So. Why Is He In The Show?

They were looking to add in a new character to take the place of George Takei (Sulu) while he was off filming The Green Berets. They wanted someone who was youthful to capitalise on the Beatles/Monkees craze of the 60s, and he apparently looks sort of like Davy Jones.
Chekov was conceptualised as an Englishman at first, but was changed to be a Russian. There was a rumour that Roddenberry changed it because there was an article in Pravda which had a go at the show for not having a Russian member of the crew, but no American shows were airing in the USSR at the time, and no such article actually exists.

'Oh, yes, I'll live, but I won't enjoy it'

Pavel Andreivich Chekov

Chekov is a character from Star Trek: The Original Series. He appeared in 36 television episodes and in the six TOS films; he was portrayed by Walter Koenig.
He is also a character in JJ Abhram's reboot films (Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond); he was portrayed by Anton Yelchin.


My Thoughts

He's so silly and neurotic and naive; he's great! Every time I see him I want to eat glass and that's the single greatest compliment I could give!
If you plonked me onto The Enterprise right now I'd probably try and be friends with him, though I don't think I could knock the likes of Sulu off the best friend pedistal.

I love his quirk of just attributing everything ever to being a Russian invention or thing. He says Eden is right outside of Moscow, and who am I to go against his word?
I get that it was because the show was airing right in the middle of the Cold War and it was probably easier to just make him very very loyal to the USSR, but I like to imagine he does it just to fuck with everyone. I reckon a lot of what he does is just for the bit and I appreciate that.

You know what I both love and despise about his character? That fucking WIG.
Now I know that the wig was only temporary and at the start they didn't want to fuck up Walter Koenig's actual hair by giving him the Davy Jones cut, but couldn't they have picked a better wig? Like, that shit was atrocious to look at and very distracting; every time I see it I start giggling.
I like to imagine that the wig was almost symbolic of his first attempt at trying to experiment with his hair and that's why it looks so bad. Plus, I think it's very funny to image someone else on The Enterprise having to step in and start cutting his hair for him because they couldn't STAND to keep seeing that godawful haircut every time they were on shift or in the mess hall.