Entertainment
X-Men ‘97 Homaged The Most Popular Star Trek Show And Nobody Noticed
By Chris Snellgrove
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X-Men ‘97 remains the best Marvel show ever made, and Season 2 has managed to maintain the show’s impossibly high standard of quality. There are many ingredients to this cartoon’s success, including jaw-dropping animation and writing that perfectly weaves together over half a century of tangled lore. Bringing everything together is a killer voice cast that brings all of these colorful characters to life. In addition to the regular cast (all of whom are pitch-perfect), the show has also brought in consistently great voice actors. This includes Obsession’s Michael Johnston as the voice of young Apocalypse.
When Apocalypse (then going by En Sabah Nur) was just a boy, he and his people were enslaved by Rama-Tut. The most recent episode of X-Men ‘97 (“The Rise of Apocalypse, Part II”) was a big one for Rama-Tut, confirming that he is secretly Kang, a time-traveling tyrant who threatens the past, present, and future. The episode also had a scene where this villain had a heart-to-heart with Charles Xavier. It’s a great scene, but what most fans don’t realize is that it was also a secret Star Trek homage. You see, Rama-Tut is voiced by Trek villain John de Lancie, and he verbally spars with a character once played by Patrick Stewart!
Playing A Godlike Cosmic Villain (Again)
In the fourth episode of X-Men ‘97 Season 2, the team members stuck in the past are playing a dangerous game with the future. At Magneto’s insistence, they are trying to instill Xavier’s values in the young Apocalypse, hoping that he won’t grow up to be such a dangerous tyrant. Unfortunately, they just push the mutant into embracing evil, which is made easier when he discovers Ship, a spaceship of unimaginable power. With it, he attacks Rama-Tut and his people. However, Rama-Tut makes his escape, but not before having a psychic discussion with Xavier about Apocalypse.
During the discussion, Rama-Tut proposes a devil’s bargain, asking for Xavier’s help getting into a Celestial temple so that he can stop Apocalypse. Xavier resists, both because he supports reforming Apocalypse and is rightfully hesitant to give the villain so much raw power. Eventually, the argument is rendered moot: Apocalypse breaks bad and gains access to the temple, which is actually the aforementioned spaceship. Moot or not, though, their conversation is fascinating for fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Why is that? Simple: it’s basically a bonus argument between the cosmic villain, Q, and his longtime nemesis, Jean-Luc Picard!
The Trial Never Ended, Jean-Luc
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, John de Lancie voiced Q, a villain with godlike powers who becomes fixated on Patrick Stewart’s Captain Picard. Notably, X-Men ‘97 has de Lancie voicing Rama-Tut, which is already pretty funny. After all, this time-hopping villain is pretty godlike himself, especially to the residents of Ancient Egypt. While he doesn’t voice the mutant leader in the show, Stewart notably plays Charles Xavier in the live-action X-Men films. Because of this, it’s basically impossible to watch Xavier and Rama-Tut bicker in X-Men ‘97 without remembering the many, many spirited fights between Q and Picard.
One reason for this is that, in-between supervillain speechifying, Rama-Tut finds the time to fire off sarcastic, Q-like retorts. When Xavier accuses the villain of wanting the technology of the Celestial temple for himself, Rama-Tut replies, “A+, Charles! I see the mind of the professor lives up to the legend.” In Trek, Q was a lot like this version of Rama-Tut, oscillating between deadly seriousness and hilarious snark. We get another glimpse of the sarcasm when he retreats from this time period, telling his second-in-command that Apocalypse could only be defeated by “something eXternal.” When she asks what he means, he laughs that “only time will tell” as he puffs off to the future.
Rama-Tut doesn’t take up much screen time in X-Men ‘97. In fact, Kang (who reveals himself right before leaving) gets out of this hit series much, much quicker than Jonathan Majors’ Kang left the MCU. Realistically, we likely won’t hear John de Lancie on this show for a long time, if ever. However, fans will always be able to cherish “The Rise of Apocalypse, Part II” for giving us one last spat between Q and Jean-Luc Picard. That makes this the second best X-Men/Star Trek crossover, right behind Planet X. Trust me: when Q asked Worf if he’d eaten any good books lately, the Klingon was never in danger of naming that piece of targ sh*t!