Stardate: October 2024. Location: Vauxhall. Time: just after lunch.
My journey to the farthest reaches of the universe begins through a nondescript door, as I’m ushered off the busy London pavement and into a large waiting area. I look around and find myself in a space that’s part spaceport, part Starfleet changing room, with staff holding clipboards and racks of uniforms hanging ready. Am I going to have to take off my clothes in front of everybody? (Thankfully for all involved, no.)
Eurogamer video producer Jim Trinca is standing ahead of me, giving a thumbs up while already pulling on his own interstellar jumpsuit (a dark blue, practical design – think Enterprise-era Trek – that goes over your civilian clothes). I’m handed patches, showing my character’s rank (something low) and the name of our assigned vessel: the USC Havock. Together with five other eager space cadets, Jim and I help form the crew of our intrepid space vessel – becoming its Bridge Command.
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As interactive experiences go, Parabolic Theatre’s Bridge Command is one of the most video game-y that I’ve tried so far. Sure, there’s a small army of actual human staff to ensure everything runs smoothly and who, in character, play the roles of other fleet personnel (or, over video communications, passing starship captains in need of our help). And yes, this is an experience that plays out over a physical set – and a surprisingly large one, too, that encompasses a spacious bar staffed by space station engineers moonlighting as cocktail makers (I opt for a can of lager, which I’m served in a futuristic space Thermos), and a warren of spaceship rooms filled with electrical conduits, switches and fuses (primed to blow up and go wrong as our run-of-the-mill bog standard space mission quickly descends into delicious chaos).