Star Trek The Exhibition Opens In Phoenix – Full Report w/ Pictures & Video

Today, Star Trek: The Exhibition opened its second engagement in the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix, Arizona to plenty of eager fans. TrekMovie got an exclusive first look at the impressive traveling Trek exhibit, including being shown around by Mike and Denise Okuda. With tons of original costumes, prop replicas, and set recreations, fans and non-fans alike are sure to be engaged by this very well put together show.


Original Props and Costumes
Much of the Exhibition’s volume was full of original props and costumes used in production of the various TV series and movies. Mike and Denise Okuda were on hand to answer questions and offer their unique views of the pieces of Star Trek history which are on display. They were very impressed by the efforts of Premier Exhibitions — the company now in charge of Star Trek: The Exhibition — to treat props and costumes with professionalism.

“We love working with Premier Exhibitions. They are really hard working people. These people are used to working with museum artifacts, with the white gloves and everything. That’s how they treated the Star Trek props — like museum artifacts.”

A big draw for the public is the ability to, for the first time, interact with the props and sets they have seen in the shows and movies over the years. Mike Okuda commented on what it’s like to see the public respond to the exhibit, “It’s lovely to see people go ‘Oh, that’s the actual shuttle craft!'”

Original Costumes
The exhibit features tons of original costumes worn by the actors in the various TV series and movies. The original series costumes include: Khan’s outfit from TWOK, several engineering costumes from TMP, several TOS outfits, and plenty of Kirk’s uniforms from various movies. There was plenty of The Next Generation uniforms as well such as: Picard, Troi, Guinan, Dr. Crusher, and Picard as Robin Hood.


Entrance hallway with costumes (Photo credit: Lee Whiteside)


TMP Engineering uniform


Khan uniform from TWOK

Original and Replica Props
While the props on display were mostly replicas (not actually used on screen), they were spectacularly done. Some of the highlights include the original Enterprise-D crash model used in Generations, the original Scorpion vehicle from Nemesis, and a TOS-style Captain’s chair made for one of shows that recreated the TOS bridge (probably “Relics” or “Trials and Tribbleations”). Click on the images to see a larger version.


Original Enterprise-D crash model from Generations


Original Scorpion vehicle from Nemesis


TOS-style Captain’s chair


Various prop replicas in display cases


Alien masks and headpieces designed by Michael Westmore
(Photo credit: Lee Whiteside)

Set Recreations
There are a total of 4 set recreations including the Enterprise D bridge, Beverly Crusher’s sick bay, the Enterprise D Main Engineering, and Quark’s bar. The obvious fan favorite, the Enterprise D bridge where fans can get a photo op, was very exquisitely done and by far the biggest draw for fans. Mike and Denise Okuda noted:

“Our favorite part of the Exhibition is to stand here on the Enterprise D bridge and watch peoples eyes light up as they come around the corner. They’ve seen these places on television, and they are a part of the stories that happened there. Now it’s visceral.”

All of the set recreations were supervised by Herman Zimmerman (a production designer for Star Trek). The Okudas were especially impressed with the bridge set up:

“It’s actually better than the real thing. Normally a real set is only half of the full thing and full of camera and lighting equipment.”


A local Star Trek fan club on the bridge
(Photo credit: Lee Whiteside)


Mike and Denise Okuda on the Enterprise-D bridge
(Photo credit: Lee Whiteside)


Beverly Crusher’s sick bay


Main Engineering of the Enterprise-D

Simulator Rides
The simulator rides are not yet in place at the Exhibition. The first of two — which should be installed by Tuesday — is a two person ride which plays a simulation featuring Lt. Worf voiced by Michael Dorn and doubles as a flight simulator which can rotate 360° in all three dimensions. The second motion simulator isn’t set to arrive for about 3-4 weeks and will run the same Lt. Worf simulation but can hold up to 15 passengers.

Arizona Science Center
Seeing that the exhibit is being housed at the Arizona Science Center, there was a definite emphasis on the science behind Star Trek. Throughout the exhibit, there were plaques and posterboards explaining how real Star Trek science might work, and how it might not work. Star Trek: The Exhibition is on display now in downtown Phoenix and will remain there until May 10th, 2009.

Pricing Non-Members Members
Adult $20.00 $10
Senior (62+) $17.00 $10
College (18-25) w/ ID $18.00 $10
Youth (13-17) $18.00 $10
Children (3-12) $16.00 $9
Adult Groups $14.00 N/A
Student Youth Groups $11.00 N/A
Audio Tour $6 $6
Motion Simulator (Each) $6 $6

For more info visit azscience.org

STTE + Okudas on local news
The opening of Star Trek The Exhibition was featured on the local FOX station. You can watch two videos, one a general run through and another featuring Mike and Denise

 

There is also more coverage from the opening at the local Trek fan club: United Federation of Phoenix

Still open in San Diego
The Phoenix Exhibit is only one of two ‘engagements’ of Star Trek The Exhibition. The first one (that includes the recreation of the TOS bridge) is still open at the San Diego Air and Space Museum, and will remain there until January. For more info and tickets for that visit startrektickets.com.

 


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If I had the money to fly out there I so would. Take my 4 year old Trekkie son too. lol. FIRST?!?

This is very cool , i have to go.

Glad to see it’s back open, and I hope to see it in person! First?

Wow, very kool…

I’d give money to be able to delete anyone who says “FIRST!”

I sure wish they had a replica of the TOS bridge. Otherwise, looks pretty cool.

That’s pretty cool. Is this coming to Minneapolis?

sadly Mr. AtoZ is just a librarian and not a webmaster :)

rm10019 this is true

lol, the ‘first’ thing bothers me too, but I just had to try. I even considered saying it everytime I post just to expose the lunacy of it!

