Majel Barrett quietly became a Star Trek icon with an understated career

We’re paying tribute to an unsung icon of Star Trek; Majel Barrett.

It’s Majel Barrett’s birthday today, and we wanted to put the spotlight on the Star Trek icon. Many will know her as Lwaxana Troi, the mother of Star Trek: The Next Generation character Deanna. Yet, that was far from her only role in Trek.

In fact, across all the Trek properties she acted in, she’s portrayed 20 characters; most of whom came from the short-lived Star Trek: The Animated Series. While she was alive, she appeared in every series possible; from the original show in the late 1960s to Enterprise in the early 2000s. She passed away in 2008. During that run, she had appeared in just shy of 300 total episodes.

The most ever by a Star Trek actor.

I didn’t even need to look that up, it’s a well-known fact among Trek fans. Admittedly, she only portrayed a physical character in 39 episodes, and two films, while the rest of the appearances came as the voice of the computer system in all of the shows.

Those appearances are often uncredited, which is why people who aren’t die-hard Trek fans don’t often know of her contributions to the franchise, outside of being Gene Roddenberry’s wife.

In fact, you could call her “The Voice of Star Trek” and not face any pushback.

Majel Barrett’s contributions to Star Trek mean a great deal

Many fans who aren’t obsessed with Trek as most of us are, may not be aware of Barrett’s contribution to the property. Sure, they may know her as Roddenberry’s wife, but to most of us, she was the voice of an entire generation of Trek.

Across The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and a few episodes of Enterprise, she was often the lone carryover to each show that connected them to one another; save for the occasional cameo episode where another show’s actor would pop up.

Maybe her most sentimental work came with the voice-acting she did on Star Trek 2009, where she recorded all of her lines just eight days before she passed. Star Trek was the last thing she ever worked on. A fitting end to a franchise legend.

In a bit of sad irony, her most famous bit from Star Trek 2009, was when the ship’s computer (which she voiced) basically taunted Pavel Chekov for his accent. Chekov was played by the late Anton Yelchin. It’s a silly little scene, but it’s one that made all of us smile, even more now that they’re both gone.

If we’re handing out Trek statues, Barrett should be on the shortlist to have one in Cleveland, OH, her hometown. Maybe she shouldn’t be next in line, but there shouldn’t be too many ahead of her.