I mean no offense to the actor, but I have to
say that Chehov ties Ensign Kim from Voyager as one of the most poorly-written main characters from all four Star Trek shows. The Original Series writers really needed to characterize Chekov more.

Since I haven't had the chance to say this on
the Which Character Was In Section 31 board,and
personally I think Section 31 must've time travelled from the future and is blocking me from
saying this,HA!HA!(Oh,the joys of paranoia!!!:))
I think Chekov was in Section 31.
I men could you just see him lying awake nights
muttering to himself:"Section 31 is mother,
Section 31 is father,I am writting from Camp
Grenada..Doo Whop!":)

Chekov and Sulu both were intended not as lead characters in their own right but as plot device characters - they gave us a sense of what was going on in the ship, the mutterings of the crew (Chekov especially) - gave us a different perspective. Fans eventually focused attention on them after the fact. Just like TNG - although TNG tried for an ensemble style cast, fans picked up on minor characters - like O'Brien.

Found this on on an urban legends website, thought it was kinda interesting:

Claim: The character of Ensign Chekov was added to the television series Star Trek because of a Pravda editorial critical of the show's lack of Soviets on board the U.S.S. Enterprise.

Status: Sort of . . .

Synopsis: Gene Roddenberry had already decided to add a new, young crew member to Star Trek cast before he heard about the alleged Pravda editorial. The newspaper article (which was never demonstrated to be real) merely prompted him to change the new character's nationality from British to Russian.

Origins: In the days before cable TV (and the myriad other entertainments that have since sprung up to sap our attention), the networks reigned supreme in the television industry. Landing a series in the prime time line-up of one of the "big three" (CBS, NBC, and ABC), where competition was fierce for the few slots that opened up each year, was a TV producer's ultimate achievement. Keeping his series on the air after having secured a network spot for it was a TV producer's next greatest achievement.

It was with justifiable pride, then, that Gene Roddenberry found himself considering ways to enhance the popularity of his new Star Trek series in September 1966. After years of planning and effort (including the unusual circumstance of having to produce two separate pilots with two different casts at Desilu studios), Roddenberry had managed to convince NBC to take a chance on something outside the usual tried-and-true westerns and family sitcoms that dominated network schedules: a non-anthology science fiction series set on a space ship three hundred years in the future. The chances of landing such a show with a network had been slim; the chances of keeping it there were even slimmer. So it's no wonder that even though only two episodes of Star Trek had been aired, its creator/producer was already thinking ahead its next season. With an eye towards higher ratings, Roddenberry wrote a memo to casting director Joe D'Agosta on 22 September 1966:


Keeping our teenage audience in mind, also keeping aware of current trends, let's watch for a young, irreverent, English-accent "Beatle" type to try on the show, possibly with an eye to him reoccurring. Like the smallish fellow who looks to be a hit on The Monkees. Personally, I find this type spirited and refreshing and I think our episode could use that kind of "lift." Let's discuss.
(If this memo -- including its date -- is genuine, Roddenberry was prescient indeed. By 22 September 1966, The Monkees -- like Star Trek, never a ratings winner during its original run -- had aired but two episodes, both of which lost their time slot to Gilligan's Island. And "Last Train to Clarksville," the Monkees' first record, had yet to crack the top 40 charts. Roddenberry must have been following the television industry (and the teen market) quite keenly to have caught on to Davy Jones' nascent popularity so quickly.)

Roddenberry's new character did show up the next season in the person of an ensign serving as the ship's navigator (and junior science officer), as portrayed by actor Walter Koenig. The character's Beatlesque/Monkeesque origins were demonstrated by the "mop-top" wig placed atop Koenig's head for his first few episodes, until his own hair grew out to a suitable length. (As William Shatner later wrote, " . . . the rather bushy toupee he was forced to wear will illustrate the Monkee mimicry point beyond a shadow of a doubt." And Koenig himself complained that "swallows kept trying to nest in the wig they gave me.") However, rather than employing a Manchester accent similar to Davy Jones', Koenig's character spoke in a distinctively Russian accent, one that went with the character's name: Pavel Chekov. So what happened to the "English-accent type" Roddenberry had so eagerly spoken of adding to the cast a year earlier? As Desilu Vice President of Production Herb Solow later wrote:


Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, had criticized Star Trek as being "typically capitalistic" and questioned why there was no Russian crewman aboard the Enterprise. After all, the Soviets were doing quite well in the race for outer space.
Roddenberry liked the idea. By having someone from behind the Iron Curtain on "our side," he intended to show that people with opposing philosophies not only could learn to get along, but could in fact set aside their differences and cooperate to bring about a better future for humankind.

