RV On The Road Yet?

Where every geek has gone before. Toured the Star Trek Tour in Ticonderoga, NY. The “museum” is focused on Star Trek: The Original Series (STOS). If walking through the original Enterprise has always been a dream, welcome to Ticonderoga, New York. (All of the REAL Trekkies of course know that there was a Ticonderoga class star ship in the Federation fleet. If you didn’t  know that, please let me recommend The Arnold Zlotoff Tool Museum in South Hero, Vermont.)

Trek superfan, James Cawley, began re-building the sets 14 years ago and he and his crew have done a wonderful job. You really did feel like you were on the original Enterprise. The tour covers the transporter room, the captain’s quarters, sick bay, research area, the conference room/galley, the Jeffries tube (the Enterprise engineering crawl space named for production designer, Matt Jeffries), hallways, the engine room, and of course, the bridge. You are allowed to take as many pictures as you like, but due to licensing, no video. The tour started out with some tactical stations for Star Trek Next generation because when the tour expands into a larger building soon, they are going to build a whole Next Generation wing.

The tour guides give you some really interesting back story to the original sets and are happy to answer all your questions. The tour includes a number of Easter Eggs from the show as well as some astounding secrets as to how Desilu was able to cut costs to make it financially feasible. Without the benefit of today’s special effects, CGI, and computer screens, it’s amazing what they accomplished with physical effects.

Kirk is Coming!

William Shatner will be at the Tour for his second appearance, Nov 17-19, 2023. Past celebrities include a veritable who’s who of Star Trek. This just happened to be the weekend of Trekonderoga,

in which Robin Curtis (Saavik in the Search for Spock), Dave Blass (production designer for Star Trek: Picard and various other iterations), Brent Spiner (Data), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Will Riker), and John de Lancie (Q) were there. Not being a total fan-boy, I was lucky enough to avoid all that (and the exorbitant prices that went with it).

Nerds-O-Plenty

Each tour group is about 20-some people. Ours included a child of about 5, who was adorable. She kept saying that she watched the movie “when she was a kid” and she wanted her photo taken, etc. The group consisted of people who I would describe as “more than fans.” As I left, I overheard a conversation about which was the best Deep Space Nine episode and they were calling them by episode title. (For the record, I think Season 6, episode 9, “In the Pale Moonlight” won the debate. They decided that Avery Brooks (Commander Sisko) was a better actor after he shaved his head. I felt like I needed a shower to feel clean again.) Some of these people knew the back story to every piece of equipment, could say which episode it appeared in, and tell you the science behind the futuristic gadget. Most were dressed in Star Trek-oriented shirts. For a fact, I was the only one in a buttoned-down, pen stripe dress shirt. My bad.

Not Quite a 5 Year Voyage

We drove from Burlington, Vermont on the bike and I didn’t realize how far it was or I probably would not have. Once committed, I was glad I did. It was entertaining and educational in a “Hmmm. I didn’t know that about the sets of the original series” kind of way. The gift shop was more of a display museum of original equipment and props used in the show than a full-bore-buy-our-stuff gift shop. The staff and tour guides were very nice and knowledgeable and if you are in the Ticonderoga area and a fan of Star Trek: The Original Series, I would heavily recommend it.