Hear John De Lancie Geek Out On These Virtual Star Trek Sets

What's better than cutting through carefully recreated objects Star Trek model ships and sets? Doing so while Q lets you know how great it is to do just that.

That's a good premise for “Back to Tomorrow,” a new video that looks at some of the latest re-creations Star Trek props, sets, and models owned by the Roddenberry Archive. For the past few years, the archive has worked with “holographic providers” OTOY to create a digital one Star Trek museum, meticulously replicating sets from the entire series, from the original A journey in modern shows like Adoption, Picardagain Lower Decks people can navigate through, either online or through apps on VR headsets.

But if you wanted to chill and watch a video instead, this is a great option, as long as you can listen to John De Lancie, the irascible Q back man, wax poetic about why. Star Trek design speaks to us in many ways as it develops over the years.

It's a great short film, giving a glimpse of some of the emotions you can actually go and “visit” in the Roddenberry archives (special shout out to the image of Cerritos' bridge, which even gives it a cel-shaded beauty to match Lower Decks!). But De Lancie's narrative is also touching, not just its celebration Star Trekbut for the purposes of the digital templates of the Archive: a way to preserve, in some small way, the history and the legacy of the design from all the franchises that last in the history of pop culture, the basis of the inspiration of sci-fi that has an impact not only in entertainment, but in many other fields of design and technology during the last half of the century—and a bold move.

Plus, sometimes you just want to shiver while the cute stars pass by on your screen, don't you?

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