Chekov's Gun - Television Tropes & Idioms

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Chekov's Gun

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alt title(s): Chekovs 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... yet.

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 Five, 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.

Film

In Star Trek II The Wrath Of Khan, Chekov points his gun at Kirk, but resists the orders of Khan. He screams, clutches his ear and collapses.
In Star Trek IV The Voyage Home, Chekov attempted to escape from captivity by threatening to use his gun (see pagequote). However, it misfired and he was forced to flee after throwing the useless gun at one of his captors.
Averted in the latest film.
Played with in Terminator Salvation, where Anton Yelchin has a gun.

Anime 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 Animation

Averted in Avatar The Last Airbender
Futurama featured Chekov (well, the actor playing him) and his gun in Where No Fan Has Gone Before.

Literature

Parodied and subverted in the Discworld series. We think.
- In fact, it's so subverted that one would think it wasn't there at all. But we know better, don't we?
Subverted in the Star Trek novel "Traitor Winds," as Chekov's gun is revealed to be a non-functioning phaser used for practice. However, it also serves as a Chekhov's Gun for the climax of the story.
Done first by Shakespeare.

Real Life

Inverted (albeit with incorrect spelling on both halves) by Swedish Actress Gunn Wållgren. Gunn's Chekhov character interpretations are considered to be unbeaten.