History EnemyMine / LiveActionTV

** Happens in the conclusion of "The Trial of a Time Lord", when the Master reveals that the prosecutor, the Valeyard, is actually the Doctor's EnemyWithout, whom will get the Doctor's remaining regenerations if he gets the Doctor executed. The Master helps the Doctor for two reasons: to have an enemy with which he's more familiar (the Doctor vs. the Valeyard) and to retain the chance to end the Doctor's existence personally.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E7AGoodManGoesToWar "A Good Man Goes to War"]], [[spoiler:the Doctor calls upon the aid of the Silurians, Judoon and a lone dishonored Sontaran alongside actual friends to rescue Amy. However, the Silurians and Sontaran's reasons for teaming up isn't so much the presence of a common enemy as it is the fact that they owe the Doctor a debt.]]

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* In the ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' episode [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS2E2HeavyIsTheHead "Heavy is the Head"]], Raina helps SHIELD track down Carl "Crusher" Creel, a superhuman working for HYDRA, as she doesn't want HYDRA to get their hands on the incredibly dangerous artefact that Creel has stolen for them any more than SHIELD does. Unsuprisingly, this being [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Raina]], [[spoiler: she steals the artefact from under both HYDRA and SHIELD's noses.]]

** Later as of 'Rabid Dog' [[spoiler: Hank and Jesse, who have had a tremulous relationship at best, team up to take down Walt.]]

** The ExpandedUniverse multi-media event ''Time Lord Victorious'' features the Tenth and Eighth Doctors making an alliance with the Daleks. The Tenth gets dragged to Skaro to defeat a different OmnicidalManiac race, the Hond, who are trying to destroy the planet and everything else. He ends up teaming with an individual Dalek, the Dalek Prime Strategist, to recover an ancient weapon (complete with banter between the two). The Eighth ends up on a Dalek ship about to crash into a planet, and has to work with them to ensure both he and they survive. Ninth, meanwhile, finds himself working with the Great Vampires, generally held to be the ultimate enemies of the Time Lords, [[spoiler: against Rassilon]].

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': Does this in the episode "Trash", where the crew joins up on a heist with Saffron, the psychotic seductress who tried to steal their ship a few episodes back. Rather amusingly subverted: [[spoiler: Saffron unsurprisingly double-crosses the crew, and the crew turns on her in return, having fully expected her sudden but inevitable betrayal]].

** One of the series' primary arcs deals with different factions setting aside hostilities to work together so they can defeat the threat of [[ZombieApocalypse the White Walkers]]. The [[spoiler:Targaryens lead by Dany, the Starks lead by Jon, and the wildlings are on board]] but [[spoiler:Queen Cersei Lannister]] reveals to her brother that she's secretly planning to not join the alliance, hoping that the White Walkers will take out her enemies. Jaime clearly sees this as sheer insanity and breaks from [[spoiler: his sister]] to help [[spoiler: Jon and Dany]].

*** What Noah meant could very likely refer to [[spoiler: ''taming'' Sylar. In Season 3, Episode 4, "I am Become Death", Peter is taken to a future timeline by his future self. In this timeline, Peter discovers a calm and collected Sylar, living in the Bennet household with a son named ''Noah''.]]
** Also, in the Volume 3 finale, Bennet frees all the Level 5 supervillains so they can help fight [[spoiler: Sylar, who's on the downswing of his HeelFaceRevolvingDoor trend]]. They all last maybe 3 minutes, tops.
** Volume 5 does this ''again'' when Peter realizes that in order to prevent Samuel Sullivan's plans from coming into fruition, he's going to need Sylar's help. Unfortunately, it meant getting himself stuck inside Sylar's head and dealing with the latter's VillainousBSOD. [[spoiler: Unlike the many times before, though, it works; the two save the day, and Sylar's HeelFaceTurn seems to stick this time.]]

** ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'': Doctor Riders are about the most [[DysfunctionJunction incompatible bunch]] you can get, so having similar goals doesn't stop them from hating each others' guts for very valid reasons. They (somewhat) willingly team up against [[BloodKnight Graphite]] [[MonsterOfTheWeek Bugster]]. What follows is hilarious example of TeethClenchedTeamwork as they bicker and try to one-up each other while not interrupting the flow of the battle. Then [[KnightOfCerebus Kamen Rider]] [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Gemn]] shows up, [[spoiler: kills one of them]] and they finally get their shit straight. The bickering stays, but they are more interested in beating Gemn than each other.
*** Crossing GodzillaThreshold later on involves teaming up with [[spoiler: him]].

* ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'': Detective Goren's [[WorthyOpponent arch-nemesis]] Nicole Wallace supplies him with information allowing him to [[spoiler: prevent her fiancé from killing his own daughter, who Nicole loved as her own.]] Ironic, considering [[spoiler: Nicole killed her real daughter]].
* The initial premise of ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' is that a team up of the some of the heroes and villains of the ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' and ''Series/TheFlash2014'' franchise is necessary to stop an immortal villain, as claimed by the time-traveling Rip Hunter. Leonard Snart even points out that he can't imagine a future where he's considered a hero (he would probably consider it an insult). Hunter points out that they're not heroes, they're ''legends''.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': In the Season 1 finale, Emma and Regina briefly team up [[spoiler: in order to save Henry's life]].
** Regina later teams up with Mr. Gold in Season 2, [[spoiler: in order to stop Regina's mother, Cora, from getting into the real world]].
** Season 2 ends with a massive one between Regina, Emma, Snow, Charming, Gold, and Hook to save [[spoiler: Henry (again) after he gets kidnapped to Neverland]]. The team-up has...varying levels of success.

** Likewise, a villain variant of this was completely subverted in ''Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie.'' Newly anointed BigBad Divatox calls [[DiminishingVillainThreat decayed villain]] Rita Repulsa for help, and gets laughed at. Rita's CaptainObvious response is that if she knew how to defeat the Rangers, she would have done it already.

* ''Series/ResurrectionErtugrul'': [[spoiler: Emir Sadettin Kopek]] briefly teams up with Ertugrul and Aliyar in the third season after [[spoiler: a now-independent [[TheDragon Batuhan]] abducts Aslihan (Whom Sadettin desperately wants to marry) for interrogation]], prompting the Bey of the Kayis to help him just this once.

* ''Series/RobinHood'': In the first season of the BBC's show Robin and the sheriff temporarily fight side-by-side in order to defeat a group of Saladin's assassins. In the third season, Robin and Guy team up in order to [[spoiler: save their half-brother Archer from execution.]]

--> '''Connery''': ''(in response to Creator/RobinWilliams' antics)'' "Boy, you might be legally retarded".
--> '''Trebek''': "You have a point".
--> '''Connery''': ''(in response to Creator/AnneHeche's equally loopy behavior)'' "She's a nutjob, Trebek."
--> '''Trebek''': "Tell me about it."
--> '''Connery''': "She's nuttier than a pecan log."
--> ''(he and Trebek crack up)''

*** By the first season finale, Picard's allies include a disgraced Starfleet Security officer convinced of a conspiracy involving a secret Romulan conspiracy infiltrating Starfleet, a Romulan agent serving that same secret conspiracy (which is also dedicated to wiping out all Synthetic life), a Romulan {{Ronin}} who is a sworn enemy of the aforementioned Romulan conspiracy, Data and Lore's human brother (the patriarch of a secret Synth colony), and a ''Borg Cube full of liberated Borg'' led by Seven of Nine, fighting against the rest of the Romulan conspiracy (including the aforementioned agent's sister) and the [[spoiler: rest of the Synth colony, who have decided to try and bring about the end of organic life to protect themselves from threats such as the Romulan conspiracy.]]
*** Season 2 meanwhile involves an alliance between Picard and his party and an alternate-timeline version of the Borg Queen, who proves to be about as trustworthy as they expected but has no choice but to help them or face the total extinction of the Borg. By the end of the season [[spoiler: this version of the Queen decides to join with Jurati to form a new benevolent Collective, which eventually offers an alliance with the Federation after the destruction of the original timeline's Borg Collective.]]
*** Season 3 has Picard and his friends in an uneasy alliance with Captain Liam Shaw, who rightly feels that Picard has usurped his command of the starship ''Titan'' for his own goals but ends up forced to work with them when they find themselves harried by a [[spoiler: new Changeling infiltration of Starfleet that is determined to capture Picard's estranged son]].

