The Starfleet Academy Experience officially launched Thursday night at a gala event at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum.
Nearly 1,000 people attended the launch, which featured a long, on-stage interview with William Shatner. Shatner reminisced about the difficulty getting and keeping TOS on the air, and celebrated the fact that, against the odds, the franchise survived and continues to thrive 50 years later.
William Shatner also unveiled the Royal Canadian Mint’s new Captain Kirk commemorative coin, part of a set that includes Spock, Scotty and Uhura . Another set of silver coins released by the Mint feature iconic scenes like Spock and Kirk stepping through the Guardian of Forever from “The City on the Edge of Forever.”
Shatner unveils the new Canadian coin featuring Captain Kirk
The Royal Canadian Mint is even releasing a special 2016 $200 pure gold coin in the shape of a Star Trek delta insignia. Only 1,500 coins will be minted and they can be pre-ordered now for a whopping $1,299.95 CAD.
Local brewery Clocktower Brew Pub was also on hand to launch their new Trek-themed microbrew, The Final Frontier.
Rene Auberjonois and John de Lancie, in town for Ottawa Comic-Con, were also present at the event for photo ops but did not appear on stage outside the VIP area.
Cosplaying volunteers from the Ottawa Star Trek clubs the IKV Phoenix and Ladies Who Trek ran activities at three themed lounges throughout the evening: Vulcan, Klingon and Uhura. Guests could interact with the characters and participate in photo-ops, a tribble toss, trivia, crafts, and Vulcan and Klingon-themed games.
Other entertainment included an aerial act and martial arts performance to Star Trek music, from 100% Martial Arts & Fitness.
The main exhibit itself, staged in a 10,000-foot warehouse adjacent to the museum, allows “cadets” to see memorabilia, props and costumes, and tour impressive recreations of Sickbay, Engineering, the transporter room and the Enterprise-D bridge. At several points, participants can use their wristband to interact with the exhibit.
From the Starfleet Academy Tour website:
The Starfleet Academy Experience will provide newly-minted cadets with a first-of-its-kind “Trek Tech” immersive experience that takes the student from orientation into a rigorous training program involving simulated science, engineering, medical and command courses, through to graduation, and finally to the deck of an active starship. The experience is enriched with the actual science behind the science fiction of Star Trek as the participants learn about emerging technologies such as a functional tricorder, NASA’s warp drive theory, and the latest experiments with phasers and teleporters.
The exhibit will be up in Ottawa until Labour Day, and is set to tour to New York, Chicago, Calgary and other cities starting later this summer.
Jarrah Hodge is a host of the Women at Warp podcast and runs the blog trekkiefeminist.tumblr.com. She lives in Ottawa, Canada.
Canada has an air and SPACE museum? I have personally launched more rockets than Canada.
Are you aware of the number of Canadian peeps who were a part of Apollo? Are you aware of the Space Arm for for the Shuttle? Are you aware of the close history of tech with Canada and the NASA space program? Google it.
Plum,
Still, you would have thought all those Canadians working down South would have passed along what an unfortunate designation CSA would be for a North American based government agency seeking to encourage pluralism in its pool of applicants?
Disinvited, I feel I should know this, but can you enlighten me as to why CSA is an unfortunate designation?
Silvereyes,
In reply to your comment uniquely identified by the following URL:
https://trekmovie.com/2016/05/13/starfleet-academy-experience-launches-at-gala-ottawa-event-featuring-william-shatner/#comment-5304709
Like USA , CSA is a 3 letter designation which in this notorious case indicates the opposing armies to the USA’s Union Army in that country’s Civil War. Standing for The Confederate States of America, it gained infamy after the war when it was used on memorabilia as ubiquitously as its Battle Flag was, to promote segregation which led to the civil rights movement of the 1960s in which STAR TREK played a small yet historically noteworthy role.
Thank you Disinvited for the explanation. However you forget that Canada is not the USA. We have our own history, culture, politics and day to day concerns and I don’t think the Canadian government was thinking of the USA when they chose the name of their space agency or the Canadian Standards Association, also known as CSA. The world is a big place…
Silvereyes,
In reply to your comment uniquely identified by the following URL:
https://trekmovie.com/2016/05/13/starfleet-academy-experience-launches-at-gala-ottawa-event-featuring-william-shatner/#comment-5304777
You are welcome and no, I didn’t forget Canada has its own history which is why I said all the Canadians working south of your country contributing to the USA’s space program which ironically took place in The South of which we speak might inform you of its unfortunate taint, and as I recall, the Canadian Space Agency wasn’t formed until the late 1980s by which time the CSA designation had completed its total transformation from a defeated lost cause almost forgotten to an in-your-face prideful threat teetering on assault on blacks in America’s statehouses?
