“Tsunkatse”
Written by Gannon Kenny and Robert J. Doherty
Directed by Mike Vejar
Season 6, Episode 15
Production episode 232
Original air date: February 9, 2000
Stardate: 53447.2
Captain’s log. Voyager is taking shore leave in the Norcadian system. There are many sights and activities and such, but one of the most popular is Tsunkatse, fights in an arena between two aliens. We see Chakotay and Torres in the audience for a fight between a Hirogen and another alien.
Janeway buggers off on the Delta Flyer with a small crew to the nearby Pendari system to enjoy her own shore leave. Chakotay sees her off, and then chats with Torres about the Tsunkatse fights. When he mentions that he has duties that interfere with attending the next match, Torres points out that he’s in charge and should delegate.
Seven and Tuvok are taking a shuttle to examine a micro-nebula. Chakotay thinks it’s an odd way to spend shore leave, but gives them leave to do so. The EMH thinks that Seven’s choices in shore leave, and in shore leave companion, leave a lot to be desired.
While en route to the micro-nebula, Seven and Tuvok are attacked by a ship that kills power to the shuttle. They then beam an explosive over, badly injuring Tuvok.
They were kidnapped by Penk, who runs Tsunkatse. Seven is mostly unhurt, but Tuvok is in bad shape. Penk makes it clear that they are to fight in the ring. When Seven refuses, Penk says that he’ll just have to put Tuvok in a red match (which is to the death). Despite Tuvok’s order not to give in, Seven agrees to fight (in a blue match with a Pendaran), as long as Tuvok is given medical treatment.
After bullshitting about the Tsunkatse matches, which modulates into a discussion of Chakotay’s boxing career, Kim’s parrises squares career, and a mess of trash talking, Chakotay reveals to Torres that she has bridge duty at the same time as the Tsunkatse match: he’s delegating.
Chakotay, Paris, Neelix, and Kim attend a match, and are rather shocked to see Seven as one of the combatants. She is defeated by the Pendaran, though she puts up a good fight. Chakotay calls Voyager to have Seven beamed out, but sensors indicate that the arena is empty. Eventually they determine that the combatants aren’t present there, but rather the arena is showing a holographic transmission of the fight. Seven and the Pendaran are actually fighting in an empty arena, their fight broadcast all over the system.
The crowd loves the fight, at least in part because people like seeing a Borg defeated, and Penk wants to put her in a red match. The Hirogen heals her with a dermal regenerator, having already used it on Tuvok. He also says that he is familiar with the opponent she will be facing in her red match, and he will train her to give her the best chance of victory. We learn that the Hirogen has been in the arena for nineteen years. He was on his son’s first hunt when he was captured. He has no idea what happened to his son, where he is now, or even if he’s still alive.
Buy the Book
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
Chakotay reports to Janeway, who cuts her shore leave short and sets course back to the Norcadian system.
Neelix reports that the Norcadian government is putting up a good front about trying to retrieve Seven and Tuvok, but Tsunkatse is one of the biggest moneymakers in the system, and they are loath to tamper with it.
They continue to search for the actual location of the fights, eventually determining that it’s not on Norcadia Prime at all. The transmissions aren’t coming from the planet, but rather from various different extraplanetary sources. The arena is on a spaceship, and it’s very well shielded and very well armed.
Seven’s training goes well. Tuvok was able to acquire a copy of The Book of Tsunkatse from one of the other fighters, and Seven has studied it. But the Hirogen insists that there is far more to Tsunkatse than can be described in a book. He continues to train her hard. He also urges her never to sympathize with her opponent. She thanks him for his training, and he says to thank him by winning.
Tuvok has been attempting to find a way to break out or get a message out, both with no success. Seven is not eager to fight, but she must do what she can to survive until they are rescued.
Seven goes to the arena, where she discovers that the Hirogen is her opponent.
At first, Seven believes that he “trained” her in order to learn her weaknesses, but the truth is more tragic than that: after nineteen years, the Hirogen is tired of fighting and wishes to die in the arena, and he wants Seven to be the instrument of his death. If she refuses, then he’ll just kill her.
As the fight continues, Voyager does battle with Penk’s ship. They are able to disable shield generators on the lower levels enough to beam Tuvok out. Tuvok informs them that the arena is on the uppermost deck, which is protected by multiphasic shielding they can’t penetrate. As Voyager’s systems all start to fail, Chakotay goes for plan B: if they can’t damage the ship, they’ll jam the transmission. Unfortunately, Penk’s weapons fire has knocked out Voyager’s weapons. But then the Delta Flyer arrives and fires on the signal generators, killing half the transmissions. Penk orders power rerouted to the signal generators, which weakens the shields enough to allow Kim to beam the people in the arena out—he can’t distinguish life signs, so he beams both Seven and the Hirogen.
Voyager books out of the Norcadian system and heads back toward the Alpha Quadrant. They have contacted a Hirogen ship that will pick Seven’s opponent up. He says he’s going to search for his son.
Seven reports to astrometrics and Tuvok arrives soon thereafter to assist her. He thanks her for taking his place in the arena. He asks how she is doing, and she admits that she feels like she lost the humanity she has spent the last three years trying to regain. Tuvok points out that the remorse and guilt she feels about her actions in the arena just prove that her humanity is doing just fine, thanks.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? The Tsunkatse fighters are equipped with sensors on their chest and back—if they’re struck there, the pain is greatly intensified. It’s an interesting expansion on point-system fighting in martial arts, or fencing, where a direct strike at a particular place gets you a point.
There’s coffee in that nebula! Janeway has about eight million instructions for Chakotay before she goes off on shore leave, the last of which is, “And most important, be sure to tell your Captain when she’s being overprotective.”
Mr. Vulcan. Tuvok and Seven have an amusing exchange where there’s been silence for a long time and Seven points this out, saying that the EMH has given her clues on how to end an awkward silence. Tuvok retorts that he doesn’t find the silence remotely awkward, and they go back to not talking—at least until Penk’s ship comes by to kidnap them…
Please state the nature of the medical emergency. The EMH finds Tsunkatse to be barbaric, and doesn’t see the appeal of it. He tries to convince Neelix to join him at an entomology museum on the surface instead of watching the fights, but Neelix opts for aliens hitting each other instead of alien bugs.
Half and half. Torres gets a rare chance to sit in the center seat, not that she particularly wants to, as she’d rather be watching Tsunkatse than be the watch officer.
