Star Trek And Doctor Who Almost Had A Crossover (And One Enterprise Crew Member Is A Former Companion) – SlashFilm

The fourth season of “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” goes to debut on Paramount+ on July 23, 2026, with an episode known as “Valles Marineris.” Trekkies are naturally fairly excited, but in addition somewhat wistful, as these ultimate seasons of “Unusual New Worlds” (and “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy”) are going to be the final televised “Star Trek” episodes for the foreseeable future. “Academy” was canceled after its already-filmed (however as-but unaired) second season, and “Unusual New Worlds” will finish after its (additionally already-filmed however unaired) fifth season. As soon as these reveals finish, we Trekkies should, as we so typically do, consolation ourselves with reruns, tie-in novels, and countless speculative discussions of what might need been. 

That can embody pondering the “Doctor Who” crossover reference that nearly occurred. Plainly “Unusual New Worlds” co-creator and author Akiva Goldsman revealed to the Radio Occasions that he nearly — however in the end did not — wrote an express reference to the British sci-fi collection “Doctor Who” into an episode of “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds.” 

“Doctor Who” has been round barely longer than “Star Trek” (“Who” debuted in 1963, “Star Trek” in 1966), however each reveals created a sci-fi TV bedrock that followers have been standing on ever since. “Doctor Who” follows the exploits of a anonymous alien Doctor (fifteen actors have performed the character; he “regenerates” when he dies) who travels across the universe in a time-touring spacecraft known as the TARDIS (which, because of a whimsical prop rigmarole, seems to be like a classic police field). The Doctor usually travels round with a (typically younger, enticing, feminine) human companion. 

Goldman wished to indicate that Pelia (Carol Kane), the engineer on “Unusual New Worlds,” was as soon as one of many Doctor’s companions. 

Akiva Goldsman admitted that the “Unusual New Worlds” author and “Doctor Who” author Russell T. Davies have been, for fairly some time, sussing out the small print of a legit crossover with “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds.” He stated: 

“We have been attempting with Russell to do a crossover. We have been for years. […] Once more, these are the close to misses, however we received not unclose, and we had some actually cool conversations about it. And so, actually in our view, I imply, Pelia traveled within the TARDIS. Why not?”

Pelia, after all, is the engineer on the USS Enterprise on “Unusual New Worlds.” She is a Lanthanite, a humanoid species that seemingly lives for 1000’s of years. As a result of Pelia is so lengthy-lived, it is wholly doable that she bumped into the Doctor many centuries earlier, and spent some time in his firm as his touring companion. 

This was backed up by a barely-seen Easter egg within the “Unusual New Worlds” episode “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail,” whereby a large shot of the USS Enterprise featured a tiny, blink-and-you will-miss-it TARDIS floating in area close by. That Easter egg, nevertheless, was a cute wink for attentive followers, and never a reliable declaration that “Star Trek” and “Doctor Who” share a universe. 

The Radio Occasions additionally quoted one thing Davies stated at a sci-fi conference in 2024, noting that he, too, would like to see a crossover between “Doctor Who” and “Star Trek.” And why not, certainly? The 2 sci-fi reveals have been a part of the pop consciousness for 60-some years and mutually invented the very notion of sci-fi TV “canon.” Seeing the Doctor work together with the USS Enterprise in a canonical style would really feel like some form of lengthy-held cultural success. 

After all, the crossover between “Doctor Who” and “Star Trek” has lengthy been a scrumptious concept, and there have been a couple of cute winks to followers over time. Within the “Star Trek: The Subsequent Era” episode “I, Borg,” there was a reference to a planetary system known as the Argolis Cluster, which was a time period taken from the 1980 “Doctor Who” episode “The Leisure Hive.” Within the “Subsequent Era” episode “The Impartial Zone,” one can pause on a background laptop panel, and see that it bears the names of the six actors who had performed the Doctor up-to-the-minute that episode aired.

The comedian e-book firm IDW even revealed a (non-canonical) crossover story between “Star Trek” and “Doctor Who” known as “Assimilation²,” whereby the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) teamed up with Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart), and whereby the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) teamed up with Captain Kirk (William Shatner). These kinds of crossovers are the bread and butter of fan-baiting comedian writers. There’s a comedian whereby the X-Males turned up on the Enterprise, and one other wherein Spock beat up Wolverine.

And we’ve not even talked about Gary Seven (Robert Lansing), a really Doctor-like character that “Star Trek” inserted into an early episode as a possible spin-off character. Gary Seven had a magical portal that appeared like an abnormal Earth merchandise and a comely companion performed by Teri Garr. 

Followers have additionally probably been writing fanfic for many years, putting any one of many 15 Docs on the bridge of any one of many many Starfleet vessels that Trekkies are accustomed to. Would an official crossover have been crass and pandering? Maybe. However many sci-fi nerds have been ready for years for it.