Two of the cornerstones of modern-day science fiction television, Star Trek and Doctor Who, have spent decades running on parallel tracks, and they’ve finally come together explicitly in 2025. Fans of both will know that the two shows have an awful lot in common. Both began in the 1960s, both boast expansive lore and Universes, and both have passionate, multigenerational fanbases. So similar are they in tone and subject matter that fans have long speculated that they could potentially be happening in the same univers. And what if, one day, the paths of a Starfleet Captain and a certain madman with a box might cross?
Videos by ComicBook.com
In a preview for the upcoming Strange New Worlds Season 3 finale (via TVInsider), Anson Mount’s Pike says the Enterprise has faced a challenging few months, to which Pelia (Carol Kane) replies: “Challenging, schmallenging. Remind me to tell you about the time I spent with the time-traveling Doctor I once knew.” As a Lanthanite, Pelia has been alive for centuries, and after the Easter egg appearance of a TARDIS earlier this season, her recalled adventure is the most explicit call out of a relationship that’s been hinted at for years.
Beyond that reference, there’s a rich tapestry of lore between the two shows, and most importantly, a burning desire for them to crossover. But could that ever really happen?
The History of Star Trek & Doctor Who’s Links
The idea of having the Doctor step aboard the Enterprise certainly isn’t new, and it certainly isn’t just a pipe dream shared among fans. Back in 2005, when Doctor Who was rebooted for a new era under the direction of Russell T Davies, Star Trek: Enterprise was still on the air, and Davies revealed that he seriously considered pitching a crossover. In his book The Writer’s Tale, he admitted he desperately wanted to “see the Doctor on board the Starship Enterprise, puncturing all that Starfleet pomposity with his sheer Doctor-ness.” We have to agree that it’s a marvellous thought. What we wouldn’t give to see the occasionally cocksure confidence of David Tennant’s 10th Doctor or the slight maniacalness of the 11th Doctor paired off against the stubborn leadership style of James T kirk or the like, running riot over Starfleet’s meticulous rules and regulations – although, on second thoughts, maybe they’d get on like a house on fire.
Talks reportedly occurred between BBC producers and Paramount during the final season of Enterprise to discuss the possibility of a potential merger, but Enterprise’s cancellation unfortunately cut the idea short before it could take off. Later, Davies even considered reworking the concept for Doctor Who’s Easter special “Planet of the Dead,” but ultimately decided that if he couldn’t use the real Enterprise, it wasn’t worth attempting a parody.
Enterprise did manage its own Doctor Who crossover of sorts before it said goodbye, though. In the episode “Future Tense”, the Enterprise crew finds a ‘time ship’ – unfortunately not in the unmistakable form of a police telephone box (something that was apparently debated in the Star Trek writer’s room). However, it is said to be “bigger on the inside than it is on the outside…”
It’s wildly frustrating for fans who have been waiting for the potential crossover for literal decades that the two shows just seem to keep missing each other. It seems that just as one show is enjoying a resurgence, the other is sadly on the wane! In 2024, when companion Ruby actually referred to Star Trek in the much-debated “Space Babies,” Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor quipped that they should “really visit them [the Enterprise crew] one day.”
This definitely raised a few pointed eyebrows, begging the question of how Star Trek could exist as the ‘TV show’ we know within the Doctor Who universe and yet still apparently be ‘real’? Nonetheless, this throwaway line from the 15th Doctor sparked new hope for fans. With Doctor Who’s flashy new Disney deal giving it that extra budget and potential influence with Paramount and plenty of new Star Trek properties on going or on the horizon, perhaps this was finally the time when the two universes would collide epically. But alas, it wasn’t to be.
Easter Eggs Across Time and Space
Even before the official crossover, the franchises have had a little fun with the possibility over the years. Both shows have leaned into the idea at various points, from referencing the same galaxies and planets to Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor beginning an episode by reciting part of Star Trek’s classic opening monologue, there’s been plenty of playful referencing and ribbing of each other from across time and space.
Even before Ruby’s mention, it’s been established that Star Trek the show, exists in some form or another within the Whoniverse. As far back as Doctor Who’s 2005 episode “The Empty Child,” Rose Tyler also referenced Star Trek, comparing Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor to Spock, suggesting Trek exists, at least in the familiar fictional format we know. Whilst investigating the Silence in 1960s America in the episode “The Impossible Astronaut,” Amy watches on in horror as the mysterious alien brutally murders a woman in a bathroom of the Whitehouse, who is initially convinced the creature is simply someone wearing a “Star Trek mask”.
Star Trek has also slipped in subtle tributes, from the names of the original six Doctors appearing on a console readout in The Next Generation episode “The Neutral Zone” to First Officer Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) requesting a “sonic driver” in “The Naked Now.”
They’re good fun, but realistically, these moments do little but blur the lines between affectionate homage and actual continuity. The sight of a floating police box might have been the most blatant reference yet, but was this TARDIS Easter egg just a wink to fans, or is it proof of canon within Star Trek’s timeline that the Doctor exists somewhere out there?