That explains Chekov's transformation from a Brit to a Russian quite nicely. Or does it? You see, there is no evidence that Pravda ever ran any such editorial (and given the decidedly pro-American Cold War allegories that furnished the plots for numerous Star Trek episodes, we'd have to wonder if the Soviets would even want to be associated with such a "typically capitalist" show). Roddenberry hadn't seen the editorial for himself: he claimed had been told about it by one of the show's actors around the end of 1966. (Which actor told him this isn't mentioned, but we'd also have to wonder who in the Star Trek cast made a habit of reading Pravda.)

Nonetheless, this was the story of Chekov's origins that Roddenberry offered in the book The Making of Star Trek a few years later:


The Chekov thing was a major error on our part, and I'm still embarrassed by the fact that we didn't include a Russian right from the beginning. However, now it's Russia's turn to be embarrassed. After we wrote Chekov into the show, we sent a long, polite letter to the minister of cultural affairs in Moscow, apologizing for the error and telling him about Chekov. That was over a year ago, and they still haven't answered us. So we're square.
Perhaps the Soviets never wrote back because they had no idea what Roddenberry was talking about? William Shatner (or his ghostwriter) writes the whole thing off as a publicity stunt in his book Star Trek Memories:


You've heard this story, I'm sure: In early 1967, the Soviet newspaper Pravda writes a long, angry editorial, complaining that even though the USSR was first in space, there is no Russian aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise. Gene Roddenberry gets hold of the scathing condemnation of his xenophobic American television show, reads it over several times and finally comes to the conclusion that the paper's arguments are well founded. With that in mind, he goes back into his office and immediately creates the character of Ensign Pavel Chekov.
That's the story. Here's the truth: This long-established, widely believed bit of Star Trek history is entirely false, and was simply the product of an overzealous public relations department.

What to believe? Roddenberry was infamous for his myth-making, so this tale certainly sounds like something he could have made up. And William Shatner, star of the series, confirms it as a hoax.

Our decision is a split one: although we don't believe Pravda ever ran an editorial complaining about the lack of Soviets on board the U.S.S. Enterprise, Roddenberry apparently believed they had. Shatner's book can be discounted: he wasn't necessarily privy to all the show's creative and casting decisions, and he repeats several other bits of apocryphal Star Trek mythology as the truth. The tie-breaker is a 1967 letter (on Star Trek letterhead) from Gene Roddenberry to the editor of Pravda, informing the latter of Chekov's addition to the cast. This letter is reproduced in the book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story. Roddenberry is unlikely to have written such a letter unless he believed the Pravda article to have been real, and there is no reason to doubt that the he book's authors (Desilu Vice President Herb Solow and Star Trek Associate Producer Robert Justman) fabricated it.

So, in summary:


Gene Roddenberry decided in September 1966 to add a Davy Jones-like cast member to Star Trek to appeal to younger viewers.

After being told that Pravda had criticized Star Trek for not having any characters of Soviet origin, Roddenberry decided to make his new character Russian rather than British.

Although Roddenberry believed Pravda had run an editorial critical of Star Trek, there is no evidence that they actually did.

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/chekov.htm
Please use this URL in all link or references to this page

Sources:
Shatner, William. Star Trek Memories.
New York: HarperCollins, 1993. ISBN 0-06-017734-9 (p. 224).

Solow, Herbert F. and Robert H. Justman. Inside Star Trek: The Real Story.
New York: Pocket Books, 1996. ISBN 0-671-00974-5 (pp. 343-345).

Whitfield, Stephen E. The Making of Star Trek.
New York: Ballantine Books, 1968. ISBN 0-345-34019-1 (pp. 249-251).

I have both the Shatner Trek memoirs, and Walter Keonig's 'Warped Factors' and it's in my opinion, that the Davy Jones lookalike, was what Gene really wanted. Though I always kept hearing about that Pravda article all the time, so I wondering if there is any truth that had some influence. considering that Chekov does have a Russian accent and not an English one. (I wonder what Gene would of thought of Dr. Bashir for that matter, considering english accents.)

I too, feel they really underused Chekov as well. But then again, in all Trek series, there was always the one who was constantly tortured. Chekov, Geordi, O'Brien, Paris. I quess,they just needed a screamer.

Scott -- Well, he IS in the Psi Corps! :-)

I love Bester!!!

Chekov does have a personality, maybe a little archetypal, but he has one nonetheless. He is one of the main characters, I believe he was only meant to be recurrring when he first appeared, but when George Takei was busy Chekov had to take his roles. The Trouble With Tribbles was originally meant to have both characters, but it became Chekov all through it.

Oh, BTW, remember the reference to Chekov in That Which Survives? he wasn`t in that, but Sulu was in the away team. I suspect Chekov was originally in the role given to Lt Rhada. Also, in The Gamesters of Triskelion, Sulu was originally the one who beamed down, so I suspect Chekov's part was given to Ensign Haines. I mean, she takes over library computer at one point!

