1. The real-time Star Trek timeline. And by “real-time,” I mean imaginary future time, but denoted via conventional contemporary enumeration rather than via stardate. You’re like, oh, okay, thank you! Now I know that when Picard took command of the Enterprise, he was…59?! Damn, Jean-Luc, looking good, you silver space fox!

2. All the beige. Seeing props (and, er, prop replicas) from all the movies and TV series displayed together really makes you appreciate how Next Gen owned that beige. The original series had kicky black leather, the new movies have retro chrome, DS9 had deep purple, and Next Gen had yards and yards of beige naugahyde. The Enterprise D truly was the Aerostar of the cosmos.

3. Data’s head. In the form of a prop from Nemesis. Well, technically it’s B-4’s head, but you can also pretend it’s Lore’s. Or Noonien Soong’s. Or Brent Spiner’s.

4. All the mannequin chests. The costumes are impressive, but it’s hard not to be distracted by the mannequins’ impressively jutting chests—whether meant to represent Troi’s; Kirk’s; the Fonda-esque Kara’s (of Signa Draconis VI, you know, that Kara’s); or, slow clap please, Ricardo Montalbán’s.

5. The Borg alcove. Veterans of prop exhibits are prepared to be disappointed—you really don’t want to look too closely at, for example, Geordi’s visor—but the über-creepy Borg alcove reminds you why they’re the best alien race (sorry, Vulcans) in all of Star Trek. You half-expect the slightly slumping Borg drone to suddenly snap his eyes open and assimilate you.

6. The nerdy exhibit staff. The staff monitoring the exhibit at a press preview night seemed really excited to be there. “Do you work for the mall?” I asked one woman who had leapt to volunteer extremely specific information about a particular point of Trek lore. “Yeah,” she said, “I started out working at Nickelodeon Universe, but they knew how much I loved Star Trek, so they put me here. The exhibit opens tomorrow, and I know people who are taking off work to be here for it. I’m making sure to be at work!” Yessssssss.

– Jay Gabler

Star Trek: The Exhibition opens May 16 at the Mall of America.