It's an Astro Blast!

Across from the Star Tours spaceport in Tomorrowland is the entrance to Star Command Headquarters and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. As soon as we step inside, we get an alert over the walkie talkie: Evil Emperor Zurg and his robot army are attacking, stealing power to fuel his ultimate secret weapon. Our help is needed to defeat Zurg and protect the Galactic Alliance.

Just around the corner, Commander Buzz Lightyear is instructing all of us new recruits on our mission, with the help of a giant Etch-A-Sketch (this is the Toy Story universe, after all). Look closely in this shot, and you can make out Zurg's weapon on Etch's screen. You can even see the Green Planet, home to the LGMs, through the window behind Buzz.

The star map alongside Buzz details the path we must take on our mission. We're currently at Star Command Headquarters in the Gamma Quadrant (if it looks familiar, check out this article). You can see the position of the Green Planet, along with our destination: Planet Z, way beyond the Danger Zone in Sector 9.

While many of these place names and details come directly from Toy Story 2 and the "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command" TV series, the names of the other planets on the map were created just for the attraction. In fact, if you read them carefully, you'll realize they're derived from the names of Imagineers. For example, Planet Chokbloo refers to none other than Imagineering artist Chuck Ballew, who created the map.

After the Briefing Room, we get instructions on how to operate our Astro Blaster, and then it's off to the Flight Deck where our XP-40 Space Cruisers await. The craft that transport guests through the original version of this attraction in Florida are XP-37s, but since the Disneyland version opened several years later, these are more advanced models. It's also worth noting that the name of the attraction was changed from Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin in the Magic Kingdom, since it turned out that most guests wanted to move their Space Cruiser to aim but didn't actually spin it. (Besides, a completely different attraction named Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters is part of DisneyQuest at Walt Disney World.)

Once on board, the LGMs gather outside the window to wish us luck. We follow the cone signals and blast off on our mission to save the universe!

Star Command Headquarters

While things are generally glorious and peaceful here in the community of tomorrow, even the best cities need a police force to help maintain order. For the city of Tomorrowland, that function is provided by the Universe Protection Unit of Star Command. Entering Rockettower Plaza from the Avenue of the Planets, Star Command Headquarters is on the right.

Notice how the Star Command sign is the first thing you see. It's not until you actually come around the corner that you see the marquee for the attraction: Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.

Inside, Space Rangers and new recruits can monitor activity around Tomorrowland and throughout the star system.

But what's this? Something's going on, and Buzz Lightyear himself is here at HQ to brief us. It seems the evil Emperor Zurg has absconded with all the crystolic fusion power units, and he must be stopped!

To make matters worse, power levels are dropping to critically low levels... and an unidentified flying object has been detected in orbit above Planet Z!

There's no time to waste! We're off to our fleet of XP-37 Space Cruisers to head out and save the day.

In the end, Zurg is captured and power is restored to the galaxy. We return to Star Command Headquarters where Commander Nebula, appearing on wall monitor with X-R and the LGMs, seems to reluctantly acknowledge our success.

The celebration is likely to be short-lived, though. Through the window of the Commander's cruiser, close observers might notice a certain red ship rocketing through space, having been hijacked from Planet Turo by an escaped alien experiment (#626, that is).

Star Command's work is never done...