STV: Need your lost Vegas Trek wedding plaque?

We finally get back on track with our vidchats here—and while this was recorded a while back, the project is very much still in play:

Anyone who got married from 1998-2004 at the late, great Star Trek: The Experience at the old Las Vegas Hilton may not realize it, but there's an historical marker of their wedding they may not even be aware of.

And now, local fan J. Marty Dormany has rescued those markers—small plaques with each couple's name and wedding date that were once affixed to a plaque that hung at the venue—and is trying to reunite each couple with their piece of Trek history.  Just give a listen and learn how:





FYI: Portal 47 members got to view this video up to 72 hours early before it went public—one feature of their deep-dive Trekland access. 

Trekland hits Vegasland 2014: Tour, trivia, TNG, The Experience

Whoa, here it is—where you Vegasites will find me at the Rio after our LA2Vegas Trek Tour
comes rolling in Tuesday night, and our "Kirk memorial" day trip to the Valley of Fire.

Special note this year: The annual debut of TREKLAND: On Speaker! This year, it's  Vol. 3, "DS9's Finale: What They Left Behind," on the 15th anniversary of the 2-hour epic and the end of the series!

You can also find Vol. 2 at my TABLE, but specific hours will be posted this year. Still working on that—check in later.


WEDNESDAY:

9 pm, Masquerade Bar (casino): Really? Our fourth annual preview-night "Landing Party" sponsored by Trekland, Mission Log Podcast and Glue Guns and Phasers. Fun and prizes and a hard-core's early-bird meetup of your Vegas regulars!  Hope I'm not too sunburned.


THURSDAY: 
12:30 pm.:  Rapid-Fire Trivia—the return of this pretty simple trivia bash with prizes supplied by our freinds at CBS Consumer Products. Just me and you... just get in line!

9 p.m.: Special screening off-site (Brenden Theaters,  across the street 2 blocks west) of THE GREEN GIRL, bio-documentary about Susan "Vina" Oliver and her long career, studio rebel, speed pilot/driver life, and early push as a female director. I was one of many to talk on camera for director George Pappy, including Celeste Yarnell. Panel afterwards! Only 96 seats: Some seats still available (online only).

11:55 pm: Special free screening off-site (AMC Town Square, on the Strip) of "Fairest of Them All," Star Trek Continues' "Mirror, Mirror" followup.  I am still proud to remain as a creative consultant. Panel afterward includes most of crew and cast present.

FRIDAY:

Daytime: At the table, but check hours: I'll be doing vidchats at times.

SATURDAY:

Daytime: Same as Friday, but get for a little cosplay surprise...

9-11 p.m.:  My Rio room 18006: The annual "Dr. Trek Show" crowdfunder to benefit THE CON OF WRATH: $20 not only gets you a screen credit but also a shot at prize trivia, rare Trek video and sneak peeks at the docs so far. And a shot at getting some more Trek tales out of me.

SUNDAY:
1:50 pm:  Panel talk; "20th Anniversary of the TNG Finale" This will be fun, and I have a surprise reading: The Lost Draft of the theft of the Enterprise-D!

5:20: "We Touched the Future: The Impact of Star Trek: The Experience"—panel with STTE veterans and fans/coworkers from the audience.

You're not coming to any of these by now unless you're already AT Vegas. Hope to see you, off this quick intro!

The week's OTHER anniversary bash: A Bittersweet Happy 15 to The Experience

I missed a party last night that I really hated to miss.

Because there's not just one big Trek anniversary to celebrate this week: It was 15 years ago January 4—just yesterday/Friday—that Star Trek: The Experience had its gala opening for a couple thousand bigwigs and exuberant fans at the Las Vegas Hilton.

Of course we all know by now that hotel machinations ended the three-way deal when its 10 years ran out in 2008, and fans everywhere mourned the closing of STTE, its Klingon and Borg simulator rides, Star Trek museum, Promenade shops and especially Quark's bar and grill. Today, thousands more mourn that they never had a chance to visit—or weren't even fans at the time—and listen wistfully to the stories of old now growing more vivid than Klingon battle songs.

So, to mark the occasion, Vernon Wilmer—the unofficial archivist of it all and creator of the Star Trek: My Experience web documentary series—and Trekcast podcaster/former Quarks bartender Darren Benjamin gathered fellow onetime actors and other employees of "STTE" as well as fans to mark the 1998 opening last night. I wanted to zoom up to Vegas from Burbank, but simply could not as my January has exploded (In fact, this will be a thin month for TREKLAND postings, I'll warn you).

