So it’s not that far fetched.

And we’re talking a 15 minute short which she might have only been in one scene since it really sounded more Picard focus.

Not gonna lie – only saw Walter Koenig’s photo at the top of the page, not the headline. My first thought was he died.

Phew, good interview

That was my first reaction too. I was pretty relieved once I realized it was just an interview.

In so many ways I always felt bad for so much of the TOS cast, especially Koenig. He got the bare minimum to do out of all of them. They give Kirk and Spock so many memorable lines but the only memorable lines Chekhov got was when he did the comedy relief stuff in TVH and TUC. He has great comedic timing, I wish they played off that a little more at least.

But like he said, the character was there for decades why can’t they give the guy ONE scene to just have a strong moment in the last movie? The movies really frustrated me because they gave them all a little more to do but they never bothered to at least develop their character. Why not one subplot where Chekhov meets his parents, have a girlfriend, visits his old roommate at the academy days, something!?! I can’t tell you five pertinent things about Chekhov other than he’s Russian. I’m still convinced that guy is a virgin!

I understood why it was done in the TV show because it was the 60s. But by the movie era these guys should’ve been given more. I also found it weird they will bring in new characters to develop like Saavik, Decker or Sybok but leave most of the crew in the cold outside a few lines and scenes to interact in.

“Why not one subplot where Chekhov meets his parents, have a girlfriend, visits his old roommate at the academy days, something!?!”

Because those things are likely to be extraneous and shoehorned into the plot?

Funny Kirk and Spock got stuff like that often. And those were just examples. Just gives these people a development of ANY kind.

It’s no excuse. These people were treated like wall paper for decades.

From Russia with love.

That’s why a lot of writers have brought it up over the years, writing for seven actors is difficult for a movie, maintaining a good story and still giving the leads prominent stuff or else they would not agree to do. i.e Nimoy in Generations. I accept they wanted more and it caused problems.

A lot of it was the ‘star’ model of the 60s. Shows were written for that, but TNG showed another approach was possible with other actors each carrying an episode or two a season.

Shatner worked 6 days a week on Star Trek and ruined a marriage. Other bridge crew worked a few days a week and felt their craft wasn’t utilized.

Clearly, 90s Trek found a better way to work. But the short seasons of serialization in Discovery and Picard seem to have swung the pendulum back to having everything centre on a single star.

I really hope that SNW can go not only beyond Pike, but beyond the triumvirate to make the other characters have enough time to become real.

Yeah, I mean its not that hard. Look at movies today, especially comic book movies. They stuffed 30 characters in Infinity War and while they all didn’t get arcs obviously they still found ways for all those characters to shine and great moments for them.

There are tons of ensemble movies out there that give characters a lot of meaningful story development and character arcs, even if they are on screen for a minimum time. As said, I understand when the show was on that’s how a lot of TV worked back then but that still wasn’t true of every show. Mission Impossible was on during the years of Star Trek and that had an ensemble cast and utilized all the characters if not every week.

But the only point that was being said is what Koenig said, he knows he’s not the star, he didn’t expect to get any story lines, but you can still develop the character for peep’s sakes and tell us something about him in a few lines. You can still give him one strong emotional scene in a room with Kirk or Spock dealing with a crisis at hand. You can show a scene of him doing something as a character to just understand who he is, what he likes, etc. Chekhov was still the weakest link in the Kelvin movies IMO but he was given more to do in those three movies than Koenig was given in six of them.

I just always felt bad for them. On one hand they all became famous and relatively rich because of their association with Star Trek but as he said his actual contribution was peripheral when they all wanted to do more. I’m glad all the other shows gave their casts a lot to do. Even if some still got short changed week to week they were all well developed and got multiple episodes where their characters was the focus of the story to learn more about them and multiple character arcs throughout the shows.

You’re not wrong about Discovery and Picard, but we still at least learn about all the characters even if they are not all given the focus every week like the other shows.

Re: Chekov’s girlfriend

I’m not sure how all you Herberts forgot this, but we met Chekov’s old flame in THE WAY TO EDEN, and through her some of his back story, such as his first name.

I’ve always enjoyed Walter’s honestly and the fact that he is an intellectual. He shouldn’t be so hard on himself as he is a much bigger part of Star Trek than he gives himself credit for.

