A Sad Day in Fanboy History (The life-size Starship Enterprise that wasn’t)

A SAD DAY IN FANBOY HISTORY

(The life-size Starship Enterprise that wasn’t)

by Julian Brantley

I could not believe it when I read it. They came this close to building a full scale replica of Star Trek’s USS ENTERPRISE in Downtown Las Vegas in 1992. All 948 feet of it. And they didn’t do it. Instead they put up the “Fremont Experience”. (You can replicate this at home. Stand very close to your TV playing The Hangover and throw a couple hundred dollars away.)

Gary Goddard (http://www.garygoddard.com) was part of a team that pitched the life-sized Enterprise to the developers and the Mayor of Las Vegas, got Paramount interested and got funding ($150,000,000 in 1992). It was only until the Studio Chairman of Paramount (Stanley Jaffe, you bastard!) was pitched the idea that it was killed. He thought if it didn’t work, if it was a flop, there would be this big reminder of it sitting in Vegas forever.

Okay, first of all, even if it was a flop and didn’t make money, people would still go to view it, like watching a car wreck. “Some idiot paid 150 million to build a life-sized Enterprise.” “That’s stupid… let’s go see it.”

As a Star Trek fan, I know that most other fans would at one point in their life have to make the pilgrimmage to see it in person. And how many Star Trek or Comic Conventions would come there, just to be near it. Casual fans, and even people that hate science fiction, would come and see it for the spectacle. It would have been as long as the Eiffel Tower is high. (I think Stanley Jaffe was high when he decided this was a bad idea.) The licensing and merchandising money alone would have relieved any shame about constructing a giant space ship that doesn’t fly.

And it would have given people that sense of wonder that science fiction is all about. Seeing that in person with your own two eyes – if we can do that, what else can we do? (You also would have seen a lot of grown men in Star Fleet uniforms crying.)

It would have been a whole theme attraction much bigger than the Hilton’s Star Trek Experience. And much bolder. It breaks my heart.

What would the earth be like today if they had built it? World peace? Maybe not. But it would have been awesome! And I might have a timeshare in Vegas and be considerably poorer.