Warning: SPOILERS For Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3’s Finale – “New Life And New Civilizations”Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3’s finale contains another surprising connection to Doctor Who. Directed by Maja Vrvilo and written by Dana Horgan and Davy Perez, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 10, “New Life and New Civilizations” wraps up the season’s storyline about what’s happening to Captain Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano).
TV Insider shared an exclusive clip from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3’s finale. As the Starship Enterprise warps Captain Batel back to Earth for her promotion ceremony as Starfleet’s new Judge Advocate General, Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) hosts a dinner party for his girlfriend.
After Scotty (Martin Quinn) arrives overdressed for Pike’s party, conversation turns to Batel leaving the Enterprise for her new position. Spock then discusses the “challenging few months” the Enterprise has had, which led Commander Pelia (Carol Kane) to make a surprising reference to Doctor Who.
Read the quotes below and watch TV Insider’s clip in the link above.
Spock: “Additionally, we will take the opportunity to run shipwide diagnostics. Enterprise has had a challenging few months.”
Pelia: “Challenging, schmallenging. Remind me to tell you about the time I spent with the time-traveling Doctor I once knew.”
Doctor Who’s References In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Explained
Commander Pelia’s offhand remark about the “time-traveling Doctor” she once knew is the second shout-out to Doctor Who in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3. The Doctor’s TARDIS is briefly visible as an Easter egg in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 6, “The Sehat Who Ate Its Tail,” when the Starship Enterprise is captured by Scavengers.
The offbeat Commander Pelia is a five-thousand-year-old Lanthanite who lived on Earth for centuries before joining Starfleet and becoming the USS Enterprise’s Chief Engineer. Pelia occasionally offers dollops about her peculiar past. Pelia now claims she met an incarnation of the Doctor, and she’s probably not exaggerating.
Star Trek and Doctor Who began collaborating in 2024, with International Friendship Day between the two franchises on July 30 that followed a San Diego Comic-Con panel shared by the heads of the two franchises, Alex Kurtzman and Russell T. Davies, respectively. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Doctor Who shout-outs are in the spirit of franchise unity.
Our Take On Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Referencing Doctor Who
Star Trek is a multiverse, and it’s easy to conjecture that the Doctor has the ability to cross over into the Star Trek universe. Taking Commander Pelia at face value, she met some version of The Doctor at some point in her incredibly long and colorful life.
Doctor Who’s showrunner Russell T. Davies is a professed Star Trek fan, and the feeling is mutual from the producers of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. After all, Star Trek and Doctor Who are two of the most beloved and enduring sci-fi franchises of all time, and both utilize time travel with the capacity to tell limitless stories.
It’s clear that Doctor Who exists and can breach into Star Trek‘s universe. Time will tell if Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 will deepen its connection to Doctor Who.