Could A Real Star Trek & Doctor Who Crossover Work?
Perhaps the real question we should be asking is would a real crossover – and not just a playful reference in passing – actually work? After all, as Jurassic Park taught us, just because you can do something, doesn’t necessarily mean you should. Both franchises certainly share core values — exploration, empathy, curiosity, and a belief that intelligence can solve problems better than violence, even if Starfleet officers are a little trigger-happy…
On paper, those ideals should make the Doctor and Starfleet natural allies – after a little butting of heads over whether it’s acceptable to bear arms. But there are also key differences. Star Trek is, when you boil it down, a workplace drama about highly trained professionals on a job, following protocol, while Doctor Who is about a chaotic maverick operating outside the laws of even his own species, who thrives on breaking the rules – quote: “I see keep out signs as suggestions more than actual orders”. Given the Prime Directive is literally non-interference, Starfleet command might just have a heart attack at the Doctor’s tendency to interfere whenever and wherever he feels like it.
However, arguably, this potential culture clash is exactly why fans want to see the crossover happen. Imagine Captain Pike agonizing over a first-contact scenario while the Doctor gleefully undermines his orders, or Spock trying to parse the Doctor’s technobabble with icy Vulcan logic. Their contrasts could spark not only comedy but meaningful conversations about how best to go about exploring and protecting the universe – a goal they essentially have in common. Continuity, however, would be, well, a headache.
The universes might have a lot in common, but that’s mostly because they’ve both set up their own long-established, similar, yet differing, laws. Where Star Trek has the United Federation of Planets, Doctor Who has the ‘Galactic Federation,’ where Star Trek has Starfleet, Doctor Who has the Shadow Proclamation, described by The Doctor as the ‘Outer Space Police,’ Not too dissimilar? Doctor Who has the Daleks and Cybermen, Star Trek has the Romulans and the Borg – the list goes on. Not to mention that both shows have their own established and contradictory timelines of events for the imagined near future of humanity as it takes its first steps out into the stars.
And of course, there’s the issue of where the hell the Doctor has been all this time when the Enterprise was getting into scrapes. Granted, the Doctor can’t be everywhere at once, but given his affinity for humanity and the times when survival seemed genuinely hopeless for the Enterprise crew, you’d have thought he’d have popped up at some point before now. Now that we know he exists in the same universe, if he’s still around, that question rings a little louder. There might well be a timey-wimey explanation, but, especially since Doctor Who has referenced Star Trek as a fictional show, the first thing a televised crossover would need to decide is: do the two universes genuinely coexist, or is there some other explanation? With the multiverse now a mainstream storytelling device, the answer could be retconned in somehow — but it would still need careful handling.
Back in 2012, IDW comics had to invent a suitably elaborate “universes merging” explanation to smooth things over when they published perhaps the only true Star Trek/ Doctor Who crossover to date. Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who – Assimilation², was a limited series in which Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor teamed up with Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the Enterprise-D to battle a Borg-Cyberman alliance! While extremely fun to read (and of course a lot easier to portray on the page), the series also revealed the difficulties of balancing two enormous franchises and their respective tones.
So Could A Star Trek/Doctor Who Crossover Really Happen?
The biggest hurdle here isn’t necessarily creative — it’s corporate. Doctor Who is produced by the BBC and distributed internationally by Disney+, while Star Trek remains firmly under Paramount’s control. Any true crossover would require an unprecedented legal and financial agreement between two media giants who don’t always play nice.
That said, hope isn’t lost. At San Diego Comic-Con in 2024, Davies and Star Trek producer Alex Kurtzman shared a panel in which they openly expressed their enthusiasm for the idea. Davies told fans, “It must happen!” while Kurtzman nodded along. If enough fan demand builds, it’s not impossible that Disney and Paramount could see the value in uniting two globally recognized brands for a one-off television or film event, say.
In the streaming era, where crossovers and multiverse mashups are increasingly common, the timing has never been better. In part because of the uncertainty over its future, Doctor Who may actually be looking for big, buzzy ideas to solidify its Disney+ era, (take the shock decision to bring back Billie Piper) while Star Trek is eager to keep expanding its footprint. A crossover could give both franchises a huge cultural moment remembered for generations to come.
The TARDIS cameo in Strange New Worlds and the new mention of a time traveling Doctor may have been throwaway gag,s but if used right, they could become the first breadcrumbs on the path toward something bigger. Even if a fully realised crossover never materializes, creative teams on both shows are clearly aware of the potential and willing to wink at the possibility.
For now, fans can enjoy imagining what might happen if the Doctor really did step aboard the Enterprise: witty banter with Spock, or maybe even teaching Scotty a thing or two about time machines that are bigger on the inside! In a universe this big, stranger things have happened.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Warner Bros. Animation / Cartoon Network Studios -
Image courtesy of Bethesda -
Image courtesy of Netflix -
Courtesy of Crunchyroll
