Among all the figures that turned Star Trek into a global phenomenon for over 55 years, one of the most enduring ones is Majel Barrett, the First Lady of Star Trek. The actor portrayed the Enterprise's first officer Number One in the original pilot for the series, "The Cage," before being recast as the ship's head nurse Christine Chapel. Barrett, who married Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry after The Original Series' run, later portrayed Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek: TNG while maintaining her voice role as the ship's computer through the 2009 Star Trek reboot, recording lines before her passing in 2008. Behind the scenes, Barrett diligently kept Star Trek alive for the fans that saved the franchise on more than one occasion.
With Barrett being honored at the Comic-Con Museum in San Diego with a line of outfits worn by the actor as part of a tribute for Women's History Month, her son Rod Roddenberry, the founder and CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment sat down for an exclusive interview with CBR. Highlighting his mother's life and career, both as part of Star Trek and beyond, Roddenberry shared insight on the Majel Barrett the fans never knew. He reflected on helming the documentary Trek Nation and teases what fans can expect in the future.
With this museum exhibit, and all the Star Trek presence planned for the year, how did you want to honor your mother Majel Barrett?
Rod Roddenberry: The truth is, she deserves a whole lot more. There are two sides to this. There's celebrating my mother and her contributions to Star Trek fandom and my father, but there's, of course, the very personal side of the woman I saw that very few people got to see. It's hard not to mix the two. She had a relatively impressive career before Star Trek: she was on Bonanza and Leave It to Beaver. She had a very interesting and decent career but, of course, her contributions to Star Trek are hard to ignore, as the voice of the computer, Lwaxana Troi, Nurse Chapel, and Number One on "The Cage."
I really felt like she needs to be celebrated, and there's also the personal side I also saw when my father passed away. On many levels, my mother stepped in to really pick up the mantle and fill the gap of the Roddenberry relationship with fandom. There are certain things that people don't know but are public if you go searching for it. Our family, unfortunately, went through a bunch of lawsuits at that time. We're just as dysfunctional as all families and we have those sorts happen as well. They locked down our accounts and while we weren't living in squalor, there were still bills to pay and no access to money.
My mother went on the lecture circuit like my father did, took some of his old speeches, and modernized them a bit. Her father was a tough man and she grew up working and showed me how much she could do that. I was a seventeen-year-old kid at the time and, in order to keep me in college and pay the bills, she did this and did it so I wouldn't really have to notice it. Personally, there's a really strong fondness, especially since we didn't really get along at the time. She was a tough broad who stepped up when she needed to step up and didn't ask for any compensation or thanks. That's who she was as a person.
She was a strong woman and a member of a golf club and, back in the early '80s, they still had a men's grill on Wednesday afternoons, no women were allowed. Not because she was a modern-day woman, but she was one of the boys, and she would go in there not a single one would tell her to leave because she was just as fucking dirty as they were. She sat with the guys sitting there smoking their cigars, and she would tell the dirtiest jokes just alongside them and they invited and welcomed her. She really is incredible on many levels, not just in her acting career.
If I had to compare her to any character, I think the character of Lwaxana is really her because they didn't just create the character and happened to cast my mother. They knew my mother was going to be there so they made the character like her. She was crazy flamboyant, would speak her mind, would never let man or woman take her for granted and when it came to being sensitive and soft in the episodes with Odo and Worf's son Alexander, she could do that too. She's an incredible woman of many talents.
If I can ask, was there a moment where you two came back together?
We always loved each other. We just couldn't have a discussion. It's typical of all families and relationships. We'd talk about something being red except I would come at from this side and she would come about from that side and we'd argue about it the whole way through -- both agreeing that it was red but we just couldn't see or listen to the other person's point-of-view, neither one of us could. It was that stupidity you'd look at in hindsight and realize was dumb. But there was no hatred or animosity but we couldn't clearly communicate.
What part of your mother's life did you really want to shine a light that others may not have been aware of?
I really want to give her credit, not just for her interactions, but for her view on fans. She, as well as my father, knew that the fans saved Star Trek and she never forgot that. At conventions, she sat at her table and she wouldn't just sign and take money. She interacted and it was genuine. It wasn't an act. She knew that every single person who came up and said that Star Trek changed their life and that they loved the show, she sat there, made eye contact, and asked them questions. She'd be there for over three hours at a time -- especially in her slightly older years and that is something I'd truly admire.
