Star Trek Showrunner Confirms Doctor Who Crossover Almost Happened

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 22 seconds ago

Star Trek and Doctor Who are two of the world’s longest-running sci-fi franchises, with each show making its debut in the ‘60s and continuously telling new stories over the decades. There is some interesting parallelism to each franchise: both Trek and Who constantly reinvent themselves with new casts, and both have been off the air for long periods before coming back. Now, both of these iconic IPs are in the same boat. Doctor Who is off the air indefinitely until the BBC finds a buyer, and Trek is no longer producing shows as part of a (likely doomed) pivot to film. 

For all of these similarities, however, the two franchises almost had something else in common: shared onscreen adventures. Former Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies previously confirmed his desire to have a crossover between his show and Enterprise, but the cancellation of this Star Trek spinoff made that impossible. Now, Strange New Worlds showrunner Akiva Goldsman confirmed that he also worked with Davies for years to try to make a modern crossover happen. Unfortunately, history repeated itself, and they were unable to make a crossover happen before both shows were finished.

Crossover Plans Were Bigger On The Inside

Fans of both fandoms thought we might be getting a crossover when the Doctor Who episode “Space Babies” streamed in 2024. At one point, new Companion Ruby compares the technology of the TARDIS to the technology of Star Trek. She is clearly referring to the sci-fi franchise as a work of fiction. However, the Doctor smiles and enthusiastically responds, “We’ve got to meet them one day!” He seemed to think these characters were very real and worth a visit, strongly hinting that we might get a crossover. One year later, Trek upped the ante with an episode that made multiple references to Doctor Who.

The Strange New Worlds episode “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail” featured two very prominent Doctor Who homages. The first was the long-lived Pelia claiming that she had traveled with a Doctor, and her dialogue highly implies that she was a Companion to the Doctor. On top of that, eagle-eyed viewers noticed that the TARDIS was visible in some of the outer space shots. Between these references and the earlier Doctor Who episode, it seemed like a crossover was on the horizon, but we never got one. Now, Strange New Worlds co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman has revealed how heartbreakingly close we really got. 

The Woman Who Lived (And Lived, And Lived, And Lived)

In a recent interview with Awards Radar, Goldsman was asked about “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail” and its reference to a certain timey-wimey someone. “We were trying with Russell to do a crossover. We were for years,” he said. “Again, these are the near misses, but we got not unclose, and we had some really cool conversations about it. And so, certainly in our view, I mean, Pelia traveled in the TARDIS. Why not?” 

Back in 2024, Goldsman had announced his desire for a Star Trek/Doctor Who crossover at a fan convention. In response to a montage video showing what that might look like, he gushed, “That shows you what it would feel like, what it would look like… the joy of it. It must happen!” However, he also declared how difficult this would be and what role fans played in the whole thing. “If anyone can make that happen… it’s fans that can make that happen! Two great big broadcasters, two great big empires–and their lawyers!–would have to come together, but we can do that, can’t we?”

Doctor, To The Bridge!

Sadly, that confidence was obviously misplaced. Goldsman didn’t delve into details, but it’s almost certain that the lawyers for these two sci-fi franchises never saw eye to eye. Eventually, the crossover became outright impossible: Strange New Worlds finished shooting its fifth and final season. More recently, the BBC and showrunner Russel T. Davies (the man who pushed for a crossover in the first place!) confirmed that Doctor Who was going on indefinite hiatus. 

However, fans still wanting a taste of what that crossover would look like can always read the engrossingly weird crossover comics from IDW Publishing. And we can all cross our fingers that someday, we’ll see David Tennant’s Doctor on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise ordering warp speed as only he can: “Allons-y!”