If you’re not satisfied with my paltry 39 photos, there are nearly 8 thousand results on Flikr for ‘Star Trek Experience’ as of today. I’m glad that there are that many pictures available. It was a fun thing and I’m still sad that it’s gone.

NEW Star Trek The Experience TOS Water Pistol Phaser NR US $11.69 (5 Bids) Auction Ends: Wednesday Jan-07-2009 14:08:46 PST Bid on this Item   | Watch this Item

STAR TREK THE EXPERIENCE 2 DVD SET RIDE PROMOS + MORE US $51.00 (7 Bids) Auction Ends: Wednesday Jan-07-2009 19:11:06 PST Bid on this Item   | Watch this Item

Star Trek The Experience Vegas Nevada Coffee Mug Cup EC US $5.22 (2 Bids) Auction Ends: Wednesday Jan-07-2009 21:53:19 PST Bid on this Item   | Watch this Item

It was great, getting to see all the various artifacts and props from the shows and movies. I was somewhat surprised that Spock’s white robe from The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home was not as heavy as it looked and was, instead, mostly made of some rather cheap cotton material.

The red jacket uniforms from the movies was not what I expected either. The red material was not, as I thought, a standard weave of cloth but was, instead, what I can only call a ‘t-shirt’ weave. But it certainly appeared heavier and stiffer than actual t-shirt material.

I enjoyed the rides, the Klingon one more so than the Borg one.

Unfortunately, as I said, the lines were HUGE and I was exhausted by the time the Experience opened; so I only got to go on each ride once.

If I had infinite time, money or energy then I could’ve gotten tons of pics from the museum and gone on the rides multiple times. Unfortunately, I had none of those and will have to be content with the few pics I managed to get and the memories of the rides I did go on.

I’m very, very happy I got to go. But I am also terribly saddened by the fact that I will never be able to go again. I would love to have been able to go on the Klingon one just one more time.

NEW Star Trek The Experience TOS Water Pistol Phaser NR US $11.69 (5 Bids) Auction Ends: Wednesday Jan-07-2009 14:08:46 PST Bid on this Item   | Watch this Item

STAR TREK THE EXPERIENCE 2 DVD SET RIDE PROMOS + MORE US $51.00 (7 Bids) Auction Ends: Wednesday Jan-07-2009 19:11:06 PST Bid on this Item   | Watch this Item

Star Trek The Experience Vegas Nevada Coffee Mug Cup EC US $5.22 (2 Bids) Auction Ends: Wednesday Jan-07-2009 21:53:19 PST Bid on this Item   | Watch this Item

It’s got mixed reviews from people (doesn’t everything?), so I’m not quite sure what to expect. I still ‘must’ go, however, and will maybe post pictures of my trip here when I get back.

I haven’t been on a trip out of state for a LONG time, so this is bound to be an adventure. If that’s not the Star Trek spirit, I don’t know what is.

Oh, yes.

NEW Star Trek The Experience TOS Water Pistol Phaser NR US $11.69 (5 Bids) Auction Ends: Wednesday Jan-07-2009 14:08:46 PST Bid on this Item   | Watch this Item

STAR TREK THE EXPERIENCE 2 DVD SET RIDE PROMOS + MORE US $51.00 (7 Bids) Auction Ends: Wednesday Jan-07-2009 19:11:06 PST Bid on this Item   | Watch this Item

Star Trek The Experience Vegas Nevada Coffee Mug Cup EC US $5.22 (2 Bids) Auction Ends: Wednesday Jan-07-2009 21:53:19 PST Bid on this Item   | Watch this Item

I doubt I was quite three yet; I’m about three years older than my brother and I get the distinct feeling that he wasn’t there yet. So I’m wandering around the house for some reason and I peer around a corner. The TV’s on and my father’s watching it. I’m not sure where my mom was. My attention’s drawn to the TV and I watch.

Several guys are clustered around each other and looking at someone who’s just laying there, apparently asleep. One of them reaches out and smashes some glass in front of the  sleeping man, which causes the bed to slide out in front of the others, with the man laying on it.

At two to three years old, this freaked me out badly for some reason! I didn’t scream, but I know I turned around and ran off to hide under the covers in my room.  I don’t remember much after that, but I don’t think either of my parents ever knew I was watching TV that day.

