With the precision of a starfleet android, Matt Schuurman can recall his first encounter with the Star Trek universe.

“I have a vivid memory of walking past my dad as he was watching an episode, probably The Next Generation,” he recalls. “Someone was being transported, and my eyes caught the person disappearing into blue sparkles.”

Right alongside that vanishing crewmember, Schuurman was transported into a life-long love of all things Trek. And in 2015, as part of Rapid Fire’s Bonfire Festival—where the ensemble tests its newest improv ideas—he decided to put that love on stage. Merging his background as an animator with his improv chops, Schuurman added multimedia projections, dialed in the classic sound effects, and set a crew of hapless improvisers loose in that universe.

“A lot of what we see at our Bonfire Festival is performers letting their freak flag fly,” he says. “For me that’s what it was: let’s play in this world that I love so much.”

Since then, the crew of the USS Improvise have journeyed through multiple sell-out Fringe runs, as well as extended stints on RFT’s own stages. But this upcoming run, Schuurman notes, is the first since 2019. Between then and now, there’s been a resurgence in all things Star Trek: in addition to the classic series’ enduring popularity, multiple new television shows have emerged.

“Now there’s Strange New Worlds and Prodigy and The Lower Decks and Picard,” he says. “Which is great for us because I think there’s a whole new flood of energy into it. It’s all relevant and exciting again.”

As for why Trek’s managed to continue to delight and inspire almost 60 years since the initial Kirk-and-Spock season aired, to Schuurman, it’s partly the tone in which Star Trek looks to the future.

“The thing that I love about Trek as a concept is the optimism of it all,” he says. “If you look at a lot of sci-fi, it’s about these dystopian futures, where all the problems of today still exist, but expanded. But the idea behind Star Trek is that humanity got better. It’s this optimistic future … and it can still talk about those present-day issues, through the lens of sci-fi.”

Which also primes it for comedy, Schuurman notes. And while almost sixty years of lore can seem daunting from the outside—especially for improvisers trying to create it on the fly—Schuurman notes that an improvised, irreverent homage to the Star Trek universe is open to all.

“A Star Trek episode isn’t just about loving the lore that exists,” he says. “It’s about making new things and discovering new things. That’s what I’m most excited about with the show now: inviting in an audience who love the source material also, but for us to create new things together in that style. We’ll see new aliens, we’ll visit new worlds. This is a chance to, in the style of Star Trek, make new discoveries.”

Red Shirt Diaries runs until Saturday, January 25th at 7pm. Tickets and more info at rapidfiretheatre.com