User Reviews

Especially now with the current absence of Star Trek TV shows or movies, this is the only place where you can feel Star Trek alive and feeling new. Unlike the shows, you can feel like you are a part of it, involved in the action and not just watching. A dream come true for any Trekkie or Trekker!!! Start by transporting through the space/time continuum to the remote Federation outpost "Copernicus Station" where the Doctor (Robert Picardo)from Star Trek Voyager briefs you on a medical mission to fight the Borg, when suddenly a cube arrives and attacks the station! Now in mortal danger, you are escorted through the station at the expense of several live Starfleet personnel to the docking bay where you escape assimilation aboard the Federation transport "Olympia"... or do you? The Borg Queen (Alice Krige) is on your case from this point of the show on!!! Can Admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) prove that resistance is futile? Find out (In 4-D) at Star Trek the Experience, Las Vegas Hilton!!!

My wife and I were at the Las Vegas Hilton this past Tuesday 10/19/2004. We each paid the $34.99 for both "rides" in the "Star Trek: The Experience". The "rides"; Klingon Encounter & Borg Invasion; are both covered by this ticket price and allows you to take each journey all day long and as many times as you care to do (or at least until it closes for the day). I won't go into spoilers here. But just to say I couldn't stop laughing. The Borg Invasion was soooo cool and the effects you are immersed in are a riot!!! One of the other passengers really got into it and was screaming his head off every time a Borg appeared.

My wife and I are Star Trek fans, so being in this environment where everything feels like a 23rd Century world was great. There were non-Star Trek fans who also came to enjoy the "rides" and they got a kick out of all the fun too. If you have never been, go and enjoy it. I found it helps to just play along with the idea (don't take the goings on too seriously) and you'll have a blast. The food in "Quark's Bar" was really good and I wanted to stay there a week. I'll be back again before the end of the year. Go with a group if you can, it's more fun that way. The story line in both "rides" are solid enough to move the action along and the visuals (the 3-D effect is fantastic) are great! I think if Paramount were smart, they should do some kind of IMAX film for Star Trek. Because what I experienced there at the Las Vegas Hilton has such a good quality, it would translate well for a more developed story on a huge screen. All-n-all, what great fun!!! Both "rides" has a hands on quality to them, very interactive. Also try out the rides more than once. I found things I missed the first time around with the Borg hiding around and all the special effects.

"Star Trek: The Experience - Borg Invasion 4D" is a short film that is not too easy to find outside certain venues like in Vegas for example. The title already gives away that it is basically an event film for fans of the television series Star Trek (the newer one) and you will find a handful actors in this video that play essential characters from that universe. It runs for a bit under 20 minutes and the subject is also described in the title: the Borg. I am neither a huge Star Trek fan nor a huge SciFi fan in general to be honest and this is perhaps why this movie wasn't doing a lot for me, let alone feeling memorable. But it is fine as my subjective approach plays a major role here. People who like or even love the series will perhaps perceive things differently. And honestly at that runtime, it was also a somewhat okay watch I guess. The director is Ty Granoroli and this is his most known work perhaps while writer Lisa Kling has been extremely prolific when it comes to the SciFi genre, even if it seems that both are no longer active in making films. All in all, like I already said because of my personal bias I would not recommend this one to anybody who is not really interested in the series or the ST universe. One for fans only.

(WARNING: Lots of spoilers; see below)

While on a mid week trip to Vegas, my friend and I (both Trek fans but not nuts about it) went to the Star Trek Experience. My friend was jazzed about the new Borg 4-D portion of the experience. He said it was really cool and we could ride as many times as we wanted for the day.

Upon arrival, however, we were sorely disappointed. The admission price was $30, and it only offered a ONE TIME shot at each experience. The ride-all-day feature had been canceled.

Both experiences feature a walkthrough of a series of true-to-Star-Trek sets, culminating in a ride aboard a simulator. The Klingon Encounter features a standard motion simulator, while Borg 4-D has a larger theatre-style simulator reminiscent of Disney's "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience."

(BEGIN SPOILERS)





Klingon Encounter was pretty cool. Participants line up for boarding what looks like a simulator but are accidentally beamed up to the Enterprise! When Enterprise is attacked by Klingons, participants are whisked away to the real simulator, where they escape in the midst of a fierce Klingon battle and are transported back to Vegas. The most impressive portion of Klingon Encounter is the sensation of being beamed aboard the Enterprise. We are still debating how the beaming is accomplished (rotating room, etc.?)

Borg 4-D was good, if not a bit hokey. The group of participants is informed that they have arrived on the Copernicus Base for an experiment --they have a special DNA sequence that could render them immune to the Borg. Of course, the Borg arrive before the experiment and the immunity is tested real-time! After being chased by the Borg they arrive in the simulator, which features amazing 3-D effects and things like water sprays when things blow up, and tactile sensations in the seats. My friend didn't like the water spray too much...

(END SPOILERS)





All in all these were excellent experiences, but nowhere worth the price of admission ($30 will get you an entire day at many amusement parks.) Plus, guess where you get dumped at the end of the experience? A GIFT SHOP! And even before you get there you are detained for a two minute spiel about a $20 photograph of you Photoshopped into a scene from a Star Trek show. The restaurant, Quark's, has great food, though $5 for a salad and $10 for a burger and fries is a bit wide of the mark. The ambience is cool though, with a costumed Borg, Klingon and Ferengi making rounds and playing their parts very well.

My recommendation: Trek fan? Do it once. Not a Trek fan? Go to Circus Circus, Buffalo Bill's or Stratosphere and ride fun stuff all day for the same price or less.