This week I had a chance to go to see Star Trek - The Tour at the Queen Mary Dome in Long Beach (thanks for the pass, Dr. M!)
I wanted to write the post for anyone who was considering whether they should visit the exhibit or not. A few caveats- I went around opening time on a Thursday morning, and for the first hour there were no more than two dozen people in the exhibit area. If there had been five hundred or two thousand people there, I have no doubt it would have been a less enjoyable experience. Second, I paid essentially nothing for the ticket or for parking. Third and most important, I had low expectations about what it would be like, based on negative reviews I had read on other people's blogs (here and here) and newspaper articles.
Update: The Long Beach dates have been extended to March 2 "due to popular demand." However, the tour will only be open on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and major holidays (think President's Day/Washington's birthday). It seems like my impression was correct: not enough people were visiting on the weekdays. My guess is that they wanted to have roughly the same number of dates for Long Beach, but wanted to cut the unproductive weekdays. Unfortunately, visitors will not enjoy the lack of crowds that I experienced early in February.
In Long Beach (greater Los Angeles) the basic ticket was $35 on weekends and $30 on weekdays. Parking at the Queen Mary complex is $15 per vehicle, so a weekend visit for two adults will cost you $85, not including any merchandise, food, or personalized souvenirs that most Star Trek fans might want to buy.
Having said that, I really had a good time. The press releases and publicity material from the organizers stressed that the tour was not just for the Star Trek fan, but for everyone. It is true that they had motion simulators (think Star Tours at the Disney theme parks or Back to the Future at Universal) that a non-fan would enjoy, and an introduction to the world of Star Trek for the non-fan.
From the initial publicity, I feared that there wouldn't be much of interest for the Star Trek fan, except by spending lots of money for the simulations and personalized take-home souvenirs. And, having just visited Las Vegas in December and spending a couple of hours in the museum section of the Star Trek Experience, I thought the new attraction would be mostly the same thing.
But the Star Trek tour was well-organized, and offered something for the non-casual fan, especially for those who remember the original 1960s television series (Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the rest) and the related movies.
And most of the recreations (the two versions of the Enterprise bridge, the transporter room) and simulation rides didn't cost anything extra. Of course, if you wanted a photo or DVD with yourself inserted into the picture to take home with you, those weren't cheap (apparently the photos were about $20 each).
When you enter the dome in Long Beach, there is a table for audio tour equipment (for an additional fee) -- many of the costumes and props have corresponding numbers for which the audio tour provides information. Then you come to a big model of the Enterprise 1701-A spinning around slowly. On either wall on the side are display windows with models of various large spacecraft and shuttle craft. Then your ticket is scanned, and they give you a plastic card which will identify you later for any personalized photos or videos you want to buy at the gift shop.
Once you enter the main part of the exhibit, you come to an area focusing on the original television series and the subsequent movies starring the original cast, with costumes and props in display cases. On one side are the Guardian of Forever display, the Enterprise 1701 bridge recreation, and a little studio for acting out scenes which can be inserted into scenes from the original Star Trek series.
There are Starfleet costumes for Kirk and Spock, McCoy's medical uniform, Uhura's Starfleet dress, and Starfleet costumes from the Star Trek movies. One cool thing is that they have videos playing above some of the more obscure costumes showing clips from the episodes where the costumes were used.
The Guardian of Forever recreation looks and sounds pretty just like they did in the original episode, and you can have a friend take your photo while you stand there. The Enterprise bridge looks very authentic as well, but you can only have your photo taken by the exhibit staff, and there are ropes set up for the inevitable line. You can also go into the little studio and read lines from a monitor as they insert you into scenes from the original Star Trek series. Half the fun for me was watching other fans enjoying themselves as they acted out scenes. The identifying data is encoded onto the card, and you can purchase it later in the gift shop.
Going forward, you come to a wall showing metallic models in window displays of historic ships named Enterprise and ships from the various incarnations of Star Trek (continued around the back side). Across the way is the History of the Future display, with a chronological time line of the Star Trek universe and a display for each television series and movie incarnation of Star Trek. The display is chronological for the fictional universe of Star Trek, so the first entry is the most recent television show Enterprise, and it ends with the upcoming J.J. Abrams movie (although, to be consistent, the new movie will feature the characters of the original 60s series in their Starfleet Academy days, and ought to be second in the chronological order).
Hidden behind the History of the Future display is a recreation of a corridor on board the Enterprise-D from the Next Generation tv series. Alongside the corridor are recreations of the Captain's quarters, sickbay, and transporter room. In the transporter room, you can stand on the transporter platform and have a souvenir photo taken of you beaming down with the transporter effect. The recreations are very realistic, and you would swear you were actually on the sets of the Next Generation show (except that you can see through the "roof" and see the darkened inside of the dome.
Towards the back of the exhibit area are more costumes and prop displays (focusing on the Next Generation and later television shows), as well as the motion simulators in small two-person and larger sixteen- or twenty- person shuttle craft versions, the recreation of the Next Generation Enterprise bridge (paid photo opportunity), the Enterprise engine room, and a full-size individual spacecraft from the Nemesis movie. The sets from the Next Generation Enterprise look superb as well, though touching the displays doesn't seem to do anything.
When you are finished looking at the exhibit, there is a theater showing a new mini-movie starrring Will Wheaton as Wesley Crusher and Tim Russ as Tuvok (I didn't want to see it), after which you are forced into the gift shop area. Some sample prices: the teddy bear with a mini-Starfleet uniform was $25 and the replica Starfleet uniform (red, yellow, or blue) was $60.
Next to the gift shop is a cafeteria called Ten Forward, where the food and drink have cute Star Trek names. Supposedly, the furniture was all actually used on the set of one of the more recent television series.
Throughout the exhibit, the music of Star Trek (I remember the Alexander Courage theme from the 60s series, the Jerry Goldsmith theme from the Next Generation, and the Enterprise tv show theme) is playing in a loop. I am sure it gets really annoying for the tour employees who have to hear it all day long.
All in all, it was a lot of fun for someone who was a big fan of the 60s tv show (in re-runs), the movies, and the Next Generation (I never really watched the last three series beyond the pilot episodes). I would say, as long as the attraction is not heavily crowded, you probably won't spend more than two or three hours inside.
Is it worth $35 per person plus extra money for parking and souvenirs? I guess it depends on what your budget for entertainment allows, and how big a Star Trek fan you are. I'd compare it favorably to the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas (which is $43), where the two main simulations are based only on the Next Generation series. Of course, both attractions may be highly overpriced from your point of view, and I will give Star Trek the Tour a lukewarm endorsement (like so many things, the lower your expectations, the more likely you will be satisfied with your experience).
(See more photos at my Flickr set.)
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