Interviews with Walter Koenig

Star Trek: The Original Series

About the Episodes....

ORIGINS OF CHEKOV

WALTER: Well, there was the publicized reason and there was the real reason. The Publicized reason was that Pravda complained that there wasn't a Russian aboard the Enterprise. Actually, Russia wasn't even getting STAR TREK in the sixties. The real fact, I think, was that Roddenberry, the producer, just felt that the Cosmonauts were the first people in space and acknowledgement should be made. (Hawk, 1993)

RUSSIAN-NESS

One would think playing a Russian character on television in post-cold war America, when the former Soviet Union was still looked upon as the 'evil empire', would have caused a furore among less open-minded viewers. Oddly enough, as Koenig recalls, there was scarcely a murmur of discontent back in 1967. Actually, the character was so young and, despite his chauvinism about things being invented in Russia, I think the very fact that he joked about it defused any political controversy. My audience were kids between 8 and 14,and they weren't into the political stuff anyway. (Navarro, 1997)

THE WIG

In actual fact, series creator Gene Roddenberry was looking to capitalise on the enormous success of The Monkees by casting an actor who looked like mop-topped British singer Davy Jones. Enter Walter Koenig in a woman's wig. "I wore it for the first six episodes! Koenig laughs. "My own hair was very short at the time, because I had just made my own movie and cut it short for that. We had tried out all sorts of wigs - including blonde and red - before settling on that one, and after I tried them out, all the executives tried them out too, which was very funny.

Fred Phillips was our make-up guy, and when my hair grew out, I said 'Fred, what do you think about getting rid of this thing?', and I don't recall any opposition to it at all. I think maybe everyone realised the error of their ways, having me parade around in it; I kept expecting birds to nest!" (Navarro, 1997)

CO-WORKERS

In 1967, as a relative newcomer, Walter Koenig did a short article on his first impressions of his co-workers on the STAR TREK set. Of William Shatner he commented: "A gentleman and a gentle man. A leader. If any member of the cast is unhappy about the show, Bill will speak to the producer for him. It was Bill who helped me to develop the character of Chekov." Regarding Leonard Nimoy, Koenig wrote: "I call him 'Lenny.' Extremely bright. I knew him before the show because I read for a film he was making called DEATHWATCH. He has a dry sense of humor. Lenny is a perfectionist about his work"

On DeForest Kelley, Koenig noted: "He's the real McCoy. A very warm and kind person. His real-life character is very similar to the part he plays on STAR TREK." Regarding Nichelle Nichols Koenig observed: "Nichelle is a very sensitive person. She was the first one in the cast I met on the STAR TREK set. She is interested in social and economic reforms. Sings great songs. She used to kid me about the wig I wore on STAR TREK while my hair grew long - a real pal!"

Wrote Koenig, "Jimmy 'Scotty' Doohan has a great sense of humor. He is always telling jokes o the set. He tells great stories in dialect. We shoot pool together when we can." And, finally, on George Takei, Koenig wrote: "George is always laughing. A well-educated guy. He majored in theatre arts. George loves to go hiking and often talks me into 'joining him for jaunts through the Hollywood Hills." (Uram, 1996)

THE EPISODES

LET THAT BE YOUR LAST BATTLEFIELD

The episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," about the racial animosity of two half-black, half-white beings aired after the interview, but much had already been written about the upcoming show, so I asked Koenig about it. "That's an interesting show," he said. "I don't know how successful the show is but I think it's a very interesting idea. I think it's well worth watching for that reason." (Kaplan, 1996)

WAY TO EDEN

Koenig continued, "We've had a show that dealt with disarmament. We have a show we shot about four or five weeks ago, in which I have about the best part I ever had on STAR TREK called 'The Way To Eden.' It has to do with hippies looking for a promised land, the fact that they are not just bums hanging around somewhere. They are people that have a goal, they have a particular philosophy on life, and they have something to say. I think the show does justice to many of the topics, many of the things that are uppermost in people's minds today, many of the topical situations that we're involved in, war and peace, inequality of rights, and race relations." Although Koenig has been quoted as disliking "The Way To Eden," in which Chekov figured prominently, his opinion in 1969 appeared very genuine. (Kaplan, 1996)

WHOM GODS DESTROY & PLATO'S STEPCHILDREN

As a viewer who watched STAR TREK every week, Koenig felt more comfortable giving his opinion. His reaction to the show? "It depends. I thought last Friday's show ['Whom Gods Destroy,' first aired January 3, 19691 was pretty bad. I think some of the shows are quite excellent. I thought the show 'Plato's Stepchildren' was very well done, very well executed. I thought Bill [Shatner) did an excellent job with his body. That's the show with the kinesthetic thing, when they move objects and they move people around, these people had the ability to move things with their minds." (Kaplan 1996)

GAMESTERS OF TRISKELON

"We were shooting 'Gamesters of Triskelon.' There were three of us, Bill, Nichelle and myself, and we had just landed on this planet - but we were dislocated, we didn't know where we were, and we were looking around and all of a sudden we hear a voice saying, 'Hello, foreigners' or something like that. And in my zeal, I turned to Bill and instead of saying 'What was that?' I slapped him on the arm like we used to do as kids in New York. And he turned to me and looked like 'Who is this fellow?' and whacked me right back. I had just gotten so much into the scene that I hadn't realized what I was doing.

