Trek connections in Super Bowl ads

While we don’t have much new on the Star Trek front as far as new movies or TV series, Trek stars and alumni were represented in this year’s Super Bowl commercials.

The most obviously Trek influenced commercial was the Comcast XFINITY commercial titled “Bold Explorers.” It highlights Comcast’s upcoming next generation X1 platform technologies. Zachary Quinto as Spock and Anton Yelchin as Chekov beam in to see all the advanced tech details.

The other Trek connected commercial was the teaser for the re-launch of Carl Sagan’s beloved edutainment series Cosmos on Fox. Trek alumni Brannon Braga along with Seth MacFarlane are producers, with astrophysicist, and pretty cool guy who makes science fun and interesting, Neil deGrasse Tyson as host.

Were there more Trek connections in the Super Bowl adverts?   If so let us know in the comments.

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Thanks for putting the Xfinity ad up on this site. I enjoyed it and would have been unlikely to have seen it otherwise.

I’d really like to know how much Zachary Quinto gets paid to spend one day slapping on the ol’ Vulcan ears and reciting a few moronic lines for a commercial.

Nice work if you can get it!

#3

How about Nimoy? He didn’t even have to put the ears on for this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKzNNOU5lLw

Looks like Quinto got the budget makeover again, like in that other commercial. I could use a side-by-side, but I think I like this better than the eyes/forehead alterations in the films.

Or did I dream it? Comments?

Bringing back Cosmos is a great idea. Love Neil deGrasse TooManyNames Tyson.

#1 Craiger — More dead bodies on prime time network tv? (best Creole accent) Oooo-eee, dat’s gud watchin’ dere.

Anyone notice the SFX for the original series communicator in the commercial?

While bringing back Cosmos sounds cool(as long as it is NOT a remake), I still don’t think that Brannon Braga and Seth McFarland should be a part of it.

Braga was a part of Star Trek’s near demise during Rick Berman’s and Ronald Moore’s reign. Seth McFarland is, unfortunately, the creator of three very-less-than-funny and crude and borish cartoons that are currently be broadcasted on FOX.

Hopefully, the return of Cosmos will be handled properly in the hands of Carl Sagan’s widow, Ann Ryan.

That was the best commercial of the Superbowl.

Maybe COSMOS will be framed as a Riker/Troi holodeck adventure. Braga’s “valentine to the fans.”

deGrasse Tyson is so great, he should begin converting creationists from episode 1 (with Brian Griffin’s alter ego producing, and the reverence paid to the legacy of Sagan, it’s to be expected)

#3 KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

Oh no, Brannon Braga has got his hands on Cosmos? What possible good can come of it!

Thank you for this interesting article.

I’m glad to see some Trek connections making the news.

I have an idea for maintaining the visibility of this site through new content. Has TrekMovie considered asking Trek luminaries to post occasional personal commentaries here as columns? I’m thinking of short articles by cast and crew about their experiences in Trek. Offhand, I would enjoy reading contributions from not only actors and producers, but also people like the Okudas who have a long history with the franchise. They could connect present events with their experiences and provide insights that everyone could enjoy.

With Mr. Nimoy showing signs of slowing down, the old guard is entering a well-deserved period of retirement. It would be nice to know that interest is still strong among those intimately involved in Trek’s more recent past and present.

Thanks again.

9… Her name is actually Ann Druyan.

How dare Spock criticize Kirk for violating the Prime Directive? Here he is stealing technology from a pre-warp civilization? What a hypocrite!!!

@13 – Doug Drexlers facebook page is always worth a visit :)

@James (16, re: 13), thanks for the information. I had visited Doug Drexler’s webpage before but was told that he had shut it down. I didn’t realize he had a Facebook page. Perhaps I will visit it when I start a Facebook account.

What about the Twizzler commercials? It aired during the superbowl: it had the Star Trek music and sound effects AND had the Twizzlers form into an Enterprise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AsMGnuuFMg

This commerical is a few months old, but I know for a fact it aired during the Superbowl.

The future is now.

I wonder how much technology will change in the next 50 years.

Kinda sad to see Spock reduced to advertising shill.

@20 Ummm, Nimoy did the same stuff for a good number of years after TOS was cancelled, what do you think inspired the scene in Galaxy Quest where they were cutting the ribbon for the opening of a “Tech” store.

Fox & science? …not the best match, LOL! =D

(I LOVED the old Cosmos) “…billions and billions of stars…” ;-)

22… Sagan never actually said the famous “billions and billions” line. Johnny Carson said that, while imitating Sagan.

Sagan came close with “ten *b*illion billion billion atoms”: (at about 0:27):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXQ_7QUyb20&feature=related

And thanks to Carson, he did use “Billions and Billions” as the title of his last book!
http://www.amazon.com/Billions-Thoughts-Death-Brink-Millennium/dp/0345379187/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391600050&sr=8-1

Carson saying it: (at 1:50)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIbbTHQmPkE

hah yah the twizzler ad is great…also microsoft keeps running the xbox one ad as well…find it amazing trek keeps gettin used for the new hitech stuff…and in particular into darkness…just imagine how many more tribute type commercials could start appearing as treks 50th gets closer..tonite on et mila kunis admitted to being a trekkiewith a signed nimoy pix n that she has trek costumes…the show speculated she may be wearing them for ashton kucher..

…mmmmm =)

…dreaming of mila kunis trek cosplay… =P

Seth McFarlane is also a Trek alum; he played Ensign Rivers in two episodes of Enterprise.

nuTrek made it to the Super Bowl with 111.5 million viewers. Maybe they can get Janeway to do an adult diapers commercial for the true fans.

@21 — LEONARD NIMOY did advertising, but SPOCK did not. Mr. Nimoy wasn’t made up to look like Spock, and without the ears, eyebrows, make-up, and Starfleet uniform, he’s not Spock; he’s Leonard Nimoy, actor.

What’s different about the current advertising campaign is that Mr. Quinto IS made up as Spock, so it’s SPOCK doing the advertising, not just Quinto as an actor.

haha i am not herbert…i was imagining the same thing re mila kunis sigh….

corylea good point..maybenit wasnt the actors maybe it was a computer sim…they wont need the actors anymore….yikes

I love that Quinto, Yelchin, Cho and the other cast members are keeping Trek in the minds of the general population by doing commercials in between the movies. I love being surprised by them. I think it’s awesome.

Even the social security commercial performed by Takei was also fun with its tongue in cheek humor.