Fan-made ‘Star Trek’ sets become NY tourist attraction

[yuiyoshida]

Keith Schubert of Peru, New York, dressed as Star Trek’s Mr Spock, and his daughter, Tiffany, right, talk with James Cawley, center, during a tour on Aug. 13 of his replica of the starship Enterprise from the original Star Trek series during the Trekonderoga festival in Ticonderoga, New York.
Photo: AP

On its many voyages through space, the starship Enterprise has endured bridge-shaking blasts from enemy ships and infiltration by scheming aliens. Now it is being invaded by tourists.

Sets mimicking those of the 1960s TV series Star Trek — including Captain Kirk’s bridge, sick bay and engine room — were built by fans for an Internet film series produced in this Adirondacks mountain town and are now open to paying customers who just cannot get enough of the 50-year-old franchise.

“The entire set ... how close it is to the actual TV show, you feel like you’re really there,” said 16-year-old Tiffany Schubert of Peru, New York. “It makes you just want to be in the show and have the same experience — being attacked by aliens, as bad as that is.”

Schubert wore a red Starfleet shirt during a guided tour on a recent Star Trek convention weekend with her father, who came dressed as Spock. They heard a red alert, stood on transporter pads (dad gave a live long and prosper hand sign) and poked around the bridge. The sets are doppelgangers of the originals down to each blinking light and 3D chess piece.

ames Cawley, a 50-year-old Elvis impersonator, began the years-long process of building the sets in 1997 after inheriting a copy of the original Enterprise blueprints from a costume designer on the original show.

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