The Enterprise in Vegas

[The Operator]

I would have frakkin moved there

http://www.garygoddard.com/blog/inde...-life-in-1992/

[Shi Whendi]

What a gutless, imaginationless, choad. How is these guys get those gigs?

[Omra]

Another great Trek project destroyed by an unimaginative and lingiuni-spined maggot. I would be base jumping off the saucer section...

[5thHorseman]

I hate to come down on the side of a studio exec who doesn't want to do something cool, but I fear the Enterprise would end up being a huge eyesore when it failed to live up to expectations (due in part to not being able to attract the number of people it needs to keep profitable, and in part because they'd cut every single corner imaginable when the cost to build it skyrocketed) and was left to slowly degrade over time.

Also...

What does Vegas... need with a star ship?

[NothingButheRain]

Hey guys - just consider this -
In a parallel universe, the Enterprise was built in Vegas - and it was awesome!!
In a parallel universe, the Enterprise will be built - and it will explore the stars.

[Fenatic]

What does Vegas... need with a star ship?

*Slow clap*

Honestly the pictures are giving me chills. It's scary to see something that big in real life at times, especially when it is so oddly shaped and looks like it could take off at any moment.

[ThPrime]

If it's any consolation, Jaffe had maybe the briefest tenure of any Paramount president. This was during the production gap between Star Trek VI and Generations with all over aspects of the Star Trek franchise already pre-existing concerns. He presided over Generations development but wasn't around long enough to ever see it made because... not two years later Viacom bought Paramount and Jaffe found himself suing Paramount for his unanticipated golden parachute. The lady in that room got his job, head of all feature development under the reorganization, and became the most successful career executive in Hollywood history. Paramount exploded under Sherry Lansing. Had things gone differently, imagine a lesser Paramount without any piece of the $2 billion dollar Titanic pie, Paramount might be a minor subsidiary in name only instead of still being a viable studio. And she was really hot back in her day. Jaffe never headed another studio. Yet he did produce Kramer vs. Kramer so his star is well earned for posterity.

You might like to stop by TrekMovie: Find Out How Las Vegas Almost Saw A Full Scale USS Enterprise Attraction

That is up to 198 comments and still going, including a detailed six point rebuttal by Gary Goddard himself (post #155).

He makes a very persuasive case that had it been built, the Enterprise would still be there. I agree, Las Vegas would be a different Las Vegas today, and even American tourism overall would have evolved differently, with that kind of transformative iconography in place. Gee, should we visit the Statue of Liberty or the U.S.S. Enterprise this summer? Oh... I don't know...

It should be noted Goddard has spent $150 million several times over on other projects since 1992. Many more expensive projects, in adjusted dollars, were built in Las Vegas afterward. This came so close to becoming reality.