On the one hand, Star Trek was a big part of my childhood. Not as big as Star Wars, and when Star Trek: The Motion Picture came out, it did nothing for me. But from The Wrath of Khan onward, I was on board, and have never stopped being on board.
On the other hand, Koenig's Pavel Chekov was probably my least essential crew member of the Starship Enterprise. Sometimes, when people die, you have to let it pass without comment. (I took the same approach to the recent passing of Tom Skerritt.)
But when I woke up this morning to learn that Patrick Stewart had also died, well, there was no denying Patrick Stewart, and now Koenig gets his due as well.
Yes it has been a very hard week for Star Trek fans, though not entirely unexpected. Koenig was 90 when he passed, and Stewart was 86. Probably the truly expected death would be William Shatner, who is closer to his 96th birthday than his 95th. But he's in such good shape that I could imagine him out there somewhere doing one-handed pushups.
Of course, Stewart did not come into my life as early as Koenig, but it was still within the initial bloom of my Star Trek fandom. If I really became a fan of all things Star Trek in 1982, when Wrath of Khan came out, it was only five years later that Star Trek: The Next Generation first premiered on television. And I watched that first episode, as well as many of the others for at least a few seasons. In fact, I've seen way more episodes of this series than the original series, since my Trek fandom was based on the movies.
If Chekov was not essential to the bridge on the Enterprise, then Captain Jean-Luc Picard certainly was. Stewart immediately became Picard as if Picard had always existed, and came up with a number of catchphrases that Trekkies would use forever, and still do, such as "Make it so." He felt like a distinct, unique creation, not just another generic good-looking man. (Though they did have Jonathan Frakes' Riker in that role just to hedge their bets.)
Of course, Picard was not where Stewart began, though I hadn't seen him in any of his previous roles. His career was already nearly 25 years in by 1987, and though Picard will always be his most famous role, he had some other big ones still to come. Most notably Charles Xavier, a performance I just revisited when my son and I watched the original X-Men movie a few weeks back as a sort of preparation for Avengers: Doomsday. He played that role a number of times, including as recently as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness five years ago. He also played Ebenezer Scrooge as well as some of the sort of classic roles you would expect from a Shakespearean like him with his training and diction. Just this year, he provided a sheep voice in The Sheep Detectives. So I guess succumbing to complications from Alzheimer's and Lewy Body Disease must have come on pretty quickly.
Koenig? He was "just" Chekov. That is not 100% true of course, but when I scan his 79 credits on IMDB, I've only ever seen him in Star Trek-related projects. I mean, it's not like Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, George Takei or even DeForest Kelley had thriving careers outside Star Trek. So no shade on Koenig.
But Chekov provided us some great memories. Koenig had a sly comic timing in that role, as you could see in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which featured the two-word phrase we would all reproduce related to the character: "nuclear wessels." Then again, he was also a key to some classic scenes from the films that had a very different tone. One scene I always think of first from Wrath of Khan is when Chekov and Paul Winfield's Terrell are detained by Khan and his goons, and get those horrid parasites inserted into their ears. Koenig is great in that scene.
As I try to finish this post before I start my workday, I feel like I have given both men a short shrift in terms of memorializing them. But that's what always happens when we lose screen actors who meant a lot to us and were in our lives for so long.
One thing I can say for both?
They lived long, and they prospered.
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