Walter Koenig Was Cast As Chekov To Increase Star Trek's Appeal To Younger Viewers

The cast of the original "Star Trek," still considered the best in the franchise, has lost another member with the recent passing of Walter Koenig, who played Pavel Chekov on the series and the original run of movies. The character was added to the crew of the Enterprise in Season 2, but possibly not for the reason you might think. At the time, there was a rumor circulating that Chekov, who was Russian, was added to the cast to ease tensions with the Soviet Union. However, Koenig himself says the real reason is far less deep.

In an interview with TV Insider, Koenig said it was creator Gene Roddenberry's desire to appeal to a younger demographic. "I don't know how that Soviet Union story got started, but it's not true," Koenig said. "They wanted a male character who could bring in the 8- to 12-year-olds." And it turned out Roddenberry had a very specific character in mind. "Gene once showed me a memo that he'd sent to his staff that said, 'Let's look for somebody who has the same appeal as that young Davy Jones fellow on 'The Monkees.'"

The move worked, and Koenig soon became one of the more popular actors on the show. "Pretty soon I was getting the third highest amount of fan mail on the show, after Shatner and Nimoy, and I was really clicking with the kids," Koenig said in the same interview. "They weren't interested in Chekov's nationality. They just liked his groovy haircut."

Even though Walter Koenig was added to the cast of "Star Trek" because of his age, his character's nationality also played a large role in his popularity. Koenig, who would go on to write an episode of a "Star Trek" spinoff, said the choice was a tribute to the Soviet Union's success in the space race. "The reason [creator] Gene [Roddenberry] made Chekov a Russian was because he recognized that the Russians had beaten the Americans into space and he felt that their achievement should be honored."

Of course, it's possible that decision could have been prompted by Russia itself. In the book "The Making of Star Trek," Roddenberry admits that an article written in the youth edition of Pravda criticizing a lack of Russian characters on the show forced him to reconsider. "The Chekov thing was a major error on our part," Roddenberry said in the book. "And I'm still embarrassed by the fact that we didn't include a Russian right from the beginning."

Creating a Russian character is one thing, but getting the right actor to play the part is another. When Roddenberry was auditioning actors, he liked Koenig for the role, but there was a problem. In the book "Inside Star Trek: The Real Story," director Joseph Pevney said, "Walter had the worst Russian accent you ever heard." Fortunately for Koenig and his fans, he got the part anyway.