I don’t know whom JJ’s using for the computer voice, but if I was casting the computer, the only audition would go to Gates McFadden. And Q, Trelane, and a Romulan warbird couldn’t conspire to make me choose anybody else.
Judi Durand did the computer voice for both Armada games. On DS9, she voiced the Cardassian computers while Majel Barrett voiced the Starfleet ones.
It was my understanding that Majel recorded a big libary of computer voice stuff shortly before she died, so that they can cut together pretty much anything the need.
Marina Sirtis has given interviews saying she'd like to take on the role. I think it's a nice idea and her voice would be suitable for the computer.
Roxanne Dawson did a couple of computer voices too. I think she was the voice in ENT 'Dead Stop', which was stylistically very 2001/AbramsTrek.
Whoever did the non-Majel bits for the last movie was fine. I imagine they change computer voices as easily as we do ringtones today.
Good idea. I think in one of the movies they did use a different voice when there was any kind of alert....a male one.
So.. like the identity of the villain this too is unknown! And yet there seems to be less interest in this mystery. Strange.
Do we even know for sure that this movie is even going to feature anyone talking to the computer? Or maybe computer's voice is such an integral plot point, that Abrams is keeping us busy with the Cumberbatch mystery to distract us from it? Or maybe Cumberbatch is the computer voice?
It just occurred to me that Cumberbatch might be Number One, annoyed and back for revenge for not being included in Star Trek 2009. Regarding the obvious change in gender, perhaps Number One is even more "mysterious" than the character description in the Series Bible indicated!
I nominate Apple computer's Siri for the job. It would be a hilarious tip of the hat to Apple in a Trek film. I'd bet they'd pay too.
Douglas Rain : [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qnd-hdmgfk[/yt] (Which, now that I think of it, would be another tie-in to Gary Mitchell -- considering that Gary Lockwood also played Frank Poole in 2001: A Space Odyssey)