Commander Riker sells...something

Oh man do I love YouTube.

Courtesy of my friend Brian comes this VERY odd sales video from the days when Star Trek: The Next Generation was on TV. The video is just sales-computers-go-boom nonsense until around 1:45, when Commander Riker appears on this guy's computer, telling him all about "Enterprise Systems Software," which can make his soul-sucking job much more efficient. It's weirdly mesmerizing.

I particularly like not so smooth opening line from Riker: "No Harold, it's not Star Trek: The Next Generation; it's the next generation of information systems management."

My other favorite moment: around 5:01 Riker tells this schlump, "Doing more with less will be your constant challenge in the coming years. The answer: Enterprise Automation." Doing more with less! I heard a great piece on NPR the other day about this ubiquitous and fatuous phrase, and here is Riker saying it back in 1993! Priceless.

I'll bet Starfleet never told its captains to "do more with less." Well, unless it was after half the fleet was wiped out in the Borg invasion.