Pavel Chekov

"''I'm not that green!"
 * - Pavel Chekov, 2267

Pavel Andreievich Chekov (Russian Павел Андреевич Чехов) was a Human who served as a Starfleet officer during the latter half of the 23rd century. Although he mainly served as the navigator aboard the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) and the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A), he played a more variable role than other senior crew members under Captain James T. Kirk.

Early life
Pavel Chekov, son of Andrei Chekov, was born in Russia on Earth in 2245. 

Pavel was an only child. However, he once believed, while under the influence of the Beta XII-A entity, that he had a brother named Piotr who was killed by the Klingons. 

Starfleet Academy
Around 2263, Chekov entered Starfleet Academy, from which he graduated with the rank of ensign. His Starfleet serial number was 656-5827D. 

During the early-2260s, Pavel was romantically involved with Irina Galliulin, while they both attended the Academy together. The two had several disagreements before they parted ways: Pavel believed Irina to always be too free-spirited, Irina believed Pavel to have always been rigid. When Irina dropped out of the Academy, each accused the one of leaving the other. Pavel left, but came back to look for Irina, who was at the time staying in the city with friends. Irina would eventually join the counterculture movement of Dr. Sevrin, and his search for the mythical planet Eden. 

The five-year mission
Chekov's first assignment, at the age of 22, was on the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) under command of Captain James T. Kirk. He joined the crew sometime prior to the spring of 2267. 

Chekov served a standard junior officer rotation, eventually earning the post of navigator, although he was also proficient with the science officer station, often serving at the post in Commander Spock's absence. While acting the role of science adviser, Chekov made every attempt to be as thorough as possible. Chekov also became good friends with the slightly older chief helmsman Lieutenant Sulu who sat next to him on many missions. 

While investigating a humanoid that could generate and control energy, who referred to himself as Apollo, in 2267, Chekov began to spout off information on similar creatures. After naming the electric eel and giant dry-worm, he was stopped by Chief Medical Officer Leonard McCoy, who told him "not the whole encyclopedia, Chekov." McCoy later quipping on Chekov's dedicated thoroughness by stating: "Spock's contaminating this boy, Jim."

On a mission to deliver supplies to a Federation experimental colony on the planet Gamma Hydra IV, the six member landing party discovered that most of the colonist were either dead or close to death from rapid aging with Chekov becoming frightened upon finding a dead body in one of the buildings. On return to the Enterprise the entire landing party was infected with the rapid aging except for Chekov. Chekov complained to Sulu about how many times Dr. McCoy put him through a series of test to discover why he wasn't aging, especially emphasising that if he gave any more blood he wouldn't have any more. Spock soon discovered that the rapid aging was caused by radiation left on Gamma Hydra IV from a rogue comet. McCoy determined that the cure was adrenaline. Chekov had been so shocked upon finding the dead body that his adrenaline provided an immunity to the radiation's effects. 

In 2268, Chekov, Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura were captured by alien beings who used them in gladiatorial combat, which the beings wagered on. Such captured beings were known as "thralls". One of the thralls, Tamoon was assigned to train Chekov in gladiatorial combat and developed romantic feelings towards him, leading to many unwelcome advances. 

Chekov was killed as a member of the landing party that made contact with the xenophobic Melkotians. The Melkotians considered humans as a disease that must be destroyed, and placed the five member landing party in a frontier setting during the time of Wyatt Earp. The away team filled the role of the Clantons, one of the two major gangs involved at the OK Corral gunfight with Chekov playing gang member Billy Claiborne. Chekov was killed by one of the Earps over a girl named Sylvia, who was in love with him, and not the Earp that wanted her. Spock realized that this simulation was not real, and thus the four other landing party members could not be hurt as long as they did not believe in the illusion. After successfully escaping the illusory Wild West setting, the landing party was transported back to the Enterprise, along with Chekov who was alive once again and the Melkotians were willing to begin talks to join the Federation. 

