Who needed communicators, anyway? Way back in 1993, the full cast of Star Trek: The Original Series acted in a commercial for MCI Friends & Family Long Distance. Yes, this crew that beamed up, flew at warp 10, made first contact with aliens, and used communicators to, well, communicate, participated in a 20th century phone commercial. Joining them oh-so-briefly and to great comedic effect, was Jonathan Frakes, who at the time was playing Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the first live-action television series since TOS.
The minute-long spot opens with a pair of employees at an MCI Friends & Family call center, with one of them, Chris, explaining that the other, Anna, started a friends and family calling circle. She then reveals that a group of friends “wanted to get back in touch.” Cut to a series of close-ups of the TOS cast interspersed with their images coming up on a video screen at the MCI calling center. One by one, we see and hear Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, Leonard Nimoy, and William Shatner. And they’re all on their landlines, paying by the minute for long-distance calls!
Nichols, Takei, Koenig, and Doohan playfully do their bits, but Kelley and Nimoy elicit real laughs by poking fun at each other, much like their iconic Star Trek characters, Dr. McCoy and Spock. Nimoy even raises an eyebrow. And then it gets better: Shatner appears and says, as only he can, “When they were forming the circle, they obviously… saved… the… best… for… last.” At which point, Frakes pops up and jokes, “Oh, that’s why they called me next.”
Kelley, Nimoy, and Shatner then react to Frakes joining the call, which is followed by Anna touting the benefits of MCI Family & Friends while dozens of fellow employees stand, cheer, clap, and whoop it up while watching the Star Trek actors on the screens behind Anna. And it goes from there, with more information about the plan and images of the Trek cast laughing. Oh, and the phone number to sign up for the now-defunct plan? 1-800-3 BEAM UP.
While the commercial still stands the test of time, MCI did not. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2002 and beamed out of existence in 2006 after Verizon purchased it.