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Star Trek and Doctor Who share many actors, with over thirty actors appearing in both franchises over the years. Popular actors such as David Ajala, Daphne Ashbrook, Steven Berkoff, and Orla Brady have made appearances in both Star Trek and Doctor Who. Other notable actors who have appeared in both franchises include Noel Clarke, John Franklyn-Robbins, Simon Pegg, Deep Roy, Mark Sheppard, and David Warner.

As two of the most popular science fiction franchises of all time, Star Trek and Doctor Who have quite a bit in common. Both franchises began with television shows in the 1960s and have gone on to span multiple spin-offs, movies, books, and audio adventures. They both have massive fanbases comprised of devoted fans who attend conventions, create art, and cosplay as their favorite characters.

Whether they are fighting Daleks or Klingons or Cybermen or Borg, many actors have made appearances in both science fiction franchises over the years.

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In the fifth season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the showrunners introduced a new regular character named Ensign Ro Laren. Ro (an excellent Michelle Forbes) was a Bajoran, a species whose planet has been militarily occupied by the wicked Cardassians for generations. Bajorans had long since turned to rebellious terrorism to fight back. Since neither world was a member of the Federation, no Starfleet vessels interfered. When the Enterprise was assigned to find a Bajoran terrorist named Orta (Jeffrey Hayegna), Ensign Ro was assigned to assist. 

Immediately, Ro was a fascinating character. She belonged to Starfleet but hated authority, often defying Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) and expressing open annoyance with his orders. She possessed a great deal of agency, upsetting the traditional Starfleet chain of command. She also was, it is eventually revealed, on a secret mission from an admiral above Picard's head.

This post contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Picard," season 3, episode 5, "Imposter."

The third and final season of "Picard" made no secret of the fact that it was bringing back "Star Trek: The Next Generation" characters. Some of the earliest sneak peeks that we saw for it last year (such as this one) put the "Next Generation" crew right out in front. In addition to the requisite Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), we've already seen several familiar faces in the first half of "Picard" season 3, including Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), and the one and only Worf (Michael Dorn). We also know that Geordi Laforge (LeVar Burton) is on the way at some point, and a subsequent teaser trailer confirmed the impending return of Lore (Brent Spiner) and Professor Moriarty (Daniel Davis) as well.

There's one other surprise return, however, that the marketing for "Picard" withheld altogether: namely,...

It’s the futuristic year of 2022. An awful incident had taken place in Benghazi. It’s a world where big corporations now run an essential function of society. It’s a bleak and depressing vision where people’s movements can be tracked by satellites. It seems like human nature de-evolves back to a blood-thirsty, and primitive instinct with warring factions convinced it’s survival of the fittest in a dystopian society that’s a prison.

This, ironically, also happens to be the backdrop of the 1994 film No Escape. The cult film came from future Goldeneye and The Mask of Zorro director Martin Campbell and starred the late, great Ray Liotta. The movie will be released for the first time on Blu-ray from Unearthed Classics. The Blu-ray will feature new interviews with director Campbell, producer Gale Anne Hurd, and co-writer Joel Gross.

The plot revolves around a prison system run by corporations,...