Poll Majell Barrett-Roddenberry as the computer voice moving forward?

[StalwartUK]

Also the USS Excelsior in Star Trek III, which I think was actually Leonard Nimoy's voice.

 

[Saul]

It would be nice if they could make it work. I remember there was talk of it during the JJ films. If they can't do it then I'd love for Marina Sirtis to take the role.

 

[DarthTimon]

Whilst it would be a nice tribute, there would come a time where to me, it would feel like the passing of the torch would need to happen.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

11001001, which also had a male voice in engineering while under Bynar control

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And again, I would have NO problem with Romjin doing the voice (although I kinda miss Jennette Goldstein). I am NOT down with digitally re-creating Majel's voice. Yes, we all miss Majel, but...recasting isn't a problem with most roles, why is this one such a big deal?

 

[fireproof78]

Recasting for Star Trek is a weird world. On the one hand, yeah it's totally normal and has happened in several Trek productions. On the other hand, there is this tome of the sacred around certain performances and that allows little wiggle room. Which, I just don't buy in to. To me, it goes back to my biggest struggle with Trek and the future: it's a show about the future that has hooked itself completely to the past.

 

[Tuskin38]

Majel was was down with it, she even recorded audio before her death specifically for with it.
I think that, and the wishes of her remaining family, are all that matters on the subject.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

If Majel was ok with it, I guess I am too.

Did she really record a bunch of lines for this exact purpose, though?

 

[Mudd]

They're using lots of voices for ship's computers in Trek these days, and they have been for years. The Enterprise's computer has a new voice now, on SNW, Alex Kapp:



So, that's done, then.

Whoever's playing Una or Chapel has no bearing on who does the voice for a computer on Star Trek.

 

[Noname Given]

Majel was was down with it, she even recorded audio before her death specifically for with it.
I think that, and the wishes of her remaining family, are all that matters on the subject.

Honestly I think the thoughts of the production team behind the series matter more. I'm sorry but at this point I think it's ridiculous to keep doing it just for the sake of tradition alone. Magel Barrett has passed on, let her rest in peace.

(And no she wasn't the voice of the computer in every TOS episode. As for her voice as the main computer in TNG and later Berman era Trek, it was just another source of income for her. And nothing wrong with that, but at this point I think it's time to move on.)

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

I think it's time to move on.

 

[RuleofAcuisition17]

Majel was was down with it, she even recorded audio before her death specifically for with it.
I think that, and the wishes of her remaining family, are all that matters on the subject.

The rumour was she had recorded a phoenetic library to allow her to voice future productions.

The last I heard of it was she had not completed the library, leaving it incomplete.

It's another one of those things, if these shows were broadly in the same time period then I'd be advocating for a single new actress being cast for the role. To at least bring a consistent feel to the shows on this aspect.

However, each show is set within different decades and centuries. Discovery the 3100s, Picard the 2400s, Prodigy the 2380s, alongside Lower Decks.

 

[Jules / OTOY]

It was complete, and turned out to be enough to bring her voice back as the Enterprise computer for the Roddenberry Archive (as of this month, after a decade of experiments). It’s up to Rod to decide where to take this of course.

The rumour was she had recorded a phoenetic library to allow her to voice future productions.

The last I heard of it was she had not completed the library, leaving it incomplete.

It's another one of those things, if these shows were broadly in the same time period then I'd be advocating for a single new actress being cast for the role. To at least bring a consistent feel to the shows on this aspect.

However, each show is set within different decades and centuries. Discovery the 3100s, Picard the 2400s, Prodigy the 2380s, alongside Lower Decks.

 

[Tuskin38]

Honestly I think the thoughts of the production team behind the series matter more.

I was talking about the rights/ethics of using her voice. I wasn't demanding they use it.

If they did choose to use it, Majel was fine with it before she died.

 

[Akiraprise]

I am curious why the current