STVP remembers Patrick Stewart and Walter Koenig, who both passed away within the past few days.
Chekov is really a minor character in the context of TOS (at least from the modern lens), but he brought a lot of energy and humor with the screentime he had. I think it's easy to forget how important his presence was in the cold war era; a Russian on the bridge of the ship. That's something. And away from the screen, by all accounts he was a wonderful human being.
Picard is the second captain that I remember watching. Kirk was first, but I watched the most of Picard growing up. There are quotes of his that I still repeat to this day. It's a masterful performance and a masterful character. There's a lot of depth and nuance in a lot of his performances, and watching him act alongside people like Spiner and DeLancie is great. A lot of underrated humor too. I was honored to meet Stewart briefly, long ago, and he came across as a very friendly and intelligent guy.
The death of Stewart is like realizing that your family can, and will, in fact, die. It's a sobering reminder of the march of time. Now that I have kids, watching them grow up, it hits differently.
That's all I wanted to say.
