It is the 60th anniversary of Star Trek and an occasion to look back at Star Trek: The Experience! The earliest Star Trek attraction was Star Trek Adventure that was a live action show that began in 1988. It featured ten audience members to dress in Starfleet uniforms! and recreate dialogue from the Original Series. This went until 1994. The Universal Studios Orlando version started in 1991 to 1996. Last year was Star Trek: Red Alert, an experience that was at Universal Studios Fan Fest. It is tour through the Next Generation Enterprise-D now decommissioned at the Starfleet Museum. Your tour takes you all over the ship and involves an entity that endangers the tour!
So set the time index to 2007, Las Vegas Hilton (now called Westgate Las Vegas), the time that I had visited Star Trek: The Experience. It had opened in 1998, two years after Star Trek Adventure closed in Orlando. It was about the time of Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), and four years after the cancellation of Star Trek: The Next Generation. There was a nice signage to the side of the hotel and the front entrance of the Las Vegas Hilton featured Star Trek: The Experience, I was drawn by the sign so entered the side entrance and it was just a regular hotel.
So the front of the experience is impressive, it was two large alien statues, but they were replaced by Borg boxes in 2004 so you could be Borgified! Above the experience’s signage was giant models; the Voyager, the Enterprise-A from the films, Enterprise-D, and also a Klingon Bird of Prey. They were all lit up and ready to fly! Once you enter, there is a path around The History of the Future Museum. It had the Phoenix model and costume of Zephram Cochrane (James Cromwell) from Star Trek: First Contact (1996). Then, the duty uniform of Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) from Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005).
Then, uniforms of Captain Kirk (William Shatner), he had a Tribble tucked in at his side, and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) from the original Star Trek (1966-1969). Next to the Acolyte’s Robe of Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was a tricorder and phaser type 2. A display had the command uniform of Captain Janeaway played by Kate Mulgrew, the medical uniform of Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden), and the green dress and hat of Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg). Then, a display case of different models of phaser rifles and phasers. This ended with the Mark IV proton torpedo that carried Spock in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982).
A display had the make-up heads of a Suliban, Andorian (kinda creepy with the headless costumes), and then a pile of Tribbles next to the head and costumes of a Ferengi. Then, costumes of the original Klingon, red dresses and uniforms of Klingon women next to a command chair. Next, was costumes of two Borg and the detached head of the Borg Queen. The first attraction was the Klingon Encounter. You move from a room showing scenes from the films into a curved transporter room. The lights go out and whoosh! blasts of air, my shirt was flung over my head!
You find a Starfleet officer in Engineering uniform meet you, she says you are “ten million miles from Earth” and now in the future of 2371! I went to a few attractions at Las Vegas, everyone buys into their character on them. Another officer in red command uniform leads you through the doors towards the bridge. The panels are bright, silvery, but it is great to walk through the corridors. The best part of course is walking into the bridge and told to only stay in the back. You could take a photo op in the captain’s chair. Various crew members are at the consoles.
Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) calls in, there is a video of Riker in the cargo bay, he calls for a red alert. He explains that you were abducted by Klingons commanded by Captain Korath and transported you through a temporal rift. Lt. Geordi brings him a data pad and says you were intercepted by the Enterprise. Riker continues that Captain Picard was in his chair, but was gone when you appeared. Korath’s plan was to kidnap an ancestor of Jean-Luc Picard! Korath (Vaughn Armstrong) appears and wants Picard’s ancestor. Riker cuts him off, takes the Enterprise into a nebula, and puts you into a transport shuttle. You are taken into a turbolift, Riker is heard, and the Klingons attack so it is a bumpy ride! The turbolift hurtles down, but everything is settled, and Riker checks in on the group.
Another officer appears and leads you down a dark corridor with the power out. This leads to Airlock 1, a large door opens with lines on the floor. You enter the large, Class III shuttle, the Goddard, a simulator ride with Lt. Geordi piloting the Valiant. You leave the Enterprise and are under fire by Klingon Bird-Of-Preys! Computer graphics which were not bad, a little better than game graphics at the time. One Bird-Of-Prey is destroyed by the Enterprise! Geordi heads to the rift with the Goddard behind him. You hit Warp Six and then take cover in the rings of a planet. A surreal watery environment, the pilot reports there are Kruellen Diazon, space whales?
Then, you enter a chase through a techno-planet! The Goddard’s pilot destroys a Bird-Of-Prey and saves Geordi! A cloaking generator has hidden the temporal rift, both shuttles open fire on the generator! The rift appears and you enter it to return to the night skies above the Excalibur and MGM hotels! The Klingons have followed you and it is the Battle of Las Vegas. Korath captures you in a tractor beam! Then, the Enterprise appears to destroy Korath. You hear the voice of Picard (Patrick Stewart) thanking you as the shuttle returns to Deep Space Nine. This is next to the entrance of Star Trek The Experience with Quark’s Bar and Restaurant. Star Trek: The Experience was pure Star Trek fun, just walking the bridge with a great story tying in one of the guests to Picard, and the participation of the actors in the show!
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