![One of the Best Star Trek Commercials We’ve Never Seen [Kicking Back with Jersey Joe]](http://fierceandnerdy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/william-shatner.jpg)
One of the Best Star Trek Commercials We’ve Never Seen [Kicking Back with Jersey Joe]
Here at F & N, it’s obvious how much we love Star Trek. Check out what happens when National Power and PowerGen from the UK writes a couple of fat checks to William Shatner and James Doohan! You get one of the best Star Trek commercials Americans have never seen!
While the commercial uses the sets from Star Trek: The Next Generation (meaning this was filmed in Hollywood), it features the movie era Kirk and Scotty and a shot of the Enterprise lifted from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
The meteor shower scene was well produced and could have worked well in an actual episode. According to the copyright at the beginning, this was released in 1990.
Kirk beaming up is the showstopper of an ending!
National Power was formed in 1990 when the power grid in the United Kingdom was privatized. This commercial was shot to invite investors to purchase stock in the companies.
Powergen was formed in 1989 and was also looking for investors, but was taken over by E.ON, a German utility company.
The British actor is Simon Cadell, who was famous for his role on the BBC sit-com Hi-de-Hi!. He passed away a few years after this commercial was filmed in 1996.
THE 411
Name: National Power / Powergen
What: UK utility companies
JERSEY JOE RECOMMENDS:
It’s too bad they couldn’t reuse some of this for electric company ads in the United States. It could have worked for Con-Ed. It would have been bad had it been used for Enron, looking for suckers to invest!
I wonder if anyone in the US gets the Wally comment.
Image credit: x-ray delta one
My first thought is this would cost a mint to do over here with footage and all of that. My second thought is wow, I can’t believe the trek franchise let them do that with the brand even in the U.K. Though that was back before YouTube. I remember when I was in Japan in 1999, there were jaw-droppingly embarrassing ads from A-list stars (I’m talking like Leonardo DiCaprio) b/c they knew they’d never be seen over here. So if you’re looking for a good round up subject…
I have read about celebs going overseas to do commercials and movies that we are never meant to see in the US.
But, in this case, they traveled to Hollywood and used the already existing Next Gen sets and footage from the movies. They shelled out enough for the production costs of shooting on the sets, for the actors, and for the Star Trek rights.
They had to have some cash around to do this. TNG was also a hit in the UK as well. So, as Spock would say, the marketing genius behind the whole thing was being “quite logicial.”