Walter Koenig on His Role in “New Voyages”

Walter Koenig, who played Ensign Chekov in the original Star Trek series, told SCI FI Wire that he is planning on starring in a fan-based Internet short film that will give some finality to the character he’s been associated with for nearly 40 years.

“This is a unique opportunity to give some dimension to my character,” Koenig said in an interview at Enigma Con at the University of California, Los Angeles, over the weekend. “I was most unhappy … that there wasn’t a whole lot of dimension to the character. It was push buttons and say ‘Warp factor five’ with as many inflections as possible—and with an accent.”

Koenig added that fans have approached him to do an in-depth story about Chekov, and Koenig said he found an actor who looked eerily like himself when he first boarded the Enterprise. “He will play me in my younger days, and I’ll play the character as older, of course,” Koenig said. “It will be a real gut-wrencher. If I perform properly, it will work.”

On board to write the script is D.C. Fontana, who wrote some of Koenig’s favorite stories in the original series, including “This Side of Paradise,” “Friday’s Child” and “Journey to Babel” and also worked on the animated series he voiced in 1973. Koenig said that Paramount Studios is on board, allowing the production to take place as long as it is distributed for free on the Internet. He expects it to be available in January.

“Indeed it is fan-driven, but there are professionals in this business who are fans and willing to work on it,” Koenig said. “It is cathartic for me and an opportunity to reveal to the audience and the fans who this man is. I want there to be some justification for all the attention and acclaim that has been bestowed on us over these four decades.”

Koenig added: “I’m doing it for fun and a sense of closure. It vindicates something about myself.”

Source: SciFi Wire