hat Trek lover hasn't fantasized about actually going aboard a Federation starship, visiting the bridge and even sitting at a console and playing with all those buttons? Star Trek: Captain's Chair makes it all possible, at least on a personal computer. The program is a virtual tour of the bridges of five starships: the original Enterprise NCC-1701, the Enterprise NCC-1701D, the Enterprise NCC-1701E, the Defiant and Voyager. Via QuickTime technology, users can walk from station to station on the bridges, and they can look around from any vantage point (including looking up and down, as well as zooming in on areas of interest).
All the controls are active, and pushing buttons produces a variety of responses. Some just blink or beep, while others play a brief movie. For example, hitting the Defiant's Fire Phasers button will play a quick shot of the ship blasting away at an unseen enemy. Other controls trigger special treats, such as video messages from Trek actors and even miniature games.
The bridges are littered with equipment--such as hand phasers, communicators and tricorders--that can be picked up and examined. Captain's Chair also offers exterior views of all the ships--which can be rotated this way and that--and cutaway maps of their interiors--which can be panned and zoomed. Descriptive text accompanies each item and location.
There must be more to it...
Star Trek: Captain's Chair is an amazing accomplishment, especially because the classic series' bridge is completely computer-rendered (unlike the modern bridges, which were created from photos). The environments are also stunningly realistic and include all the familiar background sounds Trek fans would expect. The CD-ROM gives users a chance to study the interesting panels and devices that the camera normally only glimpses. This is especially true for the Enterprise 1701E, whose gorgeous and elaborate bridge has had very little screen time. Better still, it's a chance to discover what the cameras never showed. For instance, what was Spock always staring at in that viewer of his? Captain's Chair knows.
After the initial awe, though, the program's captivation fades, and fades quickly. Aside from walking around and gawking, there's not much to do on the bridges, and what there is to do is fairly trivial. Buttons bleep and consoles flash in response to mouse clicks, but there's no sense of actually controlling a massive and complex starship. In fact, these simplistic responses only emphasize the fact that the bridges are just sets sitting in television studios, and their controls are dummies. The program is not a game (anyone who wants to actually fly and fight these ships should check out Interplay's Starfleet Academy, which will be reviewed in our next issue), nor is it a particularly useful or rich reference. It's basically a multimedia photo album. Certainly zealous Trek fans will want to own this title, but others might feel that there's not much entertainment here for the price.