Surprised no mention of his epic work on Babylon 5 here.

I’d be very okay with him discussing that, as well.

Chekhov is my Russian friend.

Like to see more Star Trek characters from Slavic countries like Ukraine, Russia, or Eastern Europe.

I would love to see some Czech involvement into Star Trek. First Czechs have done some legendary beautiful TV productions in the past and second they seem to have a very strong fandom. The Klingon dictionary for example was translated in only three other languages: Italian, German and CZECH.

Absolutely agree, I’d like to see more Slavic and even some Central Asian characters.

Just wonderful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH1GPf9viPI&feature=emb_logo

I will add this to my collection and hope it’s got some quality pages on Babylon 5 as well as Trek.

As with a number of the original cast, he’s always been a class act. And as others have pointed out, there is a palpable undercurrent of melancholy in his comments. Nice interview.

He used to moan so much in Starlog every time a new Trek movie came out he would nearly always mention he was not the star of the show! Its tiresome as he got way more to do than the other 3 supporting cast not sure how much screentime he actually wanted LOL!

Back in the day I chatted with Walter at a Boston trek convention while he was pursuing the merchandise tables. Unlike some of the other actors, he is quiet, unassuming and just such a nice man. Later that day he did autographs, took questions and a performed a non-Trek play called “Actors” with Mark Lenard. Walter is a class act. To Walter: We don’t see “An 83 year old bald guy” we see a guy we loved in several TV shows and movies, who made a real contribution to two franchises, a guy at home in his own skin and a guy who tells it like i is. As I said, a class act. Really enjoyed this interview.

He’s not going to bed tossing and turning thinking about Bill Shatner, but he’s still talking about it more than 50 years later. And he doesn’t appear to mind talking about those stories with Shatner as long as it helps sell his book. I’m sure Shatner isn’t perfect but everyone has his or her personality and that’s life. He needs to stop complaining and deal with it.

Seems to me he has. For a lot of people, dealing with some of life’s unpleasantness doesn’t mean ignoring it.

I think for him it’s more informational, and I’m OK with that. Takei on the other hand — he got rather unhinged and got a little nuts over his obvious literal hatred for Shatner.

Nice interview. I loved watching Walter in Star Trek and I wished he had more roles as Chekov to play. I also loved him when he played Mr. Bester on Babylon 5. I actually met Jimmy Doohan in person but I wished Walter was at the convention as well.

A great actor in my book.

Walter, thank you. No one could have played the parts like you did. God Bless.

Thought Chekov’s role in TMP was pretty good, comparatively. They cut his scene when Ilia empathically eases his pain. He did get around the ship more than Uhura or Sulu. Understand why he wanted a beefier part though; the secondary characters weren’t used a much in TOS. That show pretty much took place from Kirk’s POV — he did most of the logs and the preamble. Even so, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov made the show richer, and not just because of youth/diversity. Even without a big role, actors can make a big impression. Never been to Russia, but think Koenig carried off Chekov’s accent believably, which was a big responsibility. As for Khan, saw him explain that away as Khan meeting Chekov in the Enterprise’s bathroom (head) and not giving him TP or something. Was pretty funny.

Thanks, Walter. He seems to have really matured, eh? And how wise he is!

He was good in Star trek but really came out as bester in Babylon 5 I loved how he played the bad guy.

I’ve met Walter at several conventions over the years and found him to be witty and gracious and seemingly interested in his fans. Which, when compared to William Shatner, makes him stand out even more. God I hate William Shatner

He was awesome as Bester in Babylon 5. My favorite rat bastard.

Be seeing you, Mr. Garibaldi

Yep — thanks for reminding me of that!

The Khan thing is easy – Chekov was a night shift security guard outside his quarters. Or something.

I wish they’d all let this Shatner stuff go. Again, not one of them has ever said that Shatner was rude, unprofessional, treated them badly onset or was ever anything less than polite and pleasant in person. The beefs were all about a supposed behind-the-scenes request for more lines – that none of them directly witnessed. They’ve all said this.

“Maybe it is just a little selfish on my part and egocentric and a little neurotic, but that is the way I felt.”

Yep. And you’ve told us repeatedly.

He’s also griped about Shatner not getting that it was an ensemble show, like TNG – except that’s not true, either. The only ensemble on TOS was Kirk, Spock and McCoy – and that’s the way it was written. That’s not Shatner’s fault.

