‘Star Trek: The Experience’ brought otherworldly fun to Las Vegas

Tracy Jackson of Los Angeles, Calif., hugs an actor dressed as a Ferengi character at the entrance to "Star Trek: The Experience" in 2008. (Review-Journal file photo)

"Star Trek: The Experience" crew member Kerstan Szsepanski as K'Stran. (Review-Journal file photo)

"Star Trek: The Experience" makeup technician Crystal Taylor. (Review-Journal file photo)

Vernon Wilmer portrayed a Borg in "Star Trek: The Experience." (Review-Journal file photo)

The SpaceqQuest Casino, pictured a few months before its opening, was located adjacent to "Star Trek: The Experience" at the Las Vegas Hilton. (Review-Journal file photo)

A model of a Klingon Bird of Prey was one of the props from "Star Trek: The Experience" sold in April 2010, about two years after the attraction at the Las Vegas Hilton had closed. (Review-Journal file photo)

The sign from Quark's Bar & Restaurant, a themed restaurant at "Star Trek: The Experience" at the Las Vegas Hilton, awaits purchase at a warehouse sale in 2010. (Review-Journal file photo)

Paul Walker, left, and Alec Peters stand by a model of the Starship Voyager that was used as a prop from the "Star Trek: The Experience" attraction. It, and other props from the attraction, were sold in 2010. (Review-Journal file photo)

April Hebert (Professor T'Pril), left, Kerstan Szczepanski (Lieutenant K'Stran), & Mark Weitz (Commander Churoq) of "Star Trek: The Experience" take a break from their duties at the attraction, which enjoyed an 11-year-run at the former Las Vegas Hilton. (Review-Journal file photo)

"Star Trek: The Experience" ran for 11 years at the Las Vegas Hilton (now the Westgate). (Review-Journal file photo)

Mark McLaine, left, of Fishkill, New York and Rob Valle of River Vale, New Jersey take a look at costumes on display at "'Star Trek: The Experience" in 2007. (Review-Journal file photo)

Jannice Livingston of Norwich , Connecticut is approached by a Borg during a press conference announcing a new attraction, "Borg Invasion 4D," at "Star Trek the: The Experience." (Review-Journal file photo)

Two Ferengi and a Klingon greet guests at "Star Trek: The Experience." (Review-Journal file photo)
Las Vegas is a cosmopolitan sort of place, but nothing like it was when Andorians, Klingons and Ferengi hung out here.
It was during the days when “Star Trek: The Experience” offered fans of the now-iconic science fiction franchise the most intriguing entertainment offering this side of the Neutral Zone.
The $70 million attraction — part museum, part motion simulator, part dinner theater — opened in January 1998 at the Las Vegas Hilton (now the Westgate) and closed 11 years later. It took took up part of the hotel’s casino floor, near a futuristic SpaceQuest casino and a restaurant and bar named after “Quark,” a character from “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”
While waiting in line for the attraction, fans could peruse a museum-like “History of the Future” exhibit that combined real history with Trekkian history. The attraction’s initial story line — a second, Borg-related attraction opened in 2004 — followed guests boarding a typical motion simulator ride. Things then took a novel departure into left field when some nasty Klingons seeking to prevent the birth of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard” (“Star Trek: The Next Generation” star Patrick Stewart was seen in prerecorded video) interrupted the ride.
The attraction closed in 2008 and talk of relocating it to Neonopolis in downtown Las Vegas never panned out. Two years later, many of the attraction’s props were sold, at least offering grieving fans the chance to scarf up themed signs, spaceship replicas, Starfleet costumes and the odd transporter room component for their memorabilia collections.
April Hebert worked at the attraction for its entire run. Now a communications professor at the College of Southern Nevada, Hebert was an actor then and came on board before it even was finished.
“I was everything,” she says, including a Starfleet officer, a Vulcan and an Andorian. Like other cast members, the job often involved interacting with guests.
“It was interactive theater, really. Environmental acting,” Hebert says.
While she recalls no untoward interactions with guests, she remembers that a colleague who played a Ferengi once had his faux ear pulled by an overeager woman. (In “Star Trek” lore, massaging a Ferengi’s ear is a turn-on.)
“She took off,” Hebert says. “I’m sure he was quite shocked.”
But she enjoyed her time at the attraction and still keeps in touch with some of her fellow cast members. This holiday season, Hebert again will host a party for some of them at her home.
And when people ask her about her “Star Trek” gig, “I always say it’s the best job in the galaxy.”
Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280. Follow @JJPrzybys on Twitter.