Star Trek

For discussion of the Star Trek franchise from a real world perspective, see Star Trek (franchise).

Star Trek was a popular American science fiction television series of the 1960s, featuring among other characters, Spock, Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy. A Time Lord, Marnal, going by the human alias Marnal Gate, also sold a script to Star Trek, but unhappy with the changes made, he saw to it that he did not get credited for it. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles)

It later spawned a long-standing entertainment franchise that included motion pictures and additional TV series lasting into the 21st century. There were many avid fans who were thrilled by the debuts of movies based on the series beginning in the late 1970s. (PROSE: Return of the Living Dad)

Izzy Sinclair, a companion of the Eighth Doctor, watched Star Trek to vicariously escape her unhappy home life. (COMIC: Oblivion) She frequently watched Star Trek: The Next Generation on VHS. (AUDIO: Izzy's Story) Indeed, her comment upon entering the TARDIS for the first time was to say, "Not exactly the Starship Enterprise, is it?" (COMIC: Endgame) Her affinity for Star Trek — as well as her use of it to escape her home life — was something she shared with Destrii. Indeed, when the two first met, they bonded over Sulu's dialogue from the episode, Spock's Brain. (COMIC: Ophidius)

The Star Trek franchise faded out of public consciousness within a few centuries. 26th century native Bernice Summerfield thought it was a documentary when she first saw it, and 51st century native Jack Harkness was unfamiliar with the name "Spock". (TV: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances)

Specific Mentions

• When the Third Doctor told Sgt. John Benton that he had visited a parallel universe, Benton asked, "You mean like that Star Trek episode where Spock had a beard?" (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy)
• Upon seeing her future self for the first time in Los Angeles in 2009, the Fifth Doctor's companion Peri Brown wondered if she was an actress who used to play the Fonz's girlfriend in Happy Days or a "green good time girl" in Star Trek. (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox)
• "Spock's Brain" was an episode of Star Trek that both Izzy Sinclair and Destrii had seen. Destrii even went so far as to call it her "favourite". She cited "the bit where Sulu has to do the captain's log" as a particularly memorable moment and even quoted back a portion of the log, in unison with Izzy: "Captain Kirk's hunch that Spock's brain is on this planet appears to be correct!" (COMIC: Ophidius)
• Rose Tyler compared the Ninth Doctor to the Star Trek character Spock, a name Rose later gave as the Doctor's own when she introduced him to Jack Harkness. Harkness subsequently began calling him "Mr. Spock" until he was corrected. (TV: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances)
• When Clyde and Luke were on Kudlak's ship Luke asked Clyde if he could use his mobile phone. One of the other captives told him that it would be useless in space unless he knew Captain Kirk's phone number. (TV: Warriors of Kudlak)
• At one point, Clyde described Luke as being "all science and logic and Spocky stuff like that". (TV: Mona Lisa's Revenge)
• The Tenth Doctor taught Chloe Webber the Vulcan salute, famously used by Spock and various characters in Star Trek. (TV: Fear Her)
• The Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble once compared the sonic screwdriver to Star Trek's tricorder. Shortly afterwards, the Doctor and Donna, briefly adopted the aliases Doctor McCoy and Captain Kirk, respectively. (AUDIO: Pest Control)
• In 1969, when Joy encountered a Silent in the White House, she thought it was someone wearing a Star Trek mask. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut)
• An image of a popular girl asked Howie Spragg what "loser" is in Klingon, suggesting that he may have been a fan of the franchise. (TV: The God Complex)
• Craig Owens compared the Cybermen's teleporter to something out of Star Trek, mentioning the phrase "Beam me up". (TV: Closing Time)
• Alan Jackson noted how unrefined using vinegar was against the Slitheen, when compared to phasers and photon torpedoes. (TV: The Lost Boy)

Behind the scenes

Metafictional references

• The Eighth Doctor explained the chameleon circuit to Grace Holloway in terms of a "cloaking device", using a term coined by and closely associated with Star Trek (although in the context of Star Trek cloaking devices were used to make things invisible as opposed to merely changing their appearance). (TV: Doctor Who)
  • Sometime later the Eleventh Doctor activated a TARDIS feature that he also referred to as a cloaking device, which did make the TARDIS invisible. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon)
• Destrii watched a spacecraft design closely resembling that of the fictional Enterprise. (COMIC: Oblivion)
• The Eighth Doctor once wore a space helmet that bore the ship registry NCC-1701-D, the registry of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation, a spin-off from the original series. (WC: Shada)
• In PROSE: The Blue Angel by Paul Magrs and Jeremy Hoad, Captain Robert B. Blandish of the Federation starship Nepotist clearly parodies Captain Kirk.
• AUDIO: Bang-Bang-A-Boom! is a pastiche of Star Trek and its associated tropes and storytelling styles.
• The space liner in TV: A Christmas Carol was designed to parody several aspects of Star Trek. The bridge design mimicked the clean white surfaces of the 2009 revival film, along with the use of lens flares. The ship itself is referred to as a Galaxy class vessel, the same class of ship as the Enterprise D in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and one of the crewmen is a black male who wears an odd piece of eyewear, similar to the Next Generation character, Geordi LaForge.
• The Teselecta bridge is also of a similar Star Trek style design. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler)
• In 2050, a spacecraft known as the NX-2000 began flight tests. This shares its name with the Starship Registry of the USS Excelsior, which also underwent flight tests. (TV: The Bounty Hunter)
• In TV: Jaws of Orthrus, a CCPC states "Resistance is Futile" to Darius Pike, a catchphrase used by the Borg, and previously in several instances in Doctor Who.
• In TV: The Time of Angels, River Song mentions that the Byzantium has gone to warp, a possible reference to Star Trek. In Flesh and Stone, the Doctor calls the Byzantium a Galaxy class ship, most likely a reference to Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• In TV: The Lodger, the Eleventh Doctor's greeting to the autopilot hologram includes the line "please state the nature of the emergency", very similar to the line spoken by the Emergency Medical Hologram, also called The Doctor, ("Please state the nature of the medical emergency") in Star Trek: Voyager when he is activated.
• In TV: The Pandorica Opens, a Cyberman states "You will be assimilated" to Amy Pond, which is another catchphrase used by the Borg, who in turn resemble the original Cybermen, who also previously used the same phrase.
• COMIC: Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation² causes challenges for those wishing to rectify it with established canon, given that Star Trek is established as a fictional franchise in the Whoniverse, yet this story depicts the Eleventh and Fourth Doctors encountering characters from the franchise. Other than a few vague "alternate universe" dialogue references, the story does not explain how this is possible in the context of previous on-screen references.

See also

• See Star Trek (franchise) for a general discussion of the actual Star Trek franchise.
• The Doctor and the Enterprise, a famous unauthorised crossover between the two franchises.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation², a comic book crossover between the two franchises, the only authorised crossover to date.
• The Top Gear "Master of the Universe" segment, in which a Klingon raced around the Top Gear track against a Dalek, a Cyberman and Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor (as well as Darth Vader from Star Wars and Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon).