Oops

The Back to the Past senseis were killing them in the ratings. So the sensory channel decided to do their own. They couldn't afford the variances to send the primitive back without their consent, so they had to have a contract with the primitive. To be sure they would get the contract they chose a primitive who was about to die of natural causes. Dan Baker was having a stroke so he didn't have many options.

They assigned the project to Orgaet a producer of scripted dramas.
An Artist.
It was a punishment for going over budget. Orgaet hated the project and wanted it to fail fast so he could get back to the Rigelian Gladiators.

Orgaet used an "off the rack" Intelligent Sensory Interface to save money.

Oops.

Orgaet never looked at the difference between the brain structure of Agathii and Homosapiens.

Oops.

When Dan Baker decided to take construction gear rather than guns knives and bombs, Orgaet slipped the Agathii control system into Dans gear to save weight.

Oops.

It didn't matter Dan Baker was such a wimp that the stone age primitives would kill him in days.

What could possibly go wrong?