While he’ll always be remembered for his work as Pavel Chekov in “Star Trek,” Walter Koenig was actually in several other sci-fi shows during his long career, most notably the Emmy and Saturn Award-winning “Babylon 5.” The late Chicago native played the antagonistic senior Psi Corps officer Alfred Bester in the beloved space opera, which ran for five 22-episode seasons and is one of a handful of ’90s sci-fi series that still hold up today.
During an interview with The Television Academy, Koenig revealed how he loved playing a character that wasn’t just reactionary. “It wasn’t like ‘Captain, I don’t know what’s up there,’ and then let Captain Kirk tell you what’s going on,” he said. “Here was a character who moved the story along, not just articulated the circumstances but actually was involved in the story itself.”
Intelligent, charismatic, and determined to enforce Psi Corps rule, Koenig’s Bester featured in 12 episodes across all five seasons of “Babylon 5”. Viewers of both “Star Trek” and “Babylon 5” widely deem him a more compelling character than the one-dimensional Chekov, and Koenig (who died on October 25, 2026 at the age of 90) felt the same way.
During a 2011 interview with StarTrek.com, Koenig described the wonderful experience he had portraying Bester on “Babylon 5,” emphasizing that the part allowed him to flex his acting muscles a bit more. “As sacrilegious as it might be for ‘Star Trek’ fans, Bester was a more exciting opportunity and a more challenging role,” he explained. “I feel I put a stamp on that character and that I made him my own, and I had a great time doing it.”
Koenig almost played a different Babylon 5 character
Walter Koenig cherished his time playing Alfred Bester on “Babylon 5,” but he nearly missed out on the role before he shot a single scene. Soon before he was slated to film as a totally different one-off character on the series, Koenig had a medical emergency that threatened to change everything. “I was scheduled to do an episode in the first season, and about three or four weeks before I was supposed to shoot, I had a heart attack,” the actor said on Scoop B Radio. “I was in Chicago, and I ended up with a quadruple bypass and had to call the producer and tell him I could not do the show.”
Koenig initially believed that the recovery period after his heart attack would force him to give up “Babylon 5” entirely, but J. Michael Straczynski had other ideas. The creator and showrunner of the space opera series decided to write a whole new character for Koenig: Bester, the complex antagonist that gave the actor a new sci-fi journey on TV. “Instead of a one-shot type of deal, it turned into a recurring role throughout all five seasons,” Koenig continued. “I consider it the highlight of my acting career.”
This story originally appeared on TVLine
