Walter Koenig Looks Back on 'Star Trek' and 'The Voyage Home'

Fifty years after his screen debut in "A Day In Court," Walter Koenig took a trip down to the Egyptian Theatre which was showing "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" and "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier." By that, I mean he literally tripped while making his way to the front. Fortunately he was unharmed and said that he always planned to do that.

Walter played Pavel Chekov from the original "Star Trek" TV series and in the first seven movies. Of all the movies, he declared "Star Trek IV" his favorite and reveled in how Chekov actually had his own theme music! "The Voyage Home," he said, reflected the best things about the show and had a strong sociological statement. It also had soul and got you really involved with the characters, and it showed the connection that they had with the audience whether or not they were Trekkers.

Walter also called it the most ensemble film of the series in how each actor had their own stand out moment. That is, except for George Takei who was to have a scene where Sulu meets his great grandfather. He recalled that the kid playing the role as being "a real pain in the ass." Every time the crew was ready to shoot, the young boy would say:

"I don't wanna!"

By the time he did want to, the sun had gone down and they lost the shot.

Koenig also took the time to applaud the audience for their "Pollyannaish" devotion to "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." When it first came out, he said the reviews were "brutal" and that critics complained the cast was "too old" and that they should "only be on TV." At the time, Walter considered himself "anonymous" compared to the rest of the cast which was great because his name wasn't mentioned in the reviews. He figured they forgot he was in the movie.

When it came to "Star Trek: Generations," he knew going into it that it was nothing more than a cameo. Initially, the whole Enterprise crew was to be in it, but George Takei, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley considered their parts to be "not worthy" (Walter said they were right). In the end, it came down to William Shatner, the late James Doohan, and Walter acting as the bridge to the "Next Generation" cast.

Looking back at it, Walter said no to "Generations" because despite the six-figure salary, he said that he had "done this before" and that there was "nothing new" for Chekov to do. The movie's producer Rick Berman met with him, and Walter suggested that they add something to Chekov to make him deeper, and this involved when he was with Scotty after Captain Kirk got blasted into space. The end result of what Walter did brought a half dozen people on the set to tears. But in the end, it got cut out in editing, making Koenig believe that it was all a Machiavellian setup designed to get him involved. They never planned to put that scene in the final cut.

It was great to see Walter Koenig in such good spirits considering the personal tragedy he has been through in recent years, and he left the audience with a great treasure trove of behind the scenes stories to remember. He left us to find those "nuclear wessels" as he sarcastically said that we were probably all waiting to see "Star Trek V."

Thanks for a fun evening Walter!