And just as we pine for a Star Trek SERIES to return Trek to its rightful spot in society as well as our imaginations .. so do folks yen for a return of The Experience, in some real-life, hands-on Trek-theme interaction. The quickie attempt by a local developer fizzled under the weight of the decision-making as well as the market crash, and now the CBS-desired idea sits without a rudder or a leader.

So, yes, a party for grander times! Changes at the LV Hilton, er "Hotel," have rendered even the old STTE-adjacent SpaceQuest Bar a moot place to go, so the bash came to Darren's current digs at McMullan's across town. (I'd send you to the Facebook event page and photos, but it's a private list). I feel badly for missing it because I WAS there at the grand opening—as a museum contributor as well as a Trek licensee (Communicator managing editor) and overlapping press. I've shared stories of that night many times...and I have video to put up, still... but for today I thought I'd share these (as well as the link to Vernon's documentary Facebook page, as well)...

Incredible must-read: The '92 Vegas Star Trek that almost was

You HAVE to see this. And kudos to Gary Goddard for sharing the story—a bitterly ironic one.

As someone who worked on the final weeks' detail layer of Star Trek: The Experience—that's only the later, topmost layer, on top of a lot of planning and wrangling by many, many others—I'm familiar with Gary's former Landmark resort/theme park development company in the mid-late 90s. But I had no clue to even dig about this ....

Gary now has his Goddard Group, and it's from that podium that he shares the incredible story of how we almost have an even more awesome Vegas landmark in 1992—FIVE YEARS before the Experience opened in January 1998. The ENTERPRISE '92 project at least led the way and got a lot of wheels turning as to possibilities.

It also points to the glaring OMISSION of any current "destination Trek" landmark in Vegas' makeup, since the Experience's premature closing in 2008, its replacement with nothing since at the dying former Hilton, and the collapse of Rohit Joshi's hoped-for "Experience revival" downtown at the Neonopolis center.

And yes, Gary's  recollection revelations come complete with concept art and the whole shebang—just READ:

Now It Can Be Told: The Las Vegas "STAR TREK" Attraction That Almost Came To Life in 1992

The real winner of the 1992 downtown Las Vegas redevelopment competition was NOT the FREMONT EXPERIENCE – it was the STARSHIP ENTERPRISE from STAR TREK.  But no one knows this – until now. ...

Star Trek [The Experience] LIVES!—or at least a little bit

As co-creator (and ST:TE actor/staffer-now-archivist) Vernon Wilmer himself says, here's a little gift to all those flocking to Vegas this long weekend for the big cahuna Creation blow-out—otherwise (now) known as Vegas Khhaaaan!

That's Vernon and writer-director April "Commander Tahryn" Hebert  at right in this brilliant flick—and it's for all you bittersweet fans missing Quark's, the museums, the rides and the "time station" at Star Trek: The Experience. Or, even more so, for all you young'uns since '08 with no memories of your own—just photos and tall tales to cling to.

But if you go looking in official sources about The Experience for any of Tahryn's topics heard here in this brilliant little flick, you will come up short. Nothing these guys talk about was ever planned—it simply grew: first as actors' therapy and the need for context and backstory in a random assignment as aliens at a Las Vegas tourist mecca ... and, later on, because the STTE family simply became its own monster and universe unto itself. Because Star Trek is hardly just your garden-variety tourist theme ride, you know; the Canon Continuity Monster devours all, of course.

I had a front-row seat on the building and opening and updating and closing for The Experience, 1997-2008, but Vernon's ongoing blip.tv series Star Trek: My Experience begins to catalog all the between-the-lines "other" that we at the old Communicator, startrek.com and the like never really got a chance to catalog until it was too late—and what many fans remember today as the BEST PART.  Thank Kahless for him!

And, in turn, both of them for this...



(Oh, and if any of you first-gen fans get a bit of a kick out of that headline... my pleasure.)

UPDATE: CBS clarifies the "new ST: Experience" status

It's still ON.

Just for the record, this CBS statement is now out re: upcoming auctions and the resulting status of a "new" Star Trek: The Experience project in Las Vegas we reported on Monday:

“CBS Consumer Products remains committed to opening a new and exciting Star Trek attraction. We continue to work with our partners at Neonopolis regarding the development of a new Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. In the interim, there are elements from the original Star Trek: The Experience that we know will not be utilized in any new attraction and plan to make those items available to the many wonderful fans of Star Trek: The Experience either by sale or auction in the near future. The final dates and details of such sales are in progress and we hope to announce more very soon.”

