Walter Koenig has sadly passed away at 90 years old. He was best known for playing the role of Pavel Chekov on “Star Trek: The Original Series” and was brought in during the show’s second season (a move, Koenig once said, that was done to appeal to a younger audience). Chekov was a Russian character seen working alongside the USS Enterprise’s main crew, and he was cute, a little cocksure, and claimed that Russians invented Western Civilization. Although rarely highlighted on “Star Trek,” he was an invaluable part of the series and appeared in several “Star Trek” feature films.
But Koenig was more than “Star Trek.” He began accruing credits in the early 1960s, turning up in episodes of the day’s hottest TV shows. Koenig started off by scoring a small role on the revolutionary soap opera “General Hospital,” and from there, it was off to the races. He soon appeared on shows like “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” and “Jericho,” leading to his time on “Star Trek.” Koenig continued to work from there, acting in various projects and taking on numerous voice roles for practically the rest of his days.
Many may not be familiar with Koenig’s non-“Trek” career, so we’re here to offer some guidance. The following is a list of notable, fun, funny roles that Koenig tackled on TV, including his most famous part outside of the “Star Trek” franchise.
5. Vladimir Pavel Maximov, The Real Ghostbusters
Starting in 1986, young fans of Ivan Reitman’s 1984 blockbuster “Ghostbusters” were treated to a creative and exciting animated spin-off TV show called “The Real Ghostbusters.” The animated series re-envisioned the four leads from Reitman’s film with new designs but very much the same character traits, and it sported some amazing voice performances. Lorenzo Music initially played Peter, Maurice LaMarche played Egon, Frank Welker played Ray, and Arsenio Hall played Winston after Ernie Hudson was rejected from reprising the role (for a very silly reason). Because of its episodic structure, “The Real Ghostbusters” had the leeway to introduce a wide menagerie of ghosts, ghouls, and demons, and it would even occasionally stray into the Lovecraftian.
Case in point: Vladimir Pavel Maximov, the character played by Walter Koenig in the episode “Russian About.” Maximov was a scientist who had been laughed out of the scientific community for his zany theories. (The Titanic sank, he said, because it crashed into Elvis.) In the episode, Maximov comes to possess a Necronomicon-like grimoire called the Nameless Book, which has access to incantations that can summon the Old Ones. The Old Ones, as fans of H.P. Lovecraft can tell you, are a gaggle of evil gods that have been biding their time before reclaiming the Earth.
Maximov uses the Nameless Book to summon a god called Yibb-Tstll, much to the annoyance of the Ghostbusters. It’s fun to hear Koenig play a goofy cartoon villain like this. Koenig was a talented voice actor, and folks loved his Russian accent. (Koenig, notably, was of Russian descent, although he was born in Chicago.)
4. The Starlost
The one-season sci-fi TV series “The Starlost” has a great premise. The series is set on board a 200-mile-long starship called Earthship Ark, outfitted with dozens of enormous biospheres, merrily making its way through the cosmos and hoping to relocate humanity to a new world. A century into the voyage, an accident on the ship seals off all the biospheres from the others, and everyone on board has to fend for themselves. The action of “The Starlost” takes place 405 years after said accident, in the year 2790. Keir Dullea plays Devon, an agrarian farmer who manages to flee his biome and discover the now-forgotten mission of Earthship Ark. Devon and a few of his friends spend the series exploring the ship. William Ostler plays the computer who instructs them.
Walter Koenig appeared in two episodes of “The Starlost” as a humanoid alien named Oro, hailing from the planet Exar. A year prior, Oro’s ship crashed into the Ark, and he managed to get on board. He has since been tearing apart the Ark, looking for the components he needs to rebuild his ship and employing the aid of Idona (Alexandra Bastedo), who also fled one of the ship’s biospheres.
Koenig plays Oro as a cold, calculating character, an opportunist with plans of his own. The character also returns a few episodes later, promising Devon and the crew a place to settle (naturally, he’s lying for his own purposes). Koenig’s presence on “The Starlost” was like getting a blessing from the sci-fi head honchos.
“The Starlost” was created by the infamously grumpy and undeniably great writer Harlan Ellison. It may be obscure these days, but it’s worth looking into. I love the premise.
