He’s best remembered for playing Ensign Pavel Chekov in “Star Trek,” butthe late Walter Koenig’s favorite sci-fi role was actually in “Babylon 5.” He played the villainous Psi Corps officer Alfred Bester and came into conflict with Captain (and later President) John Sheridan, played by Bruce Boxleitner. The ’90s space opera was actually a reunion of sorts for Koenig and Boxleitner; in the ’80s, Koenig guest starred in aswashbuckling action show starring Boxleitner titled “Bring ‘Em Back Alive.”
Boxleitner plays big-game trapper Frank Buck, a real person whowrote a book in 1930 that gave the show its title. The CBS series premiered on September 24, 1982, around 15 months after “Raiders of the Lost Ark” came out in theaters.Set in Singapore in the ’30s,”Bring ‘Em Back Alive” was a pretty clear attempt to piggyback on the popularity of the hit Harrison Ford film. Like Indiana Jones, Boxleitner’s Frank Buck goes on jungle adventures and deals with various rogues with ill-intentions.
Sometimes Buck even has to deal with Nazis, and that’s where Koenig came in:He played a Nazi named Toder in the fourth episode of the show, “The Reel World of Frank Buck.”Koenig’s role is fairly small, but it’s memorable and very reminiscent of a typical Indiana Jones villain.In one scene he’s trying to obtain a potentially cursed artifact from the Valley of the Mists, something that definitely wouldn’t feel out of place in an Indiana Jones movie.
Bring ‘Em Back Alive didn’t get a second season
While “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was a huge hit, “Bring ‘Em Back Alive” enjoyed nothing near the same level of success despite the similar pulp adventure serial stylings. It was off the air before the next Indy movie, 1984’s “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” arrived in cineplexes. The show finished in a lowly 82nd place for the 1982-1983 TV season and got the axe after 17 episodes.
Bruce Boxleitnerdid just fine despite the cancellation. The same year that “Bring ‘Em Back Alive” premiered he also played the title character in the cult classic digital adventure movie “Tron.” He landed a co-lead role on the CBS series “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” in 1983, which ran for four seasons, and he had consistent work in the Kenny Rogers-led “The Gambler” TV film series, playing the character Billy Montana.Boxleitner became the new lead of “Babylon 5” at the start of the second season when Michael O’Hare quit the hit sci-fi series.
Koenig, meanwhile, kept busy for the rest of the ’80s, reprising his role as Pavel Chekov in the first series of “Star Trek” feature films.Interestingly, Koenig was originally set to play a different, smaller role in “Babylon 5” but had to pull out after he had a heart attack. By the time he’d recovered, creatorJ. Michael Straczynski had written the much juicier role of Alfred Bester for him. “Instead of a one-shot type of deal, it turned into a recurring role throughout all five seasons,” Koenig said on Scoop B Radio. “I consider it the highlight of my acting career.”
