The fourth season of “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” goes to debut on Paramount+ on July 23, 2026, with an episode referred to as “Valles Marineris.” Trekkies are naturally fairly excited, but in addition a little bit wistful, as these ultimate seasons of “Unusual New Worlds” (and “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy”) are going to be the final televised “Star Trek” episodes for the foreseeable future. “Academy” was canceled after its already-filmed (however as-yet unaired) second season, and “Unusual New Worlds” will finish after its (additionally already-filmed however unaired) fifth season. As soon as these exhibits finish, we Trekkies must, as we so typically do, consolation ourselves with reruns, tie-in novels, and countless speculative discussions of what might need been.
That may embody pondering the “Physician Who” crossover reference that nearly occurred. It appears that evidently “Unusual New Worlds” co-creator and author Akiva Goldsman revealed to the Radio Occasions that he virtually — however finally did not — wrote an express reference to the British sci-fi collection “Physician Who” into an episode of “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds.”
“Physician Who” has been round barely longer than “Star Trek” (“Who” debuted in 1963, “Star Trek” in 1966), however each exhibits created a sci-fi TV bedrock that followers have been standing on ever since. “Physician Who” follows the exploits of a anonymous alien Physician (fifteen actors have performed the character; he “regenerates” when he dies) who travels across the universe in a time-traveling spacecraft referred to as the TARDIS (which, because of a whimsical prop rigmarole, seems like a classic police field). The Physician sometimes travels round with a (usually younger, enticing, feminine) human companion.
Goldman needed to suggest that Pelia (Carol Kane), the engineer on “Unusual New Worlds,” was as soon as one of many Physician’s companions.
Akiva Goldsman needed to include a transparent Physician Who reference in Unusual New Worlds
Akiva Goldsman admitted that the “Unusual New Worlds” author and “Physician Who” author Russell T. Davies had been, for fairly some time, sussing out the main points of a legit crossover with “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds.” He mentioned:
“We had been attempting with Russell to do a crossover. We had been for years. […] Once more, these are the close to misses, however we obtained not unclose, and we had some actually cool conversations about it. And so, definitely in our view, I imply, Pelia traveled within the TARDIS. Why not?”
Pelia, after all, is the engineer on the USS Enterprise on “Unusual New Worlds.” She is a Lanthanite, a humanoid species that seemingly lives for 1000’s of years. As a result of Pelia is so long-lived, it is wholly potential that she bumped into the Physician many centuries earlier, and spent some time in his firm as his touring companion.
This was backed up by a barely-visible Easter egg within the “Unusual New Worlds” episode “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail,” whereby a large shot of the USS Enterprise featured a tiny, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it TARDIS floating in house close by. That Easter egg, nevertheless, was a cute wink for attentive followers, and never a official declaration that “Star Trek” and “Physician Who” share a universe.
The Radio Occasions additionally quoted one thing Davies mentioned at a sci-fi conference in 2024, noting that he, too, would like to see a crossover between “Physician Who” and “Star Trek.” And why not, certainly? The 2 sci-fi exhibits have been a part of the pop consciousness for 60-some years and mutually invented the very notion of sci-fi TV “canon.” Seeing the Physician work together with the USS Enterprise in a canonical vogue would really feel like some form of long-held cultural success.
Star Trek and Physician Who’ve already crossed over … form of
In fact, the crossover between “Physician Who” and “Star Trek” has lengthy been a scrumptious thought, and there have been just a few cute winks to followers over time. Within the “Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology” episode “I, Borg,” there was a reference to a planetary system referred to as the Argolis Cluster, which was a time period taken from the 1980 “Physician Who” episode “The Leisure Hive.” Within the “Subsequent Technology” episode “The Impartial Zone,” one can pause on a background laptop panel, and see that it bears the names of the six actors who had performed the Physician up to date that episode aired.
The comedian ebook firm IDW even printed a (non-canonical) crossover story between “Star Trek” and “Physician Who” referred to as “Assimilation²,” whereby the Eleventh Physician (Matt Smith) teamed up with Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart), and whereby the Fourth Physician (Tom Baker) teamed up with Captain Kirk (William Shatner). These kind of crossovers are the bread and butter of fan-baiting comedian writers. There’s a comedian whereby the X-Males turned up on the Enterprise, and one other by which Spock beat up Wolverine.
And we have not even talked about Gary Seven (Robert Lansing), a really Physician-like character that “Star Trek” inserted into an early episode as a possible spin-off character. Gary Seven had a magical portal that appeared like an strange Earth merchandise and a comely companion performed by Teri Garr.
Followers have additionally doubtless been writing fanfic for many years, inserting any one of many 15 Medical doctors on the bridge of any one of many many Starfleet vessels that Trekkies are conversant in. Would an official crossover have been crass and pandering? Maybe. However many sci-fi nerds have been ready for years for it.
