Another Vegas memory came to an end this weekend, I only found out about it yesterday while talking to my friend Nelson on our bitchin’ iPhones, c’mon, they’re almost like tricorders from Star Trek!
Yup, after 11 years, The Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton closed. Seems that attendance had been declining and what did the operators expect? As fun as it was, the whole thing was rather pricey for just two rides, a fair museum of props and a mandatory trip through the gift shop. Oh I enjoyed it, especially when we all went for the first time in 2003. What will really be missed are the actors dressed up as the various aliens. I think they did a great job of never breaking character whether it was the Ferengi merchant, the Borg drone or the Andorian emissary.
Many are blaming the poor shape of the overall franchise. Maybe. The last couple movies were pretty lame and oddly Enterprise only got better as its ratings continued to slide into oblivion; the show only being on UPN is what hurt. I think the real problem was the venue. The Las Vegas Hilton is one of the nicer places off the Strip. Its strength is its location next to the big convention center where the annual Summer Star Trek convention is held (first half of August I think). Paramount (or whoever the license holder is) should’ve gone all the way with the Hilton people and made a stronger, better looking Star Trek theme then the diehard-to-casual fans would have loved it. What I mean is this. Make Quark’s Bar resemble how it appeared on DS9, include having that silent alien usually sitting at the end. Have all the staff in this section dressed as Federation personnel. Maybe even, dare I say, gamble on trying to develop one or two of the games the characters liked to play. I saw a bit on the Travel Channel about how a slot-machine company spent a small fortune tying slots to the dice game Yahtzee. Sounds dumb unless you’ve been to the place and immediately notice these machines tied to Wheel of Fortune, Star Wars, Austin Powers and Hollywood Squares.
Unlike my joke about a casino based upon the city of Moscow, I honestly believe a true, well-done SciFi-themed casino could succeed in Las Vegas. Oddly, it was Stardust’s original look but I guess people in the Fifties didn’t see it as subtle and/or retro.
Oh well, it wasn’t like we were going to there on this upcoming trip (in two weeks, put in your bets to me soon!) unless a cool celebrity from the franchise was doing autographs again. I’m just sad to see it go away along with the Aladdin being converted into a large scale…ugh, Planet Hollywood run partially by Clear Channel nonetheless.
I’ll take this as an omen for making even better new memories there and increased pressure on Flavor-of-the-Month Abrams to make the first Star Trek movie in many years that won’t suck.