io9 recently went on a behind-the-scenes tour of Universal Studios Hollywood’s Fan Fest Nights to get an early glimpse at its immersive attractions. One of the headliners we’re most excited about is Star Trek: Red Alertwhich will take Star Trek fans on a journey from Earth into space, and through a recreation of the Starfleet Museum and the Enterprise-D for an unforgettable galactic adventure.
Stephen Siercks, Director of Entertainment Production at Universal Studios Hollywood, was on hand for our first look at Star Trek: Red Alert. And while we were given a play-by-play of the whole experience, we will keep this report mostly spoiler-free and will refrain from giving away too many big plot points.
Here’s 10 things we learned about Red Alert ahead of its April 25 arrival at Universal Fan Fest Nights 2025.
The pulsed immersive experience will be a group endeavor, where you’ll travel with your party from room to room. Each room will play out a different segment of the story that you’ll get to participant in, with light improvisational exchanges between guests and players. Siercks shared that “the story will unfold around you,” and added that the layout expands a bit on a similar attraction that Universal Studios Hollywood fans know and love: “This attraction runs about 10 to 14 minutes in total length, so longer than a typical Halloween Horror Nights attraction does.”
Part of that includes a pre-show which will catch visitors up to speed on the story—in other words, why is Starfleet inviting guests along on a tour? “The concept is that we’re bridging one of the newer elements of the Star Trek franchise with a legacy aspect of the Star Trek franchise,” Siercks explained. “What I mean by that is that our experience takes place in the Picard era of the franchise, one of the latest iterations on Paramount+. We’re getting an exclusive opportunity to take a shuttle craft up to the Starfleet Museum which is an in-world element in Picard. And at the Starfleet Museum we’re getting an exclusive tour of the Enterprise-D from The Next Generation. So it’s a perfect way of bridging the latest with the legacy. We learn a little bit more about what that tour is going to look like. We also learn that the Enterprise-D is going to be modified for these tour groups. You might see enlarged turbolifts or other things that have been adjusted specifically for this type of tour that we’re about to take.”
The core of the story is that while you’re on the tour, you meet docents and ensigns after shuttlecrafting up to the Enterprise-D on the iconic shuttle bay from the show. This is accomplished by immersive digital elements, Siercks explained, pointing at the huge window beside us. “The force field in front of you, this is a giant LED screen and what happens here is that as we’re being introduced to the ship, all of a sudden an entity appears in the distance. And it’s a light form that gets closer and closer and closer and all of a sudden it starts breaking through the force field—and in a moment it breaks through and whooshes past you.” He added that “through lighting, audio, [and] effects [on] the ceiling, it makes it feel as though this entity, this being, this light form has breached the shuttle. And so in that moment everything starts going haywire. So that’s where the inciting action happens and we’re thrust into the middle of this [situation] where something is taking over the ship, [and] we have to figure out what’s going on.”
Fans will be delighted to take part in a mission of sorts in settings they love complete with “switch doors of the Enterprise-D [that] open up.” Siercks walked us through the really neat effect: “So here we find ourselves in one of the sick bays of Enterprise-D. You’ll get to meet several different characters throughout the experience [and] every character represents a different race or character type from the franchise. It’s a great way of not just interacting with all the characters while telling one singular story; here you can see that things are starting to go a little bit on the fritz [as] the entity is taking over some of the ship’s computers. Here we also learn that the entity is starting to infiltrate aspects of the ship that are starting to make it a little unsafe so there’s a bit of uneasiness happening.” But don’t worry, it’s not Halloween Horror Nights scary—just alarming and fun.
One of the silly things that happens when things go haywire because the entity is bopping around the ship and moving through the tech is an Easter egg. Siercks pointed at a projection light trick display Trek fans will identify quickly: “Over there is a replicator. A replicator is something that manifests food or items and because the entity has started to take over it is just continuing to replicate tea or Earl Grey hotwhich is Captain Picard’s favorite drink of course”
The augmented aspect of the role play here is that once things jump into chaos, the ensigns propel the story forward. “What we’re told here is that there’s a couple of people in the engineering room that we should probably get there to understand what’s happening,” Siercks explained. The danger from the entity’s presence centers around the warp of the Enterprise-D, which Siercks called “the heartbeat of the Enterprise D. And through sparks and audio and lighting and special effects, that it starts to truly de-stabilize. And in that moment, we go to Red Alert, the title of the attraction. And at that point, we realize the ship is no longer safe to be on. The tour is officially over. We got to get our guests to the turbolifts to get you over the transporters to give you safety back down to Earth.” If the warp doesn’t get stabilized…the ship goes boom.
But while guests are led through what they are led to believe is a cross over to the transporters, the turbolift is going to also glitch out, “All of a sudden, the turbolift stops. And it says that we’re being redirected. We can’t access the transporters. And all of a sudden, when the turbolift stops, the door opens.” At that moment, Siecks activated the switch doors. “And we’re on the bridge of the Enterprise-D,” he said, presenting the crown jewel of the attraction, a real ship bridge to stand in.
And it’s not just a recreation of the bridge of the Enterprise-D, it’s the bridge most recently used in Picard season three. “They did an entire throwback episode where they actually did a full recreation of the original bridge set and had the original cast come in to reprise their roles for a handful of episodes,” Siercks explained. “Through that great partnership with Paramount, we were able to actually take that film-used set and bring it here for our guests.” It’s breathtaking even with the main viewport turned off.
The action reaches a fever pitch here as the entity sweeps out to the viewport, which with the digital screen accuracy will put us out into space to see the light form in a confrontation that might not be what you’re thinking. Siercks shared, “Being able to develop that story and that character as part of this experience has been really special for us as well.” After the entity is dealt with, “Everything returns back to operational state.” There’s another moment of interaction on the bridge that he promised is really special: “We really want to give guests that opportunity, since we’ve been able to dwell and spend some time in each of these scenes, to soak up what this is and the experience of being on the bridge before our ensigns tell us, ‘We got to get you to the transporters’ [and lead guests] over down the hallway to get you back down to Earth. ‘Thank you for everything.’ [They] apologize for the inconvenience that this tour caused and they send us on the way.”
And yes, this will include some beaming—but don’t worry you won’t be split apart at a molecular level to get back into Universal Studios. Siercks explained that with the transporter beam finale“We are giving our guests the feeling of the [transporter] beam. To get back down to Earth [guests will pass onto] one of two transporters. It will split the group in half and there’s going to be a vapor current effect—so there will be a mister here and it will feel as though we’re passing through a transporter on our way to the exit and get back into the rest of the events. So just when we think the experience is over, there’s one more thing to provide our guests.”
Universal Studios Fan Fest Nights begins Friday, April 25 and runs select nights through Sunday, May 18. For tickets and more info visit here.
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