Fast forward about ten years and I’m flipping through the channels, only to catch the original Star Trek on a local independent network. I get interested and start watching. Eventually, one day, they show the episode ‘Space Seed’. I start to get a sense of vague deja vu but can’t pin my finger on it. The show gets to the part where they’re on the Botany Bay and free Khan. Then I remember… I have seen this before! And it scared me like crazy the last time.

Of course, it doesn’t scare me at all the second time and I enjoy watching it and I continue to watch Star Trek after that.

And now, of course, I have this website.

All the original series episodes are there. Unfortunately, they haven’t added any of the newer series. There are also a couple of videos that look like they’d be better suited for YouTube than in the ‘official’ Star Trek category, but you can just skip over those.

So if you want to watch the original Star Trek, and you want to watch it for free, go check out Joost.

While many would be inclined to dismiss these early games, for lack of modern graphics and (by today’s standards) somewhat clunky interfaces, it would be wrong to completely ignore them. Just as we would not have four other series and nine (almost ten) movies if not for the Original Star Trek, these early commercial games paved the way for more recent ones.

The first commercially produced game of the 80’s did not even carry the Star Trek name. Titled ‘Begin: A Tactical Starship Simulation’, it could be considered an ancestor to Starfleet Command. With ASCII graphics, the player is able to control from one to fifteen ships in combat against another fleet. Federation, Klingon, Romulan and Orion Pirates are playable. With very few random factors in the game, Begin was a test of player skill more than anything else.

Released in 1982, ‘The Warp Factor‘ was the next Star Trek based game to be produced. Without a license to use the Star Trek brand, names were changed slightly to protect the (not so) innocent developers. Instead of the Federation, you have the ‘United Alliance of Planets’. Klingons are replaced with Klargons. Romulans have been named ‘Reman Marauders’. Imperial pirates seem to replace Orions. The weapons have familiar names, however (photon torpedo, disruptor, phaser) and several of the ASCII ship graphics are more than simple coincidences. It seems rather close to the concept of ‘Begin’ and could possibly also be considered an ancestor of Starfleet Command.

1982 also saw the release of ‘Star Trek - Strategic Operations Simulator’ as a an arcade game, followed in 1983 and 1984 as releases for personal computers. At least for the arcade version, there were no ASCII graphics here. Vector graphics and synthesized speech helped improve the playing experience.

Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy was released in 1984 or 1985. There are no real graphics to speak of in this text-based interactive fiction adventure. It is somewhat absurdly difficult at times, though certainly worth a try. The game was followed the next year, sometime between 85 and 87 by The Kobayashi Alternative. It’s harder to play than the first, with worse writing and even more fiendish puzzles. I still feel it’s worth taking a look at, however.

We now take a break in 1986 and 1987 with Star Trek: The Trivia Game and Star Trek TNG: The Trivia Game. No time limits. No enemies coming after you. Just pure knowledge-based fun. Since TNG started in 1987 and ran until 1994, I’m guessing that the TNG trivia game lacks… a lot of trivia. But TNG fans may still enjoy it.

Released in 1987 for the Apple II is a game titled simply ‘Star Trek‘. With Diane Duane listed in the credits for the game, the plot seems to center around having to go rescue the USS Heinlein. Seems to, since the Apple emulator ended up freezing my already slow computer. I’d love to find a PC port (if one exists) and to find out more about the game.

Star Fleet One: The War Begins was published several times between 1983 and 1988. Back are ASCII graphics (color for the PC, apparently none for the Apple II) and a complex, realistic interface. It’s quite similar to the Trek games that were first fan-created, but updated for then-modern computers.

The sequel to this game, published in 1989, is Star Fleet Two: Krellan Commander. It boasts an even more complex, and possibly confusing, interface. Certainly worth a look, at the very least.

Not based off the movie of the same name, we have Star Trek: First Contact released in 1989. Being an interactive fiction game based off of TOS, there are of course no real graphics to speak of. It seems to be the sequel, or perhaps continuation of both the Promethean Prophecy and Kobayashi Alternative. At least, it is by the same publisher.
To end the 80’s, we have three final games published in 1989. The first on the list here, Star Trek TNG: The Transinium Challenge, boasts actual digitized animations. Gone are the clunky ASCII graphics here. You can use either mouse or keyboard based input with this game. Although the game defaults to a somewhat scary pink, cyan and white color scheme, there is an option to turn everything into 16 bit color, which is nice.