I’ve been rewatching TOS and was surprised to see how little I miss Sulu or Chekov when they’re not in an episode.

I’d been a big fan of the supporting players until they started with this Shatner-bashing 25 years ago or so, just to sell books and get the spotlight at conventions. I now wish they’d all just get a life. Takei seems to have dialed it down a little in the last couple of years.

From my point of view, Takei was the one who looked bad in his “Shatner feud”. For a while he wouldn’t make a public comment without bringing it up. And I really feel like he did it mostly out of ego. He did it because he was selling a book or because he felt he needed his name mentioned out there or something. Regardless of what really happened (and we only have what the actors have claimed to go on) Shatner is the one who has publicly looked like the better man in that Shat-Takei thing. Even offering to hash things out with him and getting refused. I actually have less respect for Takei after that.

Me too. I get frustrated with Takei. I’m glad he’s found a voice and an audience, but I don’t think he needed the Shatner stuff to get there.

That said, Shatner could have just let it go. I know that he was asked about it a lot, but he could have handled it better (among other things, he called Takei “psychotic” and complained about Takei’s roast performance in both a book and in his stage show).

I’d read an interview with Takei in the Edmonton Journal, of all places, from 2-3 years ago, where he was asked about Shatner and actually had a gracious, dignified answer — that it was all, basically, water under the bridge and the important thing was Star Trek’s lasting message. It was a pleasant surprise.

Takei’s reaction to the gay Sulu thing in Beyond also bugged me a little. I get how personal it was to him, but I’d wished he hadn’t been quite so over-the-top about them “twisting” Gene’s creation.

I enjoyed the audiobook of his autobiography in the 90s because he read it himself. Same with George Takei

I had the pleasure of meeting Walter twice. Once was at a convention several months after STAR TREK V had come out. To my utter surprise, he was wandering around the dealers’ room, perusing the merchandise. For the most part, people were quite respectful of him and not pestering him a lot, with the exception of a small group of young guys who followed him around making jokes about Chekov always getting injured and screaming. To his credit, Mr. Koenig put up with them in a far more gracious manner than I ever would.

Then something remarkable happened.

A little boy – he couldn’t have been more than perhaps 6 years old – approached Walter with his father. The boy asked Walter if he was Mr. Chekov. And in the blink of an eye, Walter BECAME Chekov. He kneeled down so that he was at eye level with the boy, and went straight into Chekov’s Russian accent. He spent at least 10 minutes with the boy, answering questions about what it’s like to work with Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk, how scared was he of Khan, what do he and Sulu and Uhura like to do when they’re not on duty, and how do the phasers work on the Enterprise. It was one of the most charming, magical things I’ve ever seen, and, truth be told, I felt just as excited and happy as that little boy. Pure class act, and he gave that kid the memory of a lifetime.

I feel badly that Walter feels a little disillusioned and disappointed with his level of contribution to the franchise (which I personally feel he underestimates). I’m an actor myself, and I completely understand how he feels and where he’s coming from. Part of it is ego, yes. But another part of it is the frustration which comes from knowing that you can do more and wanting to make a meaningful artistic contribution to whichever endeavor you may be working on, but is being held back. After being directly associated with a franchise like that and feeling as though he’s getting more praise than he feels is due because of what he feels to have been limited participation, then yeah… I can see how that can lead to a certain degree of discomfort and even detachment.

The second time I met Walter was shortly after he starred as Chekov in the New Voyages episode, “To Serve All My Days”. It was a remarkable, amazing performance, and I asked him what prompted him to do it. He said that he saw it as a way to flesh out Chekov and put some form of closure on the character. I told him that, as an actor, I acknowledge how frustrating it can be to be pigeonholed as just one character (…or type of character) and how limiting that can be to a fuller, more varied career. But I also told him that he has the love and adulation of generations of fans across the world, who hold him up as a great example of a person, and thanked him for the memories and inspiration. He seemed to appreciate that. He grinned, thanked me, and signed the photo I chose for an autograph with, “To Richard – friendship always, Walter Koenig”.

Thanks for sharing that story.

Very cool interactions, congratulations and thanks for sharing.

