One of the first things I did after coming back to the US was go to the Star Trek Exhibition at the Tech Museum in downtown San Jose. Here’s the official information:
STAR TREK: THE EXHIBITION – the world’s most comprehensive collection of authentic Star Trek objects – features over 200 artifacts including:
- An authentic replica of the bridge from the U.S.S Enterprise NCC-1701 as featured in the original Star Trek television series
- Iconic gadgets from the Star Trek universe: a tricorder; a phaser, and a communicator – all from the original series. Devices that have inspired innovators of today.
- The actual shooting model for the Borg Cube, as seen on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Voyager and in the movie Star Trek: First Contact
- A chance to ride through a Star Trek adventure in a full-motion flight simulator (extra fee)
Sounds good right?
Unfortunately, I left disappointed. Even Mike, who is a much bigger Star Trek fan than me, wasn’t too happy with it.
- I think the biggest negative to the exhibition is its price, $25 per person. That is a lot for a museum.
- While it does have a lot of the gadgets and a ship bridge and the transporter, you’re not allowed to take photos anywhere. My sister snuck one in (above), but the security told her to stop. They offer a service to take photos at the bridge and the transporter for you, but those cost $28 EACH. To me, if you’re paying $25 per person, one picture should be free. I really wanted to buy a photo, but $28! I would have done it for $10.
- It’s supposedly a 2 hr exhibit, but that’s only if you read everything. Carefully. It took us 45 minutes max, but maybe more like 30 minutes. 15,000 square feet for an exhibit is not as much as you would think when it’s mostly used for free roaming space.
- There is not as much stuff as you would think.
- I wanted to go on the flight simulator, but after seeing how much the pictures cost, I got disheartened.
- The $25 per person does include the normal Tech Museum stuff, but after you do the Trek stuff, you so thoroughly feel like you were ripped off, you just want to go.
- The gift shop is a great way to get people to buy stuff, but they were charging $40 for the normal bare bones edition of the DVD. You can imagine what other things might cost. My sister ended up buying a $3 can of Vulcan Ale (energy drink), but that’s it.
The price of having just one memoir (28 + 25 = $53) to remember the day was enough to make me not recommend this to others.
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