Star Trek fans may not be pleased. Priceline said it is killing off William Shatner’s Negotiator character in its advertising. The character will die coming to the rescue of a family that is teetering on the edge of a bridge. He’ll get them safely off the bus -- and into a hotel -- but will be unable to escape the bus himself before it plunges of the bridge. Future spots in the campaign explore the aftermath of the crash. For a preview of the campaign click on Priceline ad.

Shatner has been Priceline’s celebrity spokesman for 14 years, and become The Negotiator in 2007. He remains under contract with the company, Priceline said. The company says it decided to kill off The Negotiator character in order to focus consumers' attention on its published-price hotel service, which is the fastest-growing segment of its hotel business. It will, however, continue to offer its Name-Your-Own Price hotel service, which it says can save travelers up to 60 percent off published rates.

Brett Keller, Priceline’s chief marketing officer, said that the company felt that it had to do something dramatic to make the point that you don’t have to negotiate to save money through Priceline. In the past three years, Priceline has more than tripled the number of hotels available through its published-price hotel service. “We know that The Negotiator has a lot of fans, and we hope that everyone understands this was something that just had to be done,” said Keller.