Did ‘Doctor Who’ Just Confirm That ‘Star Trek’ Is Real!?

Doctor Who has returned to fans and we could not be happier! The new series starring Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor brought back Russell T. Davies as show runner. And while we love seeing the Doctor’s adventures with Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), a line in the season premiere has us confused.

In the first episode of the season, titled “Space Babies,” Ruby and the Doctor end up on a space station filled with babies who talk! Terrifying, right? The babies are all trying to fight off a monster of their own creation (it literally exists because of their snot), but as the episode is rolling on with Ruby’s first real adventure as a companion, we get to see a moment that will cause ripples in the spacetime continuum of our minds.

When the Doctor and Ruby arrive on the station, they exit the TARDIS look around. As Ruby sees a part of the ship, she asks, “Is that like a, uh, matter transporter like in Star Trek?”

The Doctor responds by saying, “We gotta visit them one day.” I’m sorry … what?!

Now, this could be one of two things: The Doctor could be referring to making a trip through time to the set of the original series of Star Trek—which began filming in 1966, while Doctor Who was also in its original run. Or the Doctor could be confirming that the voyages of the Starship Enterprise, on its five-year mission to explore strange new worlds, could actually be real within the Doctor Who universe.

Whichever is true, I do love that there is a continued connection between both sci-fi franchises.

It wouldn’t be the first time the Doctor met the bridge of the Enterprise

Fans throughout all of time and space have wanted a crossover between the two series, and in 2012, we got the first official one with Star Trek: The Next Generation – Doctor Who: Assimilation. The 8-part series brought the The Next Generation crew into the Eleventh Doctor’s (Matt Smith) run of the show.

That had been a long time coming, and while we’ve never seen it happen in the actual shows, it is still nice to know that the dreams of fans are being considered. Davies writing a Star Trek joke into “Space Babies” has us wondering what it could possibly mean. Does the Doctor want to go and hang out with Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner? Or is this a situation where Lt. Uhura can help fix the communication device on the TARDIS that allows everyone to understand each other?

No matter what this one line means, it just makes me so happy that we have little moments like this to unpack again! I would love to see Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor meet Captain Kirk. I think the two would just flirt with each other non-stop, and we’d all be better for it, right?