Character Insight No. 191: Crossovers and the New Series

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we discuss crossover characters appearing in different Star Trek series, with an eye on the next series coming up this winter.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp191

Crossovers of regular characters from series to series or between movies and television has been a staple of Star Trek. For example, the premiere episodes of every series after TOS have included one or more former characters, including Dr. McCoy in TNG, Captain Picard in DS9, Quark and Morn in Voyager, and Zefram Cochrane in Enterprise. These crossovers provide a familiar tie to the overall story line and continuity of the show, as well as sometimes providing interesting interactions between famous crew members not normally seen together.

Other crossovers include episodes of TNG with Scotty and Spock, and an episode of Voyager with Sulu. Geordi La Forge also shows up on Voyager, along with Q and Reginald Barclay. Perhaps the most lambasted of the crossovers is the most recent one, which is Riker and Troi in the finale of Enterprise.

Although not officially crossovers in the normal sense, Worf and the O'Briens also became staples in two different series: TNG and DS9. This type of long-term crossover seems less likely in an anthology series, but perhaps it could happen based on season-by-season shifts of story line and crews.  As mentioned last week, it would be great to see Sulu in the new series, even if a new actor other than George Takei would be a better fit for playing the role.

That leads to a first question for Mike and Darrell and the listeners: if a TOS character is to show up in the new anthology series as a crossover, do you care if it is a new actor, such as those actors in the current movies like John Cho, etc.? Would that cross the streams too much?

I suspect that crossovers will remain a part of the new series, especially if done in anthology format. Just like seeing Spock, Scotty, Picard, and Quark interact with characters in newer series, this will provide just enough fan service to keep long time fans more interested while tying things together across the shows as well.

Do you want to see crossovers continue, and if so, who would be your pick for the first couple crossovers? I'd personally love to see more of Uhura, Ben Sisko, and B'Elanna Torres.

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