Assimilation² (comic story)

Assimilation2 (full indicia title Star Trek:The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation2) is an eight-part crossover comic book mini-series between the Doctor Who and Star Trek franchises, primarily featuring characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation but also the original Star Trek. It began publication on 30 May 2012 in North America. As of 2012, it is the only officially licensed crossover between the two franchises.

Publisher's summary
The two greatest science-fiction properties of all time cross over for the first time in history! When the Federation's most terrifying enemy strikes an unholy alliance with one of the Doctor's most hated antagonists, the result is devastation on a cosmic scale! Spanning the ends of space and time itself, Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise find themselves joining forces with the time-travelling Doctor and his companions, with the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance!

Issue 1
Stardate 45635.2: The planet Delta IV is invaded suddenly and without warning by the Borg. The Prime Minister of Delta IV and her aide are beamed to a secure command center, where they observe the invasion alongside Starfleet personnel. The Prime Minister notes the atypical nature of this invasion — the Borg have never before attacked without calling for their target's surrender, nor have they attacked so brutally.

A Starfleet officer notes that the Borg are not working alone — they are joined by a cybernetic race the Federation have not encountered before.

At that moment, the Borg and their new allies beam into the command centre to attack and assimilate Deltans and Starfleet officers. The Prime Minister and three Starfleet officers escape to the USS Mattingly, a Starfleet Runabout, and leave the planet alongside other Starfleet ships.

In ancient Egypt on Earth, the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory are engaged in a chariot chase with the Pharaoh's palace guards, who pursue them with vigor.

Passing a market stall, the Doctor grabs one of the support beams and pulls it out of the ground. Fruit and baskets fall in front of the palace guards, stopping them dead. The trio continue their journey to the Pharaoh's palace.

Once in the palace, the Doctor, Amy and Rory attempt to stealthily make their way to the Pharaoh's throne room. Rory accidentally knocks over and breaks a large blue vase, attracting more of the palace guards. As the guards move in, the Doctor climbs up to a curtain rail and uses the sonic screwdriver to detach it from the wall, pulling it down and over the guards.

The three move quickly to the entryway to the throne room, where Rory talks his way past the guards and into the throne room.

The Pharaoh asks how the three could have gotten into the throne room. The Pharaoh's Vizier claims they have "clearly gone mad from the desert heat" and says he will dispatch them. He demands to know the Doctor's name. The Doctor says the Vizier will know him better by his race — Time Lord. The Vizier is shocked, reacts disbelievingly, then attacks the Pharaoh. He then changes into his true form, revealing himself as a shape-shifting alien.

The Doctor retrieves a small green crystal, an "interdimensional prison cell", and uses it to "trap" the Vizier. He informs the Pharaoh that the Vizier was in fact an escaped alien criminal who was planning to "harness the kinetic energy from the Nile to fire up a tachyon pulse inverter" and destroy half of the Earth in the process.

Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor states he'd like to go somewhere "cool. And foggy." Rory hands the Doctor the green crystal and there is a flash of imagery — Cybermen and Borg. The TARDIS rumbles, Amy and Rory stumble, but the Doctor maintains control, saying that they're "almost there."

They step out of the TARDIS in San Francisco, about 1945. Rory and Amy are wearing period-appropriate clothing and the Doctor states this was his intended target all along. He describes San Francisco as a "bubbling cauldron of capers and investigations" and advises his companions that they're "bound to run into something unusual here."

At this point they step into a bar where they see an android in a pinstripe suit.

Issue 2
While completing a routine scan of Data's neural net, Geordi La Forge and Data discuss the philosophical implications of their technological upgrades.

Captain Picard sends Commander Riker on a mission to check on mining operations on Naia VII, an aquatic world. Riker takes Data and Worf with him. On the planet, they meet Captain Ochoa and Lt. Amato, two members of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers who are leading the mining operation, and Seelos, one of the indigenous, amphibious Dai-ai. Since the planet is largely covered in water, the mines are drilled from the tops of mountainous islands. Captain Ochoa, in charge of the mining operations, explains the difficulties of mining below sea level, and notes his concerns that "safety isn't the no. 1 priority". A pressure compartment suddenly fails and the section that Riker and his team are in floods. Worf rescues Ochoa and Amato, and Data rescues Riker.

