ABOVE: Replicas of the Federation starships Enterprise and Voyager hang from the ceiling at the Las Vegas Hilton’s Star Trek: The Experience, just before the attraction opened in January 1998. The exhibit, which is ending in September after more than a decade, transports visitors at warp-speed to a futuristic world of Klingons, Romulans, transporters and turbolifts. (ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO)

After a bold 10-year mission, Star Trek: The Experience, an interactive experience at the Las Vegas Hilton that has been praised even by Disney’s Imagineers, is set to close in September.

It’s the only place in the universe where you can actually get beamed up, visit the bridge of the starship Enterprise and have a drink at Quark’s Bar after browsing the Deep Space Nine promenade.

I’ve never experienced The Experience, but I’ve heard it’s worth … experiencing. Maybe I finally need to squeeze in my first trip to Vegas before this summer ends. …

From one angle, I can see why they’re closing it: the Trek franchise has all but disappeared from our sensor screens lately. But on the other hand, it makes no sense with a new Star Trek movie coming next summer! Surely the attraction would have seen at least a partial bump in traffic after J.J. Abrams put his stamp on the franchise?

Anyway, it’s time to say farewell, or at least “Live Long and Prosper,” to another bit of sci-fi history.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 7:32 pm and is filed under Star Trek. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.