Today, we’re shining a spotlight on a guest star who was with Star Trek from the very start. For this week’s Trek Tuesday, we’re celebrating the roles of Majel Barrett Roddenberry, First Lady of the Franchise.
Star Trek: The Original Series
In the first pilot for Star Trek: The Original Series, “The Cage,” Barrett Roddenberry played the role of Number One. Appearing on the bridge of the USS Enterprise alongside Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Number One sent a powerful message about the role women will play in the future.
However, featuring the duo’s raw power, the studio executives demanded that series creator Gene Roddenberry make a choice. When the second pilot was created, either Number One or Spock had to go. Roddenberry chose to keep Spock.
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But that wasn’t the end of Barrett Roddenberry’s involvement in The Original Series. For one thing, she became the voice of the Enterprise’s computer (more on that later). And she also appeared in the recurring role of Nurse Christine Chapel. She would reprise this role in Star Trek: The Animated Series, where she also played the first Caitian, M’Ress. And she also played Chapel on the big screen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Today, the legacy of both Number One and Chapel continues, as both are main characters on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Number One is played by Rebecca Romijn and Chapel is played by Jess Bush.
Hello, Computer?
As mentioned above, Barrett Roddenberry became the voice of the Enterprise computer on The Original Series. But that wasn’t the only show on which she played such a role. She also appeared as the ship’s computer on The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise.
She also voiced the ship’s computer in all four The Next Generation big screen outings. These were Generations, First Contact, Insurrection and Nemesis.
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And in Star Trek: Picard Season 3, archive recordings of Barrett Roddenberry were used to allow her to reprise the role of the USS Enterprise-D’s ship’s computer.
In an interview with Geek Girl Authority, Rod Roddenberry told us that before her death, they recorded many common “real world” computer phrases. So, it’s possible that you cell phone telephone may one day speak to you in Barrett Roddenberry’s voice, just like the classic ship’s computers.
Majel Barrett Roddenberry as Lwaxana Troi
But perhaps the role for which Barrett Roddenberry is best known is Lwaxana Troi. Daughter of the Fifth House, holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed. She was first introduced on The Next Generation.
Lwaxana appeared in six episodes of The Next Generation. On that series, she chased Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes). She also appeared in three episodes of Deep Space Nine, where she had a fan-favorite relationship with Constable Odo (René Auberjonois).
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In his interview with Geek Girl Authority, Rod Roddenberry stated that he believed his mother would have enjoyed seeing the new incarnations of Number One and Chapel. However, Lwaxana “might be a harder pill for her to swallow.” Rod said that while the character wasn’t specifically written for her, “that was her being herself.”
Do you have a favorite episode featuring Barrett Roddenberry? Be sure and share it with us in the comment section or over on Geek Girl Authority’s Bluesky page.
The shows and movies discussed in this article are currently available for streaming on Paramount+.
