The Experience Begins
But Goddard’s dream wasn’t quite dead. A few years later, he was approached by the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel—which had already gotten Paramount on board for a Star Trek project designed to bring people to the hotel’s off-strip location and into its own casinos. There was also already a basic idea in place: visitors would come, be beamed away on a Star Trek mission, and put back on Earth after the adventure.
Although much less grand in scope than a ginormous Enterprise, Goddard got to work on something still wildly ambitious. What would become Star Trek: The Experience when it opened in 1998 was more than just that kernel of an idea about beaming away on a mission: visitors would walk through a museum display charting the path from NASA to Starfleet, be beamed to the Enterprise-D for a time-twisting adventure and simulator ride, and then be plonked back in Vegas’ very own replica of Deep Space Nine, teeming with shops, food, and of course, Star Trek aliens and officers milling around in character.
