Walter Koenig has passed away at 90. For millions of Star Trek fans around the world, the news isn’t just sad; it’s a reminder of the fact that although the classic show debuted 60 years ago and has a strong, enduring legacy, fewer and fewer living humans are left who actually participated in that world-changing series. With Koenig’s death, only William Shatner and George Takei remain. Koenig’s passing hits hard, not because he didn’t live a full life, but because, I believe, he was perhaps the most underrated member of the TOS gang — and not just because the character of Chekov is iconic, but because Koenig himself was a true original.
For those who might only know Koenig as the guy who played Chekov on the original Star Trek TV series and in seven feature films, you do have a small inkling of what made Koenig so great. But there is something you may not know: He was incredibly funny, a fantastic writer, and in his later years, a sort of kind, angry uncle with a heart of gold. When researching my Star Trek history book, Phasers on Stun!, I spoke to Koenig in early 2021. He had agreed to do 15 minutes, and we ended up talking for an hour. There was nothing special about me as a journalist that made him go longer, and he didn’t ramble, and he wasn’t incoherent. Many questions he’d probably gotten a million times before. Koenig spoke to me for an hour because he was kind and because he clearly had something he wanted to say about what he believed was the power of certain kinds of science fiction.