Gee… they used the original TOS Enterprise in their sign. Imagine that.

but where did the tos bridge go?!

rm10019 I did that a few times and they started deleting my messages.

Well Mr. AtoZ I applaud your efforts and will heed the warning.

Not very often second chances like this are given. A trip is being planned.

I found a pic of Yoko and Sean Lennon on the bridge and transporter lol that was great

I thought they shut this down too! whew.

one more time, our posting policy is that posts with ONLY ‘first’ ‘second’ etc will be deleted, but if you actually write something and tack it on, it will not be deleted…even though it is not encouraged and I personally find it silly (and usually it is wrong since by the time you post someone else will beat you)

discussion of this policy should be at
https://trekmovie.com/about/feedback

This thread is for Kayla’s article. Thank’s Kayla. I think doing Trek at science museums is much better than the original Tour and fits better with the brand.

This week TrekMovie is everywhere. We have first hand exclusive reports coming from Trek events in from London, Cologne, Paris, Madrid, Los Angeles and now Phoenix…it has been a busy week for Trek. But if something is happening with Trek, we will try to have a man (or woman) there!

Hey, the Enterprise D has wood floors!

Hey, I’m 20th!!!!! Oh, well, since this thing is my back yard… I’ll go and let you know how it is!

I’ll be making my way up from Tucson to see it.

Oh my God, Mike Okuda has gotten so old!

Is there a schedule for other cities?
I checked Premier Exhibitions web site, and they only have San Diego & Phoenix listed
Would love to find out if they are coming to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.

Someone please turn on the Bridge dome lights.

Sorry, I just have to ask:

Kirk’s chair is a replica, isn’t it? The last time I saw the original it looked great but definitely about 40 years old. That one above looks brand new. And yes, I did read that most of the props were replicas. I just was wondering if it had been moved from the Science Fiction museum and regretfully restored.

Kirk “The motion rides???”

Blank stare from Captain Harriman…

“Don’t tell me, there being installed on tuesday!”

:-)

“and the original Captain Kirk’s chair from the original series.”

I dont think that is the one…Did the Okudas say that was the original? Because when Star Trek the tour was in Long Beach a lot of the stuff was repro, and you could tell it was not used. Here is the orig. chair auctioned off in 2002 as part of the Bob Justman collection
http://startrekpropauthority.blogspot.com/2008/06/captain-kirks-chair-from-star-trek.html

Wes

Yep, that’s the one I saw. And that’s Kirk and Spock’s uniform tunics as well, along with the Enterprise model from “Trials and Tribbleations”.

Nice link.

Would be nice if a list of cities were easily available. Is my memory fading me, or did one previously appear on trekmovie.com?

Wow, lots of girls in that fan club pic. When I was a member of a club it was a sausage party. Times have changed.

#30

According to the accompanying videos, that is a high school class, with their teacher in the center chair, and not a fan club. One would suspect that times have not changed as much as one would think.

But rest assured, it’s not hard to find beautiful female Star Trek fans. Just avoid the ones under 18 years old.

I have checked on the TOS style chair. It was definately used on camera, but not from the 60s. It isnt clear what episode, but probably Relics or Trials and Tirbbilations.

Thanks, AP. You da’ man. And you should check out Wes’ link. It has some great stuff.

Looks cool, any word on where it’s going once the San Diego one closes in January, cause I know the local science centre (Science World- which is that famous sphere here in Vancouver) has their feature exhibit until January, so it would seem like perfect timing for it to come up here.

I WAS VERY LUCK TO LIVE HERE ARIZONA. IT’S AN HOUR FROM MY HOME WINK. I WILL GOING THERE THIS WEEK…

# 26. That was funny. But your right. The Rides will be installed on Tuesday. Im very tempted to take my vacation and go see both of the exhibitions in Sandieago and pheonix, Ill make it a Star Trek Week. I havt to since they probly won’t come to Austin Tx Area. Oh and by the way. 36Th!

Yoy know Houston would be great with the Nasa space camp there and all things Nasa and Since Nasa did name the Space Shuttle and a lot of Nasa Scientist did get inspired by Trek it should go there.37th

Sad that the TOS bridge isn’t part of it. That was my motivating reason for wanting to check out this travelling exhibit in the first place. Hope the TOS bridge is back when they bring it to Boston.

Haha! I love how the anchor woman in the first video almost called it the Star Wars exhibit, and the anchor man couldn’t get the Live Long n’ Prosper hand signal down. Oh, I almost died when I saw that!

There’s no escaping it my friends, we are nerds.

I noticed that the female co-anchor started to say Star “Wars” but then caught herself and said “Trek”.

I’m going insane here. So close and yet so far…

No pictures of Quark’s? : (

I love the idea that Trek props are being treated with the great care many of us believe they dearly deserve.

The exhibition looks terrific. I wish I could go and see it.

I hope when it comes here the TOS bridge is back!

Please come to Texas :(

‘Cory is at the Star Wwww… TREK exhibition’
xD

Wonderful! Congratulations to everyone involved on the re-opening!

One comment on the text above: I don’t think there was a replica Captain’s chair in Trials and Tribble-ations. We saw TOS footage of the chair in that episode. They had replicas in Relics and in In A Mirror, Darkly.

“If I had the money to fly out there I so would. Take my 4 year old Trekkie son too. lol.”

I agree with you, Centurian Bachra. We have those weirdos who have their Graceland, we have this.

I will be there this coming weekend i live in southern Arizona so it is just a hop skip and space shuttle to get there.

Thank you for the great article, Kayla. I am in Phoenix and work for a local TV station and am attempting to get a crew over there to cover it, at least for the website. The props and costumes look terrific!