Everybody comes to Neelix’s. Neelix went to a beach and fell asleep, and got sunburn on half his face (Norcadia Prime has two suns). His homemade leola root doesn’t do the trick, and he eventually goes to the EMH for treatment.
Forever an ensign. Kim thinks that his skill at parrisses squares makes him a match for Chakotay in the boxing ring. We never do find out if he’s right.
Resistance is futile. Seven tries to learn Tsunkatse by reading a book and assimilating the knowledge, but the Hirogen wastes little time in showing her the limitations of that approach. She also tries trash-talking the Pendaran by saying, “Resistance is futile,” but the Pendaran retorts, “So are your words.”
Do it.
“The idea of killing someone for the entertainment of others is detestable.”
“Is the idea of losing your life for the entertainment of others more palatable?”
–Seven complaining and Tuvok bringing the bitter logic.
Welcome aboard. Two former DS9 recurring regulars, J.G. Hertzler (Martok, as well as the one-off roles of the Saratoga captain, Laas, and Roy Rittenhouse) and Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun and Brunt, as well as the one-off roles of Tiron and Detective Mulkahey) play, respectively, the Hirogen and Penk. Both will return on Enterprise, Hertzler as two different Klingons in “Judgment” and “Borderland,” Combs in the recurring role of Shran, as well as a Ferengi in “Acquisition,” while Hertzler will also voice a Drookmani captain in “Terminal Provocations” on Lower Decks.
Additionally, Dwayne Johnson makes a cameo, using his nom du wrestling, “The Rock.” This is actually Johnson’s first dramatic acting role, done to cross-promote UPN’s acquisition of WWF Smackdown. He has, obviously, since gone on to a very successful acting career.
Trivial matters: Johnson does two of his signature wrestling moves in his appearance here: “the People’s Eyebrow,” raising one eyebrow, a move he pretty much stole from Spock on the original series, and his finishing move, “the Rock Bottom.”
The episode was originally titled “Arena,” but it was changed when someone remembered that there was an original series episode with the same title.
The original story was supposed to have Tuvok as the person in the arena, but it was changed to Seven, with Tuvok in a supporting role.
Despite their both being regular guest stars on DS9 for a big chunk of its run, this episode is actually the first time that J.G. Hertzler and Jeffrey Combs have any scenes together in a Trek production.
Two more professional wrestlers will appear on Enterprise, probably also due in part to UPN getting into bed with what was then called the WWF: Tiny Lister Jr. in “Broken Bow” and Paul “The Big Show” Wight in “Borderland.”
Chakotay’s interest and background in boxing was established in “The Fight.” The EMH’s utter disdain for same was also established in that episode.
Set a course for home. “Tsunkat! Tsunkat!” On the one hand, this is a story we’ve seen eighty bajillion times before, including twice before on Trek, in “The Gamesters of Triskelion” on the original series and in “In Purgatory’s Shadow“/”By Inferno’s Light” on DS9.
On the other hand, it’s very much a fun version of the story, due mainly to two superlative guest turns by two of Trek’s most reliable guest actors, J.G. Hertzler and Jeffrey Combs.
Hertzler’s weary, gravelly voice perfectly suits the Hirogen hunter who is tired of fighting for someone else’s purpose and has given up hope of being free. But he wants to go out on his own terms. Again, total cliché and we’ve seen it before, but Hertzler so totally sells it, down to his running his finger across his forehead as if he were applying Hirogen war paint.
And if you want someone who oozes unctuous sleaze, you can’t do better than Combs.
I wish they’d done a bit more with Chakotay’s boxing background here beyond the mess-hall conversation—and that conversation itself was both fun and frustrating. On the one hand, it was nice to see the characters having a relaxed conversation about normal stuff—on the other hand, they barely even sounded like themselves, because we so rarely see them having relaxed conversations about normal stuff that it just felt weird and awkward. (Also Torres’s line “The Borg wouldn’t know fun if they assimilated an amusement park” may be the single stupidest line put in the character’s mouth in her seven years on television.)
Jeri Ryan and Tim Russ are both superb, as always. Russ in particular does excellent work with Tuvok as good sounding board: from his semi-amused pointing out that the silence wasn’t awkward to his more direct pointing out that dying for entertainment isn’t really a viable alternative to killing for entertainment to his final reminder that remorse and guilt are very human. And Ryan plays Seven’s struggles with her usual restrained emotion.
Plus, hey, it’s The Rock’s first dramatic acting job! For that alone, this has value…
Warp factor rating: 8
Keith R.A. DeCandido has, with his wife Wrenn Simms, formed the very-small-press publisher Whysper Wude. Their first project is the anthology The Four ???? of the Apocalypse, which features alternate takes on the apocalyptic equestrians of yore. Among the authors are David Gerrold, Jonathan Maberry, Peter David, Jody Lynn Nye, David Mack, Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore, Michael Jan Friedman, Adam-Troy Castro, Laura Anne Gilman, Gail Z. Martin, and tons more. Read all about the four cats of the apocalypse! The four lawyers! The four opera singers! The four rock stars! The four cheerleaders! And more! The anthology is being crowdfunded on Kickstarter, and has tons of nifty bonuses and extras—check it out!
Whenever I see anything about this episode, I always remember it as “The One with The Rock,” not least because a picture of him often accompanies said coverage. Fair or not, for that reason, I usually tend to look down on it a bit (despite his career since then, casting Dwayne Johnson at this time was a bit of stunt guest casting). But watching it again for this rewatch, I remembered just how powerful the Hirogen/Seven parts of the episode were. Hertzler was superb as the solemn Hirogen who has done this for far too long, and is ready to move on (one way or the other). And as KRAD said in the article, Combs excels as a smooth talking, sleazy fight promoter. But the final conversation between Tuvok and Seven, where the former affirms the confirmation of her humanity, was a perfect way to end the episode.
I’m another one who looked down on it as cheesy cross-promotion at the time it originally aired. The UPN promotion really was terribly transparent. Of course, now Dwayne Johnson is a big star, so it probably feels different. But the story deserves to be remembered as “the one with Jeffrey Combs and J.G. Hertzler,” because having both of them in a single episode should make any fan pay attention.
Paris should’ve had the amusement park line. That sounds like something he would say.
