Inside London’s Star Trek-inspired Bridge Command, an interactive gaming experience powered by smart technology and role-playing

Stardate: October 2024. Location: Vauxhall. Time: just after lunch.

My journey to the farthest reaches of the universe begins through an inconspicuous door, as I am led from the busy London sidewalk into a large waiting area. I look around and find myself in a room that is part spaceport, part Starfleet locker room, with staff holding clipboards and racks of uniforms laid out. Should I take off my clothes in front of everyone? (Luckily for everyone involved, no.)

Eurogamer video producer Jim Trinca stands in front of me, giving a thumbs up as he already puts on his own interstellar jumpsuit (a dark blue, practical design – think Enterprise-era Trek – that goes over your civilian clothes). I am handed patches that show my character’s rank (slightly low) and the name of our assigned ship: the USC Havock. Along with five other enthusiastic space cadets, Jim and I help form the crew of our intrepid starship, which becomes the Bridge Commando.

As far as interactive experiences go, Parabolic Theater’s Bridge Command is one of the most video game-like games I’ve tried yet. Sure, there’s a small army of actual human staff to ensure everything runs smoothly, character-wise playing the role of other fleet personnel (or, via video communications, passing starship captains in need of our help). And yes, this is an experience that takes place on a physical set – and a surprisingly large one at that, which includes a spacious bar manned by space station engineers who moonlight as cocktail makers (I opt for a can of lager, which I do). served in a futuristic space Thermos), and a warren of spaceship rooms filled with electrical wires, switches and fuses (ready to blow and go wrong as our mundane standard space mission quickly descends into glorious chaos).

But most of your time in Bridge Command will, perhaps unsurprisingly, be spent on the bridge of your starship and at touchscreen computer stations. It’s here that each player interacts with some rather clever software, which runs the entire starship experience via simultaneous input from all crew members on board (and, I suspect, the experience’s staff who essentially act behind the scenes as digital dungeon masters). You can volunteer for specific roles on board – the navigator who steers the ship, the weapons operators who aim and fire the various armaments, and so on – although its mechanics mean that everyone plays a key role at certain points.

As communications officer, my job was to speak to our superiors at the base via video link and attempt to explain our dodgy handling of the spaceship to the nearby ship captain we were assigned to escort. Brilliantly, I was also able to greet and exchange text insults with the space pirates who immediately showed up to cause trouble, and in response receive suitably chilling messages about how we were all going to die horribly. Sitting behind my console screen, I found the whole thing to be a fun mix of video games, social interaction and advanced Microsoft Teams (actually that sounds bad – let’s say Google Meet) while shouting critical information to the captain or navigator, setting waypoints for to follow us, and hacked into enemy ship systems through the equivalent of a lock-picking mini-game that sounded a lot like Minesweeper.

To his great credit, he excelled in what seemed like one of the toughest jobs. As chief engineer, it was up to him to keep the ship’s power levels in check through his own set of interactive options on his screen. With every decision: turn on the engines! raise shields! fire lasers! – had energy costs and had to ensure that each system did not overheat. At the same time, the ship had to generate new energy and balance its production needs to avoid power bottlenecks. Plus there were those lines, switches and fuses I mentioned earlier. They quickly began to explode, meaning Jim had to run through the different rooms of the spaceship to replace them. On the one hand, I was a little jealous that he got to see more of the set (there really wasn’t much time to poke around in other rooms). On the other side, I sat in a nice comfy chair chatting with the Bridge Commando actors while Jim had to run around. At one point, when the power level was critical, and dry ice smoke was pouring out of his console, I definitely heard him swear a little. Anyway, I thought that was very characteristic.

Perhaps my favorite moment of the experience came when the space dust settled during our tough battle with the pirates in the quadrant, and the captain of the ship we had escorted docked and joined us on the bridge for a debriefing. Here we were given options for how we wanted the rest of our mission to go, as there were definitely more enemies. Should we try to escape now? Would it be better to go on a pirate hunt and go on the offensive? We chose a third option: we would lie in wait, broadcast false video communications that we were trapped and damaged beyond repair, and act as decoy. At that moment the cavalry charged in and surprised the pirates. It felt like a clever moment designed to encourage role-play and team-wide decision-making, and it made what happened next all the more fun to then play out as I relayed a dummy distress call via video message.

The rest of the experience changed in response to our plans, giving us an ending that felt organic. As I chatted in the bar afterwards, the mission completed, the crew had been fully debriefed, I heard from another participant who had been to Bridge Command several times, that on every visit he had been to, the storyline – and how it ended – would have been completely different.

I would absolutely recommend Bridge Command to anyone who is a fan of interactive experiences, cooperative science fiction gaming, or just as a fun activity to do with a group of friends. There are several missions you can book for, including options that focus less on combat and instead focus on exploration, diplomacy or intrigue themes, and I’d like to try one of these as an alternative. Combat often felt a bit all-encompassing and hectic, though perhaps that was appropriate. I’d also like to see the ship’s escape pod area, which remained locked during our session, although I understand this only comes into play when things go really bad.

The whole thing, including a chat in the bar afterwards, lasted about two hours, without a second of interruption. I would have liked to have had a bit more of a break in the experience I guess, or at some point just a bit more time to just go and see what the others were doing and poke around the ship, but I certainly can’t fault find the experience to highlight at any moment. It’s well priced – tickets cost from £40 on weekdays or £50 on weekends, which feels right because of the experience’s set design and software, its decent-sized cast and its central London location (you also get one for free drink with it, although you are not allowed to keep the space Thermos). And on each subsequent visit, you can request your flight history to ensure that your service details and any compliments (Jim was robbed of a promotion!) are transferred. All in all, Space Command is running a tight ship. The question is: can you do that?