While Star Trek has had numerous actors appear in multiple roles across multiple series, no one has had the all-encompassing Star Trek career that Majel Barrett Roddenberry can claim credit to. Along with Leonard Nimoy ("Spock") she holds the distinction of appearing in the unaired Star Trek pilot ("The Cage") and then subsequently on Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation. She was also a recurring character on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and she provided computer voices for both Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise (for the Defiant in "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II" and the Enterprise-D in "These Are the Voyages..."). To further cement her Star Trek credentials, Majel's voice was also prominently featured for several characters in Star Trek: The Animated Adventures. On top of all this, Majel appeared in or did voice work for five of the ten Trek films, including "Star Trek Nemesis." She is simply the queen of all things Star Trek, and deservedly so.

Showing up first as the brunette first officer Number One in "The Cage," Barrett's strong, no-nonsense presence was a bit much for the male-oriented network executives who saw the pilot episode and asked that she be replaced, along with everyone besides Spock, for the next incarnation. Although she did not feature in the show's cast for the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," she did return once the show got an order from NBC for what would become Star Trek (a.k.a. The Original Series). Her new look on Star Trek was as the blonde Nurse Christine Chapel, whose unrequited passion for Spock provided a melancholy undercurrent for the character.

Two decades later, with a few appearances in the Star Trek films and voice work on the animated series in between, Barrett stepped into the 24th Century in the TNG first-season episode "Haven" as Lwaxana Troi, Deanna Troi's pest of a mother, providing comic relief and a few tender moments to the world of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D. She reprised the role numerous times on TNG and later on DS9, beginning with the episode "The Forsaken." Post-DS9, she lent her vocal talents to Voyager as the ever-present Starfleet Computer Voice. On top of all of that, she also holds a story credit for the DS9 episode "The Muse."

Barrett was born in Ohio and moved to New York to act, then to California, beginning her television career on such shows as The Untouchables, Leave it to Beaver and Bonanza. On the big screen, she appeared in films such as "The Buccaneer," "The Quick and the Dead" and "Sylvia," before embarking on her interstellar journey for Star Trek that would change her life.

Any overview of Barrett and Star Trek would be incomplete without mentioning that in addition to her various roles and contributions, she holds the status of unofficial "First Lady" of Star Trek, being married to the late Star Trek creator and "Great Bird of the Galaxy" Gene Roddenberry. In the years after his death, she's assumed his producing mantle, shepherding other Roddenberry-created science fiction series such as Earth: Final Conflict and Andromeda. And even though she has a harder time getting around lately (she now often uses a wheelchair), Ms. Barrett continues to make appearances at conventions, delighting the fans with her sassy wit and her no-nonsense perspective (much like some of her aforementioned alter egos!).

STARTREK.COM would like to wish Majel a very Happy Birthday, and many thanks for all of the wonderful and inspirational moments over the years.

You can wish her a Happy Birthday on the Star Trek Message Boards!