You knew it was going to be a great episode if Chekov was at the helm, if only to hear Walter Koenig's crispy Cyrillic commentary, accompanied by his eyebrow wagging gesticulations. Obviously cast as a sort of "Cosmonaut Davey Jones," to attract the teeny-bopper viewers, Koenig managed to turn what was originally a rather thinly-written character into a genuine sci-fi icon.
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In fact, it WAS exactly because of Davy Jones of THE MONKEES and Illya Kuryakin (THE MAN FROM UNCLE's David McCullim) that Gene Roddenberry wanted a Russian "Teeny Bopper" type as a new bridge officer. Thus, the hiring of Walter Koenig. In fact, he got a lot more screen time than was originally planned because George Takei was filming THE GREEN BERETS and the film took longer to complete than expected, so a lot of second season lines written for Sulu became Chekov's, including most of the scripted lines in the infamous TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES.
ReplyDeleteBTW, just one little complaint: Sulu and Chekov are missing their name plaques.