Returning now to TOS, we have Star Trek: The Rebel Universe. This may be the first TOS game to have mouse input, or you can use a joystick. From what I recall, however, the whole premise is somewhat confusing. So make sure to read the manual first.

Finally, we have Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, which is of course based off of the movie of the same name. It has very nice VGA graphics, but perhaps little else in the way of recommendations. If you’ve gotten this far down the list, you might as well give it a shot, however.

For the games listed above, you’re probably going to have to use DOSBox to play them. Especially if you have Vista and even XP. So go ahead, give the games a shot while I write the next installment in this series.

Star Trek LCARS Computer Replica Bank by Thinkway Toys US $31.00 (3 Bids) Auction Ends: Wednesday Jan-07-2009 4:15:42 PST Bid on this Item   | Watch this Item

Lot of 10 Vintage Star Trek Computer Games PC/Nintendo US $15.51 (4 Bids) Auction Ends: Wednesday Jan-07-2009 18:06:42 PST Bid on this Item   | Watch this Item

1994 Star Trek Generation Computer Monitor Mask-NRFB US $19.99 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Friday Jan-09-2009 17:30:09 PST Bid on this Item   | Watch this Item

If you haven’t seen it yet, watch! If you have, watch again.

STAR TREK SIGNED TV SCRIPT SHATNER NIMOY SPOCK 1968 US $15.99 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Tuesday Jan-06-2009 21:33:38 PST Bid on this Item   | Watch this Item

Rare WILLIAM SHATNER Captain Kirk STAR TREK 1995 Video US $16.49 Auction Ends: Tuesday Jan-06-2009 21:48:14 PST Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

C11 William Shatner in a scene from Star Trek US $0.99 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Tuesday Jan-06-2009 22:24:24 PST Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

Victor Holtreman wrote:

Ok, so this falls under the heading of “rumour”, but it comes from an anonymous source at Paramount, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all… According to this source at the studio, the upcoming “Star Trek XI” to be directed by J.J. Abrams will:

“This is not just another Trek movie but instead a total reboot, we will see things that are similar to what is known in the Trek Universe but we will not be held to every aspect of the last 40 years. We are going to introduce Star Trek to a whole new generation and many more generations to come. We have total faith that J.J. and company will take Trek to a whole new level. Trek has been going downhill for the last 10 years and if we expect it to be around 20 years from now we will have to take some bold steps that might be controversial at first but we are sure to bring new fans to the dying franchise.”

Are you red-faced yet? Hang on a sec:

“Trek fans were not able to keep the last show [Enterprise] on the air and we are looking on bringing over “Alias” and “Lost” fans and if the old Trekkies like the new movie great, if not too bad. We have to boldly go were no Star Trek has gone before.”

Isn’t that like, just totally awesome? Nothing like a nice, big, fat F-U to the fans who have fed about a billion dollars to Paramount over the history of the Trek franchise.

I’ll tell you what I found REALLY funny… let’s excerpt a couple of quotes and put them right next to each other, shall we?

“Trek has been going downhill for the last 10 years”
“Trek fans were not able to keep the last show [Enterprise] on the air”

Ok… so who PRODUCES Trek? Would that be Paramount? So if Star Trek has been “going downhill” for 10 years, whose fault exactly would that be? It’s obvious isn’t it? THE FANS. As evidenced by his statements above.

So despite the fact that the studio puts out crap, we the fans are still supposed to tune in and sing its praises? I’m sorry, but Paramount is who put out the ridiculous “Voyager” and let Berman and Braga run the excellent concept of “Enterprise” into the dirt. And when Manny Coto came on board, finally putting the show on the right track, Paramount CANCELLED it!

I am SO bloody sick to DEATH of studios putting out lousy product and then blaming the public when they don’t show up in droves. This has been especially prevalant with the Trek movies. Star Trek Generations, Insurrection and Nemesis were ALL terrible, but it’s our fault that box office kept dropping.

Man… the hubris of these guys is incomprehensible and utterly infuriating. Good luck with those “new” fans, Paramount.

Alright, if you’re waaay down here, you’ve read the whole article. Hi! Anyway, why am I not surprised? Star Trek has ‘been going downhill for the past 10 years’? Oh, big surprise. Who else here remembers the huge fight that Trek fans had with Paramount in the mid-90’s to even be allowed to have Star Trek fan websites like this one? Anyone?

