Henning Koonert (hk)
28.03.09
TZN Exclusive: Koenig Talks Trek
Walter Koenig on New Star Trek, InAlienable & Burma
Walter Koenig exclusively talks to TrekZone Network about the new Star Trek movie, his successor as Chekov, his latest Sci Fi flick InAlienable and lasting impressions from a trip to the Burmese border.
After a long day of signing autographs and posing for pictures, Walter Koenig graciously agreed to take the time for an interview with TrekZone Network. We are deeply grateful to him!
In the last couple of years, Star Trek fans saw Walter Koenig once again as Chekov in independent Trek productions like New Voyages and Of Gods and Men. He remains active beyond the franchise that made him famous forty years ago, too. Koenig completed his independent film InAlienable in 2008. Mulling over the question if even aliens have inalienable rights, the movie deals with the highly topical tension between individual rights and security concerns.
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 Walter Koenig |
Koenig not only plays a character in the movie starring Richard Hatch (Battlestar Galactica), but also wrote the script and produced the film, which was released last year as a pay-per-download video on the Internet.
Koenig tells TrekZone Network about upcoming plans for the movie: "Until recently it was available on the Internet, but it's not anymore. But it will be getting out on DVD soon." Indeed an announcement has now gone up on Koenig's official website stating that Renegade Film Club is offering InAlienable for 19.99 $ on DVD for a limited time. People ordering the movie will receive a copy of the independently produced Star Trek movie Of Gods and Men for free. Koenig, whose sci-fi novel Buck Alice and the Actor-Robot was published in 2006, plans to sell InAlienable as a novel, too: "It is written. I am trying to sell it. I am trying to get a publisher to buy it."
Outside of showbiz, Koenig used his popularity in an effort to bring the world's attention towards a situation which according to him is as horrific as the war in Darfur for which Sudanese president Omar al Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. In 2007 Koenig, together with his son and accompanied by press, travelled to the Burmese border region.
He recounts with great compassion what he saw and learned there: "It was very compelling to see the way these people live and how they are forced to live by a brutal, ruthless government. The government is a military dictatorship and it has totally oppressed the people. Millions of Burmese have been forced to leave their homes and hide in the woods. The Burmese have conscripted soldiers as young as 12 or 13 years old. One of the orders of the Burmese government was that their soldiers rape women, not only for their own satisfaction, but to dilute the blood. There are separate states and they want to make everybody eventually the same. There is a state of Christians and they are being targeted, chased out of their homes and also attacked. It's a terrible situation. It's as bad as the Sudan."
There is, of course, only so much one person can do to change such a situation. Nevertheless, we asked Walter Koenig whether he thinks his trip made a difference. "Probably a little drop in the water", the actor says and goes on to describe the events that unfolded some time after his tour: "Subsequent to that there have been other things happening like the enormous cyclone [that hit the country in March 2008 and caused tens of thousands of deaths]. The way the government reacted was reprehensible. They didn't leave aid into the country. That aid they let in, they told people that it wasn't from other counties. It was a terrible situation."
Walter Koenig is glad that by now some other actors and celebrities have taken up the cause and the topic gets somewhat more public attention. His trip garnered attention in the European press, he says, and played on the Internet mostly in the States. "I was asked to do it by the US Campaign for Burma and I thought it's my civic responsibility to do it", the actor sums up his motivation. Koenig has written about his trip to the Burmese border region very candidly on his official website.
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The new Chekov, Anton Yelchin |
Naturally we talked about the dominant topic regarding Star Trek these days, JJ Abrams' new movie. Koenig, like some other Trek stars, visited the set for one day and met with his successor as Chekov, Anton Yelchin. "We talked a little about the role. I told him that he has to make it his own. And I don't think it's a good idea to try to imitate me. I don't think that was his intention anyway."
Walter Koenig is sure that Yelchin has what it takes to make a good Chekov: "He is originally, his parents are from Russia. He's been born there but he's been living in the States since he's a few months old. His grandparents are very, very much Russian. So I think he got some help with the dialect from his own family. He's a very pleasant young man. And his career is already going very well. He's done several movies. He made a movie with Anthony Hopkins when he was a few years younger [Hearts in Atlantis]. He's a very well established actor."
The re-imagination of the Original Series era remains controversial and while some are delighted by a breeze of fresh air for the Star Trek franchise, others cannot really chum up with the idea of changes being made to what has been established in the past. We asked Walter Koenig what he would like to say to the fans opposed to the idea of re-imagination.
He paused for a moment and then said: "I think this is gonna be a terrific movie. And I think if they just put away any prejudice and not worry about canon they'll have a good time. You know, nothing is carved into stone. Star Trek isn't based on historical facts. It's just imaginary, creation. People's imagination. It's fictitious. So, if they take something and change it, go with it, accept it for what it's like and have a good time!"
Henning Koonert interviewed Walter Koenig on March 8 2009 in Münster, Germany.
(hk - 09.02.10)
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