Holodeck opening soon...

[Bungleau]

'Star Trek' exhibit to make first Midwest stop in Detroit BY ERIN CHAN DING • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • December 10, 2008 A few cosmic pings. And then a voice: "Space ... the final frontier." With its signature opening and legendary characters, "Star Trek" has transmitted through millions of TV screens for four decades, embedding itself into the American consciousness. And now, after beaming classic one-liners and futuristic ideas throughout pop culture, "Star Trek" is to land in Detroit. "Star Trek: The Exhibition" is to make its first Midwest stop at the Detroit Science Center beginning Feb. 14, the museum is to announce today. Tickets are to go on sale Friday, in time for people to buy as Christmas gifts for their favorite Trekkies. "We are thrilled to be the first Midwest venue for the exhibit," said Todd Slisher, vice president of science programs at the museum. "I think it's one of the major blockbuster exhibitions traveling around the country." The 9,000-square-foot exhibit features re-creations of the bridge of the famed Starship Enterprise, Capt. Jean-Luc Picard's quarters, the command chair and the transporter room. It includes two flight simulators, a model of the USS Enterprise used for shooting starship scenes and a collection of authentic props and uniforms used throughout the five "Star Trek" TV series, a cartoon show and 10 feature films. "From a Science Center perspective, this is a great exhibit because 'Star Trek' really launched future ideas in technology," said Slisher, pointing out that the "Star Trek" communicator begat ideas for modern cell phones. Companion show John Schroer, the museum's planetarium education coordinator and a faithful "Star Trek" fan since the 1960s, is working on a companion planetarium show that will take audiences to stars and space objects mentioned or visited in the Star Trek series, such as the Andromeda galaxy; the Deneb star; the red dwarf star, Wolf 359, and the Orion nebula. Much of the work for the exhibit, organized by Premier Exhibitions in Atlanta, was done by the set designers and producers who worked on the "Star Trek" TV series and feature films. The series, which has stretched 42 years, brought the nation catchphrases like "Beam me up, Scotty" and "Live long and prosper." But it also increased ethnic diversity on television in a time of 1960s racial turbulence and gave Americans a picture of an optimistic future in the midst of the Cold War. "These sets are re-creations, but in some ways, it's even a little bit better than being on the set," said Michael Okuda of Los Angeles, who worked on six of the movies, as well as the Next Generation, Voyager and Enterprise series, and did some graphic design for the exhibition. "On the set, there are usually pieces of wall missing and the space where they aren't filming is full of lights and equipment and stuff. Here, it's dressed and lit in its entirety," he said. The exhibition is to travel to Detroit from the San Diego Air & Space Museum, where it made its national premiere in June. A slightly smaller version of the exhibit opened at the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix in November, said Detroit Science Center spokeswoman Kelly Fulford. Good timing "Star Trek: The Exhibition" is scheduled to run at the Detroit Science Center from Feb. 14 to Sept. 7, meaning that it will coincide with the May opening of the already hyped "Star Trek" film directed by "Lost" creator J.J. Abrams. The film, predicted Fulford, "will bring in a whole new generation of Trekkies" to the exhibition. For Jan Pawlik, 46, of Westland, a neurosurgical nurse at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and ardent "Star Trek" fan, the traveling exhibit helps make up for the closing in September of the 65,000-square-foot "Star Trek: The Experience," a longtime attraction in the Las Vegas Hilton. Plus, it's a chance for more metro Detroiters to get involved. She envisions her local "Star Trek" club, the 100-member USS Intrepid, checking out the exhibit as a group, as it did for the one in Las Vegas. She said that if the Science Center needs help, she'll don her blue-and-black Starfleet Medical Section uniform and get out her Klingon bat'leth weapon for the kids. "Absolutely, I'm excited," said Pawlik. "The models and the props used in the movies and especially in the original series, those items are worth thousands of dollars." She said she hopes the movie will bring in more casual fans and help "revitalize the franchise," which has waned since UPN canceled "Star Trek: Enterprise" in 2005 after four seasons. What stands out about "Star Trek: The Exhibition," said Okuda, is a delight people experience when stepping into an environment that otherwise has been portrayed only on the big and little screens. "To step on these re-created sets," he said, "and be surrounded by the Enterprise bridge or by the transporter room, you get this powerful sense of what it must have been like to boldly go into the cosmos." Contact ERIN CHAN DING at 313-222-6696 or echan@freepress.com.

I'm looking forward to this...

[Stratos]

I would just love to go to this, seeing all trekkies in their Star Trek uniforms running around all exhilarated.

[Bungleau]

I don't know if I'd be able to handle (or get tickets for!) the opening day, but I expect to have some fun there... field trip after a meeting in March, I think