4 ms·

$1.5 Billion Star Trek Theme Park to be Powered by Alternative Energy

24 points by rblion 15y ago

awongh 15y ago
slightly off-topic, but why does the quoted press release refer to real time? "...advanced visual and sound effects to give the people coming in the park a real-time feel of things". No idea what that could mean.
- rjbond3rd 15y ago
  My guess is that it's a next-gen version of Star Trek: The Experience, the defunct Las Vegas tourist attraction. You'd go through a transporter (it was very well done), get aboard the Enterprise, then escape the Borg and ride a shuttle which was rigged up with hydraulics and big-screen effects. There was an original ST:TNG version, and later, a more advanced Voyager version with incredible audio (built into the headrests of your chair), some decent 3D and some well-designed low-tech effects (e.g., you'd get squirted with water after phasering a Borg, and when you were assimilated, a mechanical "probe" in the upholstered chair would start to "drill" into your lower back, no joke). You'd exit into the DS9 Promenade (gift shops) and then into Quark's Bar (a themed restaurant). Lots of fun.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
ranman 15y ago
For $1.5 billion I hope it has a holodeck, transporter, and a take-home-pet-android named Data.
cincinnatus 15y ago
This looks like a pipe dream to me. Another fantasy building project for the middle east.
- Jach 15y ago
  Except this one's a lot cooler and I'd actually visit, unlike the Burj Khalifa.
ChuckMcM 15y ago
I find the cognitive dissonance of this stunning. If you claimed that the opposite of an Islamic future was Gene Roddenberry's view of the future I would not dispute that. In Gene's future women wore as little as possible, religion was like a country club membership, and discrimination against any lifestyle choices was a major faux pas. The Christians in the US really hated it back when it was first on for these very reasons, I doubt the middle east would embrace it.
- rflrob 15y ago
  I don't think it's fair to think of Jordan as a particularly Islamist (which is distinct from Islamic; the former being a political philosophy, the latter meaning "primarily Muslim") country. Especially compared to the Gulf states which have lots of oil wealth, Jordan is a relatively moderate society, much closer to Turkey in terms of westernization than Yemen or even Saudi Arabia[1]. [1] According to the CIA World Factbook, female literacy rates are 96% in Israel, 85% in Jordan, 80% in Turkey, 70% in Saudi Arabia, and 30% in Yemen. That's just a single, relatively poor metric, but gives some idea of the state of things.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - ChuckMcM 15y ago
    I don't think I called out Jordan as Islamist, I said that a Star Trek universe is conceptually the inverse of an Islamic universe. Creating a theme park in the Middle east which is dominated by Islamic politics seems unlikely to succeed at best. Jordan is perhaps one of the few places where this project could even get off the ground (Dubai as well perhaps). The fact that it would be built, in spite of being antithetical to a large chunk of possible 'customers' is where the dissonance comes in.

24 points by rblion 15y ago

slightly off-topic, but why does the quoted press release refer to real time? "...advanced visual and sound effects to give the people coming in the park a real-time feel of things". No idea what that could mean.

rjbond3rd 15y ago
My guess is that it's a next-gen version of Star Trek: The Experience, the defunct Las Vegas tourist attraction. You'd go through a transporter (it was very well done), get aboard the Enterprise, then escape the Borg and ride a shuttle which was rigged up with hydraulics and big-screen effects. There was an original ST:TNG version, and later, a more advanced Voyager version with incredible audio (built into the headrests of your chair), some decent 3D and some well-designed low-tech effects (e.g., you'd get squirted with water after phasering a Borg, and when you were assimilated, a mechanical "probe" in the upholstered chair would start to "drill" into your lower back, no joke). You'd exit into the DS9 Promenade (gift shops) and then into Quark's Bar (a themed restaurant). Lots of fun.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

ranman 15y ago

For $1.5 billion I hope it has a holodeck, transporter, and a take-home-pet-android named Data.

cincinnatus 15y ago

This looks like a pipe dream to me. Another fantasy building project for the middle east.

Jach 15y ago
Except this one's a lot cooler and I'd actually visit, unlike the Burj Khalifa.

ChuckMcM 15y ago

I find the cognitive dissonance of this stunning. If you claimed that the opposite of an Islamic future was Gene Roddenberry's view of the future I would not dispute that. In Gene's future women wore as little as possible, religion was like a country club membership, and discrimination against any lifestyle choices was a major faux pas. The Christians in the US really hated it back when it was first on for these very reasons, I doubt the middle east would embrace it.

rflrob 15y ago
I don't think it's fair to think of Jordan as a particularly Islamist (which is distinct from Islamic; the former being a political philosophy, the latter meaning "primarily Muslim") country. Especially compared to the Gulf states which have lots of oil wealth, Jordan is a relatively moderate society, much closer to Turkey in terms of westernization than Yemen or even Saudi Arabia[1]. [1] According to the CIA World Factbook, female literacy rates are 96% in Israel, 85% in Jordan, 80% in Turkey, 70% in Saudi Arabia, and 30% in Yemen. That's just a single, relatively poor metric, but gives some idea of the state of things.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- ChuckMcM 15y ago
  I don't think I called out Jordan as Islamist, I said that a Star Trek universe is conceptually the inverse of an Islamic universe. Creating a theme park in the Middle east which is dominated by Islamic politics seems unlikely to succeed at best. Jordan is perhaps one of the few places where this project could even get off the ground (Dubai as well perhaps). The fact that it would be built, in spite of being antithetical to a large chunk of possible 'customers' is where the dissonance comes in.