10 Crossover Events In The Star Trek Universe (Pre-Star Trek Picard)

1. The Original Series Crew, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

When: DS9: S5, Ep 6, ‘Trials and Tribble-ations’

The second of two episodes made to celebrate the series’ 30th anniversary, Trials and Tribble-ations is a laugh riot from the beginning. It perfectly sums up the nostalgia of the period – THAT theme playing when THAT ship appears on screen, Jadzia Dax in the costumes of the day, smooth headed Klingons!

Why It Was Great

This was the ultimate in crossover episodes, made entirely to celebrate Star Trek as a success and a series. The crew from DS9 take on the role of semi-passive observers, watching the events of the classic TOS episode ‘The Trouble with Tribbles’. Through a pleasant McGuffin they find themselves in the 23rd century, fighting with Klingons in a bar, saving Kirk from an exploding Tribble and cheekily having Sisko meet Kirk.

Sure, it didn’t have the gravitas of some of the other entries on this list, but here we have the honouring of Star Trek as a whole along with the introduction of the older series to newer viewers. Top notch special effects placed the crew in original scenes, allowing them to interact with Kirk, Spock and the rest without affecting the timeline (unless Julian was right).

The show was originally a bane for showrunner Ira Steven Behr who felt the call back to the original series wasn’t needed. ‘Let Voyager do it!’ he said at one point. But when his VFX team showed him a scene from the episode and he hadn’t noticed they had inserted one of their team into the background seamlessly, he changed from rejecting the idea to celebrating the very notion.

This one is purely for the fans and for those who love smiling for an hour. Hearing the temporal inspectors describe Kirk as a menace was a clever shout out to TOS penchant to time hop whenever they felt like it. Having Arne Darvin appear 30 years later was continuity gold. But having Jadzia give that little shrug to Kirk on the bridge? Priceless.