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Review: Star Trek: The Tour |
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Written by Terilynn on
Friday, 29 February 2008
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 Last week the husband and I spent the better part of the afternoon with our friends – Laurie and Marty – at Star Trek: The Tour, currently on exhibition at the Queen Mary Dome in Long Beach through March 2nd.
I was a little nervous that we were going to be completely ripped off considering the $35.00 price tag for this thing. However I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised. The quality of this exhibit is top-notch. It’s well laid-out, the lighting is dramatic and fun and the exhibits themselves are fun to see, listen to, and read. It’s a very interactive function – a virtual Star Trek museum.
 Laurie opined that The Tour almost appears to be a five-year focus group to determine the viability of a permanent Star Trek theme park. My response to her was very Vulcan – I raised my eyebrow and said, “Interesting idea Laurie, in the wake of the Harry Potter announcement, it’s not an entirely invalid supposition.”
Well, back to the review: When we first walked in we were greeted by employees offering, for an additional charge, an audio narrative for the tour. We bypassed the offer and didn’t regret it. However, we did see a lot a people using them and enjoying them. These might be especially useful to people who aren’t as familiar with all of the show variants. I do not know if there were narratives provided in alternate languages, so that remains a possibility as well.
When we walked into the main foyer, all four of us instinctively grinned when our eyes were forced up to look upon a huge, beautiful, well-lit, rotating model of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701. Off to the right side of the foyer was an enormous model of the saucer section of the Enterprise-D used in the crash sequence in Generations. I thought that was very cool. I didn’t realize how large the model was. From stem to stern it exceeded eight feet in height, and twelve feet wide. There were two more large glass cases that held more ship models – on one side there were models of shuttlecraft from The Next Generation and The Original Series, and on the other there were models of other classes of starships, namely the model used as the U.S.S. Stargazer and a couple of Cardassian vessels and the model of the Kataan probe from ‘The Inner Light’ (this is erroneously marked as being a Ressikan probe – ah semantics).
As we moved into the main exhibit hall I was jazzed to see all the costumes. Each one was in its own separate glass case and most had a small flat-panel television screen overhead so you could see the costumes worn by the character in context. They were all beautiful and it was always fun to see just how rudimentary their construction was. There wasn’t a lot of attention to detail in these costumes.
 One in particular had Laurie and me laughing out loud. The Klingon costume from The Original Series actually used bubble wrap as the utility belt buckle! Bubble wrap!
I guess the camera doesn’t catch all – except fat, of course. Speaking of lack of fat, Marty and my husband must have stood in front of the Seven of Nine costume gawking for five minutes before Laurie and I tore them both away. We both then commented that not a lot of detail was necessary for her costume!
Numerous other round, table-like cases that had acrylic domes were scattered throughout the enormous hall and they contained representations of the make-up used for all the different alien species as well as hordes of different small props from communicators to PADDs to tricorders from all the different series. Again, we were stymied by the fact that the props were so rudimentary. Chips used in The Original Series were little painted wooden blocks. PADDs and phasers were constructed from lightweight foam materials and painted so crudely we were all shocked that the flaws weren’t picked up…but then again, they were most likely used by secondary characters and never close enough to the cameras to be seen in any great detail.
There is a fantastic reproduction of the Guardian of Forever that you can jump through and take your picture at. (By the way, cameras and camcorders were definitely allowed and I would highly suggest bringing one – and do yourself a big favor and bring a digital camera. I left mine at home and the pictures from one of those little disposable things just don’t do it justice.)
 There were reproductions of the bridges of the 1701 and 1701-D as well as a mocked-up transporter pad. You are allowed to enter these sets but the photos are taken by The Tour staff and you are not allowed to take your own photos here. A note about photographs taken on the bridge sets or transporter room: You are given a small plastic card with a barcode on the back when you enter the hall. This card is scanned when you enter the set and it identifies your photo so you can have them printed out and purchased at the end of the tour. The photos aren’t cheap, as a matter of fact they are extremely expensive – but admittedly, they’re damn fun. We bought three and you have a choice of your pictures with or without the characters superimposed.
There is a reproduction of one of the corridors from the Enterprise-D as well as a mock-up of the captain’s quarters and sickbay. There are more costumes here and some more props, all beautifully presented.
Now for the interactive stuff: There is a very quirky video and special effects show that revolves around the U.S.S. Titan – Riker’s ship. Tim Russ and Wil Wheaton do a great job on their video-roles and I only wish that Jonathan Frakes had been able to participate in the project, I think it would have added, I don’t know, some kind of validity maybe? The show was lacking – okay it was on the edge of lame, but I did get to take some photographs of the model of the ship used in the presentation. The Titan’s design is one of my favorites so when I saw it in three dimensions I couldn’t help but get excited – I just think it’s cool looking.
Outside of the Titan show area, there is a long panel of boards that outline the timeline of Star Trek. From Enterprise through The Original Series, The Next Generation and the films – Star Trek was presented in context and in order. Laurie really appreciated this exhibit and I can see why. A lot of thought went into its design and presentation. She felt that a small book of the exhibit should have been printed and sold in the store. I have to agree with her; they’re missing out on a great little item that a lot of people, regardless of their depth of fandom, would appreciate owning.
There are two sets of flight simulators in the rear of the exhibit. We only did one – the line for the others were too long. Michael Dorn does a voiceover as Worf and it was great to hear it. It was a lot like a very small version of Star Tours for those of you who’ve been to Disney World or Disneyland.
There was the mock-up of the Scorpion vessel used in Nemesis and more props and costumes in the area where the flight simulators were.
We then went off to the shopping area. Here? Believe it or not, I was very disappointed. The merchandising was definitely geared for the fans of The Original Series. I would have liked to have seen a better selection of TNG, DS9, Voyager and Enterprise stuff. I bought a mug and the most wonderful little pair of Klingon earrings…they’re extremely subtle. Only people who really know the emblem for the Klingon Empire would recognize them as being from Star Trek, and therefore saying something about them would only peg that person as being a fan as well. Other than that, they just look like a cool pair of stainless steel hoops.
 There was also a Ten Forward/Quark’s Bar-themed area where food and beverages could be purchased. It looked kinda fun, but we didn’t go in.
All in all we had a great time. It took us just over three hours to get through everything and we didn’t feel rushed. The husband and I will likely go out of our way to see it again, because as luck would have it, it appears it will be making its way through Santa Fe when all is said and done.
I would highly recommend checking this out when it comes to your area!
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