That Star Trek Picard Cameo

In the Star Trek: Picard series finale, Walter Koenig makes a voice cameo as Anton Chekov, son of the Enterprise's Pavel Chekov and President of the United Federation of Planets.

This tribute has many layers; Koenig's casting pays homage to the Original Series and its films, while naming Pavel's son Anton is a tribute to the late Anton Yelchin who played Pavel in the Kelvin Trek films.

The scene is also a callback to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, with Koenig's dialogue pulled from a similar transmission received in the film.

Koenig's last in-person screen appearance as Pavel Chekov was in 1994's Star Trek: Generations, where he appeared alongside James T. Kirk and Montgomery Scott in the opening scene.

Koenig is one of only three remaining actors from the Original Series cast, with William Shatner and George Takei being the other two. Despite their ongoing feud, Koenig remains the least controversial of the trio. Shatner is in his nineties, Takei in his eighties, and their public criticisms of each other continue to make headlines. Both Steph and I have met Shatner, and found him fine…and at the recent GalaxyCon, we got as Mr. Koenig to our list. All I can say - he was a perfect gentleman, and I expected no less.