Early 1990s Universal Studios bluescreen Trek episode "ride"

[Cirrus]

This isn't exactly a fan production, but I'm not sure where else to put it and think people here may enjoy it.

In the early 1990s Universal Studios in Florida had a "ride" where you could dress up in a Trek uniform and be filmed in front of a bluescreen. They'd edit your film into a short exclusive film made by the original cast and set in the ST2-4 era. You'd go back at the end of the day and they'd give you the finished product on VHS.

The end result would be a 10-minute long movie in which you the fan appear to share screen time with the original cast. It was all very cool.

I recently got a VHS capture cable for my computer, and so I converted this old video of me and my family doing this ride, and put it on youtube.

Here it is.

I'm the vulcan first office, btw. Here's a screen-grab. That's me giving thumbs up.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

I did this as well and have the tape around here somewhere. I should capture it as well. My family had a real fun time doing it.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

I did the one in Universal Studios in CA where we did a quick film on actual sets, also leveraging Trek 2-4 film footage. I was the Sulu. :P But it did allow me to spend some time in a uniform and on a replica of the movie-era Enterprise bridge... Once of my nerdiest days EVAR.

Mark

 

[Barbreader]

There are a few of these already on the web. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPx74OLAJ6A&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfKdSgEJ4tw .

 

[Captain Atkin]

I would love to get a raw copy of the pre-recorded bridge footage. Wish it was possible to download it from somewhere, so people today could make their own film using greenscreen. It wouldn't be too difficult to do.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I did the one in Universal Studios in CA where we did a quick film on actual sets, also leveraging Trek 2-4 film footage. I was the Sulu. :P But it did allow me to spend some time in a uniform and on a replica of the movie-era Enterprise bridge... Once of my nerdiest days EVAR.

Mark

Lucky, I got chosen for engineering duty and had to wear a radsuit. Fortunately, I wasn't the poor soul who was in the reaction chamber who got dosed with "radioactive" water.

 

[Captain Atkin]

I went and did a bit of research last night on Star Trek: Adventure. One of the guys who worked as Director on the show (directing the "actors" at the studio) said that the footage was kept on laser discs, and that when the last video was made, Paramount confiscated the laser discs. So they are probably buried in a vault somewhere. Would be great if they brought this attraction back someday.

 

[Redfern]

I saw entertainment news segments about this attraction years ago. One of the more "interesting" performances involved a young girl (probably no older than 4 years) who played a "Feddie". The culmination of the attraction involved a showdown between Enterprise crew and Klingons upon a "alien planet". During that recording, one of the Klingons fell to "phaser fire". The little girl approached the "dead" Klingon; pulled his forehead/wig appliance from his scalp, and started flailing him with the costume accessory!

At least, so the "legend" goes! I supposedly saw this infamous footage upon a pirate tape at a con, but being a copy of a copy of a copy...the image was so grainy and distorted, it could have been filmed "Bigfoot evidence" for all I could tell. Can anybody confirm this anecdote?

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Oddly, the version I did had no radioactive water, or an Engineering set for that matter. I was part of the bridge crew and did a lot of exaggerated flailing around the set, but the action moved to a transporter room and another bunch of participants got to beam down and have a fight against some Klingons using very foamy rocks before a bunch of omnipotent bumpy heads stopped everything and ruined our fun. What happened in your version?

Mark

 

[Therin of Andor]

I did the one in Universal Studios in CA where we did a quick film on actual sets, also leveraging Trek 2-4 film footage.

I was the Klingon Captain, after winning the role over my Klingon minions in a growl-off.


Auditioning Klingons by Therin of Andor, on Flickr


"No way, dude!" by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

http://therinofandor.blogspot.com.au/2008/10/star-trek-adventure.html


"Until we meet again..." by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

The little girl approached the "dead" Klingon; pulled his forehead/wig appliance from his scalp, and started flailing him with the costume accessory!

They always tried to find a cute "little kid" to be on the landing party and the host would whisper naughty stage directions to that kid. Depending on their level of acting ability, he/she would wave goodbye in the beam-down sequence, get matched up with the tallest Klingon (rubber boulders at crotch level) and, yes, they'd be told to pull off the wig of one of the hapless Klingons and belt him with the evidence.

When I did the "Adventure", our kid was a little blond boy - and he was a dead-ringer for the little blond boy who is featured in the 3D still of the Universal Studios View-Master set!

 

[Redfern]

So it wasn't just a one time fluke? It was repeatedly encouraged?!

Learn something new every day.

Sincerely,

Bill