Oh, by the way, if no one else knows, Walter played CAPTAIN Chekov (commander of the Enterprise-B following John Harrison stepping down after the Tomed Incident), alongside Nichelle as Captain Uhura (commander of the Excelsior, after Sulu gets promoted to the Admiralty), and Robin Curtis as Commander Saavik, Uhura’s Exec. It was in a special anniversary episode of the fan series, Starship Excelsior and the episode’s title is “Tomorrow’s Excelsior”. It is not a filmed episode (sadly), but an audio drama. Look it up – it’s easily found on YouTube. It’s nothing short of marvelous. Walter, Nichelle, and Ms. Curtis deliver beautiful performances. It’s very much worth a listen. Enjoy!

Thank you for that, Richard. Never heard that was done.

Yes, thank you. I’ve been listening to Doctor Who audio dramas by Big Finish. I’ll listen to this, sounds interesting.

I never really liked Chekov, and I didn’t think Koenig was a very good actor, but Walter Koenig seems like a lovely person. I guess that makes him kinda the reverse of Bill Shatner. :-)

What a lot of people are not saying is that he also worked on Babylon 5. On Babylon 5 he played a psychic and he pretty much was a villain and I grew to like the villain but if he wants to write something that’s bothering him then let him that’s what freedom of speech is about. You may not agree with him but he has a right to express how he feels

Great interview! The film retrospective must’ve been the one you did in 2009? The 70mm film series if I recall correctly. That would interesting to do again provided the film prints are showable and when the pandemic lessens to where we can go to the movies again.

I can’t help look at Walter and think about his son that died awhile back. When I saw him on the news, the whole story was shocking and so sad.

Oh my, Bestor, was the character you hated to love, but couldn’t help yourself. Even bad guys have family… I do recall I said hello & thank you to Mr. Koenig in an autograph line,once. It was at a convention in Burlington, VT, in the late 80’s, my 1st & only convention. Wish I’d paid more attention to this gentleman during the Q & A now, thanks for this interview. I must sit down & read this book, he appears to be a man of many talents, somebody who has to be active & doing things. Perhaps I’ll look at his comics…

Screen Rant

The reason star trek added chekov in tos season 2.

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Why Star Trek Has 3D Chess & How To Play

I can't believe how badly the acolyte is hiding its sith lord mystery, young sheldon’s ending fixed the big bang theory's most confusing mary plot hole.

Star Trek: The Original Series added the young Russian Ensign Pavel Chekov to the show’s cast in season 2 for both creative and practical reasons. Played by American actor Walter Koenig, Chekov would go on to become one of the core supporting members of the TOS crew alongside Scotty, Uhura, and Sulu. Initially the Enterprise's navigator, Chekov would serve in several different roles over his long Starfleet career.

Chekov is the only member of the core cast that went on to feature in the six TOS films who didn't debut in the show's first season. It's hard to imagine the TOS bridge crew without Chekov, especially in the movie era, but his rise to the status of franchise icon was not a sure thing. At the outset of season 2, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was not only looking to bring in a fresh character to the cast, but he was also trying to solve a practical problem.

Related: Why TOS Never Got A Series Finale Until Star Trek VI

Why TOS Added Chekov In Season 2

As TOS season 2 was beginning production in 1967, Russia was winning the real-world space race. Roddenberry decided that if his vision of a utopian human future was to be authentic, a Russian crew member should be present on the Enterprise. Roddenberry also hoped to bring in younger viewers by appealing to fans of the rock music revolution that was happening in the mid-60s, The Beatles and The Monkees in particular, hence Chekov's mop top hairstyle.

Chekov could have been a minor player like Yeoman Janice Rand or Dr. Joseph M'Benga if not for a bit of luck. It had been planned to expand the character of Hikaru Sulu in season 2, but actor George Takei was absent for about half of the season while shooting the movie The Green Berets . It was ultimately decided that Chekov would fill the role intended for Sulu during Takei's absence. There was some tension when Takei returned to the production, with the two men even having to share a dressing room. That tension soon passed, with Takei and Koenig becoming friends and Star Trek gaining a foundational new character.