Also, your having your own history doesn’t negate or erase the fact that our two countries also have a shared history, especially in regards to the institution of slavery and all the bad bits from its aftermath which led to the bigotry which caused both countries to have interment camps during WW II, for example.
At the very least, I would have thought you could have seen the utility of NOT having Canadian preeminent black scientists traveling south to work on their Space Shuttle science packages and thinking all those CSAs they were seeing were uncharacteristically aware US citizens warmly greeting them? Or rather planning to warmly greet them but not in the affectionate sense that they would be imagining.
I think you are taking this way too far. Even a Google search on CSA mentions nothing of the Confederate States of America… although being in Canada my search context may be location specific. There is a multitude of uses of the CSA acronym. I’m sorry to say you’re being overly dramatic and your perceptions are US biased… That’s ok, you’re American. I accept your argument as valid, I just disagree.
Silvereyes,
In reply to your comment uniquely identified by the following URL:
https://trekmovie.com/2016/05/13/starfleet-academy-experience-launches-at-gala-ottawa-event-featuring-william-shatner/#comment-5304779
No, you are the one taking it too far. I’m focusing on history and the unfortunate circumstance of that at the time of its 1980’s creation, and you are trying to diminish this significance by resorting to weighted search results from Google which are rightly influenced in this particular case by the recent Confederate Battle Flag brouhaha. But if you really insist we must use Google to show us something meaningful in this regard, go to google.com and type in C.S.A. without punching the search button or hitting the “enter” key you will find that Google will inform you that the most popular search entry by Google users is “the confederate states of america” and make it available for you to click on and search right at the top of its drop down list.
I’m not trying to diminish anything. I’m pointing out that linking CSA to an American entity is irrelevant to non Americans. And the point with Google is that if CSA doesn’t appear as the Confederate States of America in the search results (in Canada) then it’s because it’s not used as such on websites here which supports my point that in Canada no one is thinking about the Confederate States when they see CSA. You need to spend more time out of the USA and see what’s out there…
Silvereyes,
In reply to your comment uniquely identified by the following URL:
https://trekmovie.com/2016/05/13/starfleet-academy-experience-launches-at-gala-ottawa-event-featuring-william-shatner/#comment-5304786
You are not pointing out anything of the kind. You are engaging in the theater of the absurd. On the one hand you are trying to assert US citizens are ignorant of Canadian history, concerns and awareness, and on the other hand you claim you can prove it by using Google, a US created corporation and its tools which should share in these same deficits that you seem bordering on claiming all U.S.A. peoples possess, to prove it.
You are also absurdly thinking that Google’s weighted search results which they make no bones has a goal to place sites higher up so that searchers are liable to click on generating ad and other revenues for it somehow accurately reflect what’s relevant to searching citizens of various countries.
Google’s Code of Conduct is “Don’t Be Evil” and it is totally in their power to weigh down CSA search results viewed as containing evil in joining with the many statesmen who came to the conclusion that flying Confederate Battle Flags on their Capitals’ grounds served no good.
And again I point out to you if you go to Google’s Canadian search site:
https://www.google.ca/webhp?gl=ca&ei=ixw8V7K3EIHxmAGqj5HYCg&emsg=NCSR&noj=1
And you type in its search box : c.s.a.
Google Canada will offer up the unloaded top search entry for Canadians typing into that box is “confederate states of america”. thus proving by your own metric that your fellow Canadians are indeed far more aware than you give them credit as proven by the actual most popular searches they are actually entering into Google versus your over-reliance on what Google, itself not Canadian, regurgitates in response.
Get over it
There is nothing wrong with the acronym “CSA.” You have an unfortunately Americocentric view.
Thank you Dandru. My point exactly.
Silvereyes,
In reply to your comment uniquely identified by the following URL:
& Dandru,
How fortunate for me and unfortunate for you that not all Canadians agree:
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/why-the-confederate-flag-is-surprisingly-abundant-in-canada
“A high school in Sutton, Ont. banned all wearing of Confederate symbols after the flag became trendy among seniors sporting it on bandanas, belt buckles and lighters.” — ‘Why the Confederate flag is surprisingly abundant in Canada’, Tristin Hopper, NATIONAL POST | June 24, 2015 9:54 AM ET
http://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/lcdl/catalog/lcdl:33140
Don’t know why that picture link to the original Confederate symboled belt buckle got corrupted BFWIW:
http://fedora.library.cofc.edu:8080/fedora/objects/lcdl:33140/datastreams/THUMB1/content#.jpg
Hey , take it easy with the downvotes, people. I was joking.
