BY SCOTT STIFFLER | What began on September 8, 1966 as a five-year mission to seek out new worlds and ways of being, “Star Trek” didn’t even make it past season three as a network television series. By then, though, creator Gene Roddenberry’s vision of a culturally diverse 23rd century starship crew united in the name of interstellar exploration had so firmly taken root, fan devotion would inspire five additional TV shows and 13 feature films — with more of both on the way.
The far-reaching franchise’s first incarnation may be approaching the age of AARP eligibility, but your career as a fresh and eager cadet is just beginning — when you strive for high achievement on the aptitude tests that propel “Star Trek: The Starfleet Academy Experience” from a drool-inducing collection of glass-enclosed memorabilia to a hands-on, destination event.
The exhibition, at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum from July 9–October 31, beams down to our planet at a highly illogical point in the space-time continuum. Yes, we’ve yet to evolve from a savage state of prejudice, poverty, and petty conflict; and yet, our 21st century existence is brimming with ho-hum tech that was strictly the stuff of science fiction when the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 introduced us to phrases like “warp speed” and “beam me up.” Those blue and red velour shirts worn by Mr. Spock and quick-to-perish security officers may not have survived the 1960s as must-haves of the well-equipped everyman, but “Trek” has otherwise proven itself to be impressively predictive — influential, even — in the creation of 3D replicative printing, voice recognition, handheld touchpads, and virtual reality.
The enduring influence of a show made in the past and set in the future has a way of asserting itself throughout your “Academy Experience,” imbuing this self-guided stroll through all things “Star Trek” with a gee-whiz awareness that sinks in the moment you realize the person next to you is taking selfies and posting them on social media, using a cellphone whose multitasking abilities put Captain Kirk’s flip phone communicator to shame.
Cleverly designed as a 26th-century visit to Starfleet Career Day, you enter the 12,000 square foot tented pavilion on Pier 86 and begin by taking a Recruitment Quiz. Answering questions such as what hostile species concerns you the most and what Vulcan trait you admire lay the groundwork for determining what specialty you’ll be assigned — when, just prior to exit, you turn in the watch-like device that has been tracking your journey through nine interactive zones designed to assess language, medical, navigation, engineering, command, and science skills. Those results are displayed on a computer panel (yes, in full view of the other cadets), and can also be sent via an email containing your official recruitment certificate, a personnel file, a “species selfie,” and a transporter video (which depicts you in the process of, as Dr. McCoy testily put it, having your “atoms scattered back and forth across space”).
Among the interactive opportunities: taking the readings of a patient laid out on a Medical Tricorder table; communicating in Klingon; and phaser training. Enormous fun though it may be, you’ll have to wait five minutes before attempting to best your firing range score, so that others can have their turn. Fans of the original series might be a bit disappointed with this particular zone, though, as the phaser in your grip is of “Next Generation” variety.
But why quibble? The exhibition even has two Tribbles — along with other props and costumes on loan from a German collector (including a Vulcan ear mold, and an original series tricorder and communicator). As for those still pining for a different model of phaser than the one at the firing range, they need only walk a few steps away — where a display case contains a Plasma Pistol made for “Star Trek: Enterprise,” a Type II Phaser from “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock,” and a Phaser Pistol from 2009’s big screen reboot.
Treasures of similar rarity are found throughout, as the multi-room exhibition contains a combination of interactive zones and displays of memorabilia (including Captain Picard’s Robin Hood getup from Season 4’s “Qpid” episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”).
A series of wall panels, whose themes include “Clashing Cultures” and “Alien Anatomy 101,” are extremely informative; but those who find themselves squinting at small type are advised to swallow their pride and bring a pair of reading glasses — an embarrassing but necessary conceit that, as every good cadet knows, helped James T. Kirk see things more clearly at a crucial moment in 1982’s “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”
Sacrificing ego for the sake of your ship may be a hallmark of good leadership, but it won’t help the Enterprise emerge unscathed from the designed-to-end-in-doom Kobayashi Maru test — which you’ll take at the exhibition’s crown jewel: a showroom-new bridge that’s a faithful recreation of the “Next Generation” original — except for slight variations in design, which allow up to six cadets to take the test at once. Viewscreen updates from various crew members and prompts requiring a series of fight-or-flight decisions make this moment in time the closest any of us will ever get to serving with the United Federation of Planets.
After your test, a stolen moment in the Captain’s chair goes a long way toward exiting this “Academy Experience” with your pride, and hope for the future, intact. Sitting at this iconic center of command with a full complement of Starfleet tech at your fingertips, and spouting instructions like “Engage!” and “Make it so!” as if these things might actually happen, you won’t want to leave. But if you must, there’s only one way to go: Boldly.
“Star Trek: The Starfleet Academy Experience” is on view July 9–Oct. 31, at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum (W. 46th St. & 12th Ave.). Open Sun.–Thurs., 10am–8pm and Fri.–Sat., 10am–9pm. Last entry, one hour prior to closing. Tickets are $25 ($18 for children, $23 for seniors, free for children 4 and under. Discounts for museum members and groups of 15 or more. For group sales, call 646-381-5010. Otherwise, visit intrepidmuseum.org/Startrek.aspx.
