Star Trek's Walter Koenig Had A Big Idea For His Cancelled Next Generation Cameo
There were multiple crossovers between the original "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation." This first happened in the 1987 pilot episode of the latter, wherein DeForest Kelley appeared as a very elderly — 137! — Dr. McCoy. Then in 1991's "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Dr. McCoy were put on trial in a Klingon court, and their Klingon defense lawyer was played by "Next Generation" Worf actor Michael Dorn. There is some debate as to whether or not Dorn was playing an ancestor of Worf's in that film. What's more, Sarek (Mark Lenard) appeared on "Next Generation" in an episode devoted to him.
Later still, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) appeared in a two-part episode of "Next Generation" as a rogue diplomat trying to reunify the Romulans and the Vulcans. Luckily, Vulcans are very long-lived. And finally, Scotty (James Doohan) appeared on an episode of "Next Generation," having been kept alive for 80 years inside a transporter buffer. This was all before 1994's "Star Trek: Generations" opened with a prologue involving Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov (Walter Koenig) before flashing forward 87 years to the "Next Generation" characters. Many, many torches were passed.
It turns out that Chekov might have appeared on "Next Generation" prior to "Generations," however. In a 2011 interview with StarTrek.com, Koenig talked about how he was called into Paramount during the final season of "Next Generation" (the 1993/1994 year) to discuss the possibility of him reprising Chekov in some way. the mandate was that the story couldn't involve time travel — that was seen as a little corny — so Koenig thought of a way to cleverly connect Chekov to Worf.
Sadly, the meeting was canceled.
The meeting that was canceled halfway through
Koenig recalls first talking to Brannon Braga, one of the main writers on "Next Generation," and the man who would eventually co-create and run "Star Trek: Voyager." While sitting with other writers, Koenig was shocked to see everything abruptly end. He said:
"I met with the people at 'The Next Generation.' I met first with Brannon Braga. I don't remember if they invited me or if I suggested that we get together and talk about me doing a guest role. Then he wanted me to meet with the entire writing crew. We were in discussions about what this appearance could be because there were restrictions, like no time travel. Then the meeting was canceled, right in the middle of the meeting itself. They were getting to the end of their last season and they were also preparing for the finale."
It's worth noting that the two-hour "Next Generation" finale dovetailed directly into production on "Generations," which was released in theaters only four months after the series ended. It was indeed a busy time, and Koenig was already in talks to be in the movie. One can see why executive producer Rick Berman felt he could simply end a meeting with Walter Koenig. Sadly, it seems like the meeting was never picked up again, and Koenig had to just go home.
Wait, Worf is Russian, right?
Koenig then presented his outline for a potential Chekov cameo that wouldn't involve time travel, and that tapped into an established element of "Next Generation" lore. Trekkies will be able to tell you that Worf's Klingon parents died when he was very small and that he was raised on Earth — specifically in Russian — by human parents named Helena and Sergey Rozhenko (Georgia Brown and Theodore Bikel). Because Chekov was also Russian, Koenig felt that his character could possibly have contacted Worf's Russian grandparents and been friends with them. The face-to-face meeting between Worf and Chekov would have been realized via a disease-induced flashback.
Koenig said:
"[T]he meeting was abruptly postponed and actually canceled because Rick Berman said he needed the entire writing staff together right then. I'd had an idea for a story. When I learned that Worf in fact had Russian grandparents, I constructed a back story that would have involved Worf and Chekov meeting. I'm a little hazy now, but it was Worf on the ship, he becomes infected with something, and he begins having visions, hallucinatory episodes, and that's how I was able to introduce Chekov into the story."
The story never went through, and Keonig had to wait until "Generations" to brush up with the "Next Generation" crew.
More recently, Koenig got a second chance, however. In the final episode of "Star Trek: Picard" (April 20, 2023), which featured older versions of the "Next Generation" characters, Keonig provided a voice cameo for a character named President Anton Chekov, a descendent of his original "Star Trek" character, now a President of the Federation. It took decades, but it happened.