(Seriously, though, I personally have launched more rockets than Canada).
dmduncan, there are those who would find your “joke” offensive. Saying it’s a joke doesn’t forgive the innuendo that Canada is so backwards we can’t even launch our own rockets… As for myself, I thought your joke is what one would expect an ignorant jock to say, but I’m not one of those who downvoted you nor am I calling you an ignorant jock. I’m just saying it doesn’t make you look good… Just sayin’
Shatner is wearing jeans and a wrinkled blazer? Glad to see he decided to dress for the occasion!
Relax, cupcakes, it was a JOKE.
dmduncan,
I wonder if the Canadian Space Agency with its unfortunate CSA designation ever realizes why?:
http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/
http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=1064869
Oh hey, speaking of Shatner…remember all the debates about de-aging him for the Shatner Scene, some thinking it wouldn’t have worked?
Did you see Captain America Civil War? De-aging Robert Downey Jr. to a teen was absolutely convincing. It was perfect. I don’t know how they did it, but they did it.
They could take 30 years off Shatner. And it would work.
dmduncan, I haven’t seen the movie, but any chance they used footage of Downey when he WAS a teenager in films?
I haven’t seen all of Downey’s work, but my hunch is that they did NOT build that scene around what they could find in Downey’s filmography. It just seemed too organic and specific to the movie; that scene is not a gimmick, it’s an integral part of the story.
dmduncan
The fact that Shatner is not in the movie will be the biggest missed opportunity and disappointment for the 50th anniversary, I don’t know how Bob Orci would have adjusted his script with Leonard Nimoys death.. Still would have been awesome to have Bill Shatner contribute as Capt Kirk
Well I think the biggest sore spot for me in the reboots was the missed opportunity to involve Shatner; the Shatner scene would have been a wonderful way for ST.09 to close the circle with.
I have my fingers crossed that he will in some way eventually be included in the TV show, perhaps filling the role for IT that Nimoy did for ST.09 and STID.
dmduncan Totally agree on both points. The 09 movie ending would have been much better with the Shatner scene. It would be great if Fuller could use Shatner in some way for the tv series
Harry Ballz & dmduncan,
I saw it and I agree with dmduncan that RDj’s de-aging was good enough to take 30 years off Shatner. I didn’t catch anything in those scenes that reminded me of something he had done in his youth. But if it turns out to be as Harry suggests then it would likely mean Bad Robot’s relipping tech has progressed to the point where it wouldn’t matter which way they went with Shat.
Hey the lack of a ceiling in that bridge set will totally take me out of the movie.
For the Starfleet Academy Experience in french, press 2
Great article! I sprang for the VIP tickets, which allowed for an open bar, Trek-themed food, and a little time to mingle with Misters Shatner, de Lancie, and Auberjonois. I would have to say, though, the Starfleet Academy portion wasn’t as thrilling as I had hoped. True, a computer glitch was apparently interfering with the wrist bands, meaning we couldn’t take part in the quizzes and activities. But even bearing that in mind, the show wasn’t a home run. There’s one large model of the original 1701, but no other large starship models to see; the only starship section was a hologram that apparently shows various Enterprises, but it also wasn’t working.
The 1701-D bridge was cool, but pales in comparison to what they used to have at “Star Trek: The Experience” in Vegas. There’s a transporter effect that seems to make you beam to another location, but you can’t actually see it yourself – someone watching you will see you beam into another location. There’s a phaser range to shoot at targets on a screen – which wasn’t working – but the phasers themselves are made of wood, so they look and feel cheap.
All told, I suppose the Experience is worth a visit if you’re in the neighborhood – but I don’t think it’s worth the drive from another city, IMHO.
my feeling are, as usual, Star Trek still very populaire! for me, original Star Trek will always be best Star Trek
Why the heck did anyone down-vote THAT comment??
I’ve been all the way to the Vegas convention, love Trek, live in Ottawa and missed the opening :( Can’t wait to go check it out though.
I bought the stamp and quarter set (which has the only tastefully designed coin).
@Silvereyes
I’ve never had any problems with you, and my impression is that you’re a good guy. But, I really don’t respond well to people telling me what to do, especially when it’s dismissive of me for things that I think are important. Telling me to “stop whining”, when I’m expressing a substance-based idea in a reasonably articulate fashion, is insulting. Hence my response. I’m tolerant and encourage people to express themselves, unless by doing so they’re trying to stifle other peoples’ expression or tell them what to say. That’s my line. So, friends?
And along the lines of stifling expression, I’m reiterating my observation from the John Cho thread. This downvoting pile-on is just another form of bullying, plain and simple. What’s worse is that it’s a definitively dumb form of bullying, in that it’s ambiguous and vague and sheds no light on whatever issue the downvoter is voting on. Further, the anonymity of this system precludes any reasonable judgment as to the credence or validity of the voting. The voters could be nice people with good values, or they could be dubiously motivated interested parties, or they could be morons—there’s literally no telling which.