When the ship was hijacked by android Norman to an undiscovered planet, the Enterprise's crew discovered Harcourt Fenton Mudd who had crashed on the planet. The planet was populated by androids who wished to use the Enterprise to visit other planets, but strand the crew there. The androids tempted Chekov with a planet full of beautiful women to serve him. In the end, the crew banded together and escaped the planet, leaving Mudd with 500 android replicas of his overbearing wife, Stella. 

During shore leave on Deep Space station K-7, Chekov, along with Lieutenant Uhura, brought one tribble to the Enterprise, which reproduced so fast that the ship became overrun with them in three days. Chekov participated in a bar fight with Klingons in the bar on the space station and was temporarily arrested by some redshirts. He had to then participate in an interrogation line on the Enterprise, in front of Kirk, until Chief Engineering Officer Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott admitted he started the fight. Scotty found a humane way to dispose of all the tribbles on the Enterprise by beaming them over to the Klingon ship. 

Chekov was at navigation when he noticed the Enterprise navigation controls were not working, and then tried to assist Lieutenant Hadley, manning the helm, with the helm's stuck controls. That's when the Kelvan Hanar suddenly transported himself onto the bridge and put Chekov and the rest of the bridge crew into temporary 'frozen' and motionless stasis. Two other Kelvans, Tomar and Drea, had already seized control of Engineering and environmental engineering in a similar fashion. Thus began the attempted hijacking of the Enterprise by the Kelvan Milky Way Expedition so they could return to the Andromeda Galaxy. After the Enterprise successfully exited the Milky Way galaxy through the Galactic barrier, Kelvan leader Rojan neutralized and reduced Chekov into a dehydrated porous cuboctahedron solid, the size of a human fist, composed of Chekov's base minerals which represented the "distilled" essence of Chekov's being, because he was considered along with most of the rest of the crew non-essential personnel. Chekov was reconstituted after Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty, the only four of the crew who were not neutralized, regained control of the Enterprise. After the Starnes Exploration Party children were brought aboard the Enterprise from the planet Triacus, no one on board knew that the children were under the influence of Gorgan, who had given the children the ability of mind-control. This telekinesis had already caused the deaths of the children's parents and was the way in which Gorgan hoped to achieve galactic dominance by way of other children. The children used their mind-control on Chekov, Sulu and Uhura to make them believe that the Enterprise was still orbiting Triacus, when in actuality Chekov and Sulu had set course for Marcus XII, the intended next target for Gorgan. This also caused Kirk, unaware of the change of course and the departure from the orbit of Triacus, to have two redshirts have their molecules beamed into and spread throughout space and to their deaths. Then Tommy Starnes manipulated, by telekinesis, Chekov, Security Chief Freeman and another Security Guard Redshirt attempted to arrest and put in the brig both Kirk and Spock because of false "orders" of Starfleet command. Kirk and Spock fought off Chekov, Freeman and the other Security Guard who were temporarily put in the brig themselves. Chekov was freed from the mind-control once the children were freed from the influence of Gorgan. 

Chekov was rendered unconscious by the Eymorg  when she boarded the Enterprise  and used her control bracelet in order to steal Spock's brain. After the crew regained consciousness and found Spock's body without his brain and they found Kara's ship left an ion trail to the Sigma Draconis system, Chekov placed a schematic of the system on the bridge's viewscreen. A debate ensued between Chekov, Sulu and Uhura as to which of the three Class M planets they should look for Spock's brain, with Kirk reminding them that Dr. McCoy said that Spock would have only three hours to live without his brain. None of the three planets seemed capable of supporting interstellar flight, but Kirk's best hunch of where to look came from Uhura, who found large, regular energy pulsations on the otherwise glaciated and pre-industrial Sigma Draconis VI. Chekov was part of a landing party that also consisted of Kirk, Scotty, McCoy and two redshirts who beamed down to the surface of Sigma Draconis VI. There the landing party suffered an ambush by the Morg, primitive humanoid men until one of them was subdued by a phaser. The Morg that was hit hinted at "the Others" who gave "pain and delight", but seemingly the Morg had no mates and didn't know what a female was. Chekov then ran his tricorder and found evidence of an underground city. As Kirk, McCoy, and Scotty went underground and found that the Eymorg were the females of the Morg, and then discovered Spock's brain was being used to power the city, Chekov used his phaser to heat a rock to keep him and the two redshirts warm. McCoy was able to get Spock's brain back in his head, just in the nick of time, and they met back up with Chekov and the two redshirts leaving the Eymorg to have to start living with the Morg. 

