Walter Koenig, best known as Pavel Chekov in Star Trek, has died aged 90. His work beyond the science-fiction series included a brief appearance in Columbo, in which an unexpected request from Peter Falk led him to improvise his entire scene in a single take.
In Fade In to Murder, Koenig played Morella, a police officer describing a crime scene. The episode also featured William Shatner as Ward Fowler, a television star whose former lover threatened to expose him as a Korean War deserter. Fowler killed her in a delicatessen, disguising the murder as a robbery.
The scene with Falk was filmed at two in the morning. Finding Morella's scripted account too similar to Columbo's description, Falk asked for different dialogue. With no time for a formal rewrite, he outlined what he wanted and left Koenig to formulate the lines during the performance. Koenig completed the revised scene in one take.
He was among several Star Trek performers to appear in Columbo, alongside Leonard Nimoy, Kate Mulgrew and Ricardo Montalban. The detective series attracted a varied range of guest stars, including Faye Dunaway, Dick Van Dyke and Johnny Cash.
Although Koenig did relatively little work outside Star Trek, he also appeared twice in the short-lived space series The Starlost and worked with Bruce Campbell in Moontrap. He remained popular at fan conventions, where his encounters with Star Trek enthusiasts were warm and enthusiastic.
