There’s a space just off of the main drag at Universal Studios Hollywood, the historic theme park that opened as a tourist attraction in 1964, usually used during the annual Halloween Horror Nights after-hours event that runs from August to November. From 2016 to 2020, when it closed with the rest of the park for the pandemic, it was utilized as a “The Walking Dead” attraction that operated daily.

But now, on a sunny morning in early April, it looks very different.

Instead of winding through a spooky forest, where ghouls are no doubt waiting to jump out and scare you, you are walking up to a Starfleet outpost. You board a transport ship (a “shuttlecraft”) before winding up at the Starfleet Museum, on the bridge of the Enterprise – and not just any Enterprise, either. This is the really-for-real Enterprise D, a full-scale, screen-used set from the third season of the Paramount...