Emmy award-winning actor John Larroquette has had several interesting roles throughout his career, including narrating four of the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” films. But he is probably best known for playing prosecutor Dan Fielding on NBC’s “Night Court,” a role he reprised for the 2023 reboot.
Well, the reboot sitcom just created an unlikely crossover with his role as a Klingon in “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.”
In the 1984 film, Larroquette played Maltz, an officer under Commander Kruge (Christopher Lloyd). Maltz ends up being the only member of Kruge’s Bird of Prey to survive. Since, after killing Kruge, Captain Kirk tricks Maltz into beaming him up, allowing the Starfleet crew to commandeer the Klingon’s ship. (A ship they later rechristen the “HMS Bounty” in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.”)
The newest episode of “Night Court” pays tribute to this iconic film with a new episode titled “Wrath of Comic-Con,” a reference to 1982’s “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” So, of course, Larroquette had to dawn his Klingon grab.
The episode centers around Dan finding a potential love connection with a woman who has sworn to destroy him. So he takes drastic measures, which include fully embracing the wondrous world of Comic-Con. While Abby (Melissa Rauch) is forced to deal with the fact that she dislikes someone when her childhood ‘friend’ (Jessica St. Clair) visits.
While this may not have been the crossover Larroquette was expecting, he did say that he’d be interested in coming back the the world of “Star Trek.” “I just kept telling Bill Shatner–since I was the last surviving Klingon, I smell spin-off,” he said in 1989. “I could take this to a series. Maltz starts off and he has a little hot dog stand on Yakka III out there in the Doofus Galaxy.”
Whoever came up with this idea definitely brought honor to the house of “Night Court.” You can catch the revival series on NBC, as well as streaming on Peacock (along with the original).