"I had a thing about that particular episode. Firstly, it was one of the shows that I had a pretty good part in to begin with, but the director was a former song and dance man who was - I can't recall his name - just sort of tap dancing his way through this thing, literally as well as figuratively. I had this big scene where this homely girl comes into the cell with me and says, 'Let me be your mate.' Something like that. We had a very funny relationship set up, because Chekov didn't want to have anything to do with her. Because I was the junior member of the cast, my scenes were relegated to the end of the day, which is quite understandable, I'm not complaining about it, but on this particular day we were pressed for time. So rather than covering me by shooting over her shoulder and covering her by shooting over my shoulder, the director only did it one way they shot it over my shoulder at her. Which meant if I were to look at her, all the audience would see would be the back of my head. So he suggested I do this very time I have to delive- a line I do

profile and not look at her, which really didn't leave a lot of room for spontaneity; so I would say something and I'd turn profile, then I'd say something and look at her, and then I'd turn profile and say the line, and I was very disconcerted and very disappointed in that. They never did get around to shooting it the other way." (Gerrold, 1973)

(SPECTRE OF THE GUN)

"The same kind of thing happened to me in another very big scene, and another director who was pressed for time. He shot my scene without even a rehearsal. It was supposed to be a full view, and as it turned out, the most prominent part of me was my left ear."

"But I was very lucky that I was able to be so much a part of the show. There was a set of circumstances that was very fortuitous for me in the second season. George Takei and I were being featured about equally on the show, and then George was cast as Captain Nim in The Green Berets. That was filming in Georgia. So he left for ten weeks, and during that time, rather than dividing up the parts between myself and him, they were able to give me more to do, and I got a lot of better shows than I had gotten at first." (Gerrold 1973)

SPECTRE OF THE GUN

Koenig recalled that this was "... one of my favorite shows. I loved the sets and photography, although I thought I died badly." (Uram, 1996)

THE DEADLY YEARS

Of this episode, Walter Koenig recalled, "We had to repeat the same shot over again about 20 times when I saw the old corpse on the planet. I was supposed to look at it wide-eyed and I blinked." (Uram, 1996)

FAVORITES

Looking back on those classic Star Trek episodes, Koenig counts The Trouble with Tribbles, Spectre of the Gun, and I, Mudd among his favorites. Each of these stories features a healthy dose of humor, which the actor considers a vital ingredient.

"I think the key to success in any project is that no matter how much tension and conflict you can generate, if you can also impose some humour on the story, you not only give audience a break, but bring some Humanity to the characters.

";I've always felt that I had a proclivity for playing comedy, and few as the opportunities were, when they were there, it was great fun to do them. We weren't doing it on any consistent basis, but there was at least one other episode, the one about the Chicago mobsters, A Piece of the Action, which I thought was quite delightful and funny. What always happens with television, is that you hit a formula and then adhere to it religiously. That's why Captain Kirk got the girl in 80% of the episodes, Scotty complained about the engines not being up to standard, and Spock was constantly talking about logic and the vulnerabilities that Human beings have." (Navarro, 1997)

ON THE SET

A number of related questions probed Koenig's feelings about his rights as an actor and more specifically on the STAR TREK set. He "quite often" did not like the script, but could play Chekov anyway, because, "Number one, the reality of the fact is that I don't have much to do on the show and my dialogue very often revolves around 'Warp Factor 6 Captain' and that kind of thing. But it's an actor's responsibility to bring a sense o truth and reality regardless of the particular material. If I was doing something that I felt politically or philosophically I was very opposed to, and I thought the show was propagandizing - I'm not talking necessarily about STAR TREK now - I'm talking about any show. Number one I probably wouldn't do it. Number two, if I was forced to, let's say theoretically because of some contractual situation or something, I might have difficulty giving merit to the lines, or making them sound truthful. Because being an actor, I'm a social human being with a social conscience, and I'm aware. I have feelings and I have opinions, and it would be difficult for me to espouse a philosophy that I didn't believe in." (Kaplan, 1996)

