While watching The Menagerie, I couldn't help but notice that Number One's (Majel Barrett's) voice sounded very familiar. I eventually realized that it had to be the voice of the ship's computer in Star Trek TNG. At one point in the episode, where she is a possible mate, another character comments that "They'd have more luck crossing him with a computer." I got a big laugh out of this, as it's essentially a prescient joke about Star Trek TNG, which wouldn't be made until over two decades later.
Funny prescient line about Majel Barrett in The Menagerie
- Thread starter shayg
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Heh, yeah, I just realized that while watching the next episode (I'm watching TOS for the first time). I didn't realize this until now because she talks in such a monotone as the ship's computer, as compared to how she does for TNG's computer. I was going to delete the post, actually, as I see it's not really as funny now 
I've watched that episode so many times, but never made the ironic connection that you noticed between that line of dialog and Majel's other job as the voice of the Enterprise/Starfleet computer. It is a pretty funny observation. Nice catch, shayg!
Heh, yeah, I just realized that while watching the next episode (I'm watching TOS for the first time). I didn't realize this until now because she talks in such a monotone as the ship's computer, as compared to how she does for TNG's computer. I was going to delete the post, actually, as I see it's not really as funny now
It's just as funny, since as of "The Cage" she had yet to be cast as the voice of the TOS Enterprise computer.
When some friends and I read about the then-upcoming Mrs Troi TNG episode, "Manhunt", involving the holodeck, we sat with rapt anticipation for Majel to attempt to talk to herself during the episode. And she does!
In TAS, Nichelle Nichols did the ship's computer voice in a few eps, including when Nurse Chapel had to address it.
Peter David uses a Majel Barrett-inspired character in his "New Frontier" novels and he has had several in-jokes about the woman looking remarkably like Number One, Christine Chapel and Mrs Troi to different characters. A few books ago, the character's supposedly-immortal body was destroyed - and her consciousness escaped into the ship's computer!
Somewhat off-topic, but I just noticed for the very first time that she had an appearance in TVH! I must have seen that movie more than 20 times, but I never noticed her before!
^ where?
I have an ear for voices, so I catch this stuff right away. I drive people crazy when we watch TV, and I'm constantly saying stuff like, "the voice in this cereal commercial is the same guy who murdered that woman on Law & Order last night".
During the scene in Starfleet Headquarters ... first I wasn't sure if it was her, but then I saw the end credits listing her as "Commander Chapel".
Majel has a credit in the main title credits, too.
She and Grace Lee Whitney (Rand) met at Majel's house to "rehearse", even though Leonard Nimoy ended up putting their lines on cue cards (I own one of Majel's cards - a charity auction win - and it's now signed by her; boy was she surprised to see that card again about a decade later.)
Majel also had a scene dropped at the last minute, but it's in the comic adaptation. She meets Sarek outside the Council Chambers and tells him he's not too late.
Here she is in her ST IV uniform:
Majel Barret and Gene Roddenberry by Therin of Andor, on Flickr
It was John Winston (aka Lt. Kyle).
Someone told me that John Winston ran a Hollywood barber's shop whenever he wasn't acting. Supposedly he was Gene Coon's barber, and (not coincidentally) most of Kyle's episodes are stories that heavily involved Coon.
I'd really hoped to interview Winston after he did ST II (I was on a vacation in the US), but he was not registered with the Screen Actor's Guild, I guess having dropped out of the scene. He must be a bit reluctant about publicity, being one of the only TOS people never interviewed by Starlog!
He did do a fanfilm, though. Hard to believe he's in the same age group as Shatner and Nimoy.
I'd like to think that, had ENT gone on for a full ten-year run on TV, we might've seen an appearance by Majel Roddenberry as another character from that era. She could've been some 22nd-century I.T. technician whose voice became the Starfleet standard computer voice.
I even have a name for her: Ernestine! (One ringy-dingy...)
The novels speculate that the voice imprint belongs to... Number One.
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