Star Trek & Doctor Who Crossover Almost Happened, Reveal Strange New Worlds EPs

Published Jun 21, 2026, 8:04 PM EDT

Gene Roddenberry's beloved 60-year-old sci-fi franchise is nearly as old as Doctor Who, which launched on the BBC in 1963 and has been as enduringly popular as Star Trek. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 6, "The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail" contains a Doctor Who Easter egg: the TARDIS is visible in the background behind the USS Enterprise. Commander Pelia (Carol Kane) also alluded to having met a Doctor.

Awards Radar interviewed Star Trek: Strange New Worlds executive producers and co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers about season 3, and they discussed how a crossover with Doctor Who was in the works for years. Goldsman says the crossover "got not unclose" to happening after "some really cool conversations about it." Read Akiva and Henry's quotes below:

Awards Radar: So, I have to ask about Doctor Who and Pelia, and I don’t know if you can answer it, but-

Akiva Goldsman: We have no idea what you might be referring to.

Awards Radar: So, there’s a TARDIS in the Farragut episode, and then she drops this line that she knew a time-traveling doctor. Can you tell me anything about that?

Henry Alonso Myers: Long history. She’s done many things. She’s had many adventures. Carol has had many adventures and has a long history, and so I think it probably speaks to that as well.

Akiva Goldsman: We were trying with Russell to do a crossover. We were for years. 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?

Awards Radar: I love it.

Akiva Goldsman: I think Russell would probably say the same.

Doctor Who is effectively part of Star Trek canon following the TARDIS' Easter egg appearance in Strange New Worlds. Further, Commander Pelia is a Lanthanite, an essentially immortal race. In Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers' view, the eccentric, five-thousand-year-old Chief Engineer time-traveling with one of the Doctors is also canon. Pelia spoke of her encountering a Doctor in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3's finale.

In a way, however, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been in a perpetual crossover with Doctor Who since it began. Christina Chong, who portrays Lieutenant La'an Noonien-Singh, played Lorna Bucket and met the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) in the 2011 Doctor Who episode "A Good Man Goes to War."

A potential Doctor Who and Star Trek crossover seemed like it was on the cusp of happening. In 2024, Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies and Star Trek executive producer Alex Kurtzman joined forces for an "Intergalactic Friendship" panel at San Diego Comic-Con. Akiva Goldsman says that Star Trek and Doctor Who were actively involved in talks for some kind of official on-screen collaboration, and specifically with Strange New Worlds.

Unfortunately, the Doctor Who and Star Trek franchises currently find themselves in a similar predicament, with the most recent incarnations canceled and potential reboots or some form of slate-cleaning in the works. Russel T. Davies has left Doctor Who, the 2026 Christmas special was canceled, and the BBC has put the franchise out to tender in search of a new long-term direction.

Meanwhile, Paramount+ has canceled all of Alex Kurtzman's Star Trek TV series, and Kurtzman's contract as Star Trek executive producer will soon expire. Paramount Skydance is focusing on developing new Star Trek movies, as the future of Paramount+'s Star Trek TV franchise is up in the air. Both Doctor Who and Star Trek may not return with new versions for years.

Perhaps a Doctor Who and Star Trek crossover could still happen in the future, but with different iterations of the venerable sci-fi franchises still to come. Meanwhile, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 premieres on Paramount+ on July 23, with the fifth and final season in post-production and expected to bow in 2027.