My reaction was the same as #1 & #2 — it felt sleazy to see Star Trek lowering itself to do such a blatant cross-promotion for the network. It sunk to the same level as Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, which did a Space Olympics episode as a tie-in to NBC’s Olympics coverage, guest-starring several real athletes. (This was a future where most 20th-century Earth culture had been forgotten until Buck reintroduced it, but hey, guess what, the Olympics conveniently survived! Also roller disco.) The fact that “The Rock” (who was actually billed by his wrestling name in the credits) accidentally turned out to be a real actor after all doesn’t redeem the intentions behind it at the time.
So that makes it hard to assess what I thought of the story, since I was biased against it from the start. I suppose it had some decent elements and of course an impressive guest cast, and it’s a pretty good use of a Hirogen character. But I think I was uncomfortable with how many of the crew enjoyed this violent, bloody sport. It was one thing to show Chakotay being a fan of boxing; I could believe he was the exception and that most people in the Federation would find such violence disagreeable. But here, the whole crew seemed to enjoy it except the Doctor, and I didn’t care for that at all.
For all intents and purposes, those characters were Weyoun and Martok, with identical personalities, voice inflections, mannerisms, etc. And the Hirogen were nothing more than z-grade Klingons to begin with. I rewatched this episode last night and was struck by how small the Martok Hirogen looked. I seem to recall that past Hirogens towered over the human characters, but perhaps I’m remembering incorrectly.
@5/bgsu98: “And the Hirogen were nothing more than z-grade Klingons to begin with.”
No, that was the Kazon. The Hirogen are hunters, not warriors, and have a distinct culture of their own.
And yes, the first few Hirogen episodes cast very tall actors, but that practice wasn’t continued. By “The Killing Game,” they were more typical in size.
How the hell is Neelix allergic to Leola root, after the amount of it he puts in all the cooking?
There was a line about how one of the fighters is famous for throwing opponents into the stands, and they should be prepared to duck. If the fight is really just a transmission from elsewhere, seems like that doesn’t really happen.
I quite liked the episode though, including the Rock’s cameo. The directing choices seemed good as well, the way the camera would pan away from the fight at times but you could still feel it going on.
This episode was the episode I always viewed as Voyager trying to jump the shark and as a cheap way to bring in the Wwf crowd.
@7/karey: “How the hell is Neelix allergic to Leola root, after the amount of it he puts in all the cooking?”
It was a skin ointment, so maybe it had a different effect on the skin than when eaten. Maybe some ingredient of leola root is far more concentrated in the ointment, or is chemically altered in cooking. Or maybe the ointment is largely leola-based but has an additional ingredient that Neelix is allergic to.
Ah, yes. This episode. I had clear memories of the UPN promos at the time of original run touting the appearance of The Rock on Voyager and I thought what a crass pandering to the young male demographic to get WWF viewers over to watch Star Trek. I was, and still am not, a WWF fan or whatever it’s called now, and I knew who The Rock was through TV advertising and also had no interest in him in particular. So I had no interest in seeing the episode and it wasn’t until this year that I finally got around to it. And you know what, blatant cross-promotion aside, I was actually pretty surprised by how thoughtful and dramatic this story ended up being. I really enjoyed it. Jeri Ryan and Tim Russ and Combs and Hertzler brought their A-game. And if anything, The Rock cameo is notable for trivia purposes. I mean is there any other instance of an A-list actor appearing on a Star Trek series before they became super successful? None that comes to mind.
#10. I think Ashley Judd was considered an A-lister there for a while.
@10/garreth: um, Famke Janssen?
There have to be more. It’s the whole point of krad’s “Robert Knepper” moment.
Full disclosure, I did watch Smackdown as a kid when it was on UPN and probably already had seen The Rock on that program. Furthermore, I also currently enjoy pro wrestling, so Rocky’s appearance here has always been one of my favorite little quirks of Voyager’s run.
That said I always really liked this episode. Not one of my favorites but Seven and Tuvok are well-used in the script and well-acted as always, the fight scenes are certainly a cut above the usual for Trek, and it has The Rock and Seven of Nine punching each other! It’s fun and has more than enough heart in Seven and the Hirogen’s story to justify itself.
I was always struck here though by how small the Hirogen character is. I know it’s not feasible to cast only 6’6″ actors to play a whole species but this seems by far the smallest hirogen we’ve seen. But even more than that I was struck by how small J.G. Hertzler seemed! He looks plenty large as Martok, but it appears that might be down to the klingon costume. Just odd to see such an ordinarily-sized man with Martok’s voice.
@10: An argument could be made for Ashley Judd briefly being an A-list star. It wasn’t on the same level of Dwayne Johnson but it still counts. So good catch there.
@11: Sorry, no. Janssen was part of an A-list franchise for sure, but when I say “A-list star” I mean someone who is capable to draw a paying audience on their name-value alone. Think like Melissa McCarthy or Jim Carrey or Sandra Bullock. Janssen was never on that level. She was someone who had an early role on Star Trek and then went on to do other notable and successful projects like X-Men.
Teri Garr was on Star Trek (Assignment: Earth) before being in roughly a billion other things. Although I’m vague on the whole list concept and don’t know if she counts as an A-Lister.
What really stood out to me is how pointless the Janeway subplot is. So she goes on shore leave, gets updated by viewscreen a couple of times, then comes back just in time to participate in the firefight. It’s the same episode if she just stays home and if they really wanted to use the Flyer, they could always just have the crew decide to deploy it in the final fight.
So I’m guessing either Mulgrew needed a light shooting schedule for whatever reason or they were consciously trying to give Beltran more to do, so Janeway is shipped off to space camp. And seeing it play out, I’m starting to understand why they struggled to use this character– he doesn’t have his own department or much relevant expertise, he’s not in charge unless Janeway is gone, and where is she going to go? And a lot of other story hooks are off the menu too, he can’t go home, or have a relative visit, etc.
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who thought that the Martok Hirogen seemed unusually small. Maybe it was because J.G. Hertzler always appeared very imposing on DS9, whether it was as Martok, his human character from “Far Beyond the Stars,” or Laas.
@16: I watched this episode maybe a couple of months ago and I have no memory of the Janeway sub-plot so I guess that kind of tells you how unmemorable or inconsequential it was. Mulgrew gave a print interview at the end of the sixth season where she was very candid in saying that she didn’t think her character did anything that was particularly noteworthy that season. I can see what she’s saying because it does feel like she’s taken a back seat this season on her own show. I mean she is definitely seen a lot but there isn’t much in terms of character growth. It isn’t like last season where she had important and interesting roles in “Night”, “Counterpoint” (one of her favorite episodes, if not her favorite one period), “Bride of Chaotica!”, and “11:59.”
