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Oct. 17, 2008
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BOLDLY GOING ... DOWNTOWN?

Star Trek attraction may be headed to Neonopolis, LV mayor hints

By BENJAMIN SPILLMAN
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Klingons Major Khalen, left, and Commander Churoq look for trekkies in August 2006 at Star Trek: The Experience at Las Vegas Hilton.
Photo by Ralph Fountain.



Star Trek: The Experience had an 11-year run at the Hilton that ended Sept. 1. The attraction lured millions of people to Las Vegas for Star Trek rides, a museum and even weddings.
Photo by John Gurzinski.



Quan, a Ferengi, at Star Trek: The Experience at Las Vegas Hilton. The attraction may be headed to Neonopolis.
Photo by Ralph Fountain.

Don't mourn the departed Trekkies yet.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Neonopolis developer Rohit Joshi say the defunct Star Trek: The Experience attraction at the Hilton is moving downtown.

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    • If it works it would be the biggest resurrection since Mr. Spock reanimated on planet Genesis -- both for the Experience show and the troubled Neonopolis development.

    Goodman let the news slip Thursday morning during a chat with reporters at City Hall.

    Later Joshi, developer for the struggling Neonopolis mall on Fremont Street, confirmed a deal was close.

    But he clearly wasn't prepared for the news to leak.

    "You kind of shocked me," Joshi said when asked about the potential deal. "I don't know how to respond to that."

    He continued: "We are in very serious negotiations. We think it would be a fantastic addition to downtown."

    Joshi also produced a bound agreement with CBS Consumer Products, the licensing division of the media giant that owns the rights to the Star Trek name, dated Monday.

    Leslie Ryan of CBS said the company had no statement on the potential move.

    CBS owns the costumes, rides and other hardware and intellectual property that make up the Experience.

    It licensed the material to Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., to operate the Experience at Las Vegas Hilton. But that agreement ended when the show closed at the Hilton, leaving CBS free to license the material to someone else.

    Cedar Fair spokeswoman Stacy Frole said the company had no involvement with the move downtown.

    Star Trek: The Experience had an 11-year run at the Hilton that ended Sept. 1.

    If Joshi is able to revive it downtown he will be operating an attraction that lured millions of people to Las Vegas for Star Trek rides, themed food, a museum and even weddings.

    "We don't have volcanos, we don't have fountains, we have got to create attractions," Joshi said.

    Reviving the attraction won't be easy, though.

    In addition to retrofitting space on the first floor of the mall to accommodate the rides, restaurant, museum and other show elements, Joshi would need to bring back the audience.

    Even hard-core Star Trek fans say that by the end of its run at the Hilton the attraction was getting stale and needed an update.

    And a new "Star Trek" movie scheduled for release in May would make the old props look even more dated by comparison.

    "I think it is a mistake to take what was there and re-create it," said Anthony Pascale, editor of the Web site TrekMovie.com. "It was getting a little long-in-the-tooth."

    Pascale said the version at the Hilton was aimed at a generation of Star Trek fans tuned into the series "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

    "That is just part of Star Trek, not all of Star Trek," Pascale said.

    He suggested a revived Experience would need to incorporate the new movie and more of the original 1960s television series which later spawned several movies including "Star Trek III: The Search For Spock," a film that included the resurrection of Mr. Spock, the U.S.S. Enterprise's science officer and perhaps the most renowned Star Trek character in popular culture.

    No matter how a new Experience unfolds, Goodman was clearly excited by the prospect of Neonopolis living up to its promise to attract new blood downtown, even if it becomes Nerdopolis in the process.

    He practically beamed as he dropped the news on Thursday.

    Neonopolis has long been viewed as a black hole in terms of development downtown.

    The complex is between the east end of the Fremont Street Experience canopy and the west end of Fremont East, a bar and entertainment district that includes the El Cortez hotel-casino.

    The mall has struggled to attract tenants and its lack of life has been blamed for reducing foot traffic between the canopy and Fremont East.

    "It would be ironic," Goodman said of the potential for landing Star Trek. "Perhaps the most successful place downtown could be Neonopolis, even though it has been an albatross around my neck all these years."

    Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.

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    sabrina wrote on June 05, 2009 11:27 AM: I can't believe that the Hilton shut down ST Exp... right before the new movie.. At least it might be coming back though. Im really looking foward to seeing what the new ST Exp is like.


    Steve wrote on December 15, 2008 12:35 PM: I don't consider myself a "Trekkie" by any means but we totally enjoyed the experience while in the Hilton and visited whenever possible, it was one of the reasons for going down to Vegas.
    We're in Utah and if we get word that this is actually open we'll be in the car or on a plane immediately as we didn't feel that we got to really see all that there was to see in the several times that we went there.
    True, it could use freshening up but it never got stale in our views. We felt that rotating the "museum" pieces from time to time, adding a few smaller Star Trek related exhibits etc would have kept it fresher. The 4D etc never got old!


    Samuel Wright wrote on November 24, 2008 11:06 PM: Thank you LasVegas for bringing StarTrek back to us all. It will be a great place for the fans to get togather and hang out. StarTrek has been around too long to just let it fade away again thank you very much from (aka SHAKA ZULU )


    Paul VanMiddlesworth wrote on November 20, 2008 05:54 PM: BTW:
    The Creation Entertainment Star Trek convention is booked in the LV Hilton thru 2010... : )
    A short drive/cab ride away...
    How about a SHUTTLE (craft) LV Hilton?


    Bob wrote on November 19, 2008 12:23 PM: OUTSTANDING!!! I can't wait. I am an average Star Trek fan, never got to go to The Experience at the Hilton.
    I look forward to the atraction as I do the new film in 2009. However, in my opinion, if you want to capture a larger audience, why limit the experience to Star Trek alone? Why not the Star Wars Experience as well? Or even the Matrix Experience? So much Sci-Fi so little space. Kuddos to the Rtn of Star Trek, but in my mind there are as Mr Spock say's "always options".

    Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "To boldly go where no one has gone before." Just a thought.
    Thanks Bob


    Bob Richardson wrote on November 16, 2008 10:10 PM: I also agree with R.T. Kiszka. Every time I come to Vegas, I also visited ST The Experience. I didn't realize that they were gone until just now as I was planning a fmily vacation to stay in the Hilton ST themed rooms. Please tell me that The Experience is not gone forever. Please tell me that there will be a hotel that takes up the ST theme. Trust us; build it, we will come.


    Will wrote on November 02, 2008 02:39 AM: Great ideas R.T.Kiszka.


    Paul VanMiddlesworth wrote on October 28, 2008 06:34 PM: Where can I buy Tickets?!?!!
    Where do I send my Latinum?!?!


    LVCasinoInfo.com wrote on October 22, 2008 07:53 AM: This would be an incredible boon to downtown. It would open it up to a whole new group of people who probably wouldnt end up down there otherwise. Say what you want about Goodman but at least this is a guy who is ALWAYS trying to do whats best for Las Vegas.


    Roger Westeren wrote on October 22, 2008 06:55 AM: Neonopolis should be renamed the Pheonix for it is about to raise from the ashes. Along with Star Trek, Neonopis is adding Southern Nevada Center of the Arts, Southern Nevada Museum of FIne Art, an ultra lounge and La Luna. Suddenly Neonopois is a desination instead of a place you walk by/


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