Star Trek (franchise)

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You may be looking for in-universe references to Star Trek.

The Star Trek franchise has made several references to the Doctor Who universe, and the two also share some behind-the-scenes commonalities.

Overview

References to Doctor Who in Star Trek narratives

Television

Other media

Paramount Pictures, owner of the Star Trek franchise, does not currently consider anything other than the live action Star Trek television series and films canonical. Nevertheless, there are licensed comic and prose stories, and these have very occasionally referenced the DWU.

Cast connections

Due to the two franchises being produced in different countries, shared cast members are infrequent. Most of the connections between the two franchises have occurred as a result of the three productions with extensive North American filming: the 1996 movie, TV: The Impossible Astronaut, and Torchwood: Miracle Day. Major Star Trek actors who appeared in these productions include Nana Visitor and John de Lancie, and companion Dr. Grace Holloway was also played by Deep Space Nine guest star Daphne Ashbrook.

After appearing in TV: The Long Game as the Editor and narrating a series of Doctor Who Confidential, Simon Pegg also took over the role of Scotty from the 2009 film Star Trek onwards. Noel Clarke also appeared alongside Pegg in the 2013 sequel Star Trek Into Darkness. In 2020, Orla Brady played Laris in Star Trek: Picard after having played Tasha Lem in TV: The Time of the Doctor. That same year, David Ajala played Cleveland Booker in Star Trek: Discovery after having played Peter in TV: The Beast Below.

Other recognisable actors who have guest starred in both franchises include David Warner, Mark Sheppard, and Alan Dale. Deep Space Nine stars Alexander Siddig and Chase Masterson crossed over into the DWU by virtue of voice acting work, typically for Big Finish Productions. In 2012, Chase Masterson debuted the character of Vienna Salvatori in AUDIO: The Shadow Heart, with a spin-off audio series which followed in 2013. This made Masterson the first actor to take a regular role in both a Star Trek and Doctor Who spin-off.

Anthony Head and Alec Newman also read audiobooks for the Star Trek franchise.

The Original Series

Actor Doctor Who role(s) Star Trek role(s)
David Soul Mission Control Makora
Christopher Lloyd Doc Brown Kruge
George Murdock Preacher "God"
David Warner Professor Grisenko
Azlok (voice)
The Doctor
St. John Talbot
Gorkon
William Morgan Sheppard Canton Everett Delaware III Klingon commandant
Angelo Tiffe Sam Doyle USS Excelsior navigator

The Animated Series

Actor Doctor Who role(s) Star Trek role(s)
Ed Bishop General Flint Asmodeus

The Next Generation

Actor Doctor Who role(s) Star Trek role(s)
Marina Sirtis Karen Deanna Troi
John de Lancie Allen Shapiro Q
John Franklyn-Robbins Ferain Macias
Jim Norton Thomas Kennet Albert Einstein
Barrie Ingham Paris
Alydon
Danilo Odell
George Murdock Preacher J.P. Hanson
Maurice Roëves Stotz Romulan captain
William Morgan Sheppard Canton Everett Delaware III Ira Graves
David Warner Professor Grisenko
Azlok (voice)
The Doctor
Madred
Carolyn Seymour Mordrega
Freda Mattingly
Multravers
Rejoice
Whitaker
Suzanne Clare
Stubbs
The Commodore
Kidd
Taris
Mirasta Yale
Toreth
Alexander Siddig Rosto
Nemo
Sultan
Marcus Gifford
Julian Bashir
Eric Steinberg Zheng Yibao Paul Porter
Alice Krige Patricia Sawyer
Queen Mum
Felicity Lyme
Borg Queen
Alan Dale Aaron Copley Hiren

Deep Space Nine

Actor Doctor Who role(s) Star Trek role(s)
Nana Visitor Olivia Colasanto Kira Nerys
Alexander Siddig Rosto
Nemo
Sultan
Marcus Gifford
Julian Bashir
Chase Masterson Vienna Salvatori
Peggy Brooks
Leeta
John de Lancie Allen Shapiro Q
Daphne Ashbrook Grace Holloway
Perfection
Ruth Matheson
Melora Pazlar
Amy Benedict Bridget Howe Female Bajoran villager
Steven Berkoff Shakri Hagath
Van Epperson CIA Archivist Bajoran Clerk
Bari Hochwald ER nurse Elizabeth Lense

Voyager

Actor Doctor Who role(s) Star Trek role(s)
John de Lancie Allen Shapiro Q
Bari Hochwald ER nurse Brin
Christopher Neame Skagra Unferth
Olaf Pooley Eric Stahlman
Eric Stahlmann
Cleric
Robin Sachs British professor Valen
Mark Sheppard Canton Everett Delaware III Leucon
William Morgan Sheppard Canton Everett Delaware III Qatai
Eric Steinberg Zheng Yibao Ankari captain
Carolyn Seymour Mordrega
Freda Mattingly
Multravers
Rejoice
Whitaker
Suzanne Clare
Stubbs
The Commodore
Kidd
Templeton
Alice Krige Patricia Sawyer
Queen Mum
Felicity Lyme
Borg Queen

Enterprise

Actor Doctor Who role(s) Star Trek role(s)
Van Epperson CIA Archivist Alien man
Paul Hayes Costerdane R. Ascher
Bari Hochwald ER nurse E'Lis
Christopher Neame Skagra German Generalmajor
Guy Siner Ravon Stuart Reed
Richard Wharton Paul Bell Jossen
David Youse Rosenbloom Nalbis
Alec Newman Ed Driscoll
Julius
Malik