I think we’re getting “famous actor” and “A-list star” confused. Sure, Teri Garr went on from Star Trek to become a famous actress. But when I say “A-list star” I mean someone who can open up their film or franchise to huge box office numbers. That is someone like Dwayne Johnson and I can’t think of anyone else of his like who was on Star Trek when they weren’t that famous and then went on to become a huge international superstar like Johnson is now.
I would agree that Ashley Judd was probably an A-lister for a period of time.
@18 – Patrick Stewart certainly qualifies based on those criteria. Only the super nerds recognized him from Dune and Excalibur when TNG casting was announced, but afterward he certainly was a superstar and could open his own movies.
I mean, I seem to remember Ashley Judd’s string of murder mystery movies with Morgan Freeman and the like being considered A-list for the time. She seemed to be a household name to everyone’s middle-aged mom. ;-)
I wouldn’t mind seeing her reprise her role as Robin Lefler in something. Maybe a cameo on Picard? Captain Lefler has a nice sound to it.
@20: Okay, if you want to get all technical but I wasn’t referring to anyone who was already on the main cast of a Star Trek series. I was really referring to people who put in a cameo or guest appearance.
@21: I agreed that Ashley Judd counts. Again, not nearly on the level of Dwayne “Fast and Furious”/”Jumanji” Johnson, but for a time she was headlining her own string of suspense and rom-com movies.
@20/critter42: “Patrick Stewart certainly qualifies based on those criteria. Only the super nerds recognized him from Dune and Excalibur when TNG casting was announced, but afterward he certainly was a superstar and could open his own movies.”
In America, maybe. In the UK, he was fairly well-known, a 20-year veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He also played a major role in the miniseries I, Claudius.
I also wouldn’t agree about his A-list status. Most of Stewart’s lead roles in major movies have been in Trek and X-Men films, so it wasn’t really him that was carrying the films, it was the franchises. Otherwise, the majority of his feature appearances have been in supporting roles. His few top-billed feature roles outside of his two main franchises are in fairly minor or independent films like Masterminds, Dad Savage, Safe House, Match, Christmas Eve, and Coda, none of which I’ve ever heard of. He’s certainly a household name, but not as big a movie star as you’re suggesting.
I agree with CLB regarding Patrick Stewart’s marquee value. X-Men films would have pulled strong numbers without his presence and likewise, the Star Trek fan base would show up whether Stewart was present or not. And it’s not like his presence saved Nemesis from being a huge box office bomb. Rather, Stewart is who you go to for top-notch dependable acting talent.
How about Kirsten Dunst? She was in TNG: “Dark Page” as a child, before she was famous.
@25/CLB: She was but my original post/question was about guest actors who went on to be A-list stars.
Really none have come remotely close to Dwayne Johnson’s status.
“Alien bugs or alien fisticuffs. Ooh, that’s a tough one.”
Ah yes. The episode which seems to have been prompted by a UPN executive going “You know how we show wrestling as well? Well, we want you to do an episode featuring the Rock. As an alien wrestler. Yeah, basically he’ll just play himself with a bumpy forehead.” The resulting scene feels a bit like an ego-massage, with Seven not allowed to beat him or even put up much of a fight.
Fortunately, the show counterpoints this by bringing in Jeffrey Combs and JG Hertzler from DS9, so at least we’ve got strong performances as the villain and noble warrior respectively. And if you can stomach that one scene that the episode seems to be an excuse for, this isn’t actually that bad. Nothing original about it, of course: The alien fight club has long been a stock storyline. (It’s such a cliché that Torchwood used it.) But at least it’s handled reasonably well, although we’ve stuck with another unheroic ending where Voyager are only interested in saving themselves, beaming aboard Tuvok and Seven and leaving the other slaves to their fate. (They save the Hirogen as well, but that’s mostly by accident.)
Chakotay punctures Neelix’s outrage by pointing out they were cheering people getting beaten up as well until they recognised one of them. Tuvok again shows he’s far from being a pacifistic Vulcan by encouraging Seven to kill in order to survive, although I accept there is a logic to it.
First, and I think only, time we see Torres in the captain’s chair. Then, with Tuvok off the ship, she’s suddenly working tactical for the week. Janeway is absent from most of the episode with Chakotay in command: As someone said, was Kate Mulgrew doing something else that week or were they trying to appease Robert Beltran? First proper appearance of a Hirogen since Season 4 (although one was briefly seen in Seven’s hallucinations in “Infinite Regress”) and first indication that they’re a lot more widespread than they initially appeared to be: They’ll be back in force next season.
I have been a huge Trek fan my whole life and a huge wrestling fan for almost as long, so this episode was like a Reese’s Cup for me, two great tastes that taste great together.
@27/cap-mjb: “Nothing original about it, of course: The alien fight club has long been a stock storyline.”
Alien fight club, superhero fight club, demon fight club, you name it — every action-adventure show seems obligated to do an Illegal Underground Fight Club Episode sooner or later.
We really should talk about all these fight clubs, but for some reason, nobody wants to…
@2 Brian MacDonald
I had remembered that Combs was in this episode, and he’s always fun to have on screen. But I had forgotten that Hertzler was in it. Believe me, as soon as I saw his name in the guest stars, I knew I was in for a treat.
There’s been quite a few actors who starred in Trek in relative obscurity before they were famous. Whether they became A-Listers is up for debate but some I think would qualify are Kirsten Dunst, Famke Jensen, Terri Hatcher, Kirstie Alley, Kim Cattrall, Jonathan Banks and of course Joan Collins in her pre-Dynasty days.
I reject the notion that it’s somehow “sleazy” for Trek to do an episode that cross-promotes with their wrestling show. UPN was six years into its run and was not doing well. Getting the rights to wrestling was a massive coup for them, and they needed to promote it in any way possible. Star Trek: Voyager‘s primary purpose was to make money for Paramount Studios and their not-so-shiny new network, and this helped do that, and did so in a way that wasn’t blatant, and which worked just fine with the plot and theme of the episode. And it helped get eyeballs onto Trek that might not have seen it otherwise.
