Pavel Chekov
Encyclopedia
Pavel Andreievich Chekov is a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n Starfleet
Starfleet
In the fictional universe of Star Trek, Starfleet or the Federation Starfleet is the deep-space exploratory, peacekeeping and military service maintained by the United Federation of Planets . It is the principal means by which the Federation conducts its exploration, defense, diplomacy and research...

 officer in the Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...

 fictional universe
Fictional universe
A fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with elements that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm ....

. Walter Koenig
Walter Koenig
Walter Marvin Koenig is an American actor, writer, teacher and director, known for his roles as Pavel Chekov in Star Trek and Alfred Bester in Babylon 5. He wrote the script for the 2008 science fiction legal thriller InAlienable.-Early life:...

 portrayed Chekov in the original Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...

series and first seven Star Trek films; Anton Yelchin
Anton Yelchin
Anton Viktorovich Yelchin is an American film and television actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television roles, as well as the Hollywood films Along Came a Spider and Hearts in Atlantis...

 portrayed the character in the 2009 film Star Trek.

Origin

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry
Gene Roddenberry
Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter, producer and futurist, best known for creating the American science fiction series Star Trek. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, California where his father worked as a police officer...

 wanted to include a younger cast member, to appeal to teenage audiences. With a second season of Star Trek to be produced, Roddenberry interviewed Koenig on the recommendation of director Joseph Pevney
Joseph Pevney
Joseph Pevney was an American film and television director.-Biography:Pevney was born on September 15, 1911 in New York City, New York.He made his debut in vaudeville as a boy soprano in 1924...

. After casting Koenig, Roddenberry wrote a letter to Mikhail Zimyanin
Mikhail Zimyanin
Mikhail Vasilyevich Zimyanin , was a first secretary of the Byelorussian SSR during the Soviet Union, between 1946 and 1950.Zimyanin served as the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Pravda, the official publication of the Communist Party between 1965 and 1976. Afterwards, he was appointed to the...

, editor of Pravda
Pravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....

, informing him of the introduction of a Russian character, and an NBC press release announcing the character at the time stated that it was in response to a Pravda article. Koenig always denied the "Russian origin" story and said the character was added in response to the popularity of The Monkees
The Monkees
The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...

' Davy Jones
Davy Jones (actor)
David Thomas "Davy" Jones is an English rock singer-songwriter and actor best known as a member of the Monkees.-Early life:...

, and the character's hairstyle and appearance are a direct reference to this. Roddenberry had previously mentioned, in a memo to his casting director, a desire to have someone reminiscent of one of the Beatles or Monkees on the show.

The episode "Amok Time", which was the first episode aired during the second season, was Chekov's first television appearance. ("Catspaw", the first episode shot with the Chekov character, would be aired a month later to roughly coincide with Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...

.) Because of budgetary constraints the character did not appear in Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series is an animated science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe following the events of Star Trek: The Original Series of the 1960s...

.

Depiction

Pavel Andreievich Chekov is a young and naïve ensign who first appeared on-screen in The Original Series
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...

’ second season as the Enterprise
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)
The USS Enterprise, NCC-1701, is a fictional starship in the Star Trek media franchise. The original Star Trek series depicts her crew's mission "to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before" under the command of Captain James...

's navigator. However, The Wrath of Khan established that he had been assigned to the ship sometime before the first season episode "Space Seed", since Khan remembers him in the movie. Koenig joked that Khan remembered Chekov from the episode after he took too long in a restroom Khan wanted to use. In the book Adaptations: From Text to Screen, Screen to Text by Deborah Cartmell, Imelda Whelehan calls Khan's recognition of Chekov, despite Chekov not yet having appeared when Khan is introduced, "the apparent gaffe notorious throughout Star Trek fandom". It is also known that he joined after "Mudd's Women", since he does not recognize Mudd in the episode "I, Mudd".

Chekov also substitutes for Mr. Spock at the science officer station when necessary. His promotion to lieutenant for Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film based on the Star Trek television series. The film is set in the twenty-third century, when a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V'Ger approaches the Earth,...

brings with it his transfer as the ship's tactical officer and chief of security. By the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a 1982 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. The film is the second feature based on the Star Trek science fiction franchise. The plot features James T...

