Posted in: Paramount+, Star Trek, streaming, TV | Tagged: majel barrett, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, Star Trek Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: Picard: How Season 3 Honored Majel Barrett Roddenberry

Star Trek: Picard researcher Jörg Hillebrand shares how the late Majel Barrett Roddenberry "returned" as the U.S.S. Enterprise-D's computer.

One can argue that the biggest strength of Star Trek isn't necessarily how it projects a future for humanity to attain, but rather ironically, how it embraced its nearly 60-year history as an institution and franchise in American pop culture. While there have been Easter Eggs here and there with a tip of the cap throughout its shows and films, none have been more blatant in leaning on the nostalgia in all of the best ways possible than season three of Star Trek: Picard, especially since it has delivered on the promise of a real The Next Generation return. Even those who aren't physically present, like Diana Muldaur and Denise Crosby, are recognized in some fashion. The series penultimate episode, "Võx," revealed another unexpected "return."

Star Trek: Picard – A Posthumous Welcome Return

Near the end of the episode, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and company flee the U.S.S. Titan-A on a maintenance shuttlecraft in the middle of Frontier Day as the assimilated Federation under the control of the Borg look to finish their job in their conquest of Earth. As Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) flies back to Athan Prime, where the Fleet Museum is, he reveals his surprise to his former crewmates, the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, herself. Starting with the recovery of the saucer section from Veridian III, which crashed at the end of 1994's Star Trek: Generations, the former chief engineer of the Enterprise-D spent the better part of 20 years restoring the ship, including repurposing another ship's warp nacelles (after the original blew up in a warp core breach and the saucer separation was the crew's last hope at survival). The entire TNG crew in Jean-Luc, Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Troi (Marina Sirtis), Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden), Worf (Michael Dorn), Data (Brent Spiner), and Geordi went straight to the bridge to take in the restoration. Before taking off to save Earth presumably one last time, Jean-Luc activated the ship's computer restoring the former captain to full command as he happily "accepted the field demotion" with the voice of none other than the late Majel Barrett Roddenberry.

Picard researcher Jörg Hillebrand revealed the episodes which Barrett's audio was extracted from to be edited into the episode. "Audio footage of Majel Barrett as the computer voice in #StarTrekPicard's "Võx" (time index 42:11) was sampled from #StarTrekTNG's "Starship Mine" (time index 03:37) and "Chain of Command II" (time index 42:21). Hearing Majel's voice again was everything! " Given the available technology of deepfakes, CGI, and voice cloning, fans wondered if it would be possible to recreate Barrett's voice in future canon given the samples from over the years, but executive producer and showrunner Terry Matalas shot down the idea citing budgetary constraints. Barrett played multiple roles since The Original Series from the original Number One, Una Chin-Riley, Nurse Christine Chapel, and Lwaxana Troi before becoming synonymous as the ship's computer for every live-action series until her passing in 2008 with her final performance in the 2009 J.J. Abrams Kelvin Timeline Reboot film. Star Trek: Picard finale, "The Last Generation," streams Thursday on Paramount+.

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