5 Sci-Fi Shows Walter Koenig Appeared In (That Aren’t Star Trek)

Walter Koenig will forever be associated with his role as Ensign Pavel Chekov in “Star Trek.” As one of the main characters in the iconic series, Koenig’s science fiction credentials are well-established. However, “Star Trek” is not the only sci-fi series he appeared on. Of course, there are the various movies and “Star Trek” spin-offs – like “Deep Space Nine” and “Picard” — where Koenig reprised his role as Chekov. Notably, however, not all of them: Chekov was infamously written out of “Star Trek: The Animated Series” as a cost-cutting measure. He also voiced himself in the “Futurama” episode about “Star Trek,” the Season 4 episode “Where No Fan Has Gone Before.”

Koenig’s sci-fi filmography extends beyond just “Trek,” though unlike some of his co-stars, like William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, Koenig’s other sci-fi credits all come after his time on the Enterprise. Koenig was a decade or so younger than most of his co-stars, and wasn’t yet acting professionally when “The Twilight Zone” was on the air, so he can’t be counted among the many “TOS” stars who appeared on the classic anthology series. That said, here are five of Koenig’s non-“Trek” roles in the sci-fi genre. This list only includes his acting work, but the writing Koenig did for other science fiction television shows, including the best episode of “Land of the Lost,” deserves a mention. 

Renowned science fiction writer Harlan Ellison won an award from the Writers Guild of America for the pilot script he wrote for “The Starlost,” which became a 1973 Canadian TV show that aired on CTV and was syndicated in the United States. Sounds like a promising start, but “The Starlost” lost its way. Technical shortcomings exposed the series’ already threadbare budget (a problem for any sci-fi show). Ellison got so frustrated with how the producers were dumbing down his concepts, he demanded to be credited under a pseudonym, which is why Cordwainer Bird is listed as a writer. The show was canceled after just one season.

It’s a shame, since the premise of “The Starlost” was pretty good. Set in the far future long after some disaster caused the evacuation of Earth, the show follows inhabitants of a giant craft called Earthship Ark who have lived there for generations and don’t even know they’re aboard a spaceship at first — or that there are other communities in distant parts of the massive ship. A crisis forces them to deal with the reality of their situation and deal with one another. Walter Koenig appeared in two of the 16 episodes, as an alien named Oro who crash-lands on Earthship Ark and later returns to offer the inhabitants a place to live on his home planet of Xar — though it’s unclear if he can be trusted.

Walter Koenig only makes cameo appearances in “The Questor Tapes” as an unnamed administrative assistant, so this is clearly not one of his most iconic sci-fi roles. However, “The Questor Tapes,” a TV movie that aired on NBC on January 23, 1974, has a connection to “Star Trek” that goes beyond Koenig’s tiny role. Gene Roddenberry, creator of “Star Trek,” was behind “The Questor Tapes,” having originally envisioned it as a series before creative differences ended up leaving it as a TV film. 

It told the story of Questor, a super-intelligent humanoid android in search of information about his creator. Leonard Nimoy was the first person cast in the title role, but Roddenberry replaced him with Robert Foxworth. “The Questor Tapes” was one of Roddenberry’s many projects after “The Original Series” that underwhelmed, but the ideas he explored in it would show up again in “The Next Generation.” Richard A. Colla, who directed the TV film, recalled in an interview with Woman’s World that he spoke to Roddenberry while “TNG” was getting off the ground and observed that Brent Spiner’s android Data “was a combination of Spock and Questor.”

Walter Koenig was of Russian descent. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants from the Republic of Lithuania, but he was born in Chicago and didn’t speak with the accent he used for Chekov. It’s perhaps because he was so famous for playing a Russian character that ABC’s “The Real Ghostbusters” cast him as Vladimir Pavel Maximov, a Soviet scientist of the paranormal who antagonizes the Ghostbusters when they make a visit to Russia. Vladimir’s middle name is, of course, a reference to Koenig’s “Star Trek” character.

In the episode, “Russian About,” Vladimir swindles his way into a conference on the supernatural to steal an ancient book. He uses this to summon an eldritch being, but the Ghostbusters are able to bust him. Koenig’s episode of “The Real Ghostbusters” was written by J. Michael Straczynski, a prolific writer of comic books, film, and television shows. Straczynski actually created the TV show where Koenig would make his next, more significant sci-fi appearance.

Unlike Walter Koenig’s small-to-minuscule parts in other sci-fi shows, he had a legitimate role in the classic ’90s series, “Babylon 5.” Koenig played Alfred Bester, a radical member of a psychic faction who becomes a recurring antagonist for the characters on the titular space station. However, this was not the role that Koenig was originally supposed to play in “Babylon 5.” J. Michael Straczynski, who created the show, wrote the part of another antagonist, Knight Two, specifically for Koenig. 

“He sent me the script and I promptly had a heart attack. I mean, literally — not because of the script,” Koenig recalled in an interview with the Television Academy. “I just had a heart attack … I had a quadruple bypass.” Luckily, Koenig recovered, though not in time for him to play Knight Two, and another actor, Christopher Neame, took the part. Straczynski wrote a new role for Koenig, which is how he made more than a dozen appearances as Alfred Bester across five seasons. “It became one of the best, most satisfying experiences I ever had,” he told The Television Academy. “In each episode, I was critical to this story.”

The superhero genre has a lot of overlap with sci-fi. Walter Koenig’s most recent TV role, not counting a voice-only role in “Star Trek: Picard,” was in the Netflix superhero series “Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters,” which was based on the old toy. The show, which ran for two seasons from 2017 to 2018, followed three teens who get doused in a chemical called Flexarium and gain superpowers. They’re dubbed the Flex Fighters.

Koenig played the group’s botany teacher, Mr. Savic, appearing in several episodes. In the Season 2 episode “Biomass,” he temporarily gets powers that transform him into a monstrous plant. Once more, he was playing a character with a Russian accent. Koenig was not the only “Star Trek” actor to voice somebody in “Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters.” Kate Mulgrew of “Star Trek: Voyager” fame voiced the trio’s mentor, Dr. Racine Cleo, while Wil Wheaton from “The Next Generation” voiced Jonathan Rook, the seemingly benevolent CEO benefactor who was secretly an evil Stretch Monster.