« Town has balls to approve testicle festival | Main | A movie that hardly needs an ad campaign »
Trekkies conflicted about DirecTV spot
This comical Star Trek-themed DirecTV ad has been playing endlessly during the baseball playoffs. It features a current-day William Shatner inserted into footage from 1991’s Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Trekkies seem to be enjoying the spot, by and large, but it’s stirring some nerdy debate about whether Kirk’s uniform has been messed with (“I will nitpick on the fact that the Starfleet badge is too small ... the belt buckle is more angular ... and the collar is too small,” says a commenter on YouTube) and whether some kind of software was used to “de-age” Shatner (he does look shiny and slim). And there’s the usual grousing about why Shatner is doing a Star Trek ad and not a Star Trek movie. Says another YouTube commenter: “What’s more frightening is that [this] may go down in history as the last appearance of James T. Kirk.” |
|
October 23, 2006 | Permalink |
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c51c053ef00d834c06f0053ef
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Trekkies conflicted about DirecTV spot:
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
This biggest peeve is that they don't use the music from the original Star Trek, but that of Star Trek the Next Generation.
Damn I'm a nerd.
Posted by: tom lout | Oct 23, 2006 10:04:21 AM
The biggest peeve is that I'm not a Trekkie, and couldn't care if it was from original footage, new footage, or some hybrid...
Good thing it's not a STAR WARS remake!
Then again, Darth Vader and Heidi Klum for target was pretty good...
Posted by: USELESS MAN | Oct 23, 2006 12:36:58 PM
A real nerd would know that the music you're identifying as being from Star Trek: The Next Generation was written for, and is in fact the theme from, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and was also used as the theme for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Kirk and co. laid claim to it long before it was passed along to Picard and his crew.
Posted by: Mike-El | Oct 23, 2006 2:46:35 PM
And, in fact, the recording is that from the "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" soundtrack.
Posted by: Samuel McConnell | Oct 23, 2006 8:32:34 PM
I think technically, it's spectacular. But, the writing is just not there.
Think about how absolutely **great** this could have been?
Posted by: daveallen99@gmail.com | Oct 23, 2006 9:16:58 PM
The thing I don't get is that Shatner's face looks worse than it does in the Priceline commercials or Boston Legal. It's like they paid less for makeup. Cheap bastards.
Posted by: scott | Oct 24, 2006 7:14:53 AM
Thank you Mike-El and Samuel, there's still hope that one day I'll lose my virginity.
Posted by: tom lout | Oct 24, 2006 9:56:20 AM
My issue is that the digital clock featured in the spot has several different times on it, depending on the shot. I just don't see how that wasn't spotted & corrected before the commercial aired!
Oh, and I totally agree that some sort of Oprah filter was used to make Shatner appear less...than himself.
Posted by: Carrie | Oct 24, 2006 11:48:48 AM
I can't believe that any of you can call yourselves Trekkies (or Trekkers). Anyone with one good eye and a spoonful of brains can see that the biggest gaff here is the fact that he is wearing his Boston Legal rank insignia on his should strap (miscellaneous crap, 2nd class).
LOL
Posted by: Chicago Bang Bang! | Oct 31, 2006 7:08:39 PM
