LAS VEGAS -- More than two years ago, Star Trek, The Experience closed its doors. Yet a sign advertising the attraction remains on the Las Vegas Hilton. Besides being somewhat confusing, some Star Trek fans insist the sign should be removed for its historical significance.
The term Trekkie, used to describe fans of Star Trek, somehow seems inadequate when applied to Vernon Wilmer.
"I ate, breathed and slept Star Trek. My relationship with it would be that T am now an assimilated part of Star Trek," he said.
For four years, Wilmer played Borg Drone Seven at Star Trek, The Experience inside the Las Vegas Hilton. His friend, April Hebert, ended her 11 year run as a Vulcan named Deprille.
"I would stand there everyday and think, 'They pay me, too. It can't get any better than this,'" she said.
Though the last Star Fleet Officer left the Bridge in 2008, visitors who enter the Hilton by way of the monorail may presume otherwise.
"My concern is that it's the last vestige of Star Trek, The Experience, of a beloved local landmark, and I think the sign should be preserved somehow," said Wilmer.
As the unofficial historian of the attraction, Wilmer hopes to save the sign. But so far, he says his efforts to beam it to a new location have yet to materialize.
"I've tried suggesting to a number of organizations, 'See if you can grab that sign, preserve it,' and either the response is we're disinterested or our hands are tied," he said.
Any preservation attempt must begin with the Hilton. Yet its representatives ignored 8 News NOW's repeated requests for information. Wilmer too has no way of knowing what, if anything, the Hilton has planned for the sign he and Hebert consider a precious relic. And the Vulcan and the Borg worry mere mortals may fail to recognize its value to Las Vegas and to Trekkies.
"That place was the be all, end all of my existence. I'm not afraid to say that," said Wilmer. "There are bigger things, much bigger things, going on in the world, but I don't care."
The sign and its salvation, for now at least, are the center of Wilmer's universe. He suggests the Hilton could keep the sign where it is and simply memorialize it with a plaque explaining its history.
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