The Roddenberrys Are Headed To Space

The remains of Gene Roddenberry and his wife Majel Barrett-Roddenberry will be sent together into space next year.

As reported by Yahoo! News, the creator of Star Trek and his wife will be sent into space next year courtesy of Celestic Inc., a company that specializes in “memorial spaceflights.”

The remains will be sealed into specially made capsules designed to withstand the rigors of space travel. These capsules will be sent along with digitized tributes from Star Trek fans. The spacecraft and remains will travel into space and are not expected to return to earth, according to a company spokesperson.

Barrett-Roddenberry commissioned Celestic to launch part of her husband’s remains into space in 1997. Gene Roddenberry passed away in 1991 and his wife followed last December.

To read more, head to the article located here.

Source: TrekToday.com

R.I.P. Majel Barrett Roddenberry – 1932-2008

Majel Barrett Roddenberry, the widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and the voice of the U.S.S. Enterprise’s computer in nearly every iteration of the Star Trek property (including J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie), has died of leukemia at the age of 76.

Born Majel Lee Hudec in 1932 in Cleveland, Ohio, she began her acting career in the 1950s earning roles on a number of classic shows including Leave It to Beaver, The Lucy Show, The Untouchables, and Bonanza, before beginning her stint on Star Trek in the 1960s. She appeared in the Star Trek pilot episode “Caged” as the Enterprise’s first officer, but since she was a veritable unknown (and Roddenberry’s girlfriend) the network insisted that she be replaced by a man. She liked to joke that given the choice between keeping her or the character of Mr. Spock (who was also hated by the network brass), Roddenberry “…kept the Vulcan, and married the woman, because he didn’t think Leonard would have it the other way around.”

Barrett did get to portray Nurse Christine Chapel in the original Star Trek series where the emotionless Mr. Spock regularly spurned her love-struck advances, and returned as the Betazoid Ambassador Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation where she was spurned by Captain Jean Luc Picard.

After her husband’s death in 1991 she continued to promote the Star Trek legacy at conventions. Because of her marriage to Roddenberry (they wed in August of 1969 after the cancellation of the original series) and her continuing involvement, vocal and otherwise, with all things Star Trek, she became known as “The First Lady of Star Trek.”

Source: icv2.com

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry’s Voice In New Star Trek Movie

Leonard Nimoy is not the only original Star Trek cast member to appear in J.J. Abrams’ upcoming reboot movie: Majel Barrett-Roddenberry will reprise her role as the voice of the Enterprise computer, Variety reported.

Barrett-Roddenberry–the widow of Trek creator Gene Roddenberry–started in the franchise as Number One in the pilot and as Nurse Christine Chapel in the original series. Since then, she has appeared in or provided the computer voice for all six Trek TV series–the only actor to be in all of them–and also voiced the computer in most of the movies. Star Trek opens in May 2009.

Source: Scifi Wire