As part of Universal Fan Fest Nights, guests at Universal Studios Hollywood are able to take part in a special walkthrough experience called Star Trek: Red Alert.
Star Trek: Red Alert is described by Universal as:
At Star Trek: Red Alert, embark on an out-of-this world adventure aboard the legendary starship U.S.S. Enterprise-D as a mysterious entity wreaks havoc through the ship’s systems! Star Trek: Red Alert is a daring walkthrough experience featuring many familiar locations from the legendary franchise including the iconic Bridge—a screen used set piece from the Paramount+ original series “Star Trek: Picard.”
Guests wanting to take part in the walkthrough experience enter a building to the left of the staircase between the Upper and Lower Lots. Signage for the experience lists the current wait time for the walkthrough.
There is an extended outdoor queue for the experience if the line gets long, but we only waited in this area for a short minute before being broken into lines and escorted inside the building.
Entering the stage area, doors and walls are painted with the Starfleet Command globe logo, with text labeling Universal Studios Hollywood as Spaceport Los Angeles.
Guest are further broken down into smaller groups inside an indoor hallway lined with Starfleet flags. According to the story of the experience, guests have arrived in the year 2403, which is approximately two years after the events of “Star Trek: Picard.” The Enterprise-D ship is now anchored at the Starfleet Museum, and guests are planning on taking a relaxed tour of the ship.
This room is lined with more screens showing the Starfleet Spaceport Los Angeles logo. The Spaceport Los Angeles is a location specifically made by Universal for Fan Fest Nights, though there has been a U.S.S. Los Angeles starship in Star Trek canon.
The lights in this room dim to a blue color, and the screens begin playing a recorded welcome message from Commander Barrick of the Federation Fleet Museum.
Barrick invites guests to tour the museum orbiting Athan Prime and provides a brief introduction to the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D ship, which is commanded by Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the series “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” She also references some changes made to the ship for the sake of tour groups, which we will see later in the walkthrough.
After the video concludes, guests are ushered into a hallway that is supposed to be a shuttlecraft taking the tour group to the museum.
This effect involves the window of a shuttlecraft showing the blue lines of warp speed on a digital screen window. Guests do not sit down in the shuttlecraft and only briefly walk through the back to enter the shuttle station.
The shuttle station is filled with barrels and other props to help fill the space. The stacked blue barrels have red Starfleet stickers labeling the type and origin of the supplies stored inside. The barrels look very similar to the ones featured in the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episode “Ethics,” in which Worf is crushed by a falling blue barrel.
Looking at the entrance from the opposite side, the door where the guests entered is designed to look like a parked shuttle called the Leavitt. The name Leavitt has been used for other vehicles in the Star Trek universe as a tribute to real American astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt, though it has never appeared on a shuttle.
Team Members positioned in this room welcome the group to the Enterprise-D and instruct them to stand in front of a large screen showing space through an atmospheric containment field. Through the screen, guests can see Captain Kirk’s Enterprise. An unknown entity appears on the screen and breaks through the force field, entering the ship with accompanying light flashes.
The performers worry the ship is under attack and ask all of the guests to enter the nearby sick bay.
The sick bay has three blue beds and some themed lighting fixtures. The Starfleet crew member in this room notices the screens above the beds have started glitching. As she asks the computer to help diagnose the issue, the ship is put into yellow alert status.
The screens on the side of the wall, which were previously showing medical data, also change to have large “Access Denied” warning signs.
The performer is unable to reach engineering using her Combadge, so she sends the tour group directly to the engineering control room.
The performers in the engineering control room are wearing makeup to appear alien. One is standing in the center of the space next to a control panel, while the blue warp core is seen through the left wall.
After technological failures and mounting problems, the ship is put under red alert.
After this encounter, guests are moved into a turbolift. At the beginning of the tour, Commander Barrick mentioned that changes were made for the ship to accommodate more guests during tours, one of which was expanding the size of the turbolift. This is used to explain why the turbolift is much larger than seen in the series.
Even the turbolift isn’t without issues as the crew member shuffles around, attempting to override the computer. Eventually, they are able to get guests to the bridge, where they crowd around to see an incoming transmission.
The computer confirms that the entity hailing the Enterprise is unknown to the Federation. It apologizes for any concern and promises they “will be remembered, until next we meet.” As it leaves the ship alone, guests are able to be transported back.
The bridge above is an authentic set piece used for the “Picard” series.
If you want to see even more of Star Trek during Universal Fan Fest Nights, the park also rethemed Hollywood & Dine into Quark’s Cafe and released several new Star Trek merchandise items.
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