Star Trek and Doctor Who have more in common than many might think. Two of sci-fi television’s most influential elder statesmen, both series have spent the past six decades shaping our understanding of what this genre is supposed to be and do (though technically, Trek won’t turn 60 until next year). Unlike many of the shows that followed in their footsteps, both are overtly aspirational, frequently political, and determinedly optimistic, fully rejecting the cynicism that often so is prevalent in other corners of this genre in favor of stories that show (and encourage) humanity embracing its best self. Be kind, boldly go, travel hopefully, and all that. cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});It was probably only a matter of time before the two crossed paths in a more deliberate way. Granted, an onscreen crossover is unlikely to ever happen, but the shows have both acknowledged each other in various ways onscreen. These references have ranged from extremely vague to very on the nose: A ship on a Star Trek: Enterprise episode that’s bigger on the inside. An alien race known as “Travelers” who are very Time Lord-coded. Companion Rose Tyler teasing the Ninth Doctor about his ears by calling him “Spock”. There’s even been a comics crossover in which Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor and the Star Trek: The Next Generation Crew joined forces. But recent seasons have seen both shows take things a step further in confirming that Star Trek and Doctor Who are more closely entangled with one another than we might have ever expected. A quick line in the Doctor Who season 14 episode “Space Babies” (“We’ve got to visit them one day!”) pretty much confirms that both series exist in the same universe, but it’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds that made the onscreen connection official. No, the Doctor hasn’t shown up on the Enterprise yet. But in Strange New Worlds season 3, we’ve come closer than ever before. In “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail,” there’s a blink and you’ll miss it view of a TARDIS entangled inside the monstrous Scavenger ship in which the Enterprise is imprisoned. (One has to presume the Doctor made it out safely before the ship was destroyed. And in the season finale, Commander Pelia offhandedly mentions a time-traveling Doctor she once used to hang out with. (She just drops this knowledge at a team dinner! All casual like!) Look, if any Trek character was going to maybe turn out to be a Doctor Who companion, it’s the long-lived Lanthanite werido who, at this point in her existence, seems to take even the bizarre sort of adventures in stride. The real question isn’t whether Pelia has potentially met the Doctor, but which one she spent time with. These are the things that Trekkies and Whovians alike need to know! But why is now the moment that both series seem so prepared to finally acknowledge one another in this way? After all, they’ve both been around for six decades and are doing just fine on their own. Well, it’s certainly a nice gesture for the fans of both properties, many (most?) of whom tend to be at least tangentially interested in the other. It also probably helps that the folks behind the scenes of each series are both friends and big fans of one another’s work. Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies and Star Trek executive producer Akiva Goldsman once did a panel together at San Diego Comic-Con in honor of International Friendship Day, while a co-branded Doctor Who/Star Trek offsite handed out friendship bracelets with quotes from both shows. But according to Goldsman, there have at least been discussions of doing something more than that. “We’ve always dreamed of a crossover. We’ve even talked about a crossover and there are too many — I think if it were up to Russell and us, it would’ve been a real thing,” he told TV Insider. “I think there are too many corporations involved, but there are love letters that go back and forth.” That said, there would certainly be plenty of ways to explain such an event, were one to ever happen. Doctor Who lives to make the impossible possible, and Strange New Worlds, in particular, has repeatedly toyed with the idea of alternate realities and potential futures that may or may not come to pass. Maybe a full-on onscreen crossover between these two sci-fi titans isn’t likely to happen soon, but that’s not the same thing as never. After all, we’ve seen a (admittedly, very tiny) TARDIS on Star Trek now. Anything’s possible. And both franchises would probably want us to keep the hope alive.The post Star Trek Has Always Loved Doctor Who, Strange New Worlds Made It Official appeared first on Den of Geek.