Combine the awkwardness of a family vacation with Star Trek in these utterly fantastic vintage videos
In the early ’90s, Universal Studios Orlando teamed up with Paramount Pictures to create a green screen experience called “Star Trek Adventure,” which allowed guests to dress up and act out a “brand new” Star Trek voyage alongside projections of their favorite Trek actors. Now two Reddit users have graciously shared their versions of the adventure for others to mock and/or envy.
After a speech from Gene Roddenberry and an oddly meta pep talk from actors William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, the bespectacled families are “beamed” aboard the Enterprise alongside pre-filmed footage of the rest of the classic Trek actors doing their damndest to commit to this goofy acting exercise. (Having apparently blown its whole budget on the original cast, however, the ride seems to have pulled some Klingons from the Kronos School for Overacting to play the villains.) Awkward pauses and thumbs up abound over the course of these 10-minute videos, which are equal parts delightful and uncomfortable—helped out by a couple of cute kids and some parents who are really bad at pretending to press buttons.
Like any good Trek adventure, this story ends not with action but with diplomacy (are you watching J.J. Abrams?). Check out the adventure below then watch a second version to compare and contrast performances. [via Wired]