When Spock mind-melded with Medusan Ambassador Kollos to guide the Enterprise into normal space from being stranded in an uncharted void of the galaxy, by a then dead Larry Marvick, Spock-Kollos took over, temporarily,, the helm console from Sulu and was assisted in the task by Chekov at navigation. Unfortunately Spock-Kollos forgot to put back on the visor, which caused Spock to go temporarily insane while still on the bridge. In this temporary insanity, he pushed very hard backwards both Chekov and Sulu, who were trying to help him, with Chekov landing on top of the navigation console and then to on his back on the floor. Fortunately Chekov recovered quickly and Spock would do so, as well, a short time after that. )

Chekov was part of an away team that beamed aboard the starship USS Defiant (NCC-1764), which was adrift in space. They discovered that the ship was dissolving due to the effects of the interphase of that part of space. They also discovered that there had been mass insanity aboard the USS Defiant with it's whole crew dead. Kirk unfortunately had to remain behind because the transporter could only beam aboard three of the four away team members. After beaming back to the Enterprise, Chekov attacked Spock in a fit of madness. The illness then spread throughout the ship. The interphase was now causing mental breakdowns in the crew of the Enterprise. Chekov was cured of his madness the same way the rest of the crew who suffered mental breakdowns did, from Dr. McCoy discovering and then dispensing a diluted theragen derivative. Spock would tell Chekov that it was great to see Chekov back to his normal self. The crew rescued Kirk and escaped the Tholians. 

Near the end of 2268, Chekov was very nervous when Kirk, Spock and Scotty were forced to activate the three-part self-destruct sequence in order to force Commissioner Bele to relinquish control of the Enterprise to Kirk. Shortly after in the recreation room, Chekov attended the speech by Lokai regarding how his people had been enslaved and then subjugated by Bele's people on their home planet of Cheron for many centuries. Chekov expressed surprise about this by saying to Lokai, "There was persecution on Earth once. I remember reading about it in history class."  Sulu then reminded Chekov that that took place several centuries earlier on Earth and was considered primitive thinking in the 23rd century. Chekov, manning the bridge's main science station for Spock, would later be the one to discover that Bele sabotaged the self-destruct porgram so he and Lokai would end up having their final battle on the already mutually annihilated, by civil war, Cheron. 

Early in 2269, Chekov's sight would be effected when the "lights of Zetar" beings attacked the Enterprise as the ship was trying to reach Memory Alpha. Apparently as navigator, Chekov's sight was considered by the Zetarians to be the most important part of Chekov's brain to render useless in the young man during the attack. Chekov later expressed that he couldn't force himself to look at the navigation controls during the attack. 

A bit later in 2269, Chekov once again encountered his lost love, Irina. Although they were initially happy to see one another, Chekov adamantly disapproved of her new lifestyle and attempted to cast her off. She visited Chekov, who was working in Auxiliary Control assigned to help Spock locate the planet Eden, to apologize for upsetting Pavel. Her ulterior motive, however, was to subtly use him to gain his knowledge of the systems of the ship, which were later used by Dr. Sevrin and his followers to hijack the Enterprise. The two left each other once again, this time while saying "good-bye" to one another, as well as each with a better understanding of the other. 

