Paramount/BBC/Dusty Abell The 1960s are basically the beginning of TV science fiction as we know it. Yes, the 1950s gave us sci-fi anthology shows like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, but it was the 1960s that created what we now think of as mainstream sci-fi fandoms. In 1963, Doctor Who debuted in the U.K., and then, three years later, in 1966, Star Trek debuted. Throughout the six decades of both franchises boldly spinning through time and space, themes of hope, humanism, and heroism have pervaded both Trek and Who, with both franchises clearly showing love for one another. Back in 2005, Russell T Davies had hoped for a Doctor Who crossover with the prequel series Enterprise, and as recently as 2024, Davies and Trek-producer Alex Kurtzman got together at San Diego Comic-Con for a joint event called “Friendship is Universal.” On top of all of this, in 2024, the 15th Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) suggested that the Star Trek universe could be visited, and in 2025, Strange New Worlds Season 3 revealed the TARDIS was stuck in a starship graveyard, and Pelia (Carol Kane) made a reference to traveling with the Doctor, outright. But, how realistic is an outright Doctor Who and Star Trek crossover?According to a new interview from Awards Radar, with Strange New Worlds co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman, team Star Trek has been “trying with Russell to do a crossover” and that this has been going on “for years.”Goldsman also says that although most fans assumed that this was just a pipe dream — and the brief SDCC 2024 Trek x Who team-up, short-lived — the actual process of getting a crossover together was “not unclose” and that the respective properties “had some really cool conversations about it.” Bottom line, the Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover was a series of “near misses,” not just a notion.What went wrong? Well, other than the legal issues, timing is almost certainly a factor. Currently, neither Doctor Who nor Star Trek has any new shows or series in production, which would mean the crossover would need to happen in another medium, beyond TV. Which, in fairness, has actually happened before. Back in 2012, IDW published a Star Trek: The Next Generation crossover with Doctor Who called Assimilation², which focused on the 11th Doctor teaming up with the Enterprise-D crew to stop a joint invasion from the Borg and the Cybermen. At the time, both Trek and Who comics were being published by IDW, so the crossover made a lot of sense. Today, while Trek is still with IDW, newer Who comics are published by Titan. Could a true team-up between Starfleet and the Time Lords still happen at some point in the future? Anything is possible, especially with these two franchises. But if fans think this will happen in live-action anytime soon, we first need to get an update on the next live-action iterations from both of these galaxies. The Star Trek franchise streams on Paramount+. Doctor Who 1963-1989 streams on Tubi. Doctor Who 2005-2022 streams on AMC+. Doctor Who 2023-2025 streams on Disney+.