Phil Plait

Here's a fun thought: Does the TV show Star Trek exist in the Star Trek universe?

Probably not, but this raises a lot of cool questions to geek out over!

https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/does-scifi-exist-in-a-scifi-universe

🖖

[And yes, that's me in front of the ACTUAL ENTERPRISE MODEL USED IN TOS]

Does scifi exist in a scifi universe?

A fun rabbit hole pondering of a metatopic

Bad Astronomy Newsletter
Mar 16 at 3:03pmWeb
Show threadMrCopilotMar 16

@badastro Yep

https://blog.trekcore.com/2025/07/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-review-a-space-adventure-hour-and-watch-for-free-on-youtube/

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Review: “A Space Adventure Hour” — and Watch for Free on YouTube

La’an and Spock take on a holographic murder-mystery investigation in this week’s STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS episode, a meta look at a certain 1960s sci-fi series

TrekCore.com
Show threadCorinna BalkowMar 16

@badastro Thanks for the opportunity to think about what could be still not figured out in a star trek universe.

there is universal translation? all available healthcare? unlimited food supply?

maybe something on light wave level?
maybe scifi then would be more something like fantasy today. imagining what kind of aliens live on what kind of planets. how they group together. or not. are related or not. there must be different types of chemics or biologies?

Show threadpublictorstenMar 16
@badastro At least the Cardassians are into scifi. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Meditations_on_a_Crimson_Shadow
Meditations on a Crimson Shadow

Meditations on a Crimson Shadow was a Cardassian novel by Preloc. It took place in a future where the Cardassia was victorious in a war with the Klingon Empire Elim Garak gave a copy of the book to Julian Bashir in 2370. He felt the doctor would enjoy it more than The Never Ending Sacrifice. When Bashir asked him who won the war, Garak replied, "Who do you think?" Bashir then asked Garak not to spoil the ending of the book for him. (DS9: "The Wire") Meditations on a Crimson Shadow at Memory...

Memory Alpha
Show threadDaniel PielkeMar 16
@badastro The short lived West-German Star Trek rip-off "Raumpatrouille" (Space Patrol) had an episode in which an “utopist writer” gets to travel on a space cruiser during a combat patrol mission (thanks to his influencial father in law) and annoys the crew, who already hate it to have a civilian on board, by telling them that they’ll all be replaced by robots within a decade (later in the episode he’s taken hostage by a mad scientist trying to escape a prison planet).
https://www.imdb.com/de/title/tt0061289/mediaviewer/rm2402621952/
Show threadT Marshall BunnMar 16
@badastro One thing I find interesting/funny is in the opening credits of Star Trek: Enterprise, we see glimpses of various ships throughout history named Enterprise, starting with a sailing ship and ending with the Starfleet vessel the show is about. Midway through, there's the NASA space shuttle Enterprise. So within Star Trek, that space shuttle exists. But in real life, the reason the shuttle was named that was because Star Trek fans petitioned for it to be.
Show threadMrs BeanbagMar 16
@badastro here's a thing though. The Space Shuttle Enterprise canonically exists in the Star Trek universe (it's depicted in a couple of episodes) as one of a long line of Enterprises. However, it was also actually named after the USS Enterprise from Star Trek.
Show threadMrs BeanbagMar 16
@badastro related: in (at least) one episode of Dr Who, people are shown watching British soap Eastenders. and in (at least) one episode of Eastenders, people are shown watching Dr Who.
Show threadMrs BeanbagMar 16
@badastro in Stargate SG-1 (which is definitely sci-fi despite its contemporary setting) there exists a show called Wormhole X-Treme, a sci-fi show with the exact same format and premise as Stargate itself. it's a supreme bit of lampshading.
Show threadBarbabluMMar 16
That’s actually the plot of redshirts (sort of 😅) by John Scalzi.
@badastro
Show threadSunnJax 🌷🏳️‍🌈 Mar 16
@badastro Murderbot watches episodes of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon.
Show threadKevin Boyd (he/him) 🇨🇦Mar 16
@SunnJax @badastro I don't think Sanctuary Moon would be deemed SciFi in a universe where robots and space ships/stations are already real. It's closer to what General Hospital is for us.
Show threadwarbyMar 16
@badastro surely you have seen space balls right?
Show threadarrbeeMar 16
@badastro
See "Red Shirts" by John Scalzi for a full (and entertaining) treatment of this topic.
Show threadTodd HorowitzMar 16
@rogerb @badastro Came here to point this out!
Show threadTrinsecMar 16
@badastro Galaxy Quest explored this concept. 😆
Show threadLarryMar 16
@badastro
I can see Michael Garabaldi geeking out on TOS.
Show threadChristopherMar 16
@badastro There's at least one Star Trek reference in Doctor Who.
Show threadkNeo gHauMar 16
@badastro The final episode of Enterprise taking place inside a holodeck implies that some form of that show exists
Show threadTodd HorowitzMar 16
@badastro Related to @mrsbeanbag 's comment about the Eastenders/Doctor Who connection, Doctor Who has referenced Star Trek as both a cultural product (Rose Tyler described scanning for alien technology as being "very Spock" in one of the early episodes of the new DW,) and as a real part of the universe (the 15th Doctor says something like "we should visit them sometime" in the most recent season, referring to the Trek crew). In the last season of Strange New Worlds, Pelia (Carol Kane) starts to tell a story about a "time-traveling Doctor". So Star Trek and Doctor Who can perhaps be said to exist in the same (meta-?) universe, and Star Trek is also a TV show in Doctor Who, so by the transitive property, the TV show Star Trek exists in the Star Trek universe.
Show threadWesDymMar 16

@badastro It depends which Star Trek universe you'e talking about.

We have good reason to suspect that it does in JJ Abrams interpretation. (Which I personally find ridiculous, even stupid, but that's not relevant here.) We can surmise that from the fact that Young Kirk plays a bit of Beastie Boys while cruising around. Beastie Boys had a song, "Intergalactic", which names "Mister Spock" in the lyrics.

/2

Show threadWesDymMar 16

@badastro 2/ It might be more relevant to ask, does anything like Star Trek exist in our future?

There do seem to be some cargo-cult efforts towards that, such as the obviously contrived Space Force logo.

/3

Show threadWesDymMar 16

@badastro 3/ That said, logically Star Trek the show could not exist in the real Star Trek universe, for the reason that, as a wise friend of mine once put it, "The future is ideoplastic." You cannot accurately predict the future, because merely 'knowing' it changes it. The future will inevitably be different from what is predicted, merely BECAUSE it was predicted.

Even if we obtain all the key trappings of Star Trek, whatever we end up with won't resemble it any meaningful way.

/4#

Show threadWesDymMar 16

@badastro 4/ And all THAT said, there is obviously going to be SF in any universe that has logically thinking beings, merely because speculation is the meat of cognition. No invention is possible without it. Any civilization which can invent, must first imagine. There can be no exceptions.

#

Show threadbewitchedmindMar 17
@badastro In the Classic Doctor Who episode Remenbrance of the Daleks (aired in 1988, so it's the 25th anniversary of the show), set in 1963, the Doctor's companion Ace turns on the TV where the announcer says: "This is BBC television, the time is quarter past five and Saturday viewing continues with an adventure in the new science fiction series Doc—" but Ace leaves the room before they finish. Wonderful little moment - and a great episode, too.