All 5 Majel Barrett-Roddenberry Star Trek Roles Explained
Sometimes referred to as "the First Lady of Star Trek," Majel Barrett-Roddenberry played a role in everyStar Trekseries that aired during her lifetime. Barrett appeared in several films and television shows throughout her career, but she remains most well-known for her considerable contributions to the Star Trek franchise. When Gene Roddenberry was first working on his plans for Star Trek, he was seeing Majel Barrett romantically at the time and cast her in the initial pilot, "The Cage." Barrett and Roddenberry married a few years later in 1969 and remained married until Roddenberry's death in 1991.
Majel Barrett has been vital to Star Trek since the franchise's beginnings. Not only did she appear in Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but she also lent her voice to several characters in Star Trek: The Animated Series. Barrett's voice, in particular, cannot be separated from Star Trek,as she voices the computer of the Starship Enterprise, as well as the computers on various Starfleet vessels throughout the series.
5 Number One
Star Trek: The Original Series Unaired Pilot - "The Cage"
In the original outline for Star Trek: The Original Series, the character of Number One was described as "a glacierlike, efficient female who serves as ship's Executive Officer." Majel Barrett took on the role in "The Cage," portraying Number One alongside Jeffrey Hunter's Captain Christopher Pike.
Rebecca Romijn portrays Number One in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which has expanded the role of the character and given her more depth.
NBC initially rejected "The Cage," saying that it was "too cerebral," and wished to replace several of the performers, including Majel Barrett. Ultimately, Leonard Nimoy's Spock was the only character who stuck around for Star Trek: The Original Series, and he became the stoic, "glacierlike" character among the crew.
4 Nurse Christine Chapel
Star Trek: The Original Series
Majel Barrett appeared in 25 episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series and two feature filmsas Nurse Christine Chapel, the head nurse assisting Chief Medical Officer Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley). Gene Roddenberry created the role of Nurse Chapel specifically for Barrett after NBC rejected his original Star Trek pilot. Throughout TOS, Chapel assisted Dr. McCoy in sickbay, eventually becoming a doctor herself by the time of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Nurse Chapel’s Big Star Trek Canon Event Will Still Happen In Strange New Worlds Season 3
A canon event from Nurse Christine Chapel's Star Trek: The Original Series past still has to happen in prequel series Strange New Worlds' 3rd season.
Although TOS did not reveal much about Chapel's character, she was clearly in love with Spock. While TOS implied this love was unrequited, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has recontextualized the relationship between Chapel (Jess Bush) and Spock (Ethan Peck), revealing that they were involved romantically prior to the events of TOS.
3 M’Ress (& Others)
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Majel Barrett voiced several characters on Star Trek: The Animated Series, the most substantial of those being operations officer Lt. M'Ress. A member of the cat-like species known as the Caitians, M'Ress served as the Enterprise communications officer when Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) was off-duty.
Star Trek: The Animated Series Episode | Character(s) |
|---|---|
"Yesteryear" (Season 1, Episode 2) | Grey, Amanda Grayson |
"One of Our Planets is Missing" (Season 1, Episode 3) | Cosmic Cloud |
"The Lorelei Signal" (Season 1, Episode 4) | Theela |
"Once Upon a Planet" (Season 1, Episode 9) | The Queen of Hearts |
"Mudd's Passion" (Season 1, Episode 10) | Lora |
"The Ambergris Element" (Season 1, Episode 13) | Rila & 3 other Aquans |
"The Slaver Weapon" (Season 1, Episode 14) | The Slaver Weapon |
"The Eye of the Beholder" (Season 1, Episode 15) | Lt. Randi Bryce |
"The Pirates of Orion" (Season 2, Episode 1) | A lieutenant on the USS Huron |
M'Ress also sometimes acted as a temporary science officer when Spock was on an away mission or otherwise occupied. M'Ress only appeared in six episodes of TAS, but Barrett also provided the voice for numerous other characters throughout the show's run, including Spock's mother, Amanda Grayson.
2 Lwaxana Troi
Star Trek: The Next Generation & Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Majel Barrett returned to live-action Star Trek as the flamboyant Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Betazoid mother of Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), Lwaxana served as an ambassador for Betazed and the United Federation of Planets. Despite her larger-than-life personality, Lwaxana's life had been marred by great tragedy, and she came to be one of TNG's best recurring characters.
All 9 Lwaxana Troi Star Trek Episodes Ranked, Worst To Best
Majel Barrett's Lwaxana Troi had a wonderful character arc over the course of 9 appearances in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.
Lwaxana enjoyed making Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) uncomfortable with her flirting and innuendos, much to the embarrassment of her daughter. Lwaxana appeared in six episodes of TNG and three episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Majel Barrett made the character impossible to forget. While Lwaxana could be grating at first, she had grown into a complex, three-dimensional character by the end of her nine Star Trek appearances.
1 Starship Computer Voices
Various
With all of these roles, Majel Barrett was already an integral part of the Star Trek franchise, but she further cemented her place in Trek history by providing the iconic voice for the Enterprise computer system. A precursor to digital assistants like Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa, Barrett's voice became intrinsically linked to Star Trek and its ships, particularly the USS Enterprise.
Majel Barrett also introduced the episode recaps for the two-part episodes of TNG, DS9, and Voyager, beginning with "Last time on Star Trek..."
Barrett not only voiced the Enterprise's computer in Star Trek: The Original Series, but also voiced the computers of numerous Starfleet vessels throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager. Barrett voiced ships in two episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise, all four TNG films, and Star Trek (2009). Archive audio of Barrett's voice was used in Star Trek: Picard season 3 for the computer of the rebuilt USS Enterprise-D.
It's difficult to imagine what Star Trek would have been without Majel Barrett-Roddenberry's contributions, and she has more than earned her title of "the First Lady of Star Trek."
- Created by
- Gene Roddenberry
- First Film
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture
- First TV Show
- Star Trek: The Original Series
- Cast
- William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Deforest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Wil Wheaton, Avery Brooks, Nana Visitor, Rene Auberjonois, Alexander Siddig, Cirroc Lofton, Armin Shimerman, Colm Meaney, Terry Farrell, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Jeri Ryan, Robert Duncan McNeill, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Garrett Wang, Jolene Blalock, Connor Trinneer, Dominic Keating, Scott Bakula, Linda Park, John Billingsley, Anthony Montgomery, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho, Chris Hemsworth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Sonequa Martin-Green, Mary Wiseman, Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Wilson Cruz, Oyin Oladejo, Emily Coutts, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn, Michelle Yeoh
- TV Show(s)
- Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Short Treks, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
- First Episode Air Date
- September 8, 1966
Star Trek is one of pop culture's biggest multimedia franchises, spanning multiple movies, TV shows, books, comics, video games, and various other media. The franchise was created by Gene Roddenberry and started with the 1960s TV series starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Over the decades, several equally popular series have come out since as Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Discovery.