-- CBS Consumer Products spokesperson

This further clarifies our Monday correction to other surprising reports since Sunday, now corrected as well, that the upcoming auctions signaled any end to the current license for a new ST:TE with Neonopolis owners. Also, firm dates for a Las Vegas auction venue are now awaiting a second look—but apparently will still be well before a planned summer auction of choice pieces.

But the Neonopolis deal IS still in effect, as is the push for a new attraction.

With the current economy and the changing Trek landscape, there's still no announced word on just what that will be. But for fans, this is certainly better news than "death."

UPDATE: Auction time again: "ST: Experience II" gives up on "rescued" items

UPDATE: Sources clarifying: Auctions and non-use of old gear, yes; end of Neonopolis contract, no.

And as throughout: CBS' intention to see a new ST:TE— still very much go.


From auction/collectibles maestro Alec Peters and his Propworx Co. comes the news:
—The long-debated future of the stored ST: The Experience artifacts is settled: Neonopolis won't use them across town in Vegas.
—CBS Licensing is selling the warehoused assets—both artifacts and Quark's/etc. fixtures.
—There's a live on-site auction in Vegas Feb. 27—hurry!—followed by a few pieces to be auctioned this summer. (Photo above from Alec's blog, same link.)

This is out ahead of any formal CBS press release, but just to be sure: The Neonopolis license deal is still in place, sources tell me, and CBS Licensing still intends to pursue a "new" Star Trek: The Experience. There's no other new news re: the project—but this does mean that any future "museum" there would be all-new items, original or replica.

And, as Alec notes, most of the non-costume and sometimes now-damaged "artifacts" from ST:TE were indeed replicas, not originals from TV/film use. But think a sec—what they are now are true Experience originals ... and as ST:TE and Quark's are already the stuff of lore and legend, there will be no shortage of sentimental bidders, I'm sure. Costumes include those of the beloved on-site cast, as well.

BTW--Alec mentions the Enterprise-D is the lone "total loss" among among the BIG ships that once hung from the giant through-deck foyer. I can tell you it's because it HAD to be cut up just to get it out during demolition at the Hilton space; it had been installed in the construction before the major ST:TE/Quark's openings were framed up and sealed off. They was no other way to budge it, sadly. But wonder if there's a bridge module or main hanger deck section out there to be had? Don't trash it all, guys! Even in pieces.

Glad to hear all the other "big ships" are in good or at least salvageable shape: Here's how the giant Voyager looked almost exactly a year ago when we saw it during demolition of the whole space, parked in the "back corner" of what was the Promenade retail area (photos by moi):





So—what would YOU want to take home, if it's still around?

ST: Experience fans: a piece of history from Suzi P.

Lots of fans are still mourning the loss of the beloved Star Trek: The Experience rides/museum/stores and Quark's Bar in Las Vegas ...and the apparent lack of forward momentum on a successor site.

But for now, fan fave Suzie Plakson—K'ehleyr and Mrs. Q to you!— is offering a bit of history and nostalgia on eBay: the heavy metallic combadge she was given to wear as emcee and hostess of the Experience's entire closing ceremony at the LV Hilton on Sept. 1, 2008.

Hurry, if interested: it just went up, but the sale ends Jan. 3, and she's also throwing in a signed, two-page letter about her memories of that weekend (see photos on the eBay page).

If you just can't quite let go of the time-space vortex that was STTE, here's a great collectible or gift memento for a fellow mourner.

ST: The Experience—Alive, but no news. Duh.

Since August, when Creation Vegas con-goers realized what should have been obvious all along—that any "new" Star Trek: The Experience in downtown Vegas at Neonopolis (model, above) is months if not years away—the drip of rumors and interest has dried up considerably.

Now comes a story in the Las Vegas Sun I have not seen breathlessly hyperlinked everywhere—yet—but there's nothing new there, only to stay "it's still alive."

As local developer and year-old CBS licensee Rohit Joshi told me earlier this year, and as I still hear from sources, there's still two hurdles to cross before opening day: the slow economy for both investment and tourism, and the design, approval and contruction phase of at least a couple years. Remember, development on the original Experience began in 1995 if not earlier, and it didn't open til January 1998—and the universe for both design and approval is much more splintered than it was back then.

