By Jonathan Klotz
| Updated
For better or worse, the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series found their careers tied to science fiction for decades after the series ended. This ended up working out well for Walter Koenig, the original Chekov, who enjoyed a late-career resurgence on Babylon 5 as Alfred Bester, the Psi-Cop villain who became a staple of the show’s five seasons. Chekov was meant to appeal to younger fans, while Bester was a villain from his first scene to his last, and throughout it all, Koening took whatever material he was given and knocked it out of the park.
Alfred Bester was Babylon 5’s biggest villain
First appearance of Walter Koenig in Babylon 5 in “Mind War”, the sixth episode of the series, introduced audiences to the dark side of the Psi Corps from the start. Alfred Bester, a representative of the mysterious Psi-Corps, lands on the space station to capture a renegade telepath. Bester doesn’t get along with the station commanders, lying to Jeffrey Sinclair (Michael O’Hare) in the first of many times the Psi-Cop will obscure his true mission, no matter who might get hurt along the way. Koening’s performance was praised by fans immediately after the episode aired, and to date, the 12 episodes in which he appears are among the series’ best.
Having more in common with Khan than with Chekov, Walter Koenig’s project Babylon 5 Psi-Cop was motivated by the desire to create a world in which telepaths ruled over mundanes. He wasn’t subtle about it either, and thankfully none of the other characters held back when discussing their feelings about Bester, resulting in some of the best lines in the series . Only the perfect match between the actor and the character could give rise to a sentence as cheesy as this one, uttered in complete sincerity: “A pinata, eh? So, you think of me as something bright and happy, full of toys and candy for young children? THANKS! It makes me feel much better about our relationship.
No redemption arc anywhere
As the series progressed, Walter Koenig became more comfortable playing Babylon 5 an outright villain, Bester slowly transitioned from an irritating antagonist to an ally as the Shadow War intensified. Not only did it not last long, but it completely fell apart during Season 5 and the Telepathic War. Sheridan’s (Bruce Boxleitner) work to try to harbor a telepathic colony aboard the space station was started with the best of intentions, but it nearly shattered the fledgling Alliance before Bester even got his hands dirty .
The strict rules and rigid discipline of the Psi Corps, exemplified by the motto “The Body is the mother, the Body is the father”, were wholeheartedly embraced by Besker and his sense of superiority. Even after the fallout from the Telepathic War led to the decimation of the Corps, he contributed to his beliefs and, in fact, originally the Season 5 storyline wasn’t going to be the end of Psi Cop. Walter Koenig was to reappear in the Babylon 5 spin-off, Crusadebut the series was canceled before it could happen, which is a shame, because given how badly it fell by the end of the series, there was unlimited story potential in its revival from his ashes.
As great as Walter Koenig’s performance as Chekov in Star Trek: The Original Series is that if someone says that its true greatest science fiction the role was Alfred Bester in Babylon 5it would be difficult to argue. We’ve had five seasons of menacing stares, devious mind control, and gloriously nasty comebacks, including the deliciously dry: “Anatomically impossible, Mr. Garibaldi.” But you can try. Not once in any episode was there an attempt to give Bester a redemption arc or portray him as anything other than a selfish villain willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his goals.
