I was sorry to hear that Majel Barrett-Roddenberry had passed away.
One of the things that struck me when seeing the trailer for J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie was that, for as much as he changed in his effort to revitalize the Trek universe, there were just enough things that he left unaltered—perhaps in an effort to tacitly state, “While this isn’t your father’s Star Trek, it still is Star Trek.” Like that classic “red alert” sound. And it was also reassuring to know that Majel Barrett-Roddenberry—who passed away earlier today from complications from pneumonia at the age of 76—was once again the “voice” of Starfleet computers, reprising the role she had played in every iteration of Star Trek since the very first episode back in 1966.
While I never much cared for her simpering Nurse Chapel character, her pilot role as Number One had fine promise, and she made up for a lot with the marvelous character of Lwaxana Troi — not to mention, as noted, her universality as the Enterprise‘s computer voice.
She also had a (not at all mentioned, sadly, in any of the IMDB tributes I waded through) regular role voicing Lt. M’Ress on the animated Star Trek. (And I’ll also mentioned she had a famous, gracious, and nicely turned star appearance on Babylon 5 as well.)
(via Amanda)
One of my favorite Trek episodes of all time, across all the series, was when Lwaxana Troi and Odo were stuck in a turbolift together.
Yes. That was very good, and one of the best DS9 eps.
Peter David has featured both Lwaxana Troi and Morgan Primus (who appears to have been both Number One and a near-twin of Lwaxana and a number of other things aside) in many of his ST novels (the only ST fiction I read), and while they obviously are not something MBR actually acted, her inspiration for them is clear and compelling — in a sense, an extension of the actual performances that MBR did in her roles. She will be missed.
Wil Wheaton on MBR’s passing.