To Boldly Go Where You’ve Gone Before

‘Star Trek: The Tour’ isn’t just nostalgia.

By Jim Washburn for MSN City Guides

If you were around between 1966 and 1968 and had a sense of wonder, chances are you watched “Star Trek.” New Worlds! The Future! Galaxies! Phasers! Aliens! Partially unclad aliens! Warp drive! Dr. McCoy’s mint juleps! Every week the show's international, interracial, interplanetary crew set out with the best of intentions—to gain and share knowledge—and typically wound up also sharing a few photon torpedoes or boulders-on-the-noggin with newly met life forms.

At turns hokey, gripping, campy, preachy or daringly probing of social ills, “Star Trek” also gave viewers the sensation they were watching parallel universes, seeing both a starship crew and a TV cast that clearly enjoyed the hell out of working with each other.

That formula worked for a lot of viewers, but not NBC executives who cancelled the costly show after three seasons. But like John Barleycorn, “Star Trek” thrived after being cut down, rising to spawn 10 feature films and five TV series, becoming a genuine 20^th century icon.
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The franchise is showing every sign it will live long and prosper through the 21^st century as well, with another feature film due Dec. 25 and a new 3-dimensional incarnation in "Star Trek: The Tour," now beginning its trek across the U.S. Comprised of some 250 tons of original props, sets, models and costumes culled from the spectrum of “Star Trek” episodes and films, as well as specially-produced exhibits, video treats and interactive whirligigs, the exhibition will boldly go to your environs during its five-year mission to tour 40 U.S. cities.

"Star Trek: The Tour" was created by SEE (Special Entertainment Events) Touring Productions, which designed the long-running ‘Star Trek Experience’ in Las Vegas, and has produced ‘Trek’ events in Europe and Asia, along with exhibitions celebrating the “Titanic” movie, “I Love Lucy” and other mainstays.  

The tour’s first stop—held over until March 2—is Long Beach, Calif., where it is ensconced in the world’s ninth-largest geodesic dome, originally built to house another grand flight of fancy, Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose. (Coming tour stops have yet to be announced; check the tour site for updates.)