My father would also [respond to fans]. He'd do his talk on stage but he wouldn't disappear behind the curtain. He got off stage and talked with everyone. That's something I admired about my parents, in particular my mother. Even if the convention said she needed to sign in the dealer's room, she'd stick to her table [on the main floor], and didn't take shit from anyone. She knew that the fans saved Star Trek and were 100% dedicated to them and my father and I love that about her.
Your mother had the unique perspective of being in the original Star Trek pilot all the way to voicing the ship's computer in the 2009 reboot. Did her perspective on the family business change over the years?
It certainly changed from where it was like "That's Gene's role"Â to when she stepped into it. I think she understood really quickly because, while she clearly understood Star Trek, I don't think she had ever taken on the mantle like that. I saw her reading my father's speeches, making notes, speaking them and the little twists she would put in. I heard my mother's voice in there too. That was the most interesting collaboration -- to hear her read my father's speeches with her notes on them. It definitely was a learning [experience] for it not to be foreign to her. It's what you would expect trying to fill those shoes. I feel bad that she felt she had to fill those shoes, but she did a good job and did it in her own way, and I think that the fandom really appreciated that.
Trek Nation has been out for over a decade now. Have you ever considered revisiting that and refocusing on your mother or your evolving relationship with Star Trek now as it gets a new resurgence on Paramount+?
I felt really bad because we had an edit with more of my mother in Trek Nation but we had to cut it out because my mother is a can of worms. I don't mean that to be disrespectful but there were so many layers of the onion to get into there that we wouldn't have enough for 90 minutes to get into my father. We made a decision, midway through, to eliminate my mother's [footage], which was sad. The contradictory part of that is it would be really hard to get information about her. My mother has a very lost past because everyone I knew that knew her and all her family members are gone. I don't know specifically what but my mother went through some serious shit as a kid and, like a lot of people of that era, she went through stuff but I wouldn't be able to tell a comprehensive enough story for a documentary.
I'm deeply involved with Star Trek -- more the idea and philosophy than the storytelling even though I'm involved, on some level, with that as well -- and I don't think I'll do a Trek Nation II but a number of people have reached out to us to do a documentary on Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek. We'll probably do something down the road but I wouldn't call it Trek Nation II or anything like that although, with whatever incarnation this is now, maybe in ten or twenty years, it'll be time to look at Star Trek and its fandom again.
With Number One taking on a major role in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, were there any particulars in making sure the show and character honored the foundation set by your mother?
They've got Nurse Chapel and Number One, which is great and I'm thrilled they decided to reprise both characters. There's nothing specific [in honoring my mother], the reprisals are phenomenal. I just got off a table read call for Episode 5, Season 2, and Number One plays a good role in that. They're doing everything I would want. They're not side characters. My father tells the fun story of "The Cage," when the studio execs told him he couldn't do that, he'd say he kept the Vulcan and married the woman. But I know that bothered [my mother] because that demotion to Nurse Chapel isn't what she wanted. I'm happy now that these characters are being reborn and seen.
In the original Westworld, my mother was the madam and I love the fact that in the [HBO television series] that character has a huge role. She's one of the main characters. I'm happy to see these characters, that people are seeing value in them and bringing them to life more, regardless of whether it has to do with my mother or not. It's nice seeing that small connection.
With Star Trek Mission: Chicago right around the corner, conventions back in swing, and more, what can you tease you've got coming, Rod?
I'm very excited for Strange New Worlds and I'm a huge fan of all the Star Treks, obviously. I'm not just saying that because I'm involved with them and I am -- some more than others -- I absolutely love and adore Prodigy. It is phenomenal. What we're doing internally is celebrating my father, it's still in the middle of his 100th [birthday] and we're working hard to make sure that, whether it's television, a movie or a documentary, or hopefully all three, we'll get something out there that really shows his life during Star Trek and before Star Trek because his life before Star Trek insane. The hope is to do something similar to the movie Unbroken, something of that size, scope, and tone but we'll see. We've got a lot of irons in the fire and positive responses but it's too soon to say something is happening.