Dec 18 2008
Live Long and Prosper, Majel
This has nothing to do with politics, but it’s about a TV icon who passed away on December 18th.
Majel Barrett-Roddenberry was the wife of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and someone I admired. She died on Thursday of leukemia complications. Barrett was the original Star Trek feminist, the powerful, smart woman. In the original Star Trek pilot she played “Number One” which was the Captain’s sidekick or sort of a vice-captain. Score one for the women. That role later went to “Mr. Spock” when the series started, but she blazed that path briefly back when it was still a woman’s place in American society to defer to men and look pretty. She did that later too because after all, it was Star Trek. To her credit, she never appeared on the show in a bikini or harem pants, (did she?) at least until she was much older and played Lwaxana Troi, when she appeared (faux) naked for her wedding ceremony.
Barrett’s most well known as “Nurse Chapel” (remember her Spock Gaze) on the original series, and also as the voice of the ship’s computer through several of the ST shows and movies. I used to be a huge, geeky fan of Star Trek, and even went to a ST convention once, though I never met her. I think I have seen every episode of ST, (except for some Deep Space Nine episodes (and much of the last show, Enterprise)) several times. Star Trek, especially TNG (The Next Generation) helped form how I think about the world and is one reason why I am a progressive. It’s one reason why I thought things like science, immigrant rights, space exploration, and governments were important. It made me see into the future, and consider ideas like borders don’t matter when you are dealing with a universe, even at a very young age. It was a show that made you wonder. What’s a parsec, anyway? Would food replicators solve world hunger? Would the Federation be a good evolution for the UN, or would it be repressive? And remember, there are no borders in space, so free trade… well, that’s Firefly, not ST. (Firefly was every bit as good as Star Trek, it just burned out far more quickly).
Anyway, you probably know all about Star Trek, or maybe you’ve never seen it, but I highly recommend it. Unlike a lot of crap on the Sci-Fi Channel, it didn’t rely on violence to make a point, but the show’s characters often wondered about why violence was used in the first place. Barrett-Roddenberry was part of a show that actually used plots to explore issues and rarely included a car chase. Here’s a notice of her death by Wired.com.
There is very sad news today in the Star Trek world. Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, widow of Gene and known to fans as Nurse Chapel, the original Number One, Lwaxana Troi, and of course the voice of just about every Federation computer in every show and movie, has passed away at age 76. She had been fighting leukemia for some years, evidently, and unfortunately died of complications from the disease early this morning in California.
Barrett-Roddenberry will be fondly remembered by Star Trek fans forever for her work, which will—fittingly, one might say—end with the upcoming reboot of the franchise, in which she one last time performed the voice of the Enterprise computer. She had reportedly just completed her voiceover work on the movie when she passed away.
Reports say that a public memorial for Barrett-Roddenberry is planned for shortly after Christmas or in early next year, and that her family has asked that donations be made to the CARE Organization or Precious Paws in lieu of flowers. Condolences can be sent via e-mail to share@roddenberry.com. We at GeekDad extend our sincerest condolences to her son Rod and the rest of her family.
I always thought Majel was a cool name, for a very cool person. It was just announced on December 11th that she would be the voice of the computer in the new ST movie.
The new Star Trek movie comes out in May 2009. It’s a pre-quel, meaning the story is set before the original series started. Here’s one of the trailers.