A short time after that unaware that Kirk's body was being inhabited by Dr. Janice Lester after a life-energy transfer, Chekov and Sulu started protesting when the Captain extended the mutiny charges against Spock and the doctor to Scotty and McCoy and ordered the death penalty for all four of them. Chekov persisted and tried to remind the Captain that the death penalty was forbidden except for violation of General Order 4, which had not been violated. But the Captain refused to listen. A short time later on the bridge, Chekov and Sulu took their hands off their consoles in defiance of the Captain's orders to go to the planet Benecia for the internment of the prisoners. This action by Chekov and Sulu fortunately started the process of returning Kirk back to his own body. 

Later in 2269, Chekov was no longer the navigator on board the Enterprise, having been replaced by Arex. (Star Trek: The Animated Series)

Later career
By the early 2270s he had been promoted to lieutenant and served as the security chief and tactical officer of the refit Enterprise under the command of captain Willard Decker.

Chekov's hands were severely burned when the ship was probed during its encounter with V'Ger. 

Chekov was later promoted to commander and assigned as first officer to USS Reliant under Captain Clark Terrell.

In 2285, Reliant was on a mission to find a suitable planet to conduct trials with the Genesis Device. When they explored Ceti Alpha V, Chekov and Captain Terrell encountered Khan Noonien Singh and his augments.

By putting Ceti eels inside their heads, Khan made them susceptible to his suggestions, his motive being to seek revenge on Admiral Kirk. Using Chekov and Terrell, Khan was able to seize the Reliant and subsequently steal the Genesis Device.

After Captain Terrell's death, and the departure of the Ceti eel from his head, Chekov recovered in time to help defeat Khan in the battle of the Mutara Nebula. Afterward he assumed the post of Enterprise's acting science officer following the death of Captain Spock. 

Also in 2285, Chekov and his shipmates Kirk, Scotty, Sulu, and McCoy stole the Enterprise from Spacedock (with Uhura's help) in an attempt to recover a regenerated Spock from the Genesis Planet.

The Enterprise was disabled by a Klingon Bird-of-Prey in orbit around the Genesis Planet and was then self-destructed by Kirk (with help from Scotty and Chekov) to prevent its capture. Kirk and his crew later seized command of the Klingon ship, which they named the HMS Bounty.

The crew then transported the regenerated body of Spock to Vulcan, where the body would be reunited with his katra, which had been placed in McCoy. 

Using the slingshot effect, the Bounty went back in time to 1986, to transport two Humpback whales to the 23rd century. While on Earth, Chekov and Uhura were part of "Team 2," assigned to locating and acquiring photons for recrystallizing the dilithium crystals aboard the Bounty.

Although the mission was a success in acquiring the necessary photons from the nuclear vessel, USS Enterprise (CVN-65), Chekov was captured by the ship's security. Accused of being a "Russkie," Chekov made a failed escape attempt from the aircraft carrier, only to become critically injured when he fell over fifty feet from the ship's hangar deck, running through an open hatch that led out to one of the ship's massive aircraft elevators.

Chekov was taken into emergency surgery at Mercy Hospital where he was diagnosed with a tearing of the middle meningeal artery after a fundoscopic examination. He would successfully be healed, narrowly escaping the removal of an Epidural hematoma by trepanation, and subsequently evacuated from the hospital by McCoy, Kirk and Gillian Taylor.

Upon returning to the 23rd century, Chekov and his shipmates faced court martial for their actions. However, they were eventually cleared of all charges and Chekov was reassigned as second officer, navigator and security chief on the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A). 

In 2287, Chekov took command of the Enterprise-A and posed as "Captain Chekov" as a ruse to negotiate with Sybok for the hostages that the renegade Vulcan took on Nimbus III, while Kirk, Spock, Uhura, and a security team landed on the planet covertly by shuttlecraft. Chekov successfully distracted Sybok long enough for the landing party to launch an attack on Paradise City. 