The Wrath Of Khan Made Chekov A Great Character

Chekov returned in the first TOS movie, Star Trek: The Motion Picture . However, he had very little to do in the film, pushed aside in favor of new characters like Will Decker and Ilia. Chekov made a much bigger impression in the classic sequel, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan . Now, first officer of the USS Reliant, Chekov ran afoul of Khan and his augment followers on Ceti Alpha V. Along with his new commanding officer Captain Clark Terrell, Chekov was implanted with a Ceti eel that forced him to do Khan's bidding.

Chekov and Terrell were used as pawns in Khan's plan to exact revenge on Admiral Kirk. A crazed Terrell killed himself while attempting to resist Khan's influence, while Chekov was able to overcome the effects of the eel and rejoin Kirk in time to take down Khan. It's the most notable story Chekov ever got, and allowed Koenig to show off some genuine acting chops. He went on to star in all six TOS films, as well as Star Trek Generations . Star Trek: The Original Series may have elevated Chekov for fairly mundane reasons, but he would eventually become an essential part of Star Trek lore.

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Published Sep 14, 2016

Happy 80th Birthday, Walter Koenig

Walter Koenig, Star Trek 's original and iconic Pavel Chekov, turns 80 years old today. The actor/writer was born in Chicago to Isadore and Sarah Koenig on September 14, 1936. He, of course, earned his greatest measure of fame playing Chekov on Star Trek: The Original Series and in seven feature films, but his acting credits span from The Untouchables, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Lieutenant and Gidget to Columbo, Babylon 5 and Moontrap , as well as the stage show The Boys of Autumn . He's written comic books, including Raver , as well as episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series , Land of the Lost, Family and The Powers of Matthew Star . Further, he's directed and taught, and also supported a wide variety of charities and human rights causes. He received his Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on September 10, 2012 during a ceremony in which he was surrounded by family, friends and such Trek co-stars as Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols and George Takei.

As part of StarTrek.com 's celebration of Koenig's big 8-0 today, we're pleased to re-share a guest blog by former Starlog editor David McDonnell, in which he recounts how his long professional relationship with Koenig got off to a horrible start. Check it out:

Walter Koenig wasn’t happy with me. And who could blame him? He was calling from the set of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , a soundstage nestled on the Paramount Pictures lot in California. I was in my Starlog office in New York City (Park Avenue, 32nd Street). I had no idea why Koenig wanted to chat with me. After all, we had met once but extremely briefly at a Boston Starlog Festival convention engineered by Creation Entertainment a year earlier. He knew Starlog Publisher Kerry O’Quinn and our ex-columnist David (“ The Trouble with Tribbles ”) Gerrold, but me? As Starlog ’s Editor, I was just a name on the magazine’s masthead.Koenig was direct. And, of course, he didn’t speak in the Russian accent of Pavel Chekov. Actor, you know. He had done a phone interview with a Starlog writer that week (assigned by me), and he was concerned about it. He wanted to read the story before Starlog published it.

Let’s break here for two paragraphs of explanatory matter. Skip them if you want to Choose Your Own Anecdotal Adventure. Everyone else, here’s the thing: As a product of the Watergate-spawned wave of young journalists in the 1970s, I was all Bob-Woodward-and-Carl-Bernsteined up. While at West Virginia’s Bethany College, I even took an independent study course on, yes, Communications Ethics. Topics included “checkbook journalism” (paying folks to talk) and granting interviewees (or their reps) pre-publication story/quote approval. Both were big no-nos!Well, it was years later, but I was still serious about this stuff. I had (and have) delusions of journalism. Starlog may only have been covering entertainment (movies, TV, books, animation, comics, pop culture) but, journalistically speaking, we weren’t going to do anything that Time or Newsweek wouldn’t. On the other hand, they (and other esteemed outlets  like The New Yorker ) employ “fact-checkers” who might consult interviewees before publication to confirm a story’s basic facts and even “readback” relevant quotes over the phone. Starlog ’s policy—firmly (and formally) established after a 1984 incident—was this: Nobody ever got to read a story pre-publication except those crafting it for print (writers, editors, proofreaders and the article’s art director). And at Starlog , editors were our own fact-checkers, consulting reference works and colleagues’ expertise. We didn’t do “readbacks.”

