Missed crossover opportunities

[Ziz]

A thread in the DS9 forum about Picard and Sisko got me thinking about this.

There's plenty of crossover references where an episode (or film) will reference something that happened elsewhere.

TNG referenced TOS: Naked Time/Naked Now, Riker's mention of passing by Camus II in TNG's 80th episode - a way of acknowledging that TNG now passed TOS in number of episodes produced

DS9 referenced TNG - O'Brien (and sometimes Worf) talks about how different things are compared to the Enterprise.

DS9 referenced TOS - Trials & Tribbleations, the various Mirror Universe episodes.

VOY referenced TOS - When Harry and Tom were trying to make a new EMH, one of the medical databases they had to upload was something written by Dr. Leonard McCoy.

VOY referenced TNG and ST:FC - B'Elana mentions Data, Seven mentions the Phoenix

and ENT is full of "reverse" references. So given all that...

What are some missed opportunities for crossover references they could have done? Doesn't have to have been a whole episode - could just be something as simple as a one or two minute scene, a visual clue or even a couple of lines of dialogue.

One I always thought would have been cool was a simple way they could have tied the Borg battle in ST:FC into DS9. Take one of the DS9 episodes from somewhere in that season when FC came out in theaters - one where Worf wasn't needed for the story - and have Sisko receiving orders from Starfleet to send him off with the Defiant to fight a sudden Borg attack on Earth. Somewhere near the end of the episode, or maybe in the following episode, have Worf return and a quick dialogue exchange between him and O'Brien mentioning that the Defiant needs a lot of repairs.

So, what kind of references would you have thrown in to an episode or movie here and there?

And just to keep this a little more focused - I'm not interested in possible character cameos. That's a whole separate discussion that's been had plenty of times around here.

 

[The Wormhole]

Maybe a line of dialogue on DS9 mentioning the Enterprise E being involved in a battle in the Dominion War. Nothing serious or distracting, just something like "The Enterprise has been sent to help fortify Chin'toka" or something like that.

 

[ChristopherPike]

An Admiral Archer appearance. Hastily being lead back to a shuttlecraft hangar, and cursing a blue streak, because his tour of the Abramsverse Enterprise has been cut short... yet again.

 

[Gary7]

Any time that some unfamiliar phenomenon is encountered, there is analysis and reference to Starfleet databases. It would have been interesting to hear more call backs to what was established/discovered in TOS.

While TOS made use of "Space Seed" for "The Wrath of Khan", I think TNG could have had a revisit to a few of the established worlds and cultures from TOS. From "For The World is Hollow...", the Fabrini on Yonada or wherever they eventually arrived. The Roman like civilization from "Bread and Circuses". From "A Piece of the Action", a visit back to Sigma Iotia II for a check up on how the culture is reforming after the Chicago gangster theme wore off. Or revisiting the civilization on planet Beta Three, from "Return of the Archons", after everyone was freed of Landru's regressive influence.

 

[Ziz]

From "A Piece of the Action", a visit back to Sigma Iotia II for a check up on how the culture is reforming after the Chicago gangster theme wore off.

That was another "reverse" reference they missed on ENT. Travis' family cargo ship was called the Horizon, right? There should have been a line early in that ep about having just left Sigma Iotia II. Near the end after the adventure is over and the family is settling back in, someone should have called out "Anyone seen that old book I had about gangsters?"

 

[C.E. Evans]

Personally, I think there were more than enough cross-references between the shows. It started to make things feel like a small universe, IMO, particuarly among the 24th-Century shows.

 

[F. King Daniel]

William Shatner in Star Trek: Enterprise, to celebrate Trek's 700th episode.

Two stories were proposed. This one, by Shatner and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens:

According to Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens , the episode idea Shatner had pitched would have featured him as "Tiberius", the mirror universe James T. Kirk last seen in " Mirror, Mirror ". Supposedly killed by mirror- Spock in his rise to power, it would have been revealed that the Tantalus field did not disintegrate, but in fact relocated its victims to a penal colony in the prime universe. If this story were to have been filmed, the Enterprise NX-01 would have encountered Tiberius in the 22nd century, who had been deposited there forty years earlier. In an attempt to return to the mirror universe, using the transporter of the Enterprise, Archer and Tiberius end up creating the mirror universe in the first place, as a diverging timeline.

Mike Sussman's proposal would have gone like this:

In a potential story pitched by Mike Sussman, Chef, played by William Shatner, would've been brought by Daniels into the 23rd century, preserving the timeline by impersonating a legendary descendant during an important historical event.

 

[CoveTom]

Sussman's is better, but I can't imagine Shatner ever agreeing to play Chef.

 

[sbk1234]

Before ever seeing the NX-01, I thought it would have been great if that ship looked more like the ring-ship seen briefly in TMP. I think that alone would have won over a lot of nay-sayers.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Sussman's is better, but I can't imagine Shatner ever agreeing to play Chef.

I'm not a big fan of the Temporal Cold War, but Bill playing Chef like he did Denny Crane would've been pretty cool. I can really picture that. The absurdity of Shatner learning how to be a Captain, from the most criticised one. Fan meltdown online. Bakula tends to excel as the straight guy in a double act. Put in a crazy situation, or that and reacting to Dean Stockwell as in Quantum Leap. Shame really, because Bill and Scott certainly seem to get on watching The Captains documentary. That whole ongoing world tour, alongside Patrick, Avery and Kate too.

Also the thought occurs, it could be used as a way to restore Kirk after his Generations death. Chef would be left in the late 23rd or early 24th Century, with the job of having to maintain the pretence of being James T. Kirk.