Walter Koenig dead at 90: how Chekov became Star Trek's heart

Walter Koenig has died at 90. For most of us, he was Chekov: the young navigator with the thick accent who was sure every good idea in history had been invented in Russia. Star Trek wrote him as comic relief, and Koenig played every one of those jokes completely straight.

Chekov never commanded a starship. He was still there for nearly every turning point the original crew lived through, from the navigation console to Khitomer. This is that career, along with the man who made it work.

Walter Koenig's father gave Chekov his accent

Koenig was born in Chicago on September 14, 1936. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants, and part of that history made it onto the screen without most of the audience ever knowing. Chekov's habit of turning his V's into W's came from the way Koenig's father spoke. The accent that became a punchline started with a son listening to his dad.

His first broadcast episode was "Amok Time" on September 15, 1967, one day after his 31st birthday. He stayed with Chekov through the last two seasons of the original series and seven feature films.

Chekov on the original Star Trek bridge played the joke straight

Ensign Chekov sat at navigation right beside Sulu at the helm, and when Spock was off the bridge, he covered the science station too. He was the youngest face on that bridge, and the writers leaned on that. Any time a great invention came up, Chekov had a Russian ready to claim it.

In "The Trouble with Tribbles," he informs everyone that a certain drink was invented by a little old lady from Leningrad. He delivers it with total conviction, and 59 years later it still gets a laugh.

That conviction is what kept the character alive. A joke the actor believes gives the writers something to build on, and the films would build a lot on it.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture moved Chekov to security

When the crew came back in Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979, Chekov had moved off the navigation console. Lieutenant Chekov now ran security from the tactical station, which made him responsible for defending the ship as V'Ger closed in on Earth.

It's a quiet change, and the film never stops to point it out. The ensign who used to plot courses was now the officer the ship counted on when something hostile came aboard.

The Wrath of Khan runs through Chekov

The Wrath of Khan made the biggest jump. Commander Chekov is the first officer of the USS Reliant, helping search for a lifeless world to test the Genesis device. He beams down to Ceti Alpha V with his captain, finds a cargo container stamped Botany Bay, and he's the one who recognizes the name.

Lore fans have spent more than 40 years pointing out that Chekov hadn't joined the Enterprise yet when "Space Seed" aired. Khan remembers his face anyway.

Whatever the explanation, the whole film runs through Chekov. He's the officer who finds Khan, the one who gets the Ceti eel, and the one who lives through it when his captain doesn't. That's the shape his career keeps taking. Chekov rarely gives the orders, and the story keeps passing through his station.

The Voyage Home turned Chekov's Russian accent into one of the franchise's best jokes

Four years later, in The Voyage Home, the crew is stranded in 1986 San Francisco. Their borrowed Klingon ship needs power to get home, so Chekov and Uhura go looking for a nuclear reactor. Chekov walks up to strangers and asks very politely where he can find the nuclear vessels in Alameda.

Think about who's asking. In 1986, in the middle of the Cold War, a man with a thick Russian accent is asking passersby for directions to the Navy's nuclear ships. Then he gets caught aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise and questioned as a spy.

When Chekov joined the bridge in 1967, a Russian officer on a Starfleet ship was a statement all by itself. Nearly 20 years later, the films paid that premise off as one of the best jokes in the franchise. The errand mattered too. The power Chekov and Uhura collected on that carrier is what got the crew home.

The Undiscovered Country gave Chekov a seat at the Klingon dinner and Khitomer

By The Undiscovered Country in 1991, the career had reached its ceiling. Sulu has his own ship, the Excelsior. Chekov is still a commander on Kirk's bridge. Star Trek never gave him a captain's chair, and I won't pretend it did.

What the film gave him was a seat at the most important table in the story. At the dinner with the Klingon delegation, Chekov is the one who brings up inalienable human rights. Azetbur, the chancellor's daughter, throws the phrase right back at him. Even the word human, she points out, assumes whose rights come first. It's an uncomfortable scene on purpose, and the film handed it to Chekov.

Then Chancellor Gorkon is assassinated. Kirk and McCoy are arrested, and the crew left aboard the Enterprise has to hunt the conspirators themselves. When the ship races to Khitomer to stop a second assassination and save the peace conference, Chekov is at his station on the bridge. It's the last mission this crew flies together. The peace with the Klingons that holds through the next century of Star Trek starts at Khitomer, and the kid from navigation is there for it.

Koenig's Alfred Bester on Babylon 5 was his biggest surprise

Koenig's biggest surprise came on Babylon 5, starting with "Mind War" in 1994. He played Alfred Bester, a Psi Corps officer so cold and controlled that it's hard to believe he came from the same actor. Anyone who only knew the excitable navigator found out what he could do with a villain.

I was never able to confirm it solidly, but it's also stated that he wrote about the work, including a diary he kept during the making of The Motion Picture.

Star Trek: Picard and the tribute to Anton Yelchin

In 2023, he came back to Star Trek one last time. In the Star Trek: Picard series finale, he voiced Federation President Anton Chekov. Koenig insisted on the name Anton as a tribute to Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the Kelvin films and died in 2016.

Chekov was written to be the laugh. He became the officer who found Khan and the commander on the bridge at Khitomer, and he stayed funny the whole way there. Walter Koenig never had to choose between those two jobs, because he took both of them seriously. Star Trek wrote Chekov as a joke, and Walter Koenig made him the officer who was there when it mattered. Thank you, Walter.