philippos42: Sarigar (sarigar)
philippos42 ([personal profile] philippos42) wrote2011-10-03 03:55 am

The Other Chekov's Gun

This page is one reason I love tvtropes:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChekhovsGun

There is a sort of reason for it, but it's so hilariously daft.
Chekov's Gun
"I varn you, if you don't lie on the floor... I vill have to stun you."
Commander Pavel Chekov, Star Trek IV
The phaser carried by Ensign Pavel Chekov in Star Trek: The Original Series. Completely unremarkable, and of no significance whatsoever, unlike Chekhov's Gun.See also Grays Anatomy.

Examples:

Live-Action TV
  • Star Trek: The Original Series has one noteworthy example of Chekov's Gun, carried by Ensign Pavel Chekov for the majority of episodes in which he appeared. It rarely had any effect on the surrounding plot.
    • His gun reappears in Deep Space Nine's "Trials and Tribble-ations", which used archive footage of a TOS episode.
    • Subverted in Star Trek: The Animated Series; since the rest of the regular cast from the original series appears in animated form, one might expect Chekov and his phaser to appear as well, but they do not.
    • Averted in Star Trek: The Next Generation, where there are phaser guns, but none of them are owned by Chekov.
    • Played with in "Spectre Of The Gun," wherein Chekov carries a revolver, rather than a phaser.
  • Averted in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
  • Subverted in Babylon 5, where it is actually Alfred Bester's Gun, and was a PPG (Phased Plasma Gun) rather than a phaser.
  • Implied in Stargate SG-1 where Colonel Chekov obviously used a gun in the backstory, but did not actually use one in the actual series.
FilmAnime and Manga
  • Evangelion deconstructs this. Not. This trope was deconstructed when thousands of Chekovs worldwide turned into tang, but their guns did not.
  • In volume 2 of Star Trek: The Manga, Chekov appears and fires the Enterprise's orbital phaser multiple times.
  • Subverted in Mahou Sensei Negima!. There's a gun, but it clearly belongs to Mana.
Western AnimationLiteratureReal Life
  • Inverted (albeit with incorrect spelling on both halves) by Swedish Actress Gunn Wållgren. Gunn's Chekhov character interpretations are considered to be unbeaten.
Tabletop GamesTV TropesVideo Games
  • Chekov's gun makes a cameo appearance in a Star Trek: Starfleet Academy FMV.