Klingons, The Borg and Tribble Tenders: Remembering ‘Star Trek: The Experience’

It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly 15 years since you could belly up to Quark’s Bar, order a Bacon Cheese Borger and some Tribble Tenders, or maybe The Wrap of Khan if you were in the mood for something lighter, then wash it all down with a James Tea Kirk.

Las Vegas once again will be the center of the “Star Trek” universe this week with the return of the annual fan convention at the Rio. But that’s just four days — a far cry from the decade that the series, in all its many incarnations, ruled the Las Vegas Hilton.

“Star Trek: The Experience” was announced with great fanfare on Jan. 24, 1995, with plans to open late the following year to coincide with the show’s 30th anniversary.

When it finally opened Jan. 4, 1998, following multiple delays, fans paid as much as $100 for a preview of the attraction that would cost the general public just $9.95. All 15,000 T-shirts and 15,000 sweatshirts celebrating the maiden voyage sold out on opening day.

The $70 million “Experience” covered 65,000 square feet and could handle as many as 1,000 guests an hour. It would need to for the Hilton, the hotel currently known as the Westgate, to start making any money off its investment. We reported before the opening that the Hilton had covered most of the construction costs, while Paramount, the studio that held the “Star Trek” rights, would receive all the revenue from admissions and merchandise. The plan was for the hotel to benefit from the added foot traffic and players who sought out its adjacent $30 million SpaceQuest casino.

Quark’s Bar & Restaurant, based on the Ferengi-run establishment from TV, was the centerpiece of a re-creation of the promenade from “Deep Space Nine.” With five shops, including Zek’s Grand Emporium and Moogie’s Trading Post, fans could buy everything from “Star Trek” trinkets to a full Klingon uniform that went for $12,000.

A cast of more than 100 costumed actors worked the grounds, and a museum called History of the Future boasted more than 200 items and was billed as the largest collection of “Star Trek” props and costumes in the world.

The big draw, though, was “The Klingon Encounter,” in which guests were beamed aboard the USS Enterprise, complete with an exact replica of the ship’s bridge, for a four- to five-minute motion simulator ride.

In 2004, “The Experience” was updated with “Borg Invasion 4D,” which let visitors tour a 24th century research facility and see an original seven-minute film starring “Voyager” actors Robert Picardo and Kate Mulgrew.

Four years later, the luster — of both “Star Trek” and “The Experience” — had dulled. When the attraction opened, “Deep Space Nine” and “Voyager” were in production, and the movies had been coming out every two to three years since 1979. By 2008, “Enterprise” had been off the air for three years, part of a more than 12-year hiatus between shows, and the movie franchise had been dormant for more than six years.

Admission, meanwhile, had increased to $42.99 — or $33.99 with a valid Nevada ID.

“Star Trek: The Experience” launched its final mission on Sept. 1, 2008. The next month, Mayor Oscar Goodman told reporters the attraction would be moving downtown. Neonopolis developer Rohit Joshi added, “We are in very serious negotiations.”

Those plans, unlike any series regular returning to the Holodeck, never materialized. In April 2010, most of the “Star Trek: The Experience” fixtures were sold — a table and four chairs from Quark’s Bar for $195, Borg alcoves for $600 to $800. Some of the bigger pieces were saved for an auction that August during that year’s “Star Trek” convention, where signs from Quark’s went for as much as $4,750.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @life_onthecouch on Twitter.