Movies - TV
Why Star Trek: The Animated Series Had To Jettison Ensign Chekov
By DEVIN MEENAN
“Star Trek: The Animated Series” aired 22 episodes from 1973 to 1974, and the original cast reunited once. However, not everyone returned for the show.
Walter Koenig, who played Pavel Chekov, was nowhere to be seen. The budget evidently couldn’t accommodate Koenig; Chekov was the most dispensable cast member.
Koenig told StarTrek.com that he was “very disappointed” about not being included and understood he has less cache than the original cast members but felt “kind of screwed around.”
What Koenig deemed to be “the final insult” was how he found out he was being excluded — a fan asked him about it during a convention, completely catching him unprepared.
However, as a consolation prize, he was hired to write the “The Infinite Vulcan” episode for “The Animated Series.” Overall, Koenig said the series was only “OK.”
Koenig felt the show featured complex writing that adults would enjoy, but they had to endure the animation aimed at children who likely didn’t understand the storylines.