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Wouldn't It Have Made More Sense To Keep Chekhov and Lose Sulu?

posted 13 years ago by CalvinValjean
11 replies | jump to latest

I know they couldn't afford all the cast members, so Walter Koenig got left out of TAS. However, if one cast member had to go, I would think it would make much more sense to keep Chekhov and lose Sulu.

Chekhov is funny and allowed for a lot of humor. His thick Russian accent is a good voice for animation. And just in general, he was intended to be the young member of the crew on TOS that teens could relate to, and so he would have served that same purpose on TAS. In contrast, as much as I love George Takei, I don't think Sulu is that pivotal a character to the series, or even really that interesting, and I wouldn't feel that we HAD to have him on TAS. I would consider him the much more expendable character.

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[–] Spifflock_Holmes 13 years ago

As I recall, Koenig wasn't interested in participating (as Chekov, that is; he wrote one of the episodes).

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Lazy + smart = efficient.

[–] rocketXpert 13 years ago

I believe the main reason they kept Sulu is because they didn't want to lose the one token Asian in the cast.

[–] Spifflock_Holmes 13 years ago

I believe the main reason they kept Sulu is because they didn't want to lose the one token Asian in the cast.

I believe the reason they kept Sulu is the same reason they kept every other cast member who was interested in returning.

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Lazy + smart = efficient.

[–] jloper 13 years ago

I read somewhere that at first, the studio was not going to hire George Takei or Nichelle Nichols at all, but was going to have somebody else (probably James Doohan and Majel Barrett) do the Sulu and Uhura voices, but Leonard Nimoy threatened to pull out of the series if Takei and Nichols didn't get to do their characters' voices.

[–] kick4gwar 13 years ago

Walter Koenig was unavailable. That's all.

[–] hawkluvbeer 13 years ago

What in the hell is TAS? You are obviously from the ICS generation.

[–] !!!deleted!!! (19664510) 12 years ago

What in the hell is TAS?

Why are you even on this board if you don't know what the common abbreviation for this TV show is?

[–] qlhologram 12 years ago

TAS is Star Trek The Animted Series

The reason Chekov wasn't on the Animated series was money

http://www.danhausertrek.com/AnimatedSeries/Q_and_A.html

[–] gogarrett 12 years ago

I am late to the party, but am just viewing TAS for the FIRST TIME! I was glad to find these comment threads for answers to some questions, especially why Chekov was replaced by a strange-looking alien but everyone else is accounted for. Thanks for the answers. I am amused that when you look at the voice cast, those are indeed all the voices used apparently. Majel Barret and Nichelle Nichols are obviously speaking ALL the female parts and I am guessing James Doohan was speaking all the extra male parts as needed. If so, I can't recognize it's Doohan as the very convincing Cyrano Jones and Captain Koloth in More Trouble with Tribbles. I know he was good with voices. I wonder if he speaks for the Chekov replacement also? Does anyone know if Doohan covered all these parts?

[–] AdmrlLocke 12 years ago

I'm just making my way through the series for the first time in decades, but Doohan does do much of the male voices, including Lt. Arex. You can go into the individual episodes here on IMDB to see the credits. I just watched Yesteryear, and Doohan is credited with SEVEN different voices! The entry for "More Tribbles, More Troubles" credits Doohan with the voice of Korax, but shows David Gerrold, the author of the episode and the original "The Trouble With Tribbles" as also doing some of the voice of Korax uncredited (probably meaning unpaid). The entry also lists Stanley Adams as the uncredited voice of Cyrano Jones, so it's actually the original voice actor for Jones reprising the role, again probably for no pay, or at least for below-scale wages. Korax is the one, played by Michael Pataki, who goaded Scotty into punching him in station K-7 in "The Trouble With Tribbles." There's no credit in "More Tribbles, More Troubles" for anyone doing the voice of Koloth so if he speaks (I haven't gotten that far again yet) then it's probably Doohan doing it.

[–] TVholic 11 years ago

All guest voices are uncredited because they always used the same closing credits which listed only the regular actors and characters.