SAY ON SCRIPTS

Koenig very diplomatically did not want to discuss which actors did have a say about STAR TREK scripts, but commented, "I'll tell you this much. Naturally, the further up the hierarchy of importance the actor is, the more influence he has on the outcome of the show. I'm sort of like on the bottom rung, in terms of my tenure on the show. I've only been here two seasons, everybody else has been three, so they're not as inclined to listen to me, although certainly I have as much importance as anyone. But that's the facts of life you're prepared to expect." (Kaplan, 1996)

END OF THE SHOW

"One of my most depressing moments, one where I felt the most defeated, happened at the beginning of the third season's production. I had talked to Gene Roddenberry. I had gone over to his house, he was extremely generous with his time, and explained that I wanted to know what was going to happen with the character of Chekov, and I was asking in the most subordinate way, I mean, I wasn't being pushy or insistent. Well, he showed me a memo he had received from Mort Werner, the NBC executive, about the character of Chekov, about getting him more involved in the show, him in more stories and so on. He wanted to know what Gene was going to do with Chekov as he had gotten a very good reaction from the audience.

"Well after that, I received a copy of a memo that Gene had sent to his executives that Chekov should be developed more should get involved with girls should be proud - but in a good way, and so on. He wanted the character developed. All of this sounded terribly exciting, and I thought, here at last I would get a chance to do something more often than one out of every six or seven shows. But, of course, that was when the show was still scheduled to be shown on Monday at 7:30. That was a marvelous time slot; all the kids would be up and able to see the show specially the age group that would react best to Chekov. But then the show was moved to 10:00 on Friday nights and I knew that was it for Chekov. And for the show. We all knew it. When Gene left we were all very depressed. It was one of the most depressing moments of the show.

"I always felt that among the people who were in support of me besides Gene, of course - was Bob Justman. Bob was a gentleman to the core. An extremely nice man. I remember how touching it was when he left the show. This was in the third season. He gave all of us little personal notes, thanking us for co-operation and thanking us for part of his life." (Gerrold, 1973)

AFTER THE SERIES

When Star Trek reached its untimely end after the third season, Koenig, like many of his co-stars, found that being a household name didn't necessarily translate into steady employment away from the U.S.S. Enterprise.

"We were achieving a lot of celebrity in the public's eye, but I don't think we were featured sufficiently to achieve any recognition outside the industry. In addition to this, I was playing a very specific character, a Russian person with a dialect, and I don't think anybody had the foresight or courage to cast me away from that character I had established. When the show was cancelled, I spent the next couple of years without the phone ringing at all."

So instead, Koenig decided to turn his attention to writing. "After the show was cancelled," he explains, "within four or five months of coming to the realisation that I was not going to be flooded with job offers, I needed something to give my life some structure. I finally got started on a novel which I wrote over the course of six months. It gave my life purpose and direction and did enormous things for my spirit and morale."

"I also wrote my first screenplay," Koenig continues, "which received a lot of affirmation and was ultimately optioned and re-optioned by NBC for a movie of the week which never got made. It also came to the attention of Gene Roddenberry, who hired me to write one of the episodes of the animated Star Trek" series." (Navarro, 1997)

THE ANIMATED SERIES

Although Koenig wasn't asked to join the voice cast of the 1972 animated series, Roddenberry commissioned him to write the episode The Infinite Vulcan. As Walter recalls, it was a "hideous experience. My part of the story was the cloning of Spock, and the idea that you could have this super race of people throughout the galaxy maintaining peace. Initially, it's a terrific thing, because you're cloning someone of great virtue, a prototypically heroic figure, but then it gets out of hand and is used for ill purposes."

"Gene thought since this was animation, we should take advantage of it, and wanted me bring in these talking vegetables. I wrote those characters, and there was actually a little tongue-in-cheek description of them, referring to them as pomegranates or asparagus or whatever, but Gene kept asking me for rewrites, and I must have done 11 or 12 of them,"; Koenig recalls. "When somebody asks you to do 12 rewrites, you begin to think that you can't write at all, but of course I found out later that Gene was always asking people to do rewrites and adding his ideas to the stories. It was kind of neat to ultimately see it and knowing that, rewrites notwithstanding, it was still my words and my story. I think it was a reasonably successful episode." (Navarro, 1997)

STAR TREK: PHASE II

As for the short-lived Star Trek: Phase II mooted in the late Seventies, Koenig doesn't have much to relate. "I had heard stories about another series, and when Leonard was making himself unavailable, they were going to bring in this other actor, David Gatereaux. The one instance I remember is going in for a costume fitting and our old costumes, the 'pyjamas'. Mine was pretty much still a fit and I was very pleased about that, and they said they would call me in for a final fitting and let me know that afternoon when it was.

When I got home, there was a message from the studio wardrobe saying that the final fitting had been cancelled; that's how quickly it all changed. We were doing this series and getting fitted for it, and within a couple of hours, we weren't." (Navarro, 1997)

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