Star Trek: The Experience



Las Vegas was indeed a squalid pit of consumerism, greed, and inauthenticity. It is a testament to all that is amiss with our modern humanity. It wasn't even sinful, at least that would be redeeming; sin for all its faults is still exciting, still driving, still very much human and alive. No, it's not that las Vegas is anything like sinful that faults it. rather, it is the monumental waste of human potential Las Vegas represents that really chills me. How can there be so much architectural splendor, energy, and human activity in a place that is so devoid of anything like human culture? Is this what we have devolved to in our modern age, that one of the greatest achievements in human creativity serves merely to enframe the experience of injecting coins into pinging slot machines? Is this our legacy?

It is incongruous then, and at the same time inspiring, that las Vegas also serves as home to one of the greatest amusement rides on Earth: Star Trek the Experience.





Star Trek, in contrast to all that Las Vegas stands for, is a fantasy epic centered around a single message: that if we embrace all the goodness, compassion, and righteousness inherent in our humanity, then we can bring our world together in peace and as a unified human culture begin to explore the stars. That once we acknowledge and heed all that is good within us, the sky is the limit.







Star Trek: The Experience, while still a commercial venture, helps to remind us of this fact. Aside from serving as a museum of artifacts from each of the various Star Trek series and movies, there is a Star Trek themed restaurant and bar (Quark's) and two "rides" that you can go on. These are fun, as you get to walk in recreated starship sets (including the Enterprise bridge!, interact with Starfleet crew, ride in a flight simulator as you evade Klingon attackers in a shuttlecraft, and experience a 3D movie. Altogether, it a fun escape from the inane money-chasing idiocy of the rest of Vegas.






Of course, for me, being a Trekkie and all, going to Star Trek: the Experience was something like a voyage to mecca. Something all Trekkies must do once in their life. Indeed, truth be told, it was the primary reason I decided to go to Vegas in the first place. I was not disappointed. Trekkie or not, I recommend a visit to Star Trek: the Experience. Forget the rest of Vegas.