For those whose propriety has been upturned by this post, I would mention that I sent an email to Kayla Iacovino elaborating on all of the above, and I received no response. Not even an acknowledgment.
As for the Starfleet Academy Experience, I am totally in support of it and hereby express positive sentiments about it. And, having made comments relevant to the topic of this thread—rather mindless comments, I grant, but that’s obviously not frowned upon here—you cannot rightly downvote me in accordance with the voting guidelines. I have commented on the topic, and my comments cannot reasonably be deemed offensive.
Ta.
Cygnus, thank you for your post. I apologize for having insulted you. It wasn’t my intent.
I think that people need to develop a thicker skin if they are so affected by downvoting. My opinion is that I couldn’t care less what faceless Internet users think of my views and surely we have more to do in our respective daily lives than to make an issue of downvoting…
However I do respect your opinions and views and you are free to think differently.
@Silvereyes
Well, I can appreciate that. It’s more the intention behind the whole downvoting system—what the moderators of the site are trying to achieve by it—that I find offensive. The system is explicitly put forth as a means of bullying people into conformist thinking and expression, without regard to the serious flaws inherent in it—most egregious among them, that it’s an anonymous system which precludes assessing the reputation and intent of the people casting the votes. A BR employee’s vote is indistinguishable from the vote of a non-interested party, and so forth. If it were the same people constantly downvoting a certain user, then that would carry certain meaning, for example. But, this anonymous sniping from the shadows just comes across as ugly, and has given this place a bad vibe. Not to mention that discussions have substantially dropped off. And seeing peoples’ rationale for their opinions has always been more interesting to me than a simple statement of approval or disapproval. Or, even worse, reducing peoples’ thoughtful, well-articulated expressions into a binary up/down value as judged by anonymous people lurking in the shadows.
I think I could have built a better version of the Enterprise-D Bridge out of recycled cardboard boxes, duct tape, some used tablets, and beige spray paint. What version of the D is this supposed to be? “Generations”? Did they not think that fans would recognize the intricacies of the bridge?
I’m waiting to see the props and artifacts the exhibit plans on displaying. I hope they are the REAL props and screen-used items, as opposed to what Disney is doing with the “Star Wars Launch Bay” at WDW/DL. They’ve taken some (really good and detailed) model ships, costumes, weapons, etc. and tried to subtly pass them off as the real ones used in the movies. They don’t implicitly say they are props, but they don’t say they aren’t either – instead they are incased in heavy plastic boxes with well-written descriptions that hint that the items are real.
Recycled cardboard boxes ?!!!! You’re just being dishonest!
We’re talking touring exhibition established in a museum in a nation’s capital, not some fan-made cr*p in a basement
According to : https://www.ottawatourism.ca/ottawa-insider/star-trek-beams-ottawa/ :
“Towards the end of the exhibit, you come to a recreation of the bridge, complete with a trademark Commander chair, which you can sit in yourself if you wish. Also, the artwork in the recreated bridge is 100 per cent authentic. According to the museum, it was created by Michael Okuda, the scenic graphic artist who designed the Enterprise-D control system interface. “We hope visitors have the opportunity to sit in the Commander’s chair or to teleport themselves from the Starship Enterprise,” Kitzan said. In this area, you’ll also find a Star Trek Hall of Fame featuring favourite characters such as Commanding Officer Jonathan Archer, Commanding Officer James Kirk and Commanding Officer Jean-Luc Picard, among many others”
MICHAEL OKUDA…
There’s a summer camp for kids…. awesome!!!!
“Starfleet Academy Summer Camp
You can enroll your child as a Starfleet Academy Junior Cadet for a full week this summer.
The Canada Aviation and Space Museum offers a week-long day camp based on the Star Trek universe. This interactive day camp with science, technology, engineering, arts and math content is packed with exciting adventures, experiments and FUN!
•Go on an Away Mission and conduct exobotanical and archeological surveys
•Practice for your Starfleet Academy Pilot’s Exam using real-world flight simulation technology and take a real flight in a Cessna 150!
•Classify planets, galaxies and other astral bodies in the Stellar Cartography Laboratory
•Experiment with Basic Rocketry as part of your training in Engineering
•Learn to communicate in Klingon!
•Camp includes entry to the new special exhibition Star TrekTM: The Starfleet Academy Experience, Uniform T-shirt, Communicator Badge and more”
How I wish I was a 10 y/o again!!!! My kids don’t enjoy Star Trek as much as I do :(
https://www.ottawatourism.ca/ottawa-insider/star-trek-beams-ottawa/
This article/video shows what fans can see at the museum… For Star Wars experience, they offered a free entry to the air and space museum with every ticket purchased