Star Trek: The Adventure (concluded)

The biggest, and most hyped part of the Adventure was the Star Trek Experience, a kind of interactive tour around the Enterprise 'D' from the TNG series. The Experience began every 20 minutes or so, which gave us a little time to take the weight off our feet in the cafe area. This was designed to look a bit like Ten-Forward, or maybe Voyager's mess hall, so I thought it would be worth a piccie (I'm the good looking one in the middle).

Suddenly, the jump-suited guards were ready to go, and we were ushered through the large Experience doors, and emerged into a reproduction of Main Engineering on the Enterprise 'D', complete with consoles and panels with flashing lights. As you'd expect, everyone wandered around the room staring at the displays and pressing their faces against the wall panels (well, Phil did anyway), but the JSGs weren't having any of it. Soon we'd been herded like little Trekkie sheep to the far end of Engineering where the warp core sat, which then proceeded to almost explode. Well, sort of - some coloured lights changed, and it steamed a bit. Meanwhile, some disembodied voices spouted technobabble about how the whole ship was going to blow if they didn't fix a little widget somewhere. It was slightly more fun than it sounds.

Finally, we were hurried into the final set piece - the bridge of the Enterprise. We were lined up behind the curved wooden divide at the rear of the bridge, and urged to stay where we were again by those darned JSGs. No sitting in the captain's chair for us, I'm afraid. I was standing just behind the bit where Wesley used to sit before he was made acting ensign, so while we waited for the show to start, I imagined flicking his ears and criticising his choice of jumper.

The viewscreen lit up and another recorded scene began, this time involving a battle with the ever-nemesisical Borg. Althogh the scene still involved those strange disembodied voices (and the voices didn't belong to the real TNG cast), it was still a bit of a giggle, and more enjoyable than the warp core scene. After all the explosive fun, we tumbled out into the shop (containing, for no adequately explained reason, a giant Tribble), and the end of our Adventure.

So, did Star Trek: The Adventure fulfill any childhood dreams? Well, no - not exactly. But it was really good fun - even the bits that weren't done very well made me laugh in an affectionate way. It was a good day out that, in my opinion, was well worth the money. So, if the exhibition turns up in a town near you, go and see it. I can't guarantee you'll enjoy it - enough people on the web have complained about it - but I think there's a good chance you will have a good time, if you don't expect too much.