Art and commerce aren’t things that should be kept apart from each other and art shouldn’t look down on commerce as something icky, and the way I know that is that I get paid for my art. That’s how this works.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
As I recall, the general reaction to “Tsunkatse” after it aired was “Well, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.” I think our expectations were low, and promotional ads for the episode were terrible (as Voyager‘s ads usually were), so when the episode didn’t suck, it was kind of a nice surprise.
@31: I had to look up who Jonathan Banks was and then I was like, “Oh, that guy!” And I totally didn’t realize he was on Star Trek before but I recall his role now when I read what episode he was in on DS9. But yes, he and most of the names you’ve mentioned did quite well for themselves in their careers, especially on TV. I wouldn’t call any of them A-list box office draws though.
To answer my own question though, and not counting any of the TV series, a young Tom Hardy was at the start of his film career when he did Nemesis. Of course as we all know that film bombed hard and only many years later did Hardy re-emerge and now he’s a very successful film star.
@32/krad: Yes, art and commerce need not look down on one another and they can be successfully integrated. But I think the reason I and many others were repulsed by this particular cross-promotion was that there was absolutely nothing subtle about it. It was like a giant sledgehammer to the regular Voyager audience saying this other product that doesn’t organically fit into the Star Trek brand will nonetheless be shoved in your face. It’s just blatant pandering. Yes, Voyager was bleeding audience numbers the longer it was on the air, but an “event” like the appearance of The Rock just smacked of sad desperation. The repeated appearances of Barclay and Troi also reeked of ratings desperation but at least those characters already fit within the Voyager universe better. I think you also have to ask yourself where the fine line is that you should be adamant about keeping art and commerce apart. I’m reminded of the tale Rick Berman and Brannon Braga have told about how they had to push back against UPN network executives that wanted popular recording artists to perform their hit songs on Star Trek: Enterprise and somehow just ending up on the ship performing their 2000’s-era pop music for the crew. B&B rightfully fought against this. Is this an instance of art and commerce co-existing that you would defend because it would bring more eyeballs to Star Trek?
Following on from what others have noted, it’s a bit bizarre to realize that The Rock is the most famous person to have ever appeared on Star Trek, in any of its incarnations. When this aired, I certainly never expected him to become as big a deal as he later did.
(I guess, that wouldn’t apply to *every* place in the world, though–in the Middle East, for example, King Abdullah of Jordan might be considered the biggest name to have ever appeared in Trek).
The thing about this kind of cross-promotion is that it’s essentially product placement. As with anything else, it can be done well and unobtrusively or it can be done crassly and obnoxiously. For instance, when Eureka showed Cisco Systems logos on its communication equipment in the first season, that was an unobtrusive product placement, but when they did a whole season-long arc about the town’s scientists researching Degree antiperspirant and made the product integral to saving the day in the arc’s climax, that was incredibly obtrusive and obnoxious. When White Collar occasionally featured scenes that highlighted an SUV’s features in a way that meshed well with the story, that was unobtrusive, but when The Dead Zone dragged a scene to a halt so the characters could literally do an in-show commercial about how amazing these new touch-free credit cards were, that was just badly done (although it did sort of remind me of the old days of live radio).
Similarly, a crossover like, say, Thomas Magnum guest-starring on Murder, She Wrote feels reasonable, but a whole episode written around space wrestling as an excuse for a gimmicky appearance by a famous wrestler is just too blatant about what it is. The contrivance is in our faces, rather than being more subtle and easier to overlook. Plus, as others said, it did feel kind of desperate the way they actually billed Johnson by his wrestling name and made him the focus of the promos. Perhaps it’s unfair to hold the promotional campaign against the episode itself, but the ads did not incline me favorably toward the episode ahead of time.
He was billed as “The Rock” because nobody knew his real name at the time. I mean, I referred to him as Dwayne Johnson in the rewatch, but that’s because that’s how he’s best known now in 2021, but in 2000, he was “The Rock,” and that’s it. He didn’t go by his real name until after he parted ways with the WWF/WWE to pursue acting full time.
And it’s not like the episode was about pro wrestling. It was about people kidnapped into arena fighting, a trope as old as the hills that Trek has already done twice. The cross-promotion consisted solely of having one pro wrestler in one brief scene that helped set the stage for the plot. Hardly as intrusive as the Dead Zone and Eureka examples……
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Everyone attending tonight’s fight will receive a free IDIC pendant. ;-)
@39/krad: “The cross-promotion consisted solely of having one pro wrestler in one brief scene that helped set the stage for the plot. Hardly as intrusive as the Dead Zone and Eureka examples….”
Except that scene was specifically designed, as you noted, to showcase “The Rock”‘s trademark wrestling persona and moves. Which makes it feel like it’s on a par with Joe Piscopo’s holo-comedian guest appearance in TNG, and not far off from UPN’s nonsensical proposal to have pop bands perform in the mess hall on Enterprise. It’s the equivalent of, say, if a TOS episode had guest-starred Don Adams as an alien secret agent who said “Would you believe…?” and “Missed it by that much!”
@31: Don’t forget future Party Down and Parks & Rec star Adam Scott, as the Defiant helmsman in First Contact. He’s no A-lister (particularly in film) but he’s got a following.
I’m curious why atheist Rock didn’t qualify as a Robert Knepper Moment?
also would Kristie Alley as Alist or are we excluding movies?
@43/John: I think Keith uses “Robert Knepper moments” to refer to cases where he was surprised to see someone now-famous show up in a Trek episode. Johnson being in “Tsunkatse” is hardly a surprise discovery, since it was so heavily promoted at the time and is the thing it’s best known for now.
“Most famous” and “A-list” are subjective terms. Dwayne Johnson has certainly sold more cinema tickets than any other Star Trek actor.
Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, famous defensive back and three-time AFL All-Star, had a speaking part in “The Cloud Minders.” He went on to a successful and in-demand career in films during the Blaxploitation era.
The Screen Actors Guild have given Life Achievement awards to two Star Trek guest actors, Ricardo Montalban and Brock Peters.
This whole debate about whether or not The Rock/Dwayne Johnson’s cameo in this episode was incongruous with giant flashing arrows on screen pointing down at him reminds me of this classic bit in this movie:
https://youtu.be/8lgLYGBbDNs
Actually, it would have been hilarious if UPN leaned into this cross-promotion just a tad bit more and had the Pendari warrior’s athletic wear emblazoned with, “WWF Smackdown following tonight’s episode of Star Trek: Voyager only on UPN!”
@42: I never realized that Adam Scott was in First Contact! Thanks for pointing that out!
