What happens when Captain Picard and the Enterprise crew finally cross galactic paths with Doctor Who's Eleventh Time Lord and his cosmic travelers? All-out war, thanks to a killer comic book team-up between the Borg and the Cybermen in eight-issue miniseries Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation2.
Why did it take decades for this sci-fi dream to materialize? Doctor Who premiered in 1963, making it the longest-running sci-fi television series in history. Meanwhile, Star Trek: The Next Generation remains that franchise's longest-running and most notable series, even though it debuted 25 years ago. Even the worst replicator on the Enterprise could have mashed up the two by now.
Writers Tony Lee and Scott and David Tipton, and the photorealistic paints of of J.K. Woodard, pulled off the merger. "I've been watching both Star Trek and Doctor Who my entire life, but I'd never much dwelled on the idea of crossing them over, because it just seemed like such an impossibility," Scott Tipton told Wired by e-mail. "But once that door opened, we couldn't wait to throw these universes together to see what happened. I think the TARDIS qualifies as someplace no one in Star Trek has gone before."
In its rousing first issue, out May 30 from IDW Publishing and exclusively previewed in Wired's gallery above, the Tiptons, Lee and Woodard dramatically render the fearsome alliance between the Borg and the Cybermen, as well as the bad guys' invasion (and assimilation) of peaceful innocents. In the pages you don't see, they effectively capture Doctor Who executive producer and lead writer Steven Moffat's humor, star Matt Smith's charisma and the British sci-fi show's enduring cast chemistry.
>"My earliest memories are watching Jon Pertwee turn into Tom Baker, and Kirk fight a Gorn."
"After 12 issues of the Matt Smith Doctor Who comic, I'd hope I'd nailed his voice, or I think I'd be thrown out of an airlock by irate fans!" Lee told Wired by e-mail. "I've been a fan of both Trek and Who since I was about 3; my earliest memories are watching Jon Pertwee turn into Tom Baker, and Kirk fight a Gorn. No, seriously. They've both pretty much gone everywhere I wanted them to go. Although I'd love to see the purgatory waiting room filled with redshirts."
Spoiler alert: The first issue of Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation2 ends with a time warp into '40s San Francisco, where Star Trek: The Next Generation's benevolent space travelers rock pin-striped suits. Data on future issues so far hint that other characters from across both franchises' respective universes – including Kirk, Spock and actor Baker's scarftastic Fourth Doctor – might even make appearances.
"We're sworn to secrecy," said Lee. "Even I don't know what the Tiptons will send me on an issue-by-issue basis. But in issue No. 3, we have a flashback scene with Kirk and Baker. We also have the Doctor meet Guinan and Seven of Nine. No wait, that's the fan fiction I'm writing."
Let us know below if you've already mashed the two sci-fi franchises together in your mental holodeck.
Images courtesy IDW Publishing