Reboot films

Actor Doctor Who role(s) Star Trek role(s)
Jason Brooks Press Secretary Romulan Helmsman
Noel Clarke Mickey Smith
Ricky Smith
Salus Kade
Thomas Harewood
Sonita Henry Meme USS Kelvin doctor
Simon Pegg The Editor
Don Chaney
Scotty
Deep Roy Mr Sin
Posicarian
Keenser
William Morgan Sheppard Canton Everett Delaware III Vulcan science minister
Kelvin Yu Nicolas Frumkin Medical technician
Benedict Cumberbatch Howard Carter Khan Noonien Singh

Discovery

Actor Doctor Who role(s) Star Trek role(s)
Chris Obi George T'Kuvma
David Ajala Peter Cleveland Booker

Picard

Actor Doctor Who role(s) Star Trek role(s)
Orla Brady Tasha Lem Laris
Tallinn
John de Lancie Allen Shapiro Q

Lower Decks

Actor Doctor Who role(s) Star Trek role(s)
John de Lancie Allen Shapiro Q
Troy Baker Batman Sherwyns
Kari Wahlgren Supergirl Angie
Key'lor
Sylvia Ront
Kearns

Strange New Worlds

Actor Doctor Who role(s) Star Trek role(s)
Christina Chong Lorna Bucket La'an Noonien-Singh

Crew connections

According to The Nth Doctor, in 1994, Leonard Nimoy, who played the original Mr. Spock and directed two Star Trek feature films, was reportedly under consideration to direct one of the many aborted Doctor Who feature film projects under consideration during the 1989-96 interregnum.

TV movie composer John Debney also composed scores for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Pegasus" and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes "The Nagus" and "Progress". Tony Dow, who worked as visual effects producer for the TV movie, later directed the Deep Space Nine episode "Field of Fire".

Torchwood: Miracle Day writers Jane Espenson and John Shiban have also written episodes for Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Enterprise respectively. Other writers, such as Una McCormack, John Peel, Diane Duane and Keith R.A. DeCandido, have written for both franchises in other media.

Crossovers, planned and actual

In April 2009, Russell T Davies revealed in an interview that he had considered writing a Doctor Who episode that crossed over with Star Trek: Enterprise.

"I would have loved to have done a Star Trek crossover," said Davies. "The very first year, we talked about it. Then Star Trek finally went off air. Landing the TARDIS on board the Enterprise would have been magnificent. Can you imagine what their script department would have wanted, and what I would have wanted? It would have been the biggest battle."

In 2012 IDW Publishing published an official 8-issue crossover series titled Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation² that featured the Eleventh Doctor and the Cybermen encountering the characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation, with one issue also featuring a flashback of the Fourth Doctor encountering characters from Star Trek: The Original Series. The first issue was released on 30 May 2012.

Other information

  • The fan novella The Doctor and the Enterprise by Jean Airey, initially was published privately as a stand-alone fanzine and then in a professional edition in 1989 by Pioneer Books. This book featured the fourth Doctor and the original Star Trek crew, in a setting that pastiched the ''Darkover" novels of Marion Zimmer Bradley. The Pioneer edition removes the names of many Trek characters. Many other amateur fan fiction crossovers between the television series have been written over the years, including Airey's own sequel to her novel, a piece of erotica entitled 'The Lieutenant and the Doctor'; Airey's book remains the only such to be published professionally, if unofficially. There would be no official crossover between the two franchises published until Assimilation² in 2012.
  • Cast members of both Doctor Who and Star Trek have participated in special editions of the television game show, The Weakest Link, hosted by Anne Robinson.
  • Albert Einstein has appeared in both franchises. In Doctor Who, he appears in Sylvester McCoy's debut story, Time and the Rani, and the 2011 mini-episode Death Is the Only Answer. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes "The Nth Degree" and "Descent", he appears as a holographic projection. In the latter, he was played by Jim Norton, who later played Thomas Kennet in NOTVALID: Scream of the Shalka.
  • As long running science fiction franchises, there have been occasional story elements with marked similarities.
    • The cybernetic Borg assimilate species in similar fashion to the Cybermen and also use a similar catchphrase ("You will be assimilated"). Likewise, the warrior race of Klingons share similarities with the Sontarans and Draconians.
    • The Trill also possess the ability to pass on a symbiont after a host body dies, allowing them to effectively live on after death, not entirely dissimilar from regeneration. When joined with a symbiont, the personality of the new host will change as it becomes an amalgamation of their own, plus those of their predecessors, as well as retaining all of their memories. Through specific rituals, it is also possible for the current hosts to interact with their predecessors, as seen in the Deep Space Nine episodes "Facets" and "Field of Fire", which were DS9 equivalents of multi-Doctor episodes. The ability of Trill to take on the memories and experiences of others was also utilised when Terry Farrell and her character of Jadzia Dax was replaced by Nicole de Boer's Ezri Dax, in much the same way Doctor actors are replaced when they choose to leave the series.
    • Like the Silurians, the dinosaur-descended Voth are a sentient, humanoid reptile species that evolved on Earth and developed a technologically advanced civilisation. Like those Silurians who built the ship in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, the Voth left the planet, eventually settling in the Milky Way Galaxy's Delta Quadrant.
  • In a Top Gear "Master of the Universe" segment, 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).
  • Both franchises have featured characters from the Sherlock Holmes stories in some manner. Doctor Who features Holmes and Watson in some of its print media; Holmes’s arch-nemesis is the central antagonist of one episode in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
    • With this in mind, it is worth noting that Benedict Cumberbatch is the only cast member to have played a character in all three franchises.
  • The novel The Collectors by Christopher L. Bennett is dedicated "To William, Patrick, Jon, Tom, Peter, Colin, Sylvester, Paul, John, Christopher, David, Matt and the other Peter."

External links

Footnotes