, Chekov has been promoted to commander and executive officer
Executive officer
An executive officer is generally a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.-Administrative law:...

 aboard the USS Reliant. In that film, Khan Noonien Singh
Khan Noonien Singh
Khan Noonien Singh, commonly shortened to Khan, is a villain in the fictional Star Trek universe. According to backstory given in the character's first appearance, the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Space Seed" , Khan is a genetically engineered superhuman tyrant who once controlled more...

 uses a creature that wraps itself around Chekov's cerebral cortex
Cerebral cortex
The cerebral cortex is a sheet of neural tissue that is outermost to the cerebrum of the mammalian brain. It plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It is constituted of up to six horizontal layers, each of which has a different...

 to control him and his captain. Chekov overcomes the creature's mind control and serves as Enterprise tactical officer in the film's climactic battle against Khan.

Chekov is an accomplice in Kirk's unsanctioned use of the Enterprise to rescue Spock
Spock
Spock is a fictional character in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by Leonard Nimoy in the original Star Trek series, Spock also appears in the animated Star Trek series, two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, seven of the Star Trek feature films, and numerous Star Trek...

 (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is a 1984 motion picture released by Paramount Pictures. The film is the third feature based on the Star Trek science fiction franchise and is the center of a three-film story arc that begins with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and concludes with Star Trek IV:...

) but is exonerated for his actions (Star Trek: The Voyage Home). He serves as navigator and second officer aboard the Enterprise-A
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A)
The USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-A is a starship in the fourth, fifth, and sixth Star Trek films.-Origin and design:The Enterprise-A used the same shooting model as the preceding NCC-1701...

 during the events of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is a 1989 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the fifth feature in the franchise and the penultimate to star the cast of the original Star Trek science fiction television series...

and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the sixth feature film in the Star Trek science fiction franchise and is the last of the Star Trek films to include the entire main cast of the 1960s Star Trek television series. Released in 1991 by Paramount Pictures, it was directed by Nicholas Meyer and...

. The character's final film appearance is as a guest aboard the Enterprise-B
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B)
The USS Enterprise is a fictional starship in the Star Trek science fiction franchise. It is an Excelsior-class upgrade Starfleet vessel that appears under the command of Captain John Harriman in the film Star Trek Generations...

 on its maiden voyage (Star Trek Generations).

Star Trek novels show a continued career path, but these are not considered canon in the Star Trek universe. Novels written by William Shatner detail that Chekov reached the rank of Admiral, and even served as Commander in Chief of Starfleet.

Mirror universe

In the mirror universe in the episode "Mirror, Mirror", Chekov is a cunning schemer who recruits several crew members to help him assassinate Kirk and take over the Enterprise. However, he is in turn betrayed by one of his own men, and sentenced to torture in the "agony booth."

Fan productions

Walter Koenig would reprise his role as Chekov twelve years after Star Trek Generations in the fan series New Voyages, in the episode "To Serve All My Days". Andy Bray portrayed a younger Chekov in that episode. Koenig would return as Chekov one last time in the online mini-series Star Trek: Of Gods and Men
Star Trek: Of Gods and Men
Star Trek: Of Gods and Men is a three-part unofficial Star Trek fan mini-series which contains many cast members from the Star Trek TV series and movies. It is described by its producers as a "40th Anniversary gift" from Star Trek actors to their fans. It was filmed in 2006, but its release was...

which debuted on December 22, 2007.

Star Trek (2009)

In the eleventh Star Trek film, Anton Yelchin
Anton Yelchin
Anton Viktorovich Yelchin is an American film and television actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television roles, as well as the Hollywood films Along Came a Spider and Hearts in Atlantis...

's portrayal presents the character as a 17-year-old prodigy
Child prodigy
A child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...

, whose mathematical ability proves instrumental in a few events within the film, and whose accent provides some of the film's comic relief. In an early scene, the computer has trouble understanding his mispronunciations of the letter V--his efforts to pronounce "Victor" coming out "Wicktor" and "Vulcan" as "Wulcan." This can also be seen, however, as a direct reference to the character having these same problems in the original series, as well as the movies (notably his requests for "nuclear wessels" in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home). Yelchin is Russian-born himself, but does not have a Russian accent.

External links

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