They were, as I understand and remember it, shutting down all sorts of non-commercial Star Trek sites, simply for referencing Star Trek and having a few Star Trek-related graphics (not like Paramount was actually selling any Trek graphics online or anything either). At least until there was a huge petition drive and Paramount finally caved.

So if Star Trek is dying now, fan-wise, it’s only because of the callous disregard Paramount has shown for Trek lovers over the years. Fans pay their bills. They need to learn to be nicer.

Shatner & Nimoy Autographed Star Trek II DVD US $500.00 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Tuesday Jan-06-2009 19:59:22 PST Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

Star Trek: Voyager Complete Season Two DVD Second 2nd 2 US $50.99 Auction Ends: Tuesday Jan-06-2009 20:06:44 PST Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

We were told that Star Trek would let us “boldly go where no man has gone before.”But there were women who went into the unknown, too.

These are the women who traipsed among the stars.

Nichelle Nichols was one of the first. Playing Communications Officer Lt. Uhura on the Original Series, she showed women and racial minorities that there was a future for us. Nichols thought about leaving the show after the first series because her role wasn’t very substantial but after talking to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., she changed her mind. He told her that people needed to see a Black woman when they envisioned the future.

Nichol’s role in space wasn’t over with the cancellation of the show. She has remained active with NASA, helping to recruit women and minorities to the space agency.

On the original pilot for Star Trek, Majel Barrett played Captain Pike’s Executive Officer, a position NBC executives in 1966 vetoed. Barrett was recast as Nurse Chapel in the original series and went on to become the only actor to have a role of some kind in every single Star Trek series.

On The Next Generation, there were two strong women who came to embody the series. While they were still in support roles, Gates McFadden as Doctor Beverly Crusher and Marina Siritis as Counselor Deanna Troi were active participants in the series. Dr. Crusher was gentle. Counselor Troi was insightful.

By the time Deep Space Nine rolled around, it was time to give women a leadership role. Nana Visitor played the prickly Kira Nerys. No longer were women always sweet, all the time, Visitor had a more complex personality.

And then came Voyager. Women made up a large portion of the cast starting with Captain Kathryn Janeway played by Katherine Mulgrew, was a take charge, no nonsense leader who had to guide her motley crew of Starfleet officers and Maquis rebels through the Delta Quadrant back home.

She was assisted by several other strong women. One was B’Elanna Torres played by Roxanne Dawson. Torres was a Maquis rebel who was half Klingon and half human. She was forever battling the two sides of herself.

Jeri Ryan came on mid show playing the famous Borg defectee Seven of Nine. Ryan continues to be among the most popular Trek personalities.

Enterprise had some notable female characters. Jolene Blalock served as T’Pol, the Vulcan science adviser who was aboard to guide the humans. While just an adviser, she was supposed to be the wise adviser. The humans on the crew often chafed under her direction, though. And the Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) often disregarded her advice.

Star Trek women faced the challenges of being women in the 20th century as well as in the 23rd century. That they did it with as much compassion and humanity as they did is a credit to both the actresses who played the role and the men who created them.

Star Trek: Voyager Complete Season Two DVD Second 2nd 2 US $50.99 Auction Ends: Tuesday Jan-06-2009 20:06:44 PST Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

STAR TREK VOYAGER 7 of nine color photo US $0.99 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Tuesday Jan-06-2009 20:28:02 PST Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

On the other hand, after doing some digging around, I managed to recover an old, old copy of a zip file with 74 Trek fonts in it. The fonts are from ‘98 or before, making them at least 10 years old. Which is, in internet terms, fairly ancient!

It includes, aside from the ’standard’ UFP, Klingon and Romulan fonts, several Bajoran fonts, Cardassian, Ferengi, Vulcan, Trill and even Fabrini. Though most of them are canon, some of them seem to be simply ‘imaginary’ fonts, based on the maker’s ideas of what the font should look like.

Some of them have copyright information, some of them don’t. So I can’t tell you the legality of using any of them for anything besides personal use.

“Star Trek” TrueType® Font Pack -3½” PC Floppy Disc-NIB US $4.00 Auction Ends: Tuesday Jan-06-2009 22:11:49 PST Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

STAR TREK FONT PACK, FOR THE TREKIE IN YOUR LIFE US $0.01 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Friday Jan-09-2009 15:13:46 PST Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item