Star Trek: Voyager Is Still the Rock's Finest Hour as an Actor

The debut of Johnson in the 15th episode of Star Trek: Voyager marked the beginning of his acting career. Johnson plays a major role in the episode as the Pendari Champion, a hulking combatant in the melee blood sport Tsunkatse that goes toe-to-toe.

For Star Trek fans, The Rock is the third most notable guest star, behind J.G. Hertzler and Jeffrey Combs. In the ring of this wildly popular death match, he plays a fellow combatant who trains the captive Seven to survive long enough to be saved by the crew.

We are to expect joy from Star Trek legends. At this point in The Rock's career, he was just starting out a journey that would lead to box office dominance and, well, Johnson just kind of playing the part. It is difficult to argue that Johnson has forged an acting career for himself that challenges him dramatically, instead largely challenging him by how many stunts he can do.

The Pendari Champion was the beginning of Johnson's career because they were just the Rock with alien makeup on. It is the perfect form of Johnson's niche. The idea of the Rock being the Rock, But Askance, was a new one. You could say that Johnson has spent two and a half decade chasing the same high as "Tsunkatse" but is unable to duplicate the joy of the first time he could turn the Rock into a trans-medium performance.

At the height of his wrestling career, at the height of his acting career, and now at the height of his career as an actor, everything is in the Pendari Champion. There was a slight break for a trademark People's eyebrow. The Rock Bottom was canonized as the second greatest act of martial combat in Star Trek. The fact that he barely has dialogue, the fact that his costume had to have a very cheap harness put in, and the fact that he looked slightly different than he does on a regular show. It is the embrace of Johnson entirely into a Star Trek plot about trying to escape a dangerous alien fight club: he is there to be Johnson but not Johnson. Do you think the Rock is the Pendari champion?

The only career capable of tanking an entire superhero movie universe in one go is thanks to Star Trek: Voyager. The DCEU couldn't survive a Rock Bottom, but seven of nine did.

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