Part one by Mer Weinhold.
Space: the final frontier. Star Trek turns 50 years old in 2016, an anniversary marked by various events and festivities. Numerous conventions are happening throughout the year, Canada Post and the Royal Canadian Mint are releasing Star Trek stamps and coins, and museums are sharing their enthusiasm for space exploration by teaching the facts of science through science fiction.
Boldly going where no museum has gone before, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum launched the Starfleet Academy Experience exhibit on May 13th, kicking things off with an opening gala on the 12th. Tickets sold out early on, with diehard Star Trek fans securing their spots immediately with the promise of celebrity guests, themed bars, and a sneak preview of the exhibit.
LtR: Mer Weinhold, Rebecca Bourke, and Roxane Kirkman (as Lwaxana Troi).
With the exhibit billed as an “interactive immersive exhibition,” attendees of the gala got into the right mindset by coming in costume, whether Star Trek uniforms, Klingon garb, or dressing as a specific character from the show. Main stage entertainment began with short speeches by Minister of Canadian Heritage Mélanie Joly and Canada Science and Technology Museum Corporation President Alex Benay, who awarded prizes to the winners of the Space Odyssey challenge for young researchers.
The Royal Canadian Mint unveiled their $10 coin featuring Captain Kirk (played by Montréal native William Shatner), and Shatner himself spoke about the legacy of 50 years of Star Trek. In keeping with the feeling of the long-running franchise, even in a gala setting the emphasis was on research, exploration, and new frontiers.
The exhibit at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum is the first stop on its tour of North America, bringing the Starfleet Academy Experience to Trekkies across the continent.
Part two by Jared Davidson.
Okay, so now that you’ve heard from Meredith, the Star Trek insider, it is time for a little bit of the outside perspective, say for the supportive boyfriends or parents who want to make sure they aren’t about to step into a transporter without another end, or blast a faser at the wrong gremlin.
That’s right. I barely know what a Klingon is. In fact, once my friend described the entire plot of DS9 to me and it took two hours. I don’t remember a single thing.
Despite being like this, I still found myself enjoying the Starfleet Academy Experience. There’s plenty for the Trekkie to be sure. The stuff written on the walls as nigh-on impenetrable to me. And while I frankly had no idea what most of the props and models encased in glass were, they seemed like that should be important, and were pretty darn cool!
For the kids, there’s plenty of interactive things to do. They can take a “selfie” that they can then alter to make it appear as though they are an alien race. I didn’t do this, but if I had I would have been one of those centaur-birds from that dust planet. They look amazing.
Photo by Jared Davidson.
The probable highlight of the exhibit is the Kobayashi Maru, the infamous Starfleet training simulation in which the captain is presented with a situation to which there is no perfect solution, or so I’m told. To experience this element of the cadet’s journey, the attendees are ushered into a room designed to look exactly like a space ship’s bridge. They sit in leather chairs and attempt to beat an unbeatable game. Hopefully they do better than I did. I crashed the ship’s computer. I don’t think that’s advisable in a combat situation.
All things considered, I think I did pretty well at academy training. All attendees are given a special bracelet that tracks their stats throughout the experience and assigns them to a Starfleet post at the exit. I didn’t get a bracelet, because I’m not cool enough, but if I did I think I’d be captain. Yes. I’d captain the space boat straight to Jupiter.
The Starfleet Academy Experience runs at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum (11 Aviation Parkway) from May 13 to Sept 5, 2016.
