Star Trek: The Exhibition Orlando... Two to Beam Up
Product: Star Trek: The Exhibition Orlando
My wife and I were recently in Orlando, Florida to attend Star Wars Celebration VI. However, we arrived the day before it started, leaving us with a little time to check out some of the local attractions. What better way to start a week of Star Wars fandom than visiting a Star Trek exhibit, right? The Star Trek: The Exhibition was located in a large venue on International Drive; large enough, in fact, that it also housed the CSI: The Experience. My wife is an avid fan of CSI, so this was very convenient for both of us. We checked out both of the exhibits. (To read her account of the CSI: The Experience, see the link below.)
Personally, my favorite part of the exhibit was at the end of the guided tour, when we got the chance to walk on to a full-scale reproduction of the bridge of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek (The Original Series). This last part includes some interaction; our guide selected stations for each of us and we assumed our location and then simulated surviving an attack, complete with their signature special effect where everyone is thrown to one side. Our guide explained how that special effect was achieved and we all tried our hand at making it work. Another favorite, however, appears at the beginning of the tour, where there are replicas of captain's chairs from a Klingon Bird of Prey, and Voyager, and a Romulan ship. These are behind ropes, but the guide selects one person from the tour group to try out the Klingon captain's chair. One rule - no smiling.
Fans of Star Trek who are sticklers for canonical accuracy could spend hours poring over this interesting wall of Star Trek tidbits. It has a timeline of Star Trek events covering the entire scope of the various Star Trek productions, from TOS to the recent J.J. Abrams movie (and, yes, the timeline starts with Enterprise). The guided tour doesn't touch on this aspect, nor does it cover most of the smaller props, but you are encouraged to spend as much time as you like looking at the displays before or after the guided tour - and you'll want to spend that time taking it all in, because while it's true that if you take a picture, it will last longer... they don't allow you to take pictures.
There are also props to ogle, from reproduction pieces to items actually featured on screen. There are several costumes from TOS and movies, as well as weapons, a tri-corder, and a Borg head which is used as reference for the makeup artists to accurately recreate a specific character when the filming is done over multiple makeup applications. The most popular of these props is the full-sized reproduction of a Scorpion Shuttle, as featured in Star Trek Nemesis. Among the costumes were such noteworthy outfits as the costume worn by Marj Dusay in the infamous TOS episode, Spock's Brain, as well as the costume worn by Ricardo Montalbán in the role of Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Both the Star Trek Experience and CSI: The Experience are open daily, from 9 am to 9 pm, with the latest entrance being at 8 pm. Star Trek: The Exhibition tickets are $15.95 for Adults and $9.95 for Children ages 5 to 12. For visitors interested in checking out both exhibits, Combo tickets are available (Adults: $ 29.95 and Children: $ 18.95). Tickets for both exhibitions can be purchased on-site. For more information, see the Ticket Information link, below.
-Geck0, GameVortex Communications AKA Robert Perkins
Related Links: Star Trek: The Exhibition Ticket Information Star Trek: The Exhibition on Wikipedia Game Vortex's Coverage of CSI: The Experience Game Vortex's Coverage of Star Trek Scorpion Shuttle Database Entry on StarTrek.com
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