@43: Kirstie Alley was definitely a big TV star for awhile and she even had her own successful movie franchise with the Look Who’s Talking film series. But I still mean “A-list star” as someone with the unique ability to drive large amounts of people to part with their hard-earned dollars at the movie theater. So like Eddie Murphy and Brad Pitt and Arnold Schwarzenegger in their heydays.
@46/garreth: Wayne’s World was very far from the first movie to do the “Let’s make fun of product placement” bit. I refer you to Return of the Killer Tomatoes, co-starring a then-struggling young actor by the name of George Clooney (speaking of future A-listers).
And is it really necessary to define “A-lister” so incredibly narrowly that it pre-emptively excludes anyone except Dwayne Johnson? That seems like circular argument.
@48/CLB: I’ve never heard of Return of the Killer Tomatoes so I’ll have to look into that, thanks.
And I acknowledge that there is a wider definition of “A-lister.” My original challenge though was if anyone could think of anyone who started out with an appearance on Star Trek and then went on to be as massively and commercially successful as Dwayne Johnson. But I think at this point the answer is “no.”
@36/Garry: Life is funny in that way in which things or people don’t always quite turn out like you might have expected them to or would have believed. The Rock was certainly one such person. Another one that comes to mind is Marky Mark, the white rapper who had a brief career as a successful recording artist/underwear model, and then all of a sudden re-emerged as a successful, respected A-list actor with an Oscar nomination to his name. Pre-teen me would have never imagined that in a million years. Nor the downfall of “America’s Dad” Bill Cosby as an example of life’s unpredictability.
@49/garreth: I’m not sure I’d even realized that Johnson was considered a star of that magnitude. I know he’s a busy actor who’s been in a bunch of action movies, but I hadn’t thought about how he was rated in comparison to other busy actors who’ve been in a bunch of movies. I guess that’s because I’ve hardly seen any of his movies. Let’s see, I saw The Mummy Returns, I think I saw The Scorpion King, and I saw Moana. I think that’s about it.
@50/CLB: I as well would hardly consider myself a fan or a target audience of Johnson’s films: honestly, I don’t think I’ve seen any with him in it. But I know just because I pay attention to such things how he is a part of billion-dollar franchises like The Fast and the Furious and Jumanji as well as successful one-off action and action-comedy movies. But he’s also set to lead yet another franchise when he stars in Warner Bros./DC Comics’ Black Adam next year which is something I’m more inclined to see and I’m guessing you’ll catch as well.
@51/garreth: Meh, I’ll probably see Black Adam eventually, but I’m not hugely invested in the DC films these days. For me, the main draw in that film is Sarah Shahi.
@@.-@. ChristopherLBennett: Mr Bennett, given the Olympic Games have quite some form as a comeback kid (The last Ancient Olympiad was held in AD 394, the first Modern Olympiad was held in AD 1896), it’s not hard to imagine The Games being revived for a second time after a mere half a millennium or so – especially by an Earth Government looking to foster a wider Spirit of Community after a long period of division.
Going back from BUCK ROGERS to STAR TREK, I have to say that one liked this episode – if nothing else, stripped of the rather horrible context that Death Match Leotard might well be my favourite look for Seven of Nine (with strong competition from Mademoiselle Seven).
Also, I find it rather hilarious to imagine Harry Kim trying to take ‘Coach Chay’ in a fistfight – credit where it’s due, Mr Kim can tap a terrier determination, but that just mean the fight lasts longer and not that he has more than a snowball’s chance to roll on out of the Mojave of actually winning it.
@7. karey & @9. ChristopherLBennett: Also, you have to wonder if Mr Neelix just hit his threshold of Leola root? (I suspect we can think of a number of substances that are good for a body in moderation, but potentially health-imparing after prolonged use).
One thing that always bothered me about this episode: Tsunkatse has “red matches” that are fights to the death. Presumably, they are advertised as such to be an audience draw.
Why are any of the main characters OK with this?
Either they didn’t do their research before diving headfirst into being spectators (which makes them look kinda stupid – and I find it hard to believe they found out enough about the sport to be interested in watching, but skipped the bit where people get murdered for entertainment), or they did know that this sport sometimes has people fighting to the death and they were OK with it.
@53/ED: I don’t object to the idea of reviving the Olympics per se, if the civilization still remembered that there had been such a thing. The problem is that the show had previous established that 25th-century humanity had largely forgotten almost all pre-Holocaust Earth culture (e.g. the episode where Buck got the drop on some bad guys because he recognized that the stash of 20th-century artifacts in their lair were actually rifles rather than signaling devices). So it’s contrived that any given present-day thing would be randomly exempted from that otherwise total cultural erasure, whether it’s the Olympics or anything else.
#55. “This is a fight to the death.” Cut to Kirk looking shocked.
Starfleet folks are bad about not knowing the rules to these things.
Much like @Christopher and the others, I’ve always had serious issues with this episode. For one, I despise wrestling, boxing or any similar violent sports event (eastern martial arts I can respect, given the philosophies that come with them). And what I find despicable about WWF is not the fight itself, but the bloodthirsty cheering of the surrounding audience (and the betting). I cannot comprehend anyone who gets off on this kind of event. And it seems to me that these types of sports films are always telling the exact same story over and over again. Definitely not my thing.
And then UPN uses Star Trek, the most uplifting humanistic sci-fi property of their part, to promote the damn thing. It’s just wrong. And out of nowhere the whole crew are all WWF fans. Chakotay enjoying it, I can understand, given his boxing background. Maybe even Paris, our resident 20th century history buff. But why would anyone else enjoy this? Torres enjoying it just feels wrong. For six seasons, the character has been established as someone who detests and represses her Klingon side. There is no way she would just let her Klingon self take open pleasure watching this alongside the rest of the crew. Her violent tendencies have always been an issue for her.
To make the problem worse, they can’t reuse Chakotay as a fighter (given they already did last season’s The Fight), so they have no choice but to use Seven of Nine, which just reinforces the worst aspects of the character, becoming yet again an object of male gaze and interest – with the added bonus of sweating and bleeding for all to see.
Needless to say, I’ve never cared for Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson or any of his roles. He may be an audience-friendly blockbuster superstar nowadays, but to me, Dave Bautista has been far, far more dramatic and compelling in his acting choices (and not just the Marvel Drax stuff either; he was superb in Blade Runner).
