When Majel Barrett Became Spock
By Lisa Fary
Before there was Captain Kirk, there was Captain Pike. And before there was Ripley, Captain Janeway, or the Firefly babes, there was Number One.
Gene Roddenberry made the audacious decision to make a woman the first officer of the USS Enterprise in the original series pilot, “The Cage”. Referred to only as “Number One”, the character, played by Majel Barrett, was everything we would expect from her today: rational, intelligent, strong, and in charge.
Barrett’s character so horrified NBC execs in 1964 that it changed the course of Star Trek, and possibly science fiction television all together.
Imagine a world where we had our first powerful sci-fi babe in 1964. How would the current landscape be different? Would I still be writing as angrily about the way women are written on Battlestar Galactica and Heroes? Would Starbuck’s plaintive wails of “WE’RE GOING THE WRONG WAAAY!!!” still be considered depth? Would Joss Whedon still be a visionary for giving women something to do on a spaceship?
But, it wasn’t just the NBC execs that hated Number One; she was also hated by women in the test audience. I can imagine a room full of Betty Drapers smoking and ripping on the character for being pushy and saying, as William Shatner claimed in his memoir, that Number One was trying too hard to fit in with men. Even though the show was taking place, like, 300 years in the future.
I hate Betty Draper.
Number One was written out of the series and most of her character traits were transferred to Spock, who was previously considered too “satanic looking” for television. (Better a satanic looking dude than a strong woman!)
Barrett’s Next Gen character, Lwaxana Troi, was your stereotypical overbearing mother and unrepentant cougar, and she was fabulous. I mean, she had a servant who banged a gong every time she took a bite of dinner and she believes in naked marriage ceremonies! Lwaxana Troi didn’t do anything to propel women’s roles past the same things they’d been doing since the 1960s, but at least she was fun.
Science fiction television could use more of that.
Majel Barrett passed away today. She didn’t get to be the first to pave the path to command for women in science fiction, but she did leave a deep impression on Star Trek and and science fiction television as she continued Gene Roddenberry’s legacy after his death in 1991. She will be missed.
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Lisa Fary’s early exposure to classic Battlestar Galactica in 1979 is largely responsible for her lifelong interest in science fiction and her childhood ambition of being an intergalactic space cowgirl. She thinks diagramming sentences is a fun alternative to Sudoku.
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A very lovely tribute — bravo, Lisa!
I will miss Lwaxanna, and I thank Barrett for keeping the legacy alive for so long.
I too didn't know she psssed! Another woman gone. Sad for SCFi
I hadn't truly realized the potential impact of Number One. That was a loss for American entertainment, maybe even our society as a whole. (I get what you're saying about Betty Draper. I can't say I hate her, but she does irritate me sometimes. She got a lot more interesting over the last four or five episodes of last season.) Who knows what might've happened if women were allowed more positive, active role models after the country had spent a couple decades cramming them back into the kitchen.
Here's hoping the Great Bird and his First Lady have been reunited. My condolences to Rod.
I was lucky enough to meet Majel when I worked at the Roddenberry table at the 40th Anniversary Vegas Trek convention a couple of years ago, and this photo of us always makes me smile:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=458305&...
She was a lively woman with an amazing sense of humor. She will be missed.
I didn't know that Majel Barrett had passed away, so your last paragraph threw me for a loop. She is the voice I hear in my head whenever I read something with a talking computer.
"…Better a satanic looking dude than a strong woman!…" How far we (haven't) come…! I always hated the way that 'Nurse Chapel' was apparently subservient to Dr McCoy (even if she did have some good lines). Her making googly-eyes at Spock and deferring to McCoy had my much-younger self twisted in knots of rage. In later years, when I realised what her character could have been, it annoyed me even more.
However, Majel Barrett herself was a major figure in Sci-Fi and a creative force for good. And, like you Dani from NC, she is always the voice of any talking computer in my head. May she rest in peace.
I had the pleasure of meeting Majel at a convention many years ago. She was so sweet to us and I was flattered about how much she admired the uniforms I that we had spent so many hours sewing. She will be missed so much by the SciFi community.