But, back to Koenig. He asked to see the article. And I didn’t even pause to think. “NO. We don’t do that! It’s against company policy,” I declared in a particularly idealistic, incredibly arrogant, certainly smug manner. And I added, “We don’t show stories to George Lucas or Steven Spielberg, so we can’t show you your story.” Even then, that addition sounded condescending, which wasn’t my intent, but... Koenig was taken aback. After all, he had — uniquely among Trek actors at the time (followed by George Takei and John de Lancie years later) — written for Starlog with a three-part excerpt from Chekov’s Enterprise (issues #30-32). He was “one of us.” So (a point I didn’t then consider), perhaps he deserved some consideration. Nonetheless, confrontation continued. “Fine!” Koenig exclaimed. “If I can’t read it before, I’d rather you just not print it at all.”

Now, I was taken aback — and riding tall on my sanctimonious journalistic high (hobby) horse. “Fine!” I exclaimed. “Then, we won’t!”

“All right. They need me on set,” Koenig announced and said goodbye. “Bye,” I said and hung up, too. Uhhhmm, that went well.Now, you don’t have to post critical comments of my handling of this ancient situation; I realized within seconds, three decades ago, that I had screwed it all up. Koenig was blameless. Essentially, I had taken his simple request (reasonable to some, not so per journalistic rules) and transformed it into (at best) nuclear warfare or (at worst) Ragnarok. But, I was young and foolish. A relative rookie, I had served as Starlog ’s Editor for little more than a year then, and I was tortured by others constantly second- and third-guessing me (and me fourth-guessing myself, too). That year, I was especially overwhelmed by work (editing 26+ issues of Starlog, Fangoria and other titles).

But... what had the actor declared in the interview that had caused him enough post-conversation concern so as to ring me? Had he inadvertently revealed some plot twist from The Voyage Home ? (SPOILER ALERT: Here Be Whales! Kirk & Company Save Earth, Get New Enterprise) Had Koenig been too candid or overly critical? Apparently, he had second thoughts about something he said, fearing (I was later told) that his comments might be misinterpreted. But what had been said? There was only one way to find out. I called my writer, briefed him on the situation and requested that he give me the cassette tape the next time he was in town. I wanted to listen to the interview and find out what’s what. Maybe if I knew what was specifically the problem, I could call Koenig and find a middle path to a solution satisfying to all. Maybe even (like Newsweek or The New Yorker ) “readback” only the quotes? So, my writer dutifully put the cassette in his shoulder bag and flew off to a West Coast media event. He left the bag in the press hotel suite and proceeded to an inner room where he interviewed another celebrity, then returned for his belongings. Baboom! The whole bag was missing. Vanished! While he was inside doing one interview, someone had stolen the other. For all practical purposes, that untranscribed (!?!) Koenig chat no longer existed and thus certainly couldn’t be published by Starlog . No need for further brouhaha now. Ironic, eh?

That troublesome talk was gone, but life went on. Afterwards, as fate would have it, I increasingly kept running into Koenig at SF conventions. We were frequently fellow guests. We sat side-by-side at autograph tables, judged costume contests together and dined with con staffers. All those times, I was on my best behavior. I still had regrets about that incident and no desire to remind him of any unpleasantness. And I didn’t want to commit any new felonies, either.

So, I got to know Walter Koenig. Many, many of you have had a similar opportunity because he’s been such a frequent convention guest since the 1970s. If you haven’t gotten his autograph and/or chatted with him at a con, a cruise or some personal appearance, you just haven’t been trying. Koenig has been a warm, charming, if sometimes world-weary, presence at so many Trek conventions. I’ve witnessed firsthand as he was extremely generous to eager fans, gracious to clueless media and kind to perfect strangers; I’ve also seen him deal firmly with the occasional idiot (uhhhmm, you know, like me). Fortunately, all this togetherness led to unexpected friendship. Koenig (I believe) came to think I wasn’t a total fool. And I must admit that my character references got an upgrade when I began dating a young woman whom Koenig had known since she was a teenager. After all, if she (like me, a Syracuse University Graduate School alum) could put up with me, maybe I wasn’t so bad. Hapless and hopeless, yes, rumpled but not without merit.

Wrapping up, let me share a  kaleidoscope of Koenig encounters here and there over the years: In 1989, in Florida, Seatrek organizers Joe Motes, Ruthanne Devlin & Carroll Page took a busload of guests and staffers on a post-cruise airboat tour of the Everglades. After the alligators, we stopped at a restaurant (where Starlog Managing Editor Eddie Berganza informed on me, revealing my new status that May Monday). That’s when Koenig, Takei, Jimmy Doohan, Grace Lee Whitney and assembled friends and celebrities sang “Happy Birthday” to me.

