Before Star Trek, Chekov Actor Walter Koenig Had A Small Role In A Revolutionary TV Show

Here's a fun piece of trivia: "Star Trek" veteran Walter Koenig was in the first two episodes of the TV version of "General Hospital" back in 1963. It stands as Koenig's earliest TV credit. He played a very, very minor character credited as Charlie Turner, but it's no small feat to be featured on one of the most significant, longest-running soap operas of all time.

Koenig first appeared on "Star Trek" in its Season 2 premiere, "Amok Time," in 1967, although "Catspaw," which aired later in Season 2, was actually the first episode of the show that he filmed. He was a series regular for the series' second and third seasons, playing the charming, youthful Ensign Pavel Chekov, a character of Russian heritage. The fact that a Russian individual was serving on board the U.S.S. Enterprise on a show made in the 1960s spoke volumes to the commentary "Star Trek" was making about a more optimistic future. Not to mention, Chekov was very funny, often claiming that Russians invented just about everything. The character would go on to appear throughout the rest of the series, along with several "Star Trek" movies.

Prior to "Star Trek," Koenig worked on the 1962 film biopic, "The Norman Vincent Peale Story" before landing his gig on "General Hospital." He thereafter went on to play three different characters on the teacher drama "Mr. Novak" and appeared in a 1964 episode of "The Lieutenant," a series developed by eventual "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry. It's surely no accident that the actor went on to score his "Star Trek" gig just a few years later, by which point his turn on "General Hospital" was likely little more than a memory.

Perhaps the fact that a "Star Trek" actor was involved in a classic soap opera will prove to be a "full circle" moment for fans of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds." Indeed, an episode of the show's fourth season (titled "Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass") takes on the trappings and style of a soap, even as it essentially remakes a classic episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Soap operas, it seems, are never too far from "Star Trek." 

"General Hospital," for those not in the know, takes place in the fictional New York city of Port Charles, and it began with characters played by John Beradino and Emily McLaughlin, who both stayed on the series for many, many years.  Since then, "General Hospital" has mutated numerous times over its decades of life, and I wouldn't dare getting into the central dramas of any of the characters' long lives here. Soaps are far too incidental to be encapsulated in such a fashion. However, because Walter Koenig didn't play any kind of notable part in the first two episodes of "General Hospital," he doesn't seem to have been welcomed back. One can imagine, though, how things would have been different if Koenig had become a regular soap actor instead of a "Star Trek" luminary.

Koenig is hardly the only "Star Trek" actor to have appeared on a famous soap opera, either. John de Lancie, known to Trekkies as the trickster god Q, similarly played a character named Eugene Bradford on "Days of Our Lives." Elsewhere, Barry Jenner, who played Admiral Ross on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," appeared on shows like "Another World," "Knots Landing," and "Dallas."

Back when he was still on "Star Trek," Walter Koenig saw it as merely another gig. It was steady work, yes, but he has gone on record explaining why he temporarily quit "Star Trek" in 1968. He was offered a job acting in a play, "Make a Million," opposite Jackie Coogan, and he just couldn't turn the offer down. Koenig has also been very frank about his trepidation towards "Star Trek" back in the 1960s, even so far as remembering the exact moment he knew "The Original Series" was done for. When he heard news that "Star Trek" was moving from Mondays at eight o'clock to Fridays at 10, he realized that the show was toast.

But "Star Trek" has been very good to Koenig. As mentioned, he's acted in multiple "Star Trek" movies, and he even came back for a voice cameo in the final season of "Star Trek: Picard." There, he played Anton Chekov, a descent of Chekov whose name serves as a double tribute to both Koenig's "Original Series" character and the late actor Anton Yelchin (who portrayed Chekov in the three Kelvin Timeline "Star Trek" films).

"General Hospital," meanwhile, is still unspooling after 16,000 episodes (!!) and six decades. Part of me hopes that none of the long-running soaps ever end. They are such a giant and long-running event in television history, they should be allowed to remain in perpetuity.