To boldly go where no spaceship has gone before... Las Vegas! Star Trek designers reveal scrapped plans for full-scale Starship Enterprise on the Strip

The abandoned plans to build a full-sized version of a spacecraft from Star Trek in Las Vegas have been revealed online.



The astonishing plans show the $150-million project to create the Star Trek Starship Enterprise, complete with restaurant, theme park ride, tours and live entertainment.



The man behind the plans, Gary Goddard, head of the Goddard Group, has posted them online, claiming it would have become 'an attraction of such magnitude that it would draw people from the strip, a destination attraction' that would 're-establish the downtown core as the center of the action in Las Vegas.'

Star struck: Designers of a $150 million project to build a replica Star Trek Starship Enterprise in downtown Las Vegas have revealed their original design, approximately 20 year after it was scrapped

Downtown jolt: The massive replica entered in a 1992 contest to regenerate downtown Las Vegas would have a restaurant, theme park ride, tours and live entertainment

'My concept was to do something so large and so epic, it would fire the imaginations of people around the world,' he said.



The plans were created in 1992 as part of a contest to try and regenerate downtown Las Vegas.

'It would create a new 'eighth Wonder of the World' with an iconic monument that would take its place alongside other 'must see' monuments in the world,' said Goddard.



'You would be able to see this from the airplanes as they came for landing at the Vegas airport. It’s that big.'

Size: The building would have dwarfed other world monuments with its size, seen here standing higher than the Eiffel tower and nearly reaching the Empire State Building

A graphic of the Enterprise shows it dwarfing other world monuments, standing higher than the Eiffel tower and almost reach the Empire State building.



Visitors would have toured all the key rooms, chambers, decks, and corridors from the Star Trek films.



There was to be the dining area for the ship’s crew, and other special features including a high-speed 'travelator' that would whisk people from deck to deck. However, to avoid competing with local hotels, visitors would not be able to stay in the ship.

Ride: The Starship Enterprise was often the main setting for the Star Trek TV show and later movies, carrying its uniformed crew under the leadership of Captain James Kirk through outer space

Home sweet home: The Starship Enterprise would have served as a massive magnet for trekkies, or fans of the program, according to the developers but its plug was pulled after its design was announced and majorly approved

The mayor of Las Vegas at the time, Jan Jones, backed the plans, and the city gave it land - but Paramount CEO Stanley Jaffe, which owns the rights to Star Trek, eventually killed the project over concerns it would reflect badly on him if it failed.



'We were ready to go,' Mr Goddard said in a blog post revealing the project.



'Money in place, land provided by the city, license for the property negotiated with Paramount licensing – all set. If Mr. Jaffe says 'yes' and we are a 'go' project. And the city wanted to have a press conference within a week announcing the project.

Killed: Las Vegas' then-current mayor supported the plans, the city provided land for it but Paramount's CEO ultimately killed the plans, according to the designers, worried if the project failed it would have been under his watch

'So with everyone in the room, I take Mr Jaffe through the project. With the art, the plans, the overall concept. After my spirited 'pitch' everyone was beaming – everyone except Mr. Jaffe.



'Mr. Jaffe thanked us for the effort, and he congratulated us on creating a bold concept and presentation, and then went into a speech that went something like this:

"You know, this is a major project. You’re going to put a full-scale ENTERPRISE up in the heart of Las Vegas. And on one hand that sounds exciting. But on another hand, it might not be a great idea for us – for Paramount.

Result: Instead of the full-scale enterprise, pictured, a mall with a giant video screen called the Fremont Experience was built instead

"If this doesn’t work – if this is not a success – it’s there, forever…." I remember thinking to myself "oh my god, this guy does NOT get it…." And he said "I don’t want to be the guy that approved this and then it’s a flop and sitting out there in Vegas forever."'



The plan was eventually replaced with the Fremont Experience, a mall with a giant video screen.

