Star Trek: Picard brings back yet another iconic member of the cast

Star Trek: Picard brought back the one character everyone was hoping to see.

Star Trek: Picard has made its entire legacy about what was once good about Star Trek. From old shows being brought back in a new format like The Next Generation (into Picard), to building the third season around reunions. And that’s not even including the countless callbacks and cameos that the show is built on.

Heck, even the big bads of the season; the Changelings and Borg are callbacks to older (dare we say, better) shows. Yet, one actress was announced to have been replaced, meaning her character would be different or in this aspect, gone completely.

We’re talking about Majel Barrett, the famous voice behind Star Trek’s greatest computer programs. She passed away years ago but despite that, there were many people hoping to just use things like A.I. to bring her back into the show and future projects. Regardless of how violating that seemed.

We were very on board with a new ship’s computer being used and for most of the season we got just that. Yet, in Chapter 9 of Picard’s finale season, Majel Barrett would have a cameo.

Star Trek: Picard used Majel Barrett’s voice one last time

When the crew of the Next Generation stepped aboard the newly refurbished Enterprise-D, they were greeted by an old recording of Barrett, who addressed Jean-Luc Picard as “captain”, despite his rank of admiral. This a clear sign that they just used old sound clips, as opposed to using some artificial intelligence software to create new lines for an actress who’d been dead a while.

It’s fine to pull back old clips, it’s another thing to create new lines of dialogue without her here to consent.

Many old-school fans of Star Trek will surely enjoy having Barrett back for one last go around.