I barely remember being conscious of long distance providers. It was before I had to worry about bills and I’ve never had a land line—at this point, I think even my grandparents have seen the light of texting. I do vaguely remember the rabid flurry of phone company commercials, desperately trying to one-up each other and corner the market. As a Trekkie-by-birth however (thanks mom!), I would have totally remembered the weirdness of this 1990 MCI commercial, had I ever witnessed it.

Don’t get me wrong, I cast no stones at product endorsement, not even by my beloved science fiction heroes. I mean, Shatner’s a great spokesmen for Priceline—he has the smarm and the charm to make it work. George Takei appeared in commercials for television, and George Takei can pretty much do whatever he damn well pleases because he is a gift to all mankind. But it is weird to see the entire crew of The Enterprise promoting something as mundane and anachronistic as a long distance service.

Speaking of mundane, I like how they portrayed the MCI offices as a dynamic, mission control kind of atmosphere, instead of the fields of cubicles we know to be the call center.