Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, we’ll be experiencing the final frontier in a way that one could only experience if she or he was an actor.
With nearly every big budget film shifting release dates because of COVID-19, we’ve seen films like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness move their release dates multiple times over the last month. Though I have been having a bit of Marvel fatigue, I was really excited for Dr. Strange 2 because it seemed like the film was going to combine magic and science fiction in a really engaging way. Over the years, we’ve seen many different takes on science fiction, but one could argue that none of it would be possible without Star Trek.
Via SciFi Movie Page
Debuting in 1966, Star Trek was not the biggest success when it first aired, lasting three seasons before the network decided not to renew the show. However, it was given new life through syndication, endearing the show in the hearts of many more people than during its original run. By the late 1970s, there were talks about reviving the show, but with the massive success of Star Wars in 1977, they decided to pivot and begin making films with the original cast.
As the films continued with the original cast, it eventually became time to refresh the cast with Star Trek: The Next Generation hitting airwaves in 1987 as the first live-action Star Trek television show since the original series. With interest in Star Trek at such a high level, 1988 seemed like a great time for Universal Studios to team up with Paramount to create an attraction that would place guests on the Enterprise.
Via The Studio Tour
Star Trek Adventure opened at Universal Studios Hollywood in 1988, where it joined the Battle of Galactica portion of the Studio Tour to make up a fun duo of science fiction attractions in the park. In Hollywood, the attraction was located where the Dreamworks Theatre is today and was just the latest incarnation of a similar type of attraction in that area. For nearly 20 years, that same location would host an attraction where guests would be filmed as if they were replacing actors in television shows, with Star Trek Adventure simply continuing the trend.
In fact, the folks at Universal were so pleased that they brought the attraction over to Universal Studios Florida in 1991 making it a part of Screen Test Home Video Adventure, with the show residing where Revenge of the Mummy is today.
Unfortunately, I could not find any footage of an entire show from the perspective of a guest who was not participating because it seems likely that they cracked down on filming during the show since you could buy a VHS of the performance at the end, which you can watch above. The guests who were chosen to be a part of the show would be inserted into an episode of Star Trek, basically taking the places of Spock and Kirk. Honestly, it was a pretty impressive feat to be able to place these people in the show and complete a VHS, especially in the late 80s and early 90s when computer technology was nowhere near what it is today. It’s pretty clear that the shots were in different places, but for the time, I give it a big round of applause.
One aspect of the attraction that is impossible to see in the video above is that they were actually filming multiple “episodes” at the time. They generally had around 10 “actors” at each show, so here’s how I believe that it worked based on some snippets of footage I saw. There would be a few groups of guests and each group would be prepped on how their scene would go while another group was filming. The guests would even have a heavy amount of dialogue to perform, so they needed to be at least a bit prepared for what was coming next.
Via YouTube
Watching the VHS footage was fine, but I wish I had had a chance to see the full attraction experience. Many attractions that try to give you a glimpse of filmmaking don’t use guests extensively, so it would have been a really cool experience for those trying to learn more about movie magic. Of course, neither of the attractions stuck around indefinitely with Hollywood’s closing in 1994 for The Flintstone’s Musical Revue and Florida’s lasting until 1996 when an Islands of Adventure Preview Center took its spot. The Star Trek Adventures were cool at the time, but as the parks shifted away from demonstrating how filmmaking worked to placing guests in the movies, Star Trek Adventure quickly became outdated after serving a perfect purpose.
Well, that’s all for today, but here’s what is coming next week.
- This attraction was positively prehistoric.
- This attraction had a corresponding restaurant.
- This attraction was based on a 1960s television show.
Via Facebook
Thanks for reading and have a magical day!