Christina Chong Has an Idea for a Strange New Worlds and Doctor Who Crossover

Star Trek and Doctor Who are two of the most iconic franchises in sci-fi television history, so it’s not surprising that fans have been dreaming of a crossover between them for many years. It makes a certain amount of sense: The shows share a similar optimistic, open-hearted worldview that embraces the more aspirational and hopeful elements of the genre. And in recent years, the two franchises have flirted with each other more and more often, from increasingly overt references and Easter eggs onscreen to a comics crossover that saw the Doctor join forces with the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew. 

But Christina Chong has a more direct idea. The actress, who plays Star Trek: Strange New Worlds security officer La’an Noonien Singh, is one of the few stars who have appeared on both franchises, and thinks her characters could help make this long-hoped-for dream a reality. 

For those who don’t remember, Chong played the 51st-century cleric Lorna Bucket in the Eleventh Doctor episode “A Good Man Goes to War.” Her character played a key role in revealing River Song’s identity as Amy Pond’s daughter and had her own timey-wimey relationship with the Doctor. 

According to TrekMovie.com, during an appearance at the recent ST-CHI: Trek To Chicago convention, Chong shared her thoughts on a variety of topics, from the bittersweet final days of Strange New Worlds filming to some of the episode ideas she’s pitched to producers in the past. (Not for nothing, but the Federation Olympics is a seriously great concept.) And when she was asked about her thoughts on the concept of a Trek/Who crossover, she was more than ready with her idea.

“So what I would do is—I played a character called Lorna Bucket in “A Good Man Goes to War,” one of Matt Smith’s episodes—and I would somehow find a way to make La’an and Lorna Bucket the same character,” Chong said. “And [I’d] create a story as to why Lorna Bucket was in the Whoniverse and what brought her to Trekverse. I don’t know what that reason would be right now.”

The fact that Lorna dies tragically in the Doctor’s arms at the end of the episode is maybe a small roadblock to this plan, but Doctor Who is nothing if not incredibly willing to play with the timelines of its characters’ lives. For example, while we know that Lorna met the Doctor more than once over the course of her life, for Eleven, her death was technically their first encounter for him. (It’s literally a plot point that he doesn’t remember who she is, even though he lies about it in the name of comforting her.) 

Who’s to say some later incarnation didn’t take her traveling as a sort of timey-wimey apology? It’s already been confirmed (albeit in a roundabout way) that Strange New Worlds and Doctor Who exist in the same universe; Lorna somehow finding her way to a new life on the Enterprise isn’t even close to the weirdest thing that’s ever happened on either show.

An audience member at Chong’s panel also piped up with the idea that Lorna and La’an could perhaps turn out to be augment twins separated at birth. While less of a direct crossover — it’s unlikely we’d need the Doctor for such a story — it would be an intriguing new way to explore her family history. Most of Strange New Worlds has focused on La’an’s lingering trauma as a survivor of the Gorn attacks rather than her specific experiences as a descendant of Khan. 

Unfortunately, as filming is set to wrap on Strange New Worlds’ final season in the coming weeks — and Doctor Who is currently trapped in its own post-Disney era hiatus — such an idea will most likely have to remain an entertaining what-if. But it’s still fun to dream, isn’t it?