*** Which is an interesting use of this trope, seeing as [[spoiler: Meg was a [[SycophanticServant staunch]] Lucifer loyalist whom the boys had fought against in the ''same episode'' they first allied with Crowley against Lucifer.]]
** In Season 7, the Winchesters are aided by several old enemies (Meg, Crowley, and the [[MonsterProgenitor Alpha vampire]]) at different points and for various reasons in order to defeat the [[EldritchAbomination Leviathans]]. [[spoiler: Of the three, Crowley is the one who double-crosses them when things are over and done with.]]
** The climax of Season 11 sees the biggest example in the show's history, as the Winchesters [[spoiler: and God]] ally with Lucifer, Crowley, and Rowena -- who all hate each other as much as they do the heroes -- and rally the combined forces of Heaven and Hell, in order to stop [[TheAntiGod Amara]] from [[OmnicidalManiac destroying the universe]]. In all this [[EvilVersusOblivion opportunity for reconciling with the forces of Good]], there's also a place for the evil angel Metatron to [[RedemptionEqualsDeath completely redeem himself and die]] before the final battles that Lucifer, Rowena, and Crowley took part in.

* The ''Series/{{Timeless}}'' episode "The Capture Of Benedict Arnold" involves the protagonists having to team up with [[BigBad Garcia Flynn]] to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin capture Benedict Arnold]], as he has connections to the original founder of [[AncientConspiracy Rittenhouse]]. This alliance ends up falling through, due to [[spoiler: Flynn also wanting to kill the founder's son, which the team won't let him do]].

* ''Series/The100'' Season 1 had a war occur between the Grounders and people from the Ark. In Season 2, the two factions ally against Mount Weather, which is kidnapping people from both sides to use as HumanResources, and has by far the most advanced military on the Ground.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': In the Season 5 finale, Beckett uncovers a murder she initially believes was the work of Senator Bracken, the man who hired a hitman to kill her mother. She then uncovers that it was actually the work of a hitman setting up to ''snipe'' Bracken in two days, and is now forced to work with him on the investigation of an attempted murder of a man she would like nothing less than to kill herself. The irony is not lost on her.

*** By the first season finale, Picard's allies include a disgraced Starfleet Security officer convinced of a conspiracy involving a secret Romulan conspiracy infiltrating Starfleet, a Romulan agent serving that same secret conspiracy (which is also dedicated to wiping out all Synthetic life), a Romulan {{Ronin}} who is a sworn enemy of the aforementioned Romulan conspiracy, Data and Lore's human brother (the patriarch of a secret Synth colony), and a ''Borg Cube full of liberated Borg'' led by Seven of Nine, fighting against the rest of the Romulan conspiracy (including the aforementioned agent's sister) and the rest of the Synth colony, who have decided to try and bring about the end of organic life to protect themselves from threats such as the Romulan conspiracy.

* ''Series/{{Community}}'' has a really bizarre example in the episode "[[Recap/CommunityS5E11GIJeff G.I. Jeff]]". Jeff falls into a coma and dreams he's a member of WesternAnimation/GIJoe. However, since Jeff is aware of the show's conventions, he breaks the NobodyCanDie rule by killing the Cobra officer, Destro, instead of allowing him to perform a VillainExitStageLeft as usual. This greatly shocks the other members of G.I. Joe who has never been confronted with actual death before, so they court martial Jeff for murder. Later when Jeff attempts to escape alongside the other study group members (also imagined as G.I. Joe members), he inadvertently manages to make things worse as during his escape he accidentally kills even more members of Cobra as well as the resident G.I. Joe medic, Lifeline. The fact that Jeff can actually kill people, eventually makes G.I. Joe and Cobra realize that he constitutes the single greatest threat to both of them by far, so they decide to combine forces and form the organisation "Jo-Bra" in an attempt to stop him.

** Hollister and London team up to oppose a prosecutor announcing her candidacy for sheriff because neither wants any outside running their department, no matter what else they disagree on.

* ''Series/{{Deputy}}'': Several rival LA gangs are revealed as allied due to something called "the reckoning".

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': In general, this franchise is ''all'' over this trope. The Klingons team up with the ''Enterprise'' crew in the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E7DayOfTheDove Day of the Dove]]", the Klingons allying with the Romulans against the Federation and then later with the Federation against the Romulans, TheAlliance of the Alpha Quadrant (and the poor, forgotten Beta Quadrant!) against the Dominion, etc., etc.

** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
*** Between Starfleet and Maquis members, although by the third season, the rival crew factions have been forgotten. However, in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E3ExtremeRisk Extreme Risk]]", B'Elanna Torres learns that the Maquis lost back home. She turns depressed and does dangerous things in the Holodeck with the safety off, and because most of the ship has all but forgotten their initial division between Starfleet and Maquis, they don't know what's wrong with her. When they first re-establish contact with Starfleet, Janeway mentions to Chakotay that she actually ''had'' forgotten the implications of the mixed crew after they had been working together for so long. She becomes concerned for what happens when they got home, since as far as Starfleet are concerned, the former Maquis crew are ''still'' wanted terrorists.
*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E25S4E1Scorpion Scorpion]]", Janeway's [[spoiler:alliance with the Borg in Delta Quadrant against Species 8472 (where the crew picks up 7 of 9)]].

** In "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS03E06DustToDust Dust to Dust]]", Bester teams up with Garibaldi to catch drug smugglers. [[Creator/JMichaelStraczynski JMS]] [[WordOfGod explicitly stated]] this was to prevent DiminishingVillainThreat.

* ''Series/{{The 100}}'' Season 1 had a war occur between the Grounders and people from the Ark. In Season 2, the two factions ally against Mount Weather, which is kidnapping people from both sides to use as HumanResources, and has by far the most advanced military on the Ground.

** The Season 2 finale "Unthinkable" has two examples. The Arrow allies with the League of Assassins to take on [[BigBad Deathstroke]] and his {{Super Soldier}}s, while Diggle and Lyla team up with the Comicbook/SuicideSquad to stop ARGUS from [[GodzillaThreshold bombing the city in an attempt to stop the soldiers]].
** Season 3 has Oliver Queen teaming up with his old enemy Malcolm Merlyn in an effort to learn about the League's methods and fighting style in order to mutually protect each other and Thea from the League's sights. The two still can barely stand each other though--not least because it's Malcolm's machinations that got them into trouble with the League in the first place.
** The Season 5 finale sees Oliver recruit help from Merlyn, Slade, Captain Boomerang, and Nyssa al-Ghul to help him save his captured family and friends from [[BigBad Prometheus]]. The only people in this alliance who don't have a beef with each other are Oliver and Nyssa [[spoiler: and Boomerang turns out to be TheMole]].
* ''Series/BabylonFive'': "Dust to Dust". Bester teams up with Garibaldi to catch drug smugglers. [[Creator/JMichaelStraczynski JMS]] [[WordOfGod explicitly stated]] this was to prevent DiminishingVillainThreat.
** Another episode has a scene deliberately written in defiance of the trope, which Straczynski hates. Mortal enemies Londo and G'Kar are [[LockedInAFreezer trapped in an elevator]] with a fire outside draining their oxygen. Londo declares that they'll have to work together to escape but G'Kar refuses: he's perfectly fine with dying as long as he gets to see Londo die, too.
--->'''G'kar:''' (...) But I don't have to kill you. I don't have to do anything! And I still get to watch you die! I find this most appealing!\\

'''G'Kar:''' ... No. As the humans say: "Up yours, guy." ''*Continues giggling*''

** Londo and G'Kar team up again in the "And The Rock Cried Out, 'No Hiding Place'" when Londo constructs a BatmanGambit [[spoiler: to enlist G'Kar's aid in destroying Lord Refa, whom Londo believes killed his lover Adira and was responsible for using [[ColonyDrop mass drivers]] on the Narn homeworld. Londo supposedly tricks G'Kar into leaving the sanctuary of station under the pretext of having the Centauri forces arrest him on Narn in Refa's presence; in fact, it was so G'Kar could make contact with the Narn resistance and set up the NoHoldsBarredBeatdown Lord Refa receives [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic to the tune of the episode's eponymous Gospel tune]].]]
** Bester invokes the saying "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" in persuading [[spoiler: Sheridan to work with him against the Shadows, whom Bester has also come to mistrust, in "Ship of Tears".]] He brings it up again when he finds out that [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes his lover]] was abducted to become part of their WetwareCPU.