3. Mr. Savic, Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters
Gen-Xers like me remember Stretch Armstrong as a mere toy, a smiling superhero figure with goo-filled rubber limbs that could be stretched across a room. But I’ll wager that not many of us were aware that in 2017, Netflix adapted Stretch Armstrong into an animated series called “Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters.” The new series was about a trio of teens who were accidentally exposed to a miracle chemical called Flexarium that turned them into stretchy, rubbery superheroes. They become Stretch (Scott Menvile), Wingspan (Steven Yuen), and Omni-Mass (Ogie Banks).
“Stretch Armstrong” also attracted a few “Star Trek” alumni. Kate Mulgrew from “Star Trek: Voyager” played a seeming antagonist in the first season of the series, before becoming a mentor figure in the second. Wil Wheaton from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” played Jonathan Rook, the benefactor of the Flex Fighters, but also secretly a were-monster. Keith David, Henry Rollins, Clancy Brown, and many other notable actors had small roles.
In a few episodes, Walter Koenig played a character named Mr. Savic, a mad scientist who created an intelligent plant creature called Anastasia (Tara Strong). He was a biology teacher who, in the show’s second season, learns how to turn into a massive superhero monster called Biomass. Koenig brought a certain degree of energy and humanity to the role. He was a nerd with genuine enthusiasm. Audiences also see that Mr. Savic is a lonely man who only wanted to create a family for himself. It’s actually a pretty great role.
2. Himself, Futurama
In the “Futurama” episode “Where No Fan Has Gone Before,” Fry (Billy West) learns that, in the 31st century, it is illegal to say the phrase “Star Trek.” In the centuries since the present, Trekkies became religious zealots who started wars. Thereafter, Earth took precautions against future conflagrations by ridding the planet of all episodes of the original “Star Trek” series. The cast, reduced to living heads in jars, fled the planet.
Armed with Leonard Nimoy’s head, Fry goes looking for the rest of the cast and finds that William Shatner, Walter Koenig, George Takei, DeForest Kelley, and Nichelle Nichols have been resurrected on a distant planet by a weird energy being named Melllvar (Maurice LaMarche), who has fallen in love with “Star Trek.” Melllvar’s “action figure” collection is complete when Fry brings Nimoy along. James (James Doohan was replaced by a new character named Welshie.)
The entire cast of “Star Trek” has a great sense of humor about their place in popular culture, and they are all game to make fun of themselves a little bit (Doohan notwithstanding). At one point, Fry points out that everyone can achieve their goals in life, pointing out that after “Star Trek,” Walter Koenig became an actor.
That’s a bit of an insult, but Koenig expands on the joke by saying that he became an actor, but also a person with friends and keys. The plot of the “Futurama” episode involves the cast of “Star Trek” fighting the cast of “Futurama” in hand-to-hand combat, and Koenig points out that he has no experience actually fighting, “except with you guys,” he says to the “Star Trek” cast.
Koenig had a sense of humor, and that’s important to remember. Shatner, meanwhile, called Fry voice actor Billy West to make sure the episode was on the up and up.
1. Alfred Bester, Babylon 5
One of Walter Koenig’s best roles was Alfred Bester in 12 episodes of “Babylon 5.” Bester was a member of the Psi Corps, a cadre of human psychics that are, in the lore of the series, required to become cops or else be injected with psychic-dampening drugs. Because there are no checks to the organization’s power, they hastily became somewhat fascistic. Fans of “Babylon 5” might be able to tell you about the show’s storied Telepath War.
One of the show’s wickedest Psi Cops was Bester, a war criminal who passed through Babylon 5 occasionally. Bester was first introduced investigating another rogue psychic, and presented as a cool, calming, insidious presence that was clearly using his low energy as a manipulation tool. While many admire Koenig for his energetic “Star Trek” performances, his best acting came from “Babylon 5.” Bester was an arrogant figure, able to diffuse any threats made in his direction. There is a scene wherein Babylon 5’s security chief Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) says that he’d like to beat Bester like a piñata, and Bester takes it as a compliment: “So, you think of me as something bright and cheerful,” he says, “full of toys and candy for young children? Thank you. That makes me feel much better about our relationship.”
Unlike Chekov, Bester drove the stories on “Babylon 5,” and his character had a grand arc and was given a great deal of background. If anyone only ever saw Koenig as a supporting player or a side character, know that he was capable of evil, pathos, and rich, intriguing characters. Bester might be the actor’s best role, period.
