STAR TREK the EXPERIENCE at the Las Vegas Hilton. Why did I become an engineer? Science fiction. I was always enamored of science fiction. I loved to watch the old "B" grade science fiction movies on TV on the rare occasions they were shown (this was in the days before consumer VCRs, around 1970, and you had to watch whatever happened to be on!) When I was about nine or ten, my brother went off, I think, to investigate joining the Army. He didn’t join, and when he came back he gave me a book by André Norton, "The Time Traders." I thought that was the greatest book I’d ever read. Around this same time, Star Trek (which of course originally aired only three seasons, from 1966 to 1969) was being reborn in syndication. I was literally immersed in science fiction during the 1970’s, with Star Trek reruns on the "Superstation" every afternoon and all kinds of science fiction books every night. Of course, I highly identified with Spock and it was the fascination with the technology and the possibilities that technology could provide to us that lead me into the field of engineering, which I professionally entered after graduation from college in 1982. |
So, join the crew and boldly go where no one (well, maybe a few) have gone before.
The price I see has now gone up to $15.95 (1/22/2000), but it's worth it.
I didn't mention one of the neatest things yet. The "History of the
Future" is what you get to see in the line to wait to go in. It's basically
a multimedia telling of the Star Trek universe history, along with uniforms,
props, and other items from the TV shows and movies of all the Star Trek incarnations.
It's almost worth the price of admission on its own for the true
Star Trek fan! |
I won't give you any details that will spoil the surprise for you, but you are basically
transported from the present day unto the days of "Star Trek, the Next
Generation," and get to participate in an adventure in that time. There is
a motion simulator ride (you're on an Enterprise shuttlecraft), but that's not
the neatest thing. You actually get to beam into the Enterprise transporter
room, walk down the halls of the ship, and onto the bridge. After your briefing on the bridge, you go to the shuttle hanger. It's
all really neat, and when I found myself on the "bridge" of the Enterprise after
all these years of living in the Star Trek universe through the TV shows,
movies, and books, I couldn't help but smile to myself. |
So, you can imagine my great excitement when I saw the billboards go up in Vegas
about something called "Star Trek - The Experience" that was supposed to open in
the summer of 1997. Well, it finally opened in 1998, and is a must-see
attraction for any level of Star Trek fan. I, of course, am primarily a fan
of "classic" Trek, but I do have an appreciation for the current incarnations
of the Star Trek universe. |