Here is a little theme song I cooked up to honour Pavel Chekov (to be sung to the Monkees theme)

Here He comes,
In the navigators chair,
Avoiding enemy wessles,
He's got the grooviest hair!

Hey, hey, Pavel Chekov
People say your wearing a wig,
But the're just jealous Herberts,
And should be confined to the brig!

It needs more verses, feel free to add some.

Strange how Chekov was First Officer on the Reliant and then, seemingly, was busted to Kirk's personal navigator in subsequent films. Was this punishment for not noticing that Ceti Alpha VI was missing?

Maybe he thought "OK, let's have a go at being First Officer for a change, I'm tired of being the Captain's whipping boy" but the experience left him in some form of shell shock. Those Ceti eels must have left a really bad impression in his mind [no pun in 10 did].

Kirk's personal navigator, eh? Does the good captain have trouble finding his way around his own personal space?! [I jest, you see. Perhaps I will get to grips with humour eventually....]

I have doubts about aspects of the Pravda story being true. I mean Roddenbury was known as a forceful possibly even domineering man. I find it hard to beleive he would just turn a Brit to a Russian character to appease a bunch of Soviet bigwigs with too much time on their hands. Didnt Roddenbury once state that he wrote the show for his enjoyment not the viewers thus not moulding his format to viewer wishlists. I think that the part which says Roddenbury did it as it seemed to be a good idea, and due to his liberal beliefs a positive outlook for the future.

But just to stop Pravda from griping at him. No I dont buy that.

Just one more thing I have heard (I dont know where.) that Roddenbury learned that the origin of this qualm was voiced by Nikita Krushchev himself in one of the "the West is capitlistic, decadent and what not" speeches politburo was so fond of performing. But as I said I dont know where I heard this, or indeed if it is the product of my own fertile imagination. Enlighten me fellow nitpickers.

Sounds like you've been reading the same page I was about to quote...

Basically:

No, Chekov wasn't originally created in response to the Russians. He was meant to be an analogue of the Monkees' Davy Jones - a youthful free spirit that would attract the teen/YA demographic. (Please note the wig Koenig's wearing in his first couple appearances.)
However...that doesn't quite explain the eventual choice of a Slavic accent over Jones-esque English, or just plain American - both of which would seem to be much more logical choices for the character.

While there's never been any hard proof that Pravda - much less Kruschev specifically - cared at all about minor characters in American SF, it's likely that Roddenberry firmly believed they did. And remember, strong character that he was in regard to his creations, he was also (like most TV creative types of his time) never above manipulating them for commercial gain or other self-interest.
Really, appeasement never entered into the equation, since all they had to do was change the accent (pride aside, Chekov really doesn't exhibit much fundamental Russian-ness). Why not make that concession, if the payoff was a create a charmingly memorable PR legend that would further set Trek apart as serious sci-fi worthy of note?

Heh, whoops. Sorry, Chris.

Well, anyhow, the page looks much better with the original colours and pictures and stuff, I think.

Are you telling me that, if Roddenberry hadn't heard about this alleged article, we could have had a British regular in Star Trek nearly FORTY YEARS before we had to make do with Reed in Enterprise?!! And one who nobody would claim is homosexual?!!

Scotty, Bashir, and O'Brien are British and definitly hetero.

I think both Scotty and O'Brien would take offense at that, Mista D.

The British part.

John D: Scotty, Bashir, and O'Brien are British and definitly hetero.
Luigi Novi: First of all, Scotty is Scottish, O'Brien is Irish, and Bashir, while he speaks with an British accent, is of Middle-Eastern decent (Siddig El Fadil, who played him, is Sudanese). His father, played by Brian George, seemed to speak with an Australian accent (or at least a British accent of a different region), and his mother seemed to have an Eastern/Arabic accent.

As for their sexuality, they are all presumably heterosexual, but for all we know, could have bisexual tendencies, something that would not be explored onscreen because it is too risque.

What about Kyle?

It's Kowel.

Bashir's Father has a definite South East English accent probably Home counties or Essex way. Scotty is Scottish so both are British. O'Brien hails from Dublin (well Colm Meaney does anyway) so he is Irish (The Episode the High Ground establishes that all of Ireland was unified. It doesn't state if Ulster was absorbed into the Republic or vice versa, but I assume it is the former.). So even if he was to come from Belfast he would not (in 24th century terms) be British.

Chekov's Gun.

Wrong Chekov, Keith

At the time, TV Tropes had a humor page with a picture showing a hand (presumably Chekov) holding a phaser.

I guess it got deleted when less humorous tropers got control of the site.

Too bad, it sounded like a funny picture.