We had our brush with death in Canada. Peter Bloch-Hansen ( Starlog ’s Canadian Correspondent) chauffeured me on a tour throughout Toronto of my favorite places (used bookstores!), and Koenig opted to come along. I sat shotgun upfront, Koenig in the rear passenger seat. And Bloch-Hansen, bless him, made a left hand turn from the right lane just as the stoplight changed against us, across three lanes of impatient traffic. Yes, he did. Unbelievably, this was my second or third near-accident while a vehicle passenger alongside a Trek celebrity. The next came soon after when (much to our open-mouthed incredulity) Bloch-Hansen repeated that same kind of turn at another intersection. Yes, yes, he did. Two nods with death in less than 90 minutes. Baboom!Down Under in Australia in 1993, Koenig brought his wife Judy and daughter Danielle on the Denver-based Starland Conventions tour. I was the other guest. The four of us took a pleasant boat ride together (alongside Starland pals Phil Watson & Sharon Macy-Watson) upriver to a wildlife sanctuary outside Brisbane, Queensland. There we ogled emus, petted kangaroos and held koalas (I have the pictures to prove it).

Australia is where, over a crowded dinner with the Starland gang, I finally brought up that seven-year-old incident, noted my regrets and privately apologized to Koenig. Also, we discussed Babylon 5 , then debuting as a TV movie. Koenig was hopeful it would go to series since B5 creator J. Michael Straczynski had promised him an eventual role. I  felt the human characters weren’t as intriguing as the aliens, wondering if this would affect the show’s prospects. I was slightly right (a few human roles were reconceived and recast), but fortunately mostly wrong. B5 soon became a beloved SF TV saga, giving Koenig his second best role ever (after Chekov) — as Psi Corps’ Alfred Bester. Actually, Koenig believes it's been his best role.

Over in Pennsylvania, he did a con where my Mom & Dad were on hand to assist our friend the promoter (their only stint at an admissions table). Koenig charmed them, dining at a local Applebee’s with them and other staffers. I was at a Walt Disney World press event and didn’t even attend this con. Still, he was especially nice to my parents.In Illinois, my girl friend and I watched Koenig and Mark Lenard rehearse Bernard Sabath’s fine play The Boys of Autumn . It’s the bittersweet tale of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn meeting again late in life and reliving their triumphs and tragedies. Getting to Chicago early Friday, we were privileged to see a rehearsal and later the full performance Saturday night. We even met Boys director Allan (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea ) Hunt and playwright Sabath. Koenig was terrific as the troubled Tom Sawyer.

Back in New York, Koenig and wife Judy dropped by Starlog ’s Manhattan offices, joining the select group of celebrities who toured the place (Takei, de Lancie, Arthur C. Clarke, Clive Barker, Paul & Linda McCartney, David Prowse, etc.). We had coffee downstairs and talked about Broadway, conventions and mutual friends.

Like most of his TOS colleagues, Koenig wrote an autobiography. Relaxing in New Jersey, I read Warp Factors: A Neurotic’s Guide to the Universe (Taylor, 1998). It’s a candid memoir. And who knew that Koenig, as a youngish summer camp counselor, had known a frequent camp visitor, one of my heroes, legendary folk singer Pete Seeger? Good company! And a good book! Recommended reading.Out in California many years after our Chekov’s Enterprise excerpts, Koenig wrote another article for Starlog (“Are You Who I Think I Am?”), detailing offbeat personal appearances, some made alongside Doohan, Takei and Nichelle Nichols. I published it in issue #233. And he gladly did more interviews not only with the writer involved in that earlier incident, but with Starlog , too, talking to Lynne Stephens, Howard Weinstein, Lee Goldberg, Marc Shapiro, Ian Spelling, Martha J. Bonds, David J. Creek and others. He even gave me quotes for a couple multi-voice survey pieces I was writing. So, all forgiven, I think.

