As the opening weekend of the inaugural Universal Fan Fest Nights event approaches on Friday, April 25, Inside Universal was recently invited for a behind-the-scenes tour of two of the brand-new walk-through experiences featured at the event: “Star Trek: Red Alert” and “Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep”.
Stephen Siercks, Senior Director of Entertainment Production at Universal Studios Hollywood, walked us through the layout of these two immersive experiences that promise to engulf guests in their respective worlds of sci-fi and fantasy, as well as provided us with a comprehensive rundown of what guests can expect to experience when both attractions are fully operational.
In the first part of our two-part behind-the-scenes preview, we’ll take a look at Star Trek: Red Alert. While we’ll hold back from revealing some of the surprises that Universal wants you to experience for yourself, be warned that there will still be spoilers ahead.
As one of the headlining attractions at Universal Fan Fest Nights, Star Trek: Red Alert will provide a pulsed, story-based walk-through experience for guests to navigate in small groups as they are transported into an immersive adventure set in the year 2403 aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D. The mission? To prevent an interstellar threat just as an otherworldly entity begins to wreak havoc on the ship.
For some added context before we dive into the details from our tour, guests can expect to find themselves navigating many iconic Star Trek environments as they venture from the Starfleet Museum into the ship laden with special effects, audio-visual effects, multi-sensory activations, and live performers portraying characters that help move the story along.
Numerous creative teams spent great effort developing an authentic Star Trek experience that honors the franchise while taking guests through a variety of iconic locations—from the ship’s engineering room and transporter pads to the ultimate soul of the Starship Enterprise, the bridge—as they attempt to restore peace aboard the ship.
While photo opportunities were limited due to finishing touches still being made to the attraction, we can provide a descriptive overview of the layout. Found in the former location of The Walking Dead Attraction – now regularly used as a Halloween Horror Nights house venue – the experience begins with the initial story beats being introduced even before guests enter the building.
Once inside, the plot takes off with guests finding themselves in Starfleet Command in Spaceport Los Angeles to watch a preshow video, where they will be clearly informed about who they are in this story, what they are doing, and why they are there before being split off into smaller groups that they will experience the rest of the attraction with.
The concept of Star Trek: Red Alert bridges some of the newer elements of the Star Trek franchise with the legacy aspect of the franchise, as the experience takes place in the Picard era – one of the latest iterations on Paramount+ – where guests are receiving an exclusive opportunity to take a shuttlecraft up to the Starfleet Museum to get a tour of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
As Halloween Horror Nights fans may note, this marks the first distinct difference between the
“Star Trek: Red Alert” and “Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep” walk-through experiences compared to those typically found at Halloween Horror Nights. While Halloween Horror Nights houses generally thrust guests into fast-paced environments without much explanation for those unfamiliar with the franchises or original ideas featured, Star Trek: Red Alert and Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep provide all with a chance to thoroughly understand the stories being told and their own part in them.
While Halloween Horror Nights houses aim to scare a stream of constantly-moving guests above all else, the story-based pulsed attractions found at Universal Fan Fest Nights have more time to fully immerse guests in their respective fictional worlds – Star Trek: Red Alert will clock in at around 10-12 minutes in total length, to be specific – and provide a much greater level of interactivity and immersion.
As Stephen Siercks added, “The reason why we call it story-based is that we’re really working to amplify the characters, the environments, and the story throughout the experience. We’re doing it in a pulsed nature so that guests will have dwell time to stop in each room, the story will unfold around them, and then they’ll travel together as a group into the next room, and so forth.”
Without giving away all the specifics of the walk-through, after finishing the preshow, guests will get their first true taste of the total scale and scope of the experience as they enter the shuttlecraft. Given Universal Fan Fest Nights’s two foundational goals of creating experiences that are both fan-first and authentic, the creative team spared no attention to detail while collaborating with the Paramount and Star Trek franchise teams from the very beginning to use original reference materials to develop, build, and fabricate all the scenery.
It is when guests at last find themselves in the iconic shuttlebay of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D that they are greeted by an ensign here to lead their tour group – notably split into two halves often separated by a physical barrier to help with guest flow and ensure that everyone has a good viewing angle to experience the attraction.
Of course, to progress the story with an inciting action, something quickly goes wrong. While guests are being introduced to the ship and what they are about to experience, an entity appears in the distance – a light form that gets closer and closer until it suddenly starts breaking through the force field and quickly whooshes past the crowd.
Using intricate lighting and audio effects in the ceiling, guests will feel as though this entity has truly breached the shuttlecraft and made everything in the ship go haywire. The ensign will then lead everyone further into the ship as they attempt to figure out what exactly has taken over the ship and what truly is going on.
From then on, with “yellow alert” now initiated, guests will get to meet and interact with several different characters throughout the experience who bring the story to life. They’ll get the chance to walk through the sickbay of the ship, navigate to the engineering room, head into a turbo lift as “red alert” is at last implemented, and most prominently, traverse through the iconic bridge of the ship – an authentically screen-used original set piece featured in the third season of Star Trek: Picard.
Of course, given Universal Fan Fest Nights’ emphasis on celebrating fandom, Star Trek fans may notice a few key easter eggs found throughout the experience. One prominent example is a “replicator” – something that manifests food or other items – found in one of the rooms after the entity begins to take over the ship, continuously replicating “tea, Earl Grey, hot”: Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s favorite drink.
With great emphasis on attention to detail on all fronts – from the build and practical effects of the attraction to the use of authentic Star Trek audio cues – Star Trek: Red Alert promises to deliver an unforgettable immersive experience that both fans and even those unfamiliar with the Star Trek franchise will surely enjoy, making it one of our most-anticipated attractions at Universal Fan Fest Nights when the event begins on April 25.
Check out part two of our behind-the-scenes preview of Universal Fan Fest Nights, where we will take a look at Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep.
Tickets are now on sale for the inaugural event, which will take place on the following dates: April 25-27; May 2-4; 9-11; and 15-18, 2025.
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