A simple jigsaw recycle of architectural pieces, an early crutch for a faster or temp re-open, was eventually discarded as impractical, Joshi told me months ago. So now ... How much of the new JJverse from ST '09 to include—visually, if not thematically? How much of the feel and the nostalgia of the old Experience to retain, or of the older series—and how much to reinvent? How do you balance the fans' notoriously precise needs with what draws the general tourist? What aspect of Trekland do the museum, shops, eateries, bars and especially the rides represent, and how will technology (and available space) dictate for the next generation?

I've seen a couple of basic passes at floor plans, but those are pretty prelim from a year ago: A lot of folks from a lot of different turf need to sit down at the table and hash this out... folks who do not know each other near as well, nor are all located on the same Paramount lot, as did the first group to do so. Production of active Star Trek was not only a going concern, but was a tight bundle of series and movies under one roof; today there's only JJ's Bad Robot for a movie every couple years or so, and the prior series/films' DVDs make the big news.

I'm betting a picked-up economy will be a great catalyst for forward movement, but even then you've got to have a vision that doesn't look like it was approved by a committee. Not impossible—but it takes the T-word.

And another factor fans overlook: it's not all about them. The local scene is a big part of this: Neonopolis is part of a needed downtown revitalizing effort that's been up and down and always under the microscope for years in Vegas, and Joshi's complex has to have other component tenants that make a logical fit with each other...and the rest of the area.

Add it all up ... and it's still a while before the Warp Core Breaches and Holy Rings of Betazed are being slung again at Quarks—or wherever. But nobody's giving up any time soon.

(Neonopolis model: LN photo)

Memory Wall 2 in Vegas: Spontaneous Experience!

Remember the incredible "memory wall" as Quark's counted down to closure last summer?

Followed by that bare board of billboards we saw in February, covering up the old ST: Experience gateway like a crude Band-aid over an open wound?

Now we have "Memory Wall II" from the Vegas weekend (above): someone provided the Post-Its and pens, and fans did the rest. From a half-dozen notes on Wednesday night, to this mushrooming mass by Sunday—here's just a sample of comments:



(Klingonese for "*CURSE!* Where's Quark's?")

Meanwhile, back at the Hilton...

And while all eyes turn toward Neonopolis, how's it going back at the old Hilton site?

Part of the overall delay for beginning the rebirth of Star Trek: The Experience is the demolition overrun there, taking longer than expected as I saw recently. But as of mid-February, there are still a few last signs visible outside to the public visitor...

The Experience of the Future?

Thanks to a local story in the Las Vegas Sun and another in an online business journal, there's a ton of scuttlebutt right now about plans for the rebirth of Star Trek: The Experience—or not. The initial license is signed, as the Sun article notes, but everything we're hearing in Trekland is that the exact timeline, phasing and concept are still being worked out. The Sun quotes local developer and entrepreneur Rohit Joshi, who has worked under his new CBS/Paramount license to secure the museum collection and anything salvageable from the rides and decore for a new Experience at Neonopolis, the dining/entertainment complex he fronts downtown at the "Fremont Experience." The local buzz for helping renew this area of Vegas with the right formula of attractions is growing as well.

But as much as everyone would love a concrete presence by movie opening in May, that just doesn't seem do-able in just three months. What's more likely is some kind of a limited presence three months later for Creation's annual Vegas convention Aug. 6-9, which itself will be in a bit of new territory as everyone figures out the new landscape for Star Trek and the Vegas connection. Just the reality of time means major longterm—and new—aspects at ST:TE will have to wait until 2010, at the most. On the bright side, Joshi tells me the current U.S. economic downtown is leaving he and his group undaunted, having no affect on plans to move forward.

Meanwhile, for those unable to hit Vegas in winter as I did on a quick trip this week, check out the peek at top. Neonopolis is a three-story cube with a large corner breezeway access to an open-air interior court and outdoor access above it; it already has some restaurants and an 11-screen movie theatre, but there's still a chunk of space all ready to occupy—all of which would get a heavy external remodel in the new spirit of things, of course. Below, you see the proximity of the Neonopolis corner (at right) to the "Fremont Experience" curved canopy (at left) over old downtown Vegas: the waving cowboy icon sign and older original casino-hotels and shops are all further left.

STV: The "Memory Wall" mourns ST: Experience

The recent Vegas Trek convention merely pointed it out bigtime, but fact is the Trek mecca Star Trek: The Experience's days are numbered ... with last day set for Labor Day Monday, Sept. 1. A lot of people are having a hard time saying goodbye; a lot more don't want to take it lying down, without a fight.

