Warped Factors

Known primarily for his role as the confident Pavel Chekov in the Star Trek series and films, Koenig (Chekov's Enterprise) offers a surprisingly fretful memoir, focusing on his lifelong battle with neurosis and the toll it has taken on his personal and professional relationships. The book's first half covers Koenig's childhood experiences and early TV roles, with the remainder devoted mainly to his career on the U.S.S. Enterprise. Even success in early TV roles on Combat! and General Hospital failed to mitigate Koenig's ""Quasimodo"" self-image, which carried over into his worldwide success with Star Trek. He often complains about his treatment on the show: regretting that producer Gene Roddenberry ignored his script ideas, feeling dismissed by Spock actor Leonard Nimoy and envying George Takei's (Sulu) sword-wielding performance in ""The Naked Time"" episode. Koenig's honesty, humor and obvious intelligence do much to enliven the book (one of several intros hilariously sends up the entire crew), as do flashes of terrific writing. But the Star Trek show and films have been reported upon innumerable times, and so this book, for all its charms, will likely appeal mostly to diehard Trekkies. Sixteen pages of color photos, not see by PW. First serial to Star Trek Communicator magazine. (Apr.)