In 2293, Chekov undertook his final voyage on the Enterprise-A as part of the mission to escort the Klingon Chancellor to peace negotiations with the Federation. Chekov used his investigative science background to find forensic evidence linked to a Federation-Klingon conspiracy attempting to undermine the peace talks. After the Khitomer Conference, Chekov's last duty on the Enterprise-A was to man navigation and the helm for her decommissioning cruise. 

In the latter part of 2293, Commander Chekov was a guest of honor aboard the new USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) under the command of John Harriman. During the maiden voyage, Captain Kirk went missing (presumably swept into space) during a hull breach caused by a part of the Nexus energy ribbon when it collided with the Enterprise-B. 

Russian heritage
Pavel was very proud of his heritage. He often noted (sometimes erroneously) that most great inventions and events ever noted in history came from his homeland, which both amused and annoyed his crewmates:


 * He claimed that the old Earth saying: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me," was invented in Russia.
 * He claimed that the English story about the Cheshire Cat was a Russian story about a disappearing cat from Minsk.
 * He was also known to have made references to Peter the Great.
 * He once sarcastically referred to himself as "the tsar of all the Russias" when meeting Apollo.
 * He claimed that the Garden of Eden was located just outside Moscow. He claimed that it was "a very nice place" and that "it must've made Adam and Eve very sad to leave." Which Kirk sarcastically responded with "Just..outside Moscow, all right"
 * He claimed that the region surrounding Sherman's Planet was first mapped by the famous Russian astronomer Ivan Burkoff, when in fact, it was discovered by John Burke, of the Royal Academy.
 * He claimed that quadrotriticale was a Russian invention, when, in fact, it was invented in Canada.
 * He claimed that scotch was invented by a little old lady from Leningrad.
 * He was also fond of the Russian beverage vodka and referring to the Klingons, among other individuals, as Cossacks.
 * He once referred to Harry Mudd as an "unprincipled evil-minded lecherous Kulak." He then commented that planet Mudd was "even better than Leningrad."
 * He claimed Cinderella was a Russian epic. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)

In addition to these, Captain Kirk once stopped Lieutenant Sulu mid-sentence, while Sulu was referencing an incident in Siberia, and told Sulu, "If I wanted a Russian history lesson, I would have brought Mr. Chekov." (, in which Chekov himself did not appear)

Biographical timeline

 * 2245 : Born in Russia, on Earth
 * ca. 2263 : Enrolls at Starfleet Academy, later graduates with the rank of ensign
 * ca. 2267 : Assigned to USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) as navigator and relief science officer
 * 2270 : The Enterprise's five-year mission ends.
 * Early 2270s : Joins the refit Enterprise crew as lieutenant, assigned as security chief
 * 2285 : Assigned to USS Reliant as commander, first officer. Assignment ends when the vessel is destroyed by Khan Noonien Singh. Chekov participates in the theft and destruction of Enterprise, and flees with Admiral Kirk's party to Vulcan
 * 2286 : Charges against the crew and Chekov are dropped, Chekov becomes security chief of USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A)
 * 2287 : Temporarily in command of the Enterprise-A, acts as captain to negotiate with Sybok at Nimbus III
 * 2293 : After helping to solve the Khitomer conspiracy, Chekov's assignment to the Enterprise-A ends when the vessel is scheduled for retirement. Chekov is a guest on board the new Enterprise-B.

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Background
Chekov was played by Walter Koenig, who joined the cast of Star Trek at the beginning of TOS Season 2, and filled in what were originally intended to be roles for Hikaru Sulu while George Takei spent much of this time involved in filming The Green Berets during Season 2. ("To Boldly Go...": Season 2, TOS Season 2 DVD special features)

According to Gene L. Coon in his The Making of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry wanted to add in a young, Englishman to appeal to younger demographics. However, he received a written complaint from Russian sources, who complained that Star Trek–though trying to fashion a future where the world was united–was ignoring the USSR, which, at the time, was the leader in the Space Race. Roddenberry soon after altered his English youth into Pavel.

