Warped Factors: A Neurotic's Guide to the Universe
by Walter Koenig

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Book Reviews of Warped Factors: A Neurotic's Guide to the Universe

Book Review: So nu, he really is a Russian!
Summary: 5 Stars

In this truly candid autobiography, we learn that Walter Koenig's grandfather's surname was originally Koenigsberg, and that the family were Russian Jews who from Vilna, Lithuania. (Where they were hated as both Russians and as Jews by the local Lithuanian populace). Like so many immigrants who came to the USA in the late 1800's, grandfather Koenigsberg had his name shorted at the immigration desk. His son, Isadore Koenig (Walter's father), worked for RCA in the 1930's and, because he spoke several languages, was sent to Europe as their representative in the 1930's. Walter describes a hair-raising childhood scene in a German train station, where his father lies through his teeth in order to pass for a visiting German-American in a land where Jews are already being forced to wear yellow stars. The ruse works, and the German officer encourages Herr Koenig to remain in Germany where "great things are happening in the fatherland." No thanks.

Back in the USA, the Koenigs are suspected of being Communists during the McCarthy era, both because they are of Russian background, and because Walter's father is a member of the Labor Party and reads the Daily Worker. The fact that the Rosenbergs -- an American Jewish couple accused of spying for the Communists in the 1950's -- were actually executed as traitors by the American govenment does not exactly make Walter feel secure about his identity. Is it any wonder he turned out to be, in his own words, such a neurotic?

His acting career seems to have happened almost by accident, based, in part, on the encouragement of a kind school teacher who saw potential in an unpopular child with low self esteem. Walter came up through the ranks like most actors, and eventually got the part of Chekov because of another Russian character he had previously played.

At the Trek audition, he played Chekov as a more serious character, but Roddenberry asked him to do it again in a comic mode -- which he did, and got the part. However, Koenig never felt that Chekov was given much depth beyond cliches about how the Russians claimed to have invented everything (a joke on real-life historical revisionism in the USSR), and doesn't feel that the character really came into his own until the Star Trek IV movie. Walter also points out a really major continuity blooper regarding Chekov: that Khan in Star Trek II recognizes Chekov from the "Space Seed" episode -- but that aired in the first season, and Chekov did not come onto the Enterprise until the next season! Prudently, Walter did not point this out to the producer, lest his character get written out of the scene.

One mystery that Koenig didn't clear up in this book is -- exactly where did he get the accent he used for Chekov? Over the years, quite a few critics have said it's not really an authentic Russian accent. And yet, his family were Russians -- er, that is, Russian Jews from Lithuania, which is not the same thing as a Russian from Moscow. Was his "Russian" accent based on a local dialect from his family background (where some Yiddish would have been thrown in also)? He doesn't say.

The Trek parts of the book didn't provide much new (to me, at least) info, but did give some interesting perspectives on anecdotes I had heard before. One disappointment was that he didn't go into much detail about his post-Trek part as the psi-cop, Bester, on Babylon 5. It would have been nice to hear more about how he developed this character, and what it was like on the B5 set, etc., especially since Walter felt that the Bester character had more depth than Chekov. However, since Warped Factors is basically a Trek book, maybe he is holding out on the Bester character for a more in-depth discussion in a future B5 book? I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Meanwhile, this book is a good read -- even if it is a bit neurotic.

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