What’s better than getting to gawp at some painstakingly recreated Star Trek ship models and sets? Getting to do that while Q himself regales you about how cool it is to do exactly that.
That’s pretty much the premise of “Return to Tomorrow,” a new video taking a look at some of the latest virtual recreations of Star Trek props, sets, and models hosted by the Roddenberry Archive. Over the past few years, the archive has worked with “holographic renderers” OTOY to create a digital Star Trek museum, painstakingly replicating sets from across the entire series, from the original Trek to contemporary shows like Discovery, Picard, and Lower Decks that people can take virtual strolls through, either online or through apps on VR headsets.
But if you just wanted to chill out and watch a video instead, this is a pretty great option, if only because you get to listen to John De Lancie, the man behind the irascible Q, poetically discuss why Star Trek design speaks to us in so many forms as it’s developed over the years.
It’s a great little short film, offering a glimpse of some of the experiences you can actually go and “visit” in the Roddenberry Archive (special shout out to the replica of the Cerritos‘ bridge, which even renders it in a cel-shaded aesthetic to match Lower Decks!). But De Lancie’s narration is also just stirringly poignant, not just for its celebration of Star Trek, but for the goals of the Archive’s digital replicas: a way to preserve, in some small manner, a history and legacy of design from across the entirety of one of the most enduring franchises in pop culture history, a bastion of sci-fi inspiration that has influenced not just entertainment, but so many other fields of design and technology over the last half-century-plus of boldly going.
Plus, sometimes you just wanna vibe while amazing-looking starships fly by on your screen, right?
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