Walter Koenig Improvised His Entire Columbo Guest Spot In A Single Take

Part of the fun of watching "Columbo" during its heyday was seeing who Peter Falk had recruited as a guest star for each episode. It was an eclectic assortment, featuring celebrities like Faye Dunaway, Dick Van Dyke, and Johnny Cash. Given how long the series has run in various iterations, it shouldn't come as a surprise that quite a few "Star Trek" actors crossed paths with the perceptive homicide detective. Leonard Nimoy, Kate Mulgrew, Ricardo Montalban, Laurence Luckinbill and many more members of the Trek universe appeared on "Columbo." Some, like William Shatner, even double dipped.

Shatner's first episode, 1974's "Fade In to Murder," brought over another officer from the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise: Walter Koenig aka Pavel Chekov. Koenig, who died today at the age of 90, plays a cop named Morella, who, in a brief scene, describes the murder scene left behind by Shatner's Ward Fowler, a famous television actor being blackmailed by a former lover (Lola Albright). She's threatening to reveal that Fowler was a Korean War deserter, which would destroy his public image and likely end his career. So he trails her to a delicatessen, throws on a ski mask, and stages a robbery that leaves her shot in the back.

Koenig filmed his scene with Falk at 2 AM, which turned into a bit of a challenge when the latter wanted to change the former's dialogue. There was no time for a proper rewrite, so Falk told Koenig what he wanted and had him improvise the whole thing in one shot — and Koenig pulled it off!

In the script, Koenig's cop was supposed to say, "Robbery. Guy comes in all bundled up like a downhill racer, takes her money, clobbers Mr. Kajanian here, the lady tries to get out, and he shoots her in the back." Falk found this too similar to Columbo's description of the scene, which required Koenig to do some unexpected riffing. On the spot, here's what Koenig came up with:

"Robbery. Guy comes in all bundled up like a downhill racer. Comes over to here. Lady's over here. Tony's behind the cash register. Takes her money. Grabs the money out of the till. Shoves Tony up against the oven. Starts pistol-whipping him. The lady must've started to go, because Tony heard the guy yell, 'Don't move!' Went back to pistol-whipping him. The lady must've really got scared and started to run. The guy came out. Shot her in the back."

Not bad. It's a fun episode overall — and really, who doesn't love watching Shatner getting taken down a peg?

Koenig didn't do a whole lot of work outside of "Star Trek," and that didn't seem to bother him. He was a fan favorite at conventions, where he interacted warmly and enthusiastically with Trekkers. And he embraced the sci-fi genre outside of Gene Roddenberry's series. He appeared twice on "The Starlost," a short-lived space exploration series created (and disowned) by Harlan Ellison. He also teamed with Bruce Campbell in the sci-fi video store fixture "Moontrap." Koenig seemed to love what he did, and we loved watching him do it.