On the video release of "William Shatner's Star Trek Memories," Walter Koenig himself said that the Russians didn't say anything about there being no Russians on Enterprise and the article that Roddenberry and Coon referred to likely didn't exist because at the height of the Cold War, no American programming was airing in Russia. (Allan Asherman's The Star Trek Compendium says that the Pravda journalist "[had] seen a Star Trek episode televised in Germany", but Star Trek didn't air in Germany until 1972.) According to Koenig, the character was added to add -like appeal to the show and that the Russian heritage was added by Roddenberry indeed because he wanted to honor the fact that the Russians were the first people in space. In his first couple of episodes, Koenig indeed wore a style wig to look more like Davy Jones. ("To Boldly Go...": Season 2, TOS Season 2 DVD special features) (Ironically, during the time of TOS in the late 1960s, Soviet teens sporting this look, derisively called "haries" and viewed as dangerously rebellious by their elders, were often arrested and had their hair cut off by the police.)

Chekov was the only main character from Star Trek not to appear in Star Trek: The Animated Series, due to budgetary constraints. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, p. 422) Nevertheless StarTrek.com has a explaining what he was up to away from the Enterprise in the years of The Animated Series. Koenig, however, was not entirely absent from the series; he did provide the script for. In, Chekov was briefly referred to as "Captain Chekov" by one of the reporters on the Enterprise-B. Chekov was referred to in the script as "Commander," and was still wearing a Commander's pin.

An episode was developed for the seventh season of Star Trek: The Next Generation that would have featured at 24th-Century Pavel Chekov. Writer Naren Shankar is quoted in the September 1994 issue of Sci Fi Universe: "It never went anywhere. I was working on a Chekov story where he returns as a prisoner-of-war from a planet where he was imprisoned for many years and finally released. Now he has come back as an ambassador to help the Federation open up diplomatic relations, like Vietnam, essentially. The story was going to be about Worf and Chekov, because they're both Russian and Worf has heard about him and they kind of strike up a relationship together. Throughout the course of the negotiations with these people, it appears as though Chekov is sabotaging them. It turns out he is plotting to use the Enterprise to lay waste to their capital for revenge and to screw things up for the Federation because he feels they abandoned him and let these people torture him."

One of his costumes was added to the ScienceFictionArchives.com collection and was showcased at Paris science museum during 2010-2011 exhibition "Science (and) Fiction: Imagination Meets Reality".

Apocrypha
In the Eleventh UK Annual Story, Chekov says that he took the same radio courses as Uhura, presumably at Starfleet Academy.

In the  game, Chekov claims he was stationed on planet Benderi IV prior to joining the Enterprise where he had a commanding officer who believed getting angry was unprofessional and bottled up her rage until it exploded. He also authored several simulator missions used at the academy.

In the novel To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh, Chekov led the security team that delivered Khan and his followers to Ceti Alpha V's surface. Khan remembers Chekov as having led a courageous but failed attempt to retake the engine room during Khan's brief takeover of the Enterprise. This coincides with both Khan's recognition of Chekov, as well as Chekov's comment in the novelization for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that he had seen the world Khan had been left on.

After Chekov's final appearance in Generations (circa 2293), and the reference that a starship would be named after him by 2367, no canon information exists on how he lived out the rest of his days, or what fate he met. According to The Sundered, the first book in the Star Trek: The Lost Era series, Chekov served as executive officer of the USS Excelsior from 2293 through at least part of 2298. Chekov is mentioned in TNG-era novels from Pocket Books, such as Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens's Federation. That novel mentioned him becoming an admiral after commanding both the USS Potemkin (NCC-1657) and USS Cydonia. The Reeves-Stevenses collaborated with William Shatner on The Return, which had Chekov becoming Fleet Admiral. In Exodus, a novel in the Star Trek: Vulcan's Soul series by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz, one plot thread had Chekov still be alive by the time of the Dominion War, along with Admiral Uhura.