Thankfully, the episode isn’t a complete disaster. This is good way to bring back the Hirogen, and J.G. Hertzler is superbly cast as the weary hunter. He’s a much better coach than Boothby, for one. And we instantly care for the character. Putting a tough Hirogen like that in a position of disadvantage is a clever way to tell a different but fresh story. Plus, making him Seven’s foe at the end creates some nicely ambiguous stakes. I wanted Seven to win, but I didn’t really want him to lose either. He was that captivating. Once again, the Hirogen proving to be one of the better creations within the Delta Quadrant, much like the later uses of the Jem’ Hadar on DS9.
And Combs is always great, though I’d rate Penk much lower than Shran, Weyoun or Brunt (but definitely better than Tiron on Meridian).
@58 Star Trek has always had violent physical contests, from the pilots on. It’s an action/adventure series, and a lot of the action is toe-to-toe slugouts. And even without aliens waging their quatloos on the outcomes, there’s always an audience on the other side of the TV screen.
@59/BeeGee: There’s a huge difference between TV audiences being entertained by stunt performances simulating violence and characters in a story finding it pleasurable to watch genuine violence. After all, the TV audience (and most of the wrestling audience, presumably) knows it’s all choreographed and conducted with the performers’ safety in mind, an exhibition of athletic skill rather than a genuine threat to the participants’ life or health. That was not true of the characters in the story watching the tsunkatse matches.
Heck, in TOS, the characters who enjoy watching the violence are always the villains — Proconsul Claudius, the Providers, Yarnek. Yet here it’s the Voyager crew. It’s incongruous.
As a raised wrestling fan, and a born and raised Star Trek fan, I’m like JasonD, this was a wonderful mash up to me. It could easily seem like everyone is looking down on wrestling for daring to have a cameo in Star Trek, when as both a Trekkie and a Wrestling fan I’ve seen (and experienced) both get looked down on. “You watch Star Trek? Nerd!” “You know wrestling’s fake, right?” But I think, that people are more offended by the product placement. I think it was done well myself and I was looking forward to the episode. On Smackdown (“The Rock‘s Show!“) they were hyping it up as The Rock actually guest starring on Star Trek, it was a huge deal. Funny enough this was only a few years after Shatner had a feud with Jerry Lawler on Monday Night Raw, which makes me laugh just recalling it. Now that I’ve mentioned it, it dawns on me that William Shatner as of a month and a half ago, is actually in the WWE Hall of Fame. It should also be noted that the incomparable Mick Foley actually called The Rock out on his “Expensive suits and Mr. Spock Eyebrow.”
On the subject of Hirogen of impressive heights, pro wrestlers are one of the few places where you’d find people used to dramatic performances with such skyscraper like height.
As to the episode, I really liked it when it aired and it still holds up. I get why they switched Seven in for Tuvok. Tuvok is a very complete and mature individual. There’s very little for him to learn in the environment of the arena and he has nothing to prove. Seven having to struggle with meaningless violence as a means of others entertainment is new.
@32/krad
Here Here!
Re: It’s just blatant pandering… I wonder if people had the same reaction when Stephen Hawking appeared on TNG?
If I knew who Dwayne J. was, I’d have thought: He’s a life-long Trek fan living his dream to appear on the show! Good for him. Just like I thought with Hawking.
@62: How was Stephen Hawking appearing on TNG pandering to an audience when his appearance had nothing to do with pushing a product? Hawking was a noted Star Trek fan and he wanted to be on the show. To the best of my knowledge and memory, his cameo wasn’t promoted in advance and so if anything, it was a delightful surprise to see him in his surprise appearance playing himself. Now I have no idea if Dwayne Johnson is a Star Trek fan or not but let’s not kid ourselves and pretend his appearance on the show wasn’t brainstormed by network execs trying to conjure up a bit of corporate synergy between the channel’s most popular programs.
@63/garreth: You’re right about the rest, but I’m pretty sure Johnson is a Trek fan — I gather his trademark eyebrow raise from his “Rock” days was inspired by Spock. (A.k.a. Leonard “The Spock” Nimoy?)
It should also be noted that J.G. Hertzler is the second Trek actor, after Tony Todd, to have played a Klingon and a Hirogen.
I remember being very relieved that “The Rock” appeared only briefly (the name is in quotes because I haven’t thought of Dwayne Johnson as The Rock in over a decade and a half, so it felt weird seeing “The Rock” in the guest star names, even though I knew it was there). Making– okay, I’m just gonna call him Johnson now– making Johnson the focus of the episode could have backfired easily, so I was glad they didn’t do that, even though we do get a glimpse of Johnson’s acting chops here. The Pendari, while obviously built on Johnson’s wrestling persona, still felt very much like his own character.
What did repulse me about the episode, as others have already stated well, was the Voyager crew enjoying this purely for the spectacle. I don’t know, seeing everyone so excited about it just felt wrong. I feel like there should have been a scene where the crew discusses how on many worlds, including Earth, fighting for entertainment was part of many cultures, and that some cultures still have it, but it feels strange to them to see people cheering as two people beat each other up, but then they go to the matches out of morbid curiosity or something. Just give me something to tell me our crew isn’t just enjoying the fighting for its own sake. Of course we’ve established Chakotay as a boxing aficionado, but everyone else (except for, thankfully, the EMH)? That felt icky.
Other than that, it was a decent episode. I don’t remember hating it.
@62: It’s different. Stephen Hawking was a much better fit for Star Trek than a sports player, wouldn’t you say? He was a physicist, a mathematician, a cosmologist, and easily the smartest person of his generation. Trek has always been about embracing knowledge and the willingness to learn and expand our horizons. Hawking was someone who embodied all those qualities. Having him share a scene playing poker against Data – who’s himself questioning the limits of his programming and existencial possiblities – works, because it fits like a glove, just like it works when having legends like Isaac Newton and Leonardo DaVinci in the franchise, or even astronauts like Mae Jemison. Trek is about how humanity came this far, and it’s all thanks to those visionaries and trailblazers.
Was Johnson a Trek fan? If so, good for him (and @Christopher bringing up the Vulcan eyebrow bit is a nice addition, which is a credit to Johnson’s passion as a fan). Was Hawking also one? Yes, and good for him also. But the real question is: was putting Johnson on the show an arrangement to benefit UPN getting in bed with the WWF? Absolutely.