What did I learn from all this? Well, it’s what you all already knew: Walter Koenig is a great guy. I’m (still) sorry we started off as inadvertent adversaries, but I’m glad that our bad beginning was overcome by better days. Like legions of Star Trek fans worldwide, I’m pleased to have made his acquaintance. David McDonnell, "the maitre’d of the science fiction universe," has dished up coverage of pop culture for more than three decades. Beginning his professional career in 1975 with the weekly "Media Report" news column in The Comic Buyers’ Guide , he joined Jim Steranko’s Mediascene Prevue in 1980. After 31 months as Starlog ’s Managing Editor (beginning in October 1982), he became that pioneering SF magazine’s longtime Editor (1985-2009). He also served as Editor of its sister publications Comics Scene, Fangoria and Fantasy Worlds . At the same time, he edited numerous licensed movie one-shots ( Star Trek and James Bond films, Aliens, Willow , etc.) and three ongoing official magazine series devoted to Trek TV sagas ( The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , Voyager ). He apparently still holds this galaxy’s record for editing more magazine pieces about Star Trek in total than any other individual, human or alien. ©2016 David McDonnell

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Star Trek 's Anton Yelchin Talks Chekov Accent and Klingons

...and green screen work aboard the enterprise..

In the new Star Trek movie, rebooting the franchise with all new actors playing the original Enterprise crew, Anton Yelchin is the new Chekov. Reinterpreting Walter Koenig ‘s Russian starship lieutenant required some interesting linguistic decisions on Yelchin’s part.

“The thing is about Walter Koenig was his accent was interesting,” said Yelchin. “I think I’m just going to leave it at interesting. All of us had to make the choice of what we wanted to take from the original and what we wanted to bring to it. There are certain things that I took, from the fact that he replaced every V with a W which is weird. I don’t really know where that decision came from but regardless that’s the decision that he made and I thought it was important to bring that to the character.”

If he can nail that down, Yelchin has done Chekov proud and should have free reign to do whatever else he wants with the character. “I talked to J.J. [Abrams] a lot about what he wanted. His thing was we’re not making something that’s supposed to be the old Star Trek . He’s making his own movie but there is a bit of, like, I think people want to see what they love so we’re all trying to find things that will remind people of the old characters. So it’s been interesting picking up on little things.”

As for finding opportunities to say the line “But Ceepteen, the Kleengons are approaching,” Yelchin has spent most of his time on the ship. “Chekov is just on the Enterprise. A lot of it is green screen. I mean, the Enterprise itself, J.J.’s trying to shoot as much of it as he can with out green screen, but I think a lot of space is obviously green screen — what I’m looking at while seeing the Klingon warships.”

Star Trek hits theaters Christmas 2008.

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Anton Yelchin (1989-2016)

Camera and electrical department.

IMDbPro Starmeter Top 5,000 202

• 9 wins & 19 nominations

• Bobby Garfield

• Additional Voice Talent
• Jim Lake Jr. (voice)
• 52 episodes

• Milton Schultz

• Maxwell Green

• Dudley (voice)

• Jake Kleeman

• Father James

• Jacob Heckum

• Dr. Jack Stewart

• super 8 camera operator
• performer: "Wayfaring Stranger"

• performer: "Home", "Real Friends", "Stay With You", "Wheels on the Bus", "Beautiful Mess"

• performer: "Those Were the Days (Theme from All in the Family)", "If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out", "Yankee Doodle"

Personal details

• 5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
• March 11 , 1989
• Leningrad, Russian SFSR, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia]
• June 19 , 2016
• Studio City, California, USA (blunt traumatic asphyxia)
• No Children
• Parents Irina Korina
• Eugene Yelchin (Aunt or Uncle)
• Other works TV commercial "Star Trek" for XboxOne with Zachary Quinto and Anton Yelchin in character as Spock and Chekov from Star Trek (2009) .
• 10 Articles
• 1 Pictorial
• 1 Magazine Cover Photo

Did you know

• Trivia The 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee that rolled into him was part of a 2016 recall for that exact same issue. Incredibly, the recall notice was mailed to Yelchin seven days after his untimely death.
• Quotes Russia is very complicated. It is one of the most complicated histories. I could go on about this forever. It produces Dostoyevsky and Rachmaninoff and then it produces Stalins and Lenins. It is such a strange combination. I don't know why that rant about Russia was necessary.
• Trademarks Distinctive hoarse voice
• When did Anton Yelchin die?
• How did Anton Yelchin die?
• How old was Anton Yelchin when he died?

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