Chad Boutee, the ops manager and marketing director, shares a bit of the in-house feel of the "family"—staff and actors alike (he began as a Borg drone there in 2005, then got back into management!). Watch especially for the touching "Memory Wall" notes (and more) left behind by fans.

More on this later, but for now...

The Vegas Vibe

Just when I think the Creation Vegas Trekapalooza (I'm trademarking that one--you heard it here first) has settled into a permanent groove, I am proven not only wrong, but reminded again about making assumptions...

The feel that hits me this year, I think, is morose determination—does that make sense?—chiefly because of the predictable sadness (and even lingering disbelief) that within a month Trekland's mecca, the Experience with its rides and museum, and Quarks' as the center of nightlife, will be no more.

Even so—and while we're not doing blow by blow news here, as you newly faithful viewers know—after two days heading into Friday and the ramp-up, the numbers are still there: I'm told there's at least 1,000 more on hand this year, the last-ride turnout "bump" of the Experience, again —but the stage shows and dealer's room are as brisk as ever. I see just as many TNG uniforms as TOS—could my famed pendulum already be swinging back?—and an awful lot of NX-01 jumpsuits. And folks are coming by to sign up for good ol' LN.com at a brisk pace—and we've had one daily prize drawing so far. More on that later...

To honor the tradition of the annual quick-draw no-losers trivia quiz my late, great startrek.com buds used to lead every year, I offered to do the same--look for pics coming—and we had to send people away after 30 minutes.

So excitement IS in the air--the DS9 and Voyager reunion days are bigger than ever, and the one touch of looming JJtrek comes Sunday when Zack Quinto takes stage with Leonard, and a few more beans get spilled-- perhaps!

So as the Python boys used to say ... that's The Story So Far.
And stay tuned; I'm curious to see how many are on hand for my Bob Justman tribute.

End of the Ride for The Experience

"Warning: Warp Core Breaches About To Go Offline. Order Yours Soon at Quark's Before They Are All Just History."

So now it's final. I've been watching this drama for over a year, ever since it hit our radar that the original 10-year contract for the Experience would be up in 2008—and especially after the post-"divorce" Paramount sold off its theme parks division to a private company, Cedar Fair. Would it have to go before JJ's movie debuted, or would that be a boost to keep it going? But numbers don't lie—or at least, the yen of the new is a powerful pull—and the Las Vegas Hilton in the end thinks it can put that 65,000 square feet to better use.


But what's almost more jarring is that it's been 10 years since the darn thing opened—the weekend after New Year's Day 1998, in a jam-packed gala (photos above: the actual unveiling of the entry arch, complete with "fireworks"). We covered all that, of course, but I was also privileged to get called in at the last of the process to consult on the detail layer—signs, images, and the title cards for the Exhibit...and even help with the original display cases. It was an eerie and yet exciting time—and mostly pre-digital, pre-Internet to boot.

The Experience was conceived and developed way before that opening, of course, in the 1996-97 window amid the afterglow of First Contact's success (and then seemed to take forever to get finished). By that time it opened with barely a mention of the Domnion War saga on DS9, much less the end of Voyager. We did get in Timeline console and window-box updates in the museum for those and for the roots of Enterprise, but the hall was clearly a child of the 1990s heydey and before the pendulum swung back to the retro-cool "re-embracing" of the original series. Not that that could not have been handled as well—or the needed update for JJ's movie and sequels. The last hurrah, aside from the new second-story Promenade party room, was the big Borg 4-D addition in 2003, and it was fun to actually work a few days on the shoot as assistant prop master in the lab scenes with Bob Picardo. Hard to believe even that is old history now.

Yes, there had been 30 years of Star Trek and fandom before The Experience—and there still will be now. But with the "well-oiled machine" of ongoing TV soundstages and offices at Paramount now gone, The Experience was the closest thing to a mecca Trekfans had. So plan your visit now, or at least gloss up your wedding book pics from the "D" Bridge and lift a glass of Romulan ale in memory. It will all be missed.

Then again, as a famous dead Vulcan actor once said: "Nobody ever really dies in science fiction!" The studio-owned pieces will have to turn up somewhere, right?

(Trivia ALERT: The final script change pages for the original ride are dated 12/15/97 .... and it's simply titled "STAR TREK: THE EXPERIENCE Show Script." For the rookies, that "Klingon Encounter" title only came along after "Borg Invasion 4-D.")