It’s Worse Than That, She’s Dead, Jim


Majel Barrett Roddenberry died of leukemia on Thursday at her home in Los Angeles.

Majel Barrett Roddenberry was a vital part of the vast Star Trek Empire with roles in the many Star Treks spin offs. She recently finished doing the voice of the USS Enterprise computer in the new Star Trek film, due out in May.

As Nurse Chapel she was always staring longingly at Mr Spock and trying to help Dr McCoy save the day. She was also that second in command in the Star Trek Pilot where she was Number One long before Will Riker came onto the scene.

On The Next Generation she was the voice of the ship’s computer and made occasional cameos as the over the top Lwaxana Troi. Lwaxana was always threatening to get married in the nude, much to the embarrassment of her daughter Deanna.

According to IMDB she did a cameo as the Ship’s Voice on an episode of Family Guy. She also worked on shows like Here Comes The Brides and Leave It To Beaver before she turned her life over to the works of Gene Roddenberry. She had a few roles here and there that were not Star Trek related, but I think it’s safe to say she will be remembed for her work with Star Trek.

Majel Barrett was a producer on Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda and Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict. I watched both of these shows for a while, but lost interest well before they ended their runs.

The Original Star Trek was on the air 40 years ago and many of the stars are now gone. But it is good to see two of those stars, William Shatner and George Takei, still working in Prime Time. Leonard Nimoy has a role in the new Star Trek movie and gets the occasional mention of shows like The Big Bang Theory. Majel Barrett helped make Star Trek legend and not just a failed TV show.

Majel Barrett was fun to watch and fun to listen to, she will be missed.


Jon Herrera
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