In the aftermath of the flooding, Dr. Crusher tells Capt. Picard that eight people died and twenty-two were injured. Geordi tells Picard that the mine has been operating with very low safety protocols, but were under heavy pressure from Starfleet to meet regular quotas. Picard tells him that the pressure is due to the need to rebuild the fleet after the loss to the Borg at Wolf 359.

After Riker returns to the ship, Picard tells him that upgrades to the ship's holodeck have been completed, and a new Dixon Hill adventure awaits him. Riker, Data and Crusher don 1940s attire and begin the programme. They hear the Doctor's TARDIS materialise, but put it down to a bug in the upgrade. The Doctor, Amy and Rory meet the Starfleet officers in a bar, where the Doctor immediately recognises Data as an android. Riker and Crusher assume that the Doctor, Amy and Rory are holodeck characters and the holodeck is malfunctioning again. Riker ends the programme and is surprised to see the TARDIS and its three occupants still present.

Worf escorts the trio to the ship's observation lounge. The Doctor recognises him as a Klingon, but notes that his memories are being altered. Before he saw Worf, the Doctor had never heard of them. In the observation lounge, Picard introduces himself to the Doctor, who notes that they "shouldn't be here, really." Deanna Troi scans the TARDIS travellers' minds, saying that Amy and Rory are slightly nervous but completely trusting of the Doctor, and sensing wisdom and sadness in the Doctor, but no ill intent. Picard is slightly sceptical.

The conversation is interrupted by news of the attack on Delta IV. When the attacking fleet is put on screen, Picard recognises the Borg and the Doctor recognises the Cybermen. The Doctor says, "We shouldn't be here, Captain." Picard replies, "I believe you're right..."

Issue 3
A Cybercontroller fitted with Borg technology hails the Enterprise and says, "You have no means of stopping us." Knowing that they will not be able to fight off the entire Borg/Cyberman fleet, Captain Picard orders the Enterprise to retreat and hide in the nearby Paertes Nebula. The Doctor tells Picard and his crew about the Cybermen, and Data scans the ship's historical database for any record of them. He finds a log entry from the Constitution-class Enterprise, commanded by James T. Kirk. As Data begins to relay the contents of the log, the Doctor is overcome with a flood of new memories...

Stardate 3368.5: Captain Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty investigate a Federation archaeological team on Aprilia III that has lost contact with Starfleet. Upon landing in a shuttlecraft, they are greeted by project manager Jefferson Whitmore, who assures them that all is well and gives them a tour of the facility. Kirk finds the staff suspiciously calm.

His team returns to the facility after dark. Trying to bypass an electronic lock, they are greeted by a strange man in a long scarf. He introduces himself as "the Doctor", opens the lock with his sonic screwdriver and offers jelly babies to the Starfleet officers. They find the researchers standing catatonically, with small cybernetic devices in their ears.

Dr. McCoy begins to remove the devices and revive the crew, but is interrupted by the arrival of a Cyber-Leader and two Cybermen. A firefight ensues, but the Starfleet phasers are ineffective against the Cybermen. The Doctor uses the gold cover from Kirk's communicator to clog the Cybermen's respiration. After the Cybermen are defeated, the Doctor slips quietly away. The alien equipment that the archaeologists were investigating appears dormant, but it is not.

On Picard's Enterprise, the Eleventh Doctor remembers his meeting with Kirk, but also remembers not remembering it. The Cybermen appear to have abandoned their pursuit of the Enterprise. Captain Picard takes the Doctor, Amy and Rory to meet Guinan.

