RTD & Moffat Tried to Make Doctor Who/Star Trek Crossover a Reality
· BCPosted in: BBC, Paramount+, TV | Tagged: doctor who, star trek, strange new worlds
RTD & Moffat Tried to Make Doctor Who/Star Trek Crossover a Reality
Russell T. Davies shares how he and Steven Moffat tried to make a crossover between Doctor Who and Star Trek a reality, and how close it got.
Published Wed, 14 Oct 2026 12:37:11 -0500
by Ray Flook
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Article Summary
- Russell T. Davies says he and Steven Moffat pushed hard for a Doctor Who and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds crossover.
- Plans got so serious that Davies and Moffat booked LA tickets to break story ideas in the Strange New Worlds writers' room.
- Davies envisioned the Doctor aboard the Enterprise, with Spock and Nurse Chapel stepping into the TARDIS.
- The Doctor Who crossover stalled over Disney and Paramount rights, though Davies still believes it could happen someday.
It's the two franchise universes that fans have been wanting to see for decades now. Doctor Who. Star Trek. As recently as Paramount+'s Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, and Ethan Peck-starring Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, we've seen ten-ton teases that the universes are much more connected than folks might have thought (we've got an example of that waiting for you below). Checking in with the Pilot TV Podcast, Davies shared with host/co-author Boyd Hilton that Moffat and ex-Doctor Who Showrunner and writer Steven Moffat were looking to formulate a way to bring Doctor Who and Paramount+'s Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, and Ethan Peck-starring Star Trek: Strange New Worlds together.
"We tried to get a 'Doctor Who' crossover with them. We really tried, yeah, yeah, yeah. I should have put this in the book. I didn't put this in the book! It was kind of embargoed at the time, and so I didn't talk about it," Davies said. "They were dying to do it. Actually, they started talking about it. [Star Trek: Strange New Worlds co-creator] Akiva Goldsman mentioned it in an interview the other day. We were dying to do it. It reached the point where me and Steven Moffat had tickets booked to go to LA to go to the writers' room to try to work out how to do it. And we were talking about more than one episode. And then it's going to be, in fairness, the nightmare was, with the impossible of it would be to get Disney and Paramount to share it."
Davies continued, "So, to get Paramount and Disney to agree and to get two series to coincide so the transmission of Doctor Who might coincide. And, in the end, we kind of said… But we left it with a will, and our tickets were canceled, and we never got there. We had such good ideas! Oh, I won't say the ideas." But Davies did make one thing clear. "I always thought it had to be Strange New Worlds because I said 'you've got to get the Doctor on the Enterprise' – rather than on Discovery or something so far back. We were talking about it. Just the Doctor on the Enterprise and say, Spock on the TARDIS. Nurse Chapel on the TARDIS is one because she is a companion, isn't she?"
With the BBC putting Doctor Who out to tender for another revival, and Skydance looking for a restart to the "Star Trek" franchise after Starfleet Academy and Strange New Worlds end their runs, it's going to be some time before a live-action crossover could become a reality. Still, Davies could see it happening. "Who knows? And there will be a new Doctor Who coming along and there's such a good will there in that Star Trek empire. I know a lot of staff have moved on but there's a lot of love between those two worlds," Davies noted. "We're adults but, if you're eight years old, don't you want to see the TARDIS meeting the Enterprise and the Enterprise meeting the TARDIS? That's how it works in your head. I think for a young audience… actually it would have opened up both shows to audiences they don't have."
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds/Doctor Who "Makes Perfect Sense"
Back in September 2025, we took a look at how Star Trek: Strange New Worlds dropped a ten-ton tease that the universes of Star Trek and Doctor Who are much more connected than folks might think. In an exclusive clip for S03E10: "New Life and New Civilizations" that was shared by TV Insider, Marie (Melanie Scrofano), M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), Ortegas (Melissa Navia), La'an (Christina Chong), Pike (Mount), Scotty (Martin Quinn), Spock (Peck), Pelia (Carol Kane), and the others gather for the Captain's table to unwind and catch up (poor Scotty).
Near the end of the clip, Pelia shared a bit of backstory that raised some eyebrows. After discussing the challenges that the Enterprise has faced over the past few months, Pelia scoffs and chimes in with what she considers to be challenging: "Remind me to tell you about the time I spent with the time-travelling Doctor I once knew." During an interview with TrekMovie, Showrunners and EPs Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers didn't shy away from the implication. "She apparently knew the Doctor from 'Doctor Who,'" Goldsman shared, matter-of-factly. Myers added, "She's had a long life experience, and it just makes perfect sense."
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