Walter Koenig says he never felt left behind while filming Star Trek: The Original Series

Walter Koenig made his first appearance on Star Trek: The Original Series in season two's "Amok Time." Over the next two seasons, he would appear in a total of thirty-six episodes, and though there was never a lot of focus on his character, Ensign Pavlov Chekov, Koenig did have a couple of episodes that were more Chekov-heavy. And the actor was okay with that.

In an interview with IGN, Koenig explained how he understood how the system worked back in the 1960s when the series was filming. There were the stars, which were William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley, and then there were the supporting characters, which included himself, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, and George Takei.

Though there wasn't as much recognition for Koenig during the filming of the series, he was happy to have a paycheck every week. He didn't expect more than what his part called for so he didn't feel left behind when the camera focused more on Shatner, Nimoy, or Kelley.

"“[They] got most of the screen time, got most of the attention, and we accepted it,” he continued. “That's the way things went. And I think Bill [Shatner] had grown up with that sense, and his popularity was so immense, and he was an extremely talented fellow. And so he, I think, just unconsciously accepted the way things were. […] So there was less recognition for us. During the years we were shooting, I never felt left behind because I never anticipated more than that. I felt very lucky that I had been cast in a situation where I would get a check every week. It was quite amazing to me."

- Walter Koenig

After the series ended, Koenig returned for the additional movies and has since then spent a good deal of his time on the convention circuit where he discovered that the fans were as excited to meet him as they were any of the other stars on the series.

While the series didn't focus much on the supporting cast, they were still, to us, a part of The Original Series. We couldn't imagine the series being the same without even one of them. Koenig understood his role on the series and didn't have a problem with being a supporting character. To us, though, he was Chekov, an important character on board the Enterprise. And that's why he's remained so popular with fans today.