Star Trek: Enterprise’s “Future Tense” had a clear Dr. Who reference that should’ve been explored.
Star Trek has always avoided modern pop culture, at least until JJ Abrams messed up that trend with his weird obsession with the Beastie Boys. This has been further exacerbated in the Nu Trek era of shows. Largely, it shouldn’t be referenced. Keeping the past the past and not treating the modern like it’s going to be historical is a smart move.
Yet, there are exceptions. For instance, in “Future Tense”, the Enterprise episode that sees a time-traveling ship stumbles into the Enterprise’s periphery and forces Captain Archer and crew to bring it on board and analyze it.
In their viewing of the object, they find out that the pilot is the descent of cross-breeding between species, and that the ship has this innate ability to reset time by a few minutes, causing some people to be caught in a loop.
Yet, before all of these major revelations occurred, Archer had a quick throwaway line that should’ve been used to further expand his character. When Trip Tucker tells his captain that he needs to see what’s inside, Archer quips, “Is it bigger on the inside?” a clear nod to Dr. Who, and his Tardis, which is bigger inside than it appears outside.
Star Trek: Enterprise was the only show where ‘modern’ pop culture made sense to reference
Outside of Falco’s Amadeus and the film of the same name that the song was written for, it’s really hard to say that we still appreciate the pop culture from 150 years ago. Sure, there may be a stray movie or show about the era, but no one goes around talking about Johann Pachelbel’s style or musical influence.
It’s just not done, so to see Jean-Luc Picard talk about the merits of Metallica on thrash metal or Kate Mulgrew talking about the impact that Julia Child had on cooking, or Benjamin Sisko talking about if Roger Clemens deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, would be wildly unbelievable.
Maybe the Sisko one, but you get the point. Those people lived 400 years before the stars of their show. Yet, Enterprise was set only 150-odd years from when the show actually aired, and considering the Third World War would cripple the advancement of pop culture for a time, it would stand to reason that Archer would be in more line with pop culture from the 2000s.
Especially with his love of Water Polo, which no matter how far into the future we get, will never be a popular sport. So clearly, Archer likes obscure things and having him be an out-and-out Dr. Who fan would’ve been a neat nod to the current times.
It wouldn’t work for other shows, but due to Enterprise’s proximity, it would’ve been just fine.