Question of the Day - 08 April 2017

Two words: Colony Capital.

The investment fund took a flyer into casino ownership in the early years of the 21st century, one that provd problematic, not least because Colony bought casinos, then took out nine-figure (hundred-million) loans against them. When the tide of the casino business went out during the Great Recession, Colony was left high and dry; it had overpaid for gaming assets and was now carrying crippling debt burdens. 

Colony was so penurious after closing the Star Trek attraction in 2008 that it lacked the money to re-do Quark’s Bar or even to remove the Star Trek-derived architecture from that portion of the hotel, thereby leaving what seemed like the residue of a failed Borg assimilation. The gutting of ST:TE also weakened the Hilton’s grip on the annual (but unaffiliated) Star Trek Convention, a popular tourist draw that eventually beamed itself over to the Rio. 

In the meantime, the Star Trek attraction's operator, Cedar Fair Entertainment, also exhibited a lack of enthusiasm for continuing to keep the theme park and its “History of the Future Museum” (200 authentic souvenirs of the TV show and movies). Why? This has never been adequately explained. “It was not a decision from our end,” a Cedar Pair spokesman asserted to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.  Paul Walker, captain of local fan club USS Las Vegas, told a reporter, "They're not advertising it. They're not promoting it. Cedar Fair bought it, but doesn’t know what to do with it."

Actor Robert Picardo, who played The Doctor on Star Trek: Voyager, took it harder, telling SyFyPortal, “It breaks my heart a little bit to no longer be my own theme park ride. Once you have an action figure for years, there are only a few ways to go up, and being a theme park attraction is one of the only ones.” And Will Wheaton, Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, blogged, “It’s obviously an important place to me, though I don't expect it be nearly as important to anyone else in the world. I've always said that it's something every Star Trek fan should experience, at least once.”

Former ST:TE crew member Lysander Abadia reminisces, “Star Trek: The Experience was a highlight in my career due to the cast and crew involved in the operation of that facility … I thanked my lucky stars that I got paid to play Star Trek all day. But it really was the people involved who became a family which makes those memories special to me, and to this very day, we still get together for trivia nights and conventions. One of our favorite things to do, especially in the starships, was to reward guests who we would start to recognize as repeat visitors with operational duties whenever we were being ‘attacked’ by the Borg or the Klingons. These fellow Star Trek fans instinctively knew how to operate a data station or LCARS interface, and it would be just as enjoyable to us to include them in the storylines.”

Declining attendance at Quark’s Bar and the SpaceQuest Casino were blamed for the attraction’s elimination, as was Colony itself. According to TrekMovie.com, which broke the story, "Apparently, the Hilton Hotel was the biggest holdout, convinced more money could be made using the space for other purposes.” (A foolish conviction, as subsequent non-events would prove.)

LVA reported, “Attendance at ST:TE had long been slumping and Cedar Fair (which inherited the attraction from Paramount Parks) had instituted economy measures, including shorter operating hours. One provisional solution, leaked to the media, would have involved a short-term lease renewal, keeping ST:TE in place until the release of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek feature film could possibly jump-start attendance.”

With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, this would appear to have been the best solution, but it was not to be.

Tomorrow: The Hilton’s final frontier — bankruptcy court