Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, left us a long time ago – but his archive is slowly being digitized so it can live forever. The latest batch contains an official website that allows you to enter almost every Enterprise bridge.
GIF by Sean Hollister / Content from Roddenberry Archive
Spoiler Alert: While this story won’t spoil anything, the website in question does contain a spoiler for it Star Trek: Picard.
It’s not a particularly robust or mobile-friendly website at the moment, perhaps because all the fans are trying to make their dreams come true at the same time – but if you navigate to roddenberry.x.io, click Bridge View, then choose a ship, power see a “Click anywhere to continue” message.
Click on the window and your desktop’s WASD keyboard keys and mouse should use you walk around the bridge, let yourself sit in the captain’s chair or helm, check out Picard’s ready room, even jump in a turbolift or open a few panels. They are fully decked out with flashing panels, labeled LCARS buttons and moving UI elements.
I’m not just talking about the Bridge of Kirk or the Bridge of Picard – every Enterprise seems to be represented here in some way, including those from the Kelvin timeline and the Mirror Universe where Spock sported his infamous goatee. And while a few don’t have bridge views, like the Alternate Future Enterprise from the latest episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation or the small adjustments of the Enterprise-E for Star Trek: Nemesisyou can also step on the bridge of the USS Voyager to make up for it.
The incredible collection of digitized bridges was created through a collaboration with graphics company OTOY, and it’s not the only result of their work revealed this week. Below you will find a series of videos (the first of which is also has one Picard spoiler, I’m told) with John de Lancie (Q) exploring the bridges of the Enterprise, William Shatner excerpting a longer “hour-long testimony” that he will add to the archive, and others Star Trek fixtures.
Here’s something else to look forward to: The Roddenberry Archive and OTOY say they’ll add the voice of Majel Roddenberry, who played several roles, including the ship’s computer, to the archive “in the coming months.” Her son Rod says that in 2008, Majel “recorded her voice phonetically accurately, intending to preserve it for future technology to bring it back to life.”