For Romulan-Wise Trekkers Only : CD-ROM review: A Final Unity, an ambitious computer game, is a virtual dream--for avid followers of ‘The Next Generation.’

I’m a fan of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” but I never bought the lunch box.

Those who do indulge in “STTNG” merchandising (which lives on even though the TV program has ceased production) are the natural target audience for the just-released CD-ROM, A Final Unity, an ambitious computer game featuring an original “STTNG” plot and the voices of actors who appeared on the show.

At its best, this most advanced of “Star Trek” software spinoffs lets you take on the roles of various crew members, making decisions that affect the manner in which the story unfolds. You navigate the Starship U.S.S. Enterprise, fire the phasers and torpedoes, talk to aliens and engage in the somewhat inflated banter that is part of “Star Trek” lore.

All this will likely be a virtual dream come true for die-hard Trekkers--for the rest of us, it’s a mixed bag. If terms such as Romulan are unfamiliar to you, you might as well stop reading now--the game supposes you have at least a passing knowledge of “STTNG” conventions.

The CD-ROM, currently available only in the DOS platform, begins like a show episode with a short prologue to set up the plot. The Enterprise is speeding toward the Neutral Zone near Romulan territory.

There you encounter a small scout ship being operated by three rebels fleeing the evil Garidian empire. Before the Enterprise can come to their aid, a giant hostile Garidian battleship appears on the scene. The Garidians are not subtle villains--the captain of the battleship threatens to destroy the scout ship, even though one of the rebels aboard is her own son.

All this is told at a fast clip, with computer-animated models interacting on the familiar bridge of the Enterprise. The pixelated fuzziness of the full-screen, animated sequence could be off-putting to those familiar only with clearer film animation.

But compared to other animated computer adventures, A Final Unity looks pretty good, even when viewed on a relatively slow 433/DX machine.

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Next comes an animated rendition of the familiar “Space, the final frontier . . . “ prologue, spoken by actor Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard. Then the game formally begins.

A Final Unity belongs to the adventure genre of computer games, which has the player making choices at various junctures. In the role as captain, you can start by asking advice of various lesser officers. The somewhat hotheaded first officer William Riker suggests you fire on the battleship. The more reasoned android Data alternatively suggests a maneuver that will allow the rebels to be safely beamed aboard the Enterprise.

Depending on which set of actions you take, the battleship will either be blown to smithereens or will retreat, but either way, you will end up with the rebels aboard, which is necessary for the plot to progress.

That’s currently the norm with computer adventure games--you’re forced to take actions that will further a predetermined plot, even though you might want to explore alternatives. This is not such a bad thing. Good stories don’t meander all over the place, although it does put you into a kind of guess-what-teacher-is-thinking mode.

In the best adventure games, the solutions to the various dilemmas are logical and fully integrated into the story line. The main problem with A Final Unity is that the solutions sometimes involve more busywork than elegant problem solving. For example, early in the game, you travel to a planet to search for a scientist who has mysteriously disappeared. A communications computer on the planet allows you to interview several inhabitants who may be able to provide clues to her whereabouts, but at first, several of the communications links are not working.

Only after completing some unrelated tasks are the links suddenly made available to you.

This takes a lot of the challenge out of the game. If you are not made to come up with direct solutions, the role you play is more like that of a Rosencrantz or Guildenstern, just along for the ride to keep the plot going.

Mr. Spock is not a member of the “STTNG” crew, but the makers of this game would have done well to take his advice to never lose sight of the value of logic.