*** One particular egregious example of this is that after the Shadow War two ''really'' embittered enemies, the Narn and the Centauri, both join the Interstellar Alliance as founding members. However peace did not last as a sort of "civil war" broke off between the Centauri (puppeted by the former Shadow vassals, the Drakh) and all the rest, and at the last moment several former Centauri colonies like the Narn, Brakiri and Drazi eagerly bombed-down Centauri Prime which then withdrew from the Alliance. According to the Extended Universe, some 20 years later the Centauri with the help of the Alliance manage to get rid of the Drakh and the Centauri Republic re-enters the Alliance.
* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'': Has this quite a few times as well, usually involving Cylons and humans co-operating, such as Athena's HeelFaceTurn and the rebel Cylon faction seeking Galactica's help against Brother Cavil. However the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" quote is actually used by President Roslin when she teams up with terrorist-turned-radical politician Tom Zarek, after Commander Adama tries to force her resignation.
* ''Series/Batwoman2019''. In "Through the Looking Glass", mad supervillain Alice gets Kate Kane's help to break Mouse out of Arkham Asylum. Unusually for this type of situation, it turns out to be the hero who stabs the villain in the back.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': In general this franchise is ''all'' over this trope. The Klingons team up with the ''Enterprise'' crew in "Day of the Dove", the Klingons allying with the Romulans against the Federation and then later with the Federation against the Romulans, ''Voyager'' teaming with the Borg in "Scorpion", TheAlliance of the Alpha Quadrant (and the poor, forgotten Beta Quadrant!) against the Dominion, etc., etc.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Kira, Damar and Garak loathe each other. The fact that Damar killed Garak's LoveInterest and Kira's surrogate daughter a few seasons back [[{{Understatement}} does not help]]. Eventually, the fate of Cardassia, and with it the entire Alpha Quadrant, rests on the three of them putting aside their differences and working together to create a rebellion to overthrow the Dominion control of Cardassia. It even leads to the beginning of FireForgedFriends.
** In terms of factions, the Bajorans, TheFederation, Klingons, Romulans, and eventually even the Cardassians end up working together to stop [[TheEmpire the Dominion]] from conquering the Alpha Quadrant. Though [[WeAreStrugglingTogether they aren't an especially happy alliance]].
* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': "Dawn," "Storm Front" (Archer fighting alongside Silik)
** The Andorians and Vulcans learning to work together have ''some'' shades of this trope (though the fact that one of the enemies faced together is extremist elements in the Vulcan governments complicates matters), especially during the last season (the Romulans' meddling intended to break the Coalition ends up strengthening it by giving them a common foe: the Romulans. Oops).
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': "Darmok". In the midst of the plot, Picard retells similar parts of ''Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh'', highlighting this as OlderThanDirt.
** In "Timescape" the Romulans for once aren't the enemy, are genuinely grateful for the Enterprise's help, and are cooperating to avert a disaster. Even so, why are Romulans allowed on the Enterprise bridge, a restricted area which should be off limits to the Romulans, and why is a Romulan allowed to have his disruptor pistol in sickbay?
** Rather famously, the [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Tamarian_language Tamarian]] for this trope is "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra."
** ''TNG'' also did it in "The Enemy", where Geordi and a Romulan had to work together.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': This is the plot, although by the third season the rival crew factions have been forgotten.
** In a later season of ''Voyager'', in the episode where the Delta Flyer is introduced, B'Elanna Torres learns that the Maquis lost back home. She turns depressed and does dangerous things in the Holodeck with the safety off, and because most of the ship has all but forgotten their initial division between Starfleet and Maquis, they don't know what's wrong with her.
** When they first re-establish contact with Starfleet, Janeway mentions to Chakotay that she actually ''had'' forgotten the implications of the mixed crew after they had been working together for so long. She becomes concerned for what happens when they got home, since as far as Starfleet are concerned, the former Maquis crew are ''still'' wanted terrorists?!
** Janeway's [[spoiler: alliance with the Borg in Delta Quadrant against Species 8472 (where the crew picks up 7 of 9).]]

* ''[[Series/WonderWoman1975 Wonder Woman]]'': In "The Queen and the Thief", Wonder Woman teams up with the Thief, Evan Robley, to recover Queen Kathryn's crown jewels. Robley had originally been hired by [[MonsterOfTheWeek Ambassador Orrick]], only to switch sides when he discovered he was being set up as the fall guy.

---> '''Connery''': ''(in response to Creator/RobinWilliams' antics)'' "Boy, you might be legally retarded".
---> '''Trebek''': "You have a point".
---> '''Connery''': ''(in response to Creator/AnneHeche's equally loopy behavior)'' "She's a nutjob, Trebek."
---> '''Trebek''': "Tell me about it."
---> '''Connery''': "She's nuttier than a pecan log."
---> ''(he and Trebek crack up)''