Majel Barrett Roddenberry (1932-2008)

I was very sorry to read that Majel Barrett died today of complications from leukemia. Barrett's acting career was intimately twined with the Star Trek franchise, not only because she was the widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, but because she played so many roles in the the various TV series:

• In the original pilot for Star Trek she played Number One, first officer on the Enterprise. The role was dropped at the suggestion of NBC's executives who thought "audiences would never accept a woman being second-in-command of a ship."
• She played nurse Christine Chapel in Star Trek: The Original Series.
• She voiced Chapel and M'Ress for Star Trek: The Animated Series
• She had a recurring role as Lwaxana Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space 9
  
• She played the voice of the Enterprise's computer in The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and two episodes of Enterprise. She also voiced the computer in four films: Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek Nemesis. And it has been reported that she recently finished recording the voice of the computer for the upcoming Star Trek movie to be released next May.

In addition to her Trek roles, she also produced and occasionally appeared in the role of microbiologist/neurosurgeon/genetic engineering expert Dr. Julianne Belman on the unintentionally funny* Earth: Final Conflict.

It's sad to think that she's no more.

* I do a wicked Taelon impression.
Tags:Majel Barrett Roddenberry