Characters

 * Eleventh Doctor
 * Amy Pond
 * Rory Williams
 * Unnamed Egyptian Pharaoh
 * Unnamed alien criminal
 * Cybermen
 * Data
 * William Riker
 * Beverly Crusher
 * Deltan Prime Minister
 * Unnamed Aide to the Prime Minister of Delta IV
 * Jahson
 * Unnamed Starfleet Admiral
 * The Borg
 * Geordi La Forge
 * Jean-Luc Picard
 * Worf
 * Deanna Troi
 * Ochoa
 * Amato
 * Seelos
 * Cyber-Controller
 * James T. Kirk
 * Spock
 * Leonard McCoy
 * Montgomery Scott
 * Jefferson Whitmore
 * Paula Zarlenga
 * Fourth Doctor
 * Guinan

Issues

 * STTNGDWA 1
 * STTNGDWA 2
 * STTNGDWA 3
 * STTNGDWA 4
 * STTNGDWA 5
 * STTNGDWA 6
 * STTNGDWA 7
 * STTNGDWA 8

The Doctor

 * A building appears in the holographic San Francisco with a sign reading "Tom's Bakery". A nearby street sign reads "4th". This is a reference to Tom Baker, who played the Fourth Doctor.

Individuals

 * Rory Williams' time spent as an Auton Roman soldier has left him experienced with steering chariots and, apparently, intimidating Egyptian soldiers.

TARDIS

 * The TARDIS experiences some "dimensional feedback" when it arrives in the Enterprise-D Holodeck recreation of San Francisco in 1941.

Technology

 * Prisoners of some facilities used by the Atraxi, the Shadow Proclamation and the Visendi Detention Complex are transported in small green crystals, referred to by the Doctor as an "interdimensional prison cell and interstellar delivery service, all at once." The size of the crystals suggests some manner of compression technology not dissimilar to those of the Teselecta or a Slitheen skinsuit. The crystal containing the unnamed alien prisoner apparently fell to Earth, suggesting it was either being transported or that the crystals have the ability to propel themselves through space.

Production Errors

 * Production stills and promotional photos are clearly the reference for various characters throughout the story. In issue #1, the Doctor's hair changes style from panel to panel. Also the Cybermen change from having the Cybus logo in issue #1 to not having it in issue #3. Due to the presence of the cyberfleet it can be concluded that they are Mondas Cybermen and the Cybus logo was another such error.
 * In issue 3 of the crossover Scotty's rank changes from Cmdr. to Lt. Cmdr. many times.

Continuity

 * For the purposes of this story, the notion of the Star Trek franchise existing in the Doctor Who universe (and vice versa) is temporarily suspended, replaced instead with the idea that the two franchises exist in parallel realities.
 * The Star Trek franchise has been referenced many times in Doctor Who, particularly in the revived series. For full details, see the article Star Trek.
 * Similarly, the Star Trek franchise has often referenced Doctor Who, specifically items such as the "," referring to the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver, and the occasional instance of reversing the polarity. For full details, see the article Star Trek (franchise).
 * The Doctor wonders aloud if the escaped alien prisoner was heading to an Atraxi prison or a Shadow Proclamation facility. He concludes the alien is most likely going to "the Visendi Detention Complex."
 * The alien prisoner can change its form as could Prisoner Zero (TV: The Eleventh Hour), though its "normal" form is markedly different.
 * The Cybermen seen in the flashback to the Fourth Doctor's encounter with Captain Kirk and his crew are of the type seen in Revenge of the Cybermen, the Fourth Doctor's only television encounter with the Cybermen.
 * Rory's memories of being an Auton soldier and references to the companions being married places Assimilation² for the Doctor, Rory and Amy anywhere between TV: The Big Bang and TV: The God Complex.
 * It is unlikely that the story takes place during Series 7 (broadcast at the same time as publication of the comic) as Rory is shocked by the Enterprise's transporter in Assimilation², but not by the transmat that snatches him in TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship; this suggests that the comic occurs before the television story.
 * Stardate 45635.2 places "Assimilation²" for the Enterprise-D crew between the  episodes "" and "".
 * Stardate 3368.5 places the original ''Enterprises encounter with the Fourth Doctor roughly between the ' episodes "" and "". Note, however, that the original 1960s series did not treat Stardates as indications of chronological order.
 * The Fourth Doctor in Issue 3 is shown travelling without a companion, which barring any upcoming issue specifying otherwise would place this for him either between TV: The Deadly Assassin and The Face of Evil, or between The Invasion of Time and The Ribos Operation.
 * The Doctor shows Picard a future in which the Cybermen conquered the galaxy, similar to Pyramids of Mars when the Doctor shows Sarah Jane a future in which Sutekh destroyed Earth.