Majel Barrett’s Last Line On Star Trek Had A Secret Powerful Meaning
Majel Barrett's last on-screen words in Star Trek were "goodbye, husband," which doubles as a farewell to her real-life husband Gene Roddenberry.
Majel Barrett is one of the true icons of Star Trek, having participated in virtually every variation of the franchise prior to her death in 2008 (and even beyond). Reddit user u/DavianExpressed recently noticed that her final on-screen words in the franchise were “Goodbye, husband” which made sense within the context of the episode in which her character Lwaxana Troi said farewell to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character Odo (René Auberjonois), who she briefly married. As the Reddit user points out, Majel Barrett’s words also had a meaning extra-textually, as a goodbye to her late husband, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.
Majel Barrett’s late on-screen appearance was in the DS9 episode “The Muse,” which originally aired in 1996. She appeared as Lwaxana Troi, the outgoing and flamboyant mother of U.S.S. Enterprise counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis); it was the third live-action character she would play, after First Officer Number One in the scrapped original Star Trek pilot and Nurse Christine Chapel in The Original Series. It is touching to think that Majel Barrett’s very last line of dialogue as an actor in the series doubled as a goodbye to Gene Roddenberry, to whom she was married for 22 years.
Regrettably, “The Muse” is not considered one of the best episodes of DS9 (or the Star Trek franchise as a whole). Director David Livingston later admitted it was not one of his stronger episodes (of the 62 he directed across the franchise), while writer René Echevarria also felt that there were script issues. However, Majel Barrett did write the story along with Echevarria and it is hard not to hope that the actress did insert some emotion into the final words she would have in the series.
Majel Barrett first appeared in “The Cage,” the original pilot for The Original Series that was eventually repurposed as food for the two-part episode “The Menagerie.” Allegedly, NBC felt that Roddenberry was pushing an unknown actress into the role based on their romantic relationship, and insisted on her role being replaced by Spock (Leonard Nimoy). Ironically, the role of Nurse Chapel that Majel Barrett eventually ended up playing in The Original Series had an ongoing unfulfilled romantic longing for the Vulcan First Officer who had basically displaced her.
While the NBC executives who shot down the idea of Majel Barrett starring in Star Trek are long gone, the actress became an integral part of the franchise for the rest of her life. Eventually, she would appear as Nurse Chapel in The Original Series, the follow-up show The Animated Series, The Motion Picture, and The Voyage Home. In addition to Number One, she portrayed Lwaxana Troi in both The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.
Finally, and perhaps most famously, she provided the calm, neutral voice interfaces of most Starfleet computers for the remainder of her life. Majel Barrett managed to record vocals for the computer systems for 2009’s Star Trek reboot, finally becoming part of every era of the series. Rest in peace, Majel.
