I love “Star Trek” as much as I love cars. I would consider myself to be a Trekkie; while I’m not of the costume wearing, convention attending sort, I am the type who has seen all the shows and movies multiple times and collect various ship models. So when I come across something that has the two worlds of cars and “Trek” colliding, I freak out a bit. That’s exactly what happened when I came across a series of Pontiac commercials from the 1990s that feature the voice of Patrick Stewart.
For those of you unfamiliar, Patrick Stewart starred in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” as Captain Jean Luc Picard for seven seasons. He also reprised the role for the four feature films that followed the series, as well three seasons of “Star Trek: Picard,” which centered on the later life of Picard. He’s also known as playing Professor Charles Xavier in the Marvel universe, made a name for himself as a fantastic Shakespearian actor, and also used his great voice for a number of voiceover work over the years. Pontiac was among those projects.
The commercials are great but kind of off-putting. Hearing Stewart describe the “excitement” that Pontiac was building at the time can throw you off, as the poshness of his voice directly contrasts with the American-ness of Pontiac. It’s still great nonetheless. The commercial has Stewart describing Pontiac’s 1991 lineup and available incentives, while in the one below has him describing the 1991 Bonneville SSE, and damn if he doesn’t convince you that it was a legit sports sedan.
Another, more fitting commercial has Stewart affectionately calling the Transport minivan “the space vehicle of the 1990s,” complete with some over-the-top, extremely 1990s singing, All the commercials are pretty great, but they’re also a reminder of just how much effort automakers used to put into the production values of their car commercials. Automakers need to bring that back. Besides, I bet Captain Picard’s voice on a commercial could sell a lot of EVs.
