Want to find out what a classy person Walter Koenig is? Watch this clip. He literally spends half of it praising J. Michael Stracyznski and his autobiography, Becoming Superman. THAT is a class act.

I truly hope JMS forgets doing any reboot of B5. Every actor on B5 created their characters. For fans of B5, can any other actor really replace the original actor playing Mollari? Bester? G'kar? Ivanova? Mr Morden? Cartagia? The original actors were PERFECT for the roles they played. They can't be replaced. Bester was one of the most interesting characters besides Morden. I never could tell if I disliked Bester or felt sorry for him.

Anyone who's watched great star trek will know him as Checkov- but anyone who's watched great television will know him as Alfred Bester!!

It hurts my heart so much to know everything this man has gone through in his life. He lost his son, there was a huge push to find him when he disappeared, only to find his body hanging in a tree at a park. Then his wife died last December (2022) and he is one of 3 surviving members of the Original Star Trek cast. (Sulu, Kirk, and Checkov are the only ones left :( ) As much as I adored him in Star Trek, nothing could compare to Mr.Alfred Bester in Babylon 5. I'm also glad he finally got his star on the walk of fame! Took decades from when he should have gotten one!

Psicop Bester was Koenig's best role. Checkov was really a running gag and never got any decent storylines. "Wrath of Khan" was the closest he ever got to a decent story.

He'll always be Ensign Chekov to me ❤🇨🇦🖖

Bester was a great character in B5

thankyou for this! there's so few Heroes panels still available to watch and I ADORE Greg and David so this is gold lol

Surprised JMS didn't name more characters after sci Fi bigwigs 🤓😎✌🏻

I loved Bester so much that I cosplayed as a Psi Cop at a Vulkon when I was 14.

he's talking about the "stars" and then "the rest of us" ..but i'm sure as long as i can remember, so back roughly 1973, '74.. when i was five or six in infant school and playing trek in the playground and watching it on telly he and the other less central characters were important and stars to us children.. and until i heard such people talk about how they felt, they were/are all the stars of the show and its confused me know a bit i think? great character in Babylon five.. great job.. 🙂 x

To me, Walter Koenig will always be Al Bester, Bad Ass Psi Cop! Nuttin' against Chekov I just loved Bester more!

b5 was better written overall. more depth. 'the corps is mother. the corps is father.' who are you? what do you want? who do you serve? who do you trust?

Why do a lot of B5 fans run Star Trek down? Yes B5 gave Koenig more screen time and highlighted his skills as an actor, but let’s not forget how he GOT there in the first place. You’ve forgotten how ground breaking TOS was. You’re taking it for granted. Stop doing that. Trek is awesome. B5 is awesome. That’s objective facts for you.

I really liked him as Chekov but i loved him as Bester. Babylon 5 The Best Series ever!

I had never before considered the strata of actors that he describes. I suppose only Kirk, Spock, and McCoy got any real character development. I see it now.

One best actors in both.

I love Star Trek but always wished they'd had the writers of B5. That, and I believe it was robbed by the network to create DS9,which always felt like a more adult Star Trek.

Bester was a character with true depth. You hated him but the more you got to know him the more human he become...he had real reasons and issues for the things he did..he wasn't a two-bit "nyuh nyuh nya" villain of todays TV and movies...who are baddies only because the script said so....

The perfect villain! Even after so many years, I remember it clearly! ..

I've always thought Alfred Bester is one of the most complex characters in TV science fiction, and Koenig played him just right.

“A bit like you… and your badge.” Dust to Dust. Such a brilliantly complex and a brilliant character brought to life by JMS’s scripts and Walter.

He was such a vile despicable villain on B5. Bester was one of his greatest roles.

Never give up , Never surrender . ..... Wait wrong scifi movie

I've never seen Babylon 5 and i heard it was sort of similar to deep space 9. it looks like i have to pay 30 bucks a season to watch. that's too bad.

I loved hating Bester.

Bester vs Checkov... even as a certified Trekkie I can't do anything but go for Bester. He's the best villain in the series imho, maybe because Molari and others had so much story line you always found parts you could relate to, and the other 'bad people' like Mr. Morden didn't have enough story behind them. Bester... not so much.

Did that girl forget her pants?

Alfred Bester was a sympathetic villain and I attributed his likeability to Walter Koenig. Brilliantly done.

thank - you .

That nautical themed hat he's wearing makes me wonder where he moored his wessel 😄 😁 😆

Will he be in the reboot?

It was the best of times, it was the Bester of times... Walter Koenig put the Psi in Psi-fi...

He won the interstellar ugly sweater contest.

Bester was a great character. He was a "bad guy" but he didn't see himself as a bad guy and you could understand his motivations and goals even as if you disagreed with them.

Says something about the man that he stands up and promotes someone else's book

Sadly, his son committed suicide. He played "boner" on growing pains.

Finally, clothing styles even weirder than the styles in sci-fi.

I just rewatched B5 franchise two months ago (B5, the movies and Crusade).

al bester rocks!... i would both fight al bester...and fight alongside al bester

Walter is sooo underrated as an actor. B5, says it all about how talented he really was and remains. Hope he is in the new B5 somehow

I will always love the original Star Trek but I am a forever faithful fan of B-5.

Bester was the best character that I loved to hate. If Garabaldi had shoved him out of a airlock, I would have cheered. But Bester was better than that. He played the role so well....

Fraternity.. sorority..have to love this guy..

Yes it was a head of it time…remember it well 😊

I remember Babylon 5 well. I really enjoyed it. Correct me if I’m wrong but one of things that made it so successful was its use o computer technology. I believe it was Commodore Amiga. For few years they one of the most advanced graphs computer at that time. This made it possible to create special sci-fi affect’s at a very reasonable cost compared to astronomical prices it cost at that time. The computer generated a very nice simulation of alien ships etc. Most people don’t remember Commodore Amiga. I do because I had 26 or more in my art room. I had 15 minutes of fame for a few years because I was the only in the USA teaching computer graphics in an middle school. A Commodore rep contacted me and told me this. Obviously Apple computers quickly blew out of existence so fast no remembers and take all special affects in movies etc for granted.

I haven't watched this yet but i do know Babylon 5 is not comparable so much to star trek as it is to deep space 9. You see because they were both star bases that didn't move. Babylon 2, 3, and 4 could move 5 could not. EDIT: oh hes just comparing working conditions. I heard Shatner stole the show or threw a fit till he got his way. Of course this is all hearsay.

Koenig seems like such a nice, chill, thoughtful fella. He was fantastic as Bester in B5, IMO just a level above his ST work since the material he was given really let him use all his talents in a way his role in ST never did, mostly having been a background support to Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley by being a dutiful ST helmsman. I'd love to see him get more screen time in more center-stage & character-focused role like Bester. Also, Koenig makes such a great villain, his PSI Cop bad guy alternated between giving me the creeps and just plain hating him, which is a mark of someone doing an incredible job playing a really effective villain.

Babylon 5 is my all time favourite sci fi series. The way plot points were set up seasons ahead and tied together was out of this world. The big revelations and mysteries of the series kept me captivated and left me excited every single episode.

I'm so glad he moved on from Star Trek and fulfilled his full potential.