Star Trek and Doctor Who have crossed over several times, but a substantial coming together in live-action is not something that's been achieved for the two long-running sci-fi franchises. Instead, they've been limited to non-canonical (but fun) crossovers in things like comic books and mobile games.
That being said, recent years have made it feel more possible than ever. After Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor quickly teased a potential visit to the Star Trek universe in 2024's "Space Babies," Star Trek: Strange New Worlds started providing some other in-your-face clues that the famous Time Lord would soon cross paths with Starfleet on the small screen.
Sadly, it never happened, and with the current state of both Star Trek and Doctor Who, the crossover that once felt inevitable now comes across as the furthest thing from it. What makes this especially frustrating is that the endeavor has been confirmed to have once been planned as a very exciting affair.
Russell T Davies has confirmed there was a surprisingly solid plan for Star Trek & Doctor Who to cross over
With Star Trek owned by Paramount and Doctor Who being the property of the BBC, bringing the two sci-fi sagas together required extensive negotiation. While the legal elements were being figured out, both Doctor Who and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds kept the idea alive with Easter eggs and other cryptic nods to one another.
There were many, myself included, who became suspicious that these coy nods would never get any further than just a bit of harmless fun. However, after a brief cameo from the TARDIS in SNW season 3, as well as a recurring tease that Commander Pelia (Carol Kane) once traveled with the Doctor, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that things would come to a head with a full-blown crossover.
Recently reported by TrekMovie, former Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies has confirmed it was all far more than playful winks. "We were dying to do it," Davies said. "It reached the point where me and Steven Moffat had tickets booked to go to LA to go to the writers' room to try to work out how to do it.” Davies also confirmed: "We were talking about more than one episode."
If you've been monitoring this situation for a while, maybe the news about how far along in the process the crossover got isn't a surprise. The news about Moffat's involvement is new, though, as is the revelation that the plan was for Star Trek and Doctor Who to come together for more than just a one-off special or during an episode of the gimmick-heavy Strange New Worlds. Both reveals make it even more depressing that the whole thing fell apart.
Legal issues are what ultimately killed the Star Trek x Doctor Who crossover
With Doctor Who then enjoying a boosted budget from the BBC's now-over deal with Disney, and Strange New Worlds often engaging in especially quirky storylines, combined with showrunners on both sides eager to make it happen, all that remained was for Paramount and Disney to come to terms. It turned out to be too big a mountain to climb, though.
Because the event would have attracted a lot of attention, both parties were determined that they should get the rights to drop it on their respective streaming platforms first. "When I say battle, I mean it’s bloody, life and death," Davies explained. "You can guarantee if you see a show that’s funded by two companies, there has been a war."
That "war" sounds like it raged for a good while, and the victor was an underwhelming stalemate that resulted in the crossover proving too difficult to mediate behind the scenes. While it's an understandable scenario from an industry perspective, it doesn't stop it from also being deeply disappointing for the fans — and, from the sound of things, the writers.
On balance, it's probably for the best that Star Trek didn't cross over with Doctor Who
Don't get me wrong, I'd have watched the heck out of it. Even if it still happens at some point in the future, I'll be first in line to hit play. That said, the canonical weight of such an event would have bordered on crushing for both Star Trek and Doctor Who lore. If the Doctor can cross paths with Starfleet, and presumably serve as a huge ally, why wouldn't that just happen more often?
Sure, there is the possibility that the Doctor Who universe and the Star Trek universe are separate, and the doomed miniseries would have been a multiverse adventure, but that's not a perfect solution, either. With the tease that Pelia traveled with the Doctor, would that have meant she's from the Doctor Who universe? Are all Lanthanites from there? Without an official crossover, it's easy to ignore loaded questions like these due to the vagueness of their canon status.
Furthermore, given the timing of the deal that fell through, it stands to reason it would have been Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor teaming up with, presumably, Anson Mount's Captain Pike and the crew of the USS Enterprise. Given that SNW is often criticized for relying on random gimmicks rather than focusing on its goal of setting up The Original Series, and with the Gatwa-led Disney era being one of the more divisive periods in Doctor Who history, the live-action crossover with Star Trek would likely have been met with similar skepticism from fans.
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