@66/Eduardo: It’s not about the guest stars’ respective careers, it’s about the impetus for the guest spot. The Hawking appearance was not a network-requested cameo to promote another show, nor was it a desperate attempt to boost sagging ratings with a piece of gimmick casting.
It would have been nice if they had shown Seven defeating The Rock in their match. But I’m sure UPN and WWF provided notes that that could not happen.
This was a lot better than I remembered and expected. Combs was very distracting since he sounded pretty much like Weyoun (I think he changed his voice more for the Ferengi). This was a fairly star-studded cast at the time, with the two high-profile Star Trek veterens but even more so in retrospect since Johnson is actually a movie star.
It’s hilarious that my reaction was “they got Dwayne Johnson and that’s all they did with him?” I doubt anyone could have anticipated that.
@69: Was Combs likewise distracting for you when he was playing Shran because he sounded like Weyoun?
@70 I only watched the first season of Enterprise
@71/noblehunter: Shran appeared twice in season 1, in “The Andorian Incident” and “Shadows of P’Jem.”
Have any of the shows or tie-in fiction given us a full overview of Future Sport Parisses Squares?
@73/benjamin: Nope, as far as I know, nobody’s ever worked out the rules for Parrises Squares. Unless it’s in a fan work somewhere, like the 3D chess handbook I have.
I’m partial to anbo-jyutsu myself, “the ultimate evolution in the martial arts.” :op
https://youtu.be/O1A2zPqVq5w
@55. AGrey: Is it confirmed that ‘Red’ matches are part of the official circuit, with full backing & protection from the local Authorities? I’m not sure it’s ever confirmed that they enjoy official sanction and the fact that those villains rely on holo-projectors to prevent interference with their fighters by outside parties, rather than on the threat of Official Retribution – police action and prosecution through the courts – is interesting.
@76 – The authorities are reluctant to take action on Jeffrey Combs re: kidnapping and slavery, so I doubt they’d kill their golden goose over something like deathmatches.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen the episode, but I got the idea that the hologram thing was so that they could reach a larger audience.
The stadium that we see has like 200 extras in it? that’s not a lot of tickets to sell. With holographic projection, you can fill as many stadiums as you can build
@76 / ED: My thinking is that the red matches are handled one of two ways:
1) Everyone knows it’s to the death, but only races that everyone hates are sent to red matches, so it’s “okay”. Of course, one must make certain that the hated fighter is the one who dies, but then Penk seemed so certain of Seven’s chances…
2) Everyone believes the death was staged; that it’s the fighter’s career that is at stake, not their life. Given that Penk & Co. keep the fighters isolated from the outside world (with only Penk’s word on how their fights were received) I think this is likely.
The arenas are small, but the advantage of that is that everyone has a good seat. Thanks to the holoprojectors, they can have the fight appear live anywhere, so you’ve got multiple venues with the illusion of “intimate” seats. Besides, in a two-person event in a small area, being able to sit close is important for the audience to be able to make out what’s happening.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Did anybody else notice that the opening camera pan around the arena was the same extras repeated over and over?
@80/Austin: Maybe the audience consisted of clones?
@80: I did not but better that trick with live people than the horribly fake looking CGI of the crowd scene in the finale of Enterprise.
If the game is experienced holographically, presumably the front row audience who have defeated fighters tossed at them also are holographic.
Worf used leave time from the Enterprise-D to participate in pretty violent sporting combat, and that was incidental to what happened when he brought home the trophy.
If Buck Rogers had forgotten that the twentieth century Olympic Games existed, they could be just reviving the ancient Greek games.
If you’re an unwilling participant in violent sport and you want to make an argument against fights to the death, then either winning the fight or losing it won’t work: the audience sees that every time anyway. You could try cowering and begging for your life, or eloquently arguing the vulgarity of the spectacle at the audience while you’re fighting, or contrive to make the performance ridiculous. However, wrestling already is. Also, if you fool around in these ways then you will probably die on that account, but if it’s die or commit murder, you have no pleasant options.
@83/Robert Carnegie: “If Buck Rogers had forgotten that the twentieth century Olympic Games existed, they could be just reviving the ancient Greek games.”
It wasn’t just 20th-century knowledge they’d lost, it was everything up to the nuclear holocaust around the turn of the millennium (around 2008-9 according to “Cosmic Whiz Kid,” retconned to just six months after Buck’s 1987 flight in season 2’s “Testimony of a Traitor”). Although there were historians who had some incomplete knowledge that they’d been able to reconstruct (e.g. the oft-mentioned but never-seen “Dr. Junius of the archives” who helped Buck furnish his apartment with surviving 20th-century paraphernalia), and a later episode showed a portion of “Old Chicago” restored by the Historical Society as a Colonial Williamsburg-type park. So I guess the Olympics episode wasn’t the only time they bent the premise.
krad, are you sure this was Dwayne Johnson/The Rock’s first dramatic role? The IMDB says he was on an episode of the TV series adaptation of “The Net” almost a year earlier than “Tsunkatse” (and an episode of “That 70s Show,” but you did specify dramatic).
Hmm, I have to disagree with Krad’s opinion of B’Elanna’s joke. I thought her “Borg assimilating an amusement park” line was hilarious.
Huh, so now I know where Nick Cave really got this Grinderman look from: Jeffrey Combs (just with a slightly different mustache. Actually, it’s really more Ron O’neal of Superfly, but I digress). It was nice to see Combs play a less-subservient kind of unctuousness. It’s nice to see an actor that clearly loves Trek come back again and again. I didn’t recognize Hertzler, but now it makes perfect sense.
People have been blasting season 6, but this is another excellent entry. Not original, but done very well. It continues on nicely with many themes from the prior episode: guilt and the consequences of violence. It seems a lot of people remember the cross-promotion. I did not. And I’m glad. I got to see it without that baggage.
Of course, I wish 7 had kicked The Rock’s ass, but I guess you can’t win them all.
One thing that puzzled me. You’d think they’d want to broadcast some crowd back to the actual arena. Seems to me sporting events of all kinds rely on audience feedback to motivate the participants.
People are sure hung up on the cross-promotion some 25 years later. Relax, folks. It could have been worse. They could have had the Voyager actors on WWE.
I don’t see how that would’ve been worse, since it was nonfiction and it’d be no different from the actors appearing on a morning talk show or Reading Rainbow or a game show or something. It’s only a problem when gimmicky crossover actors appear in a work of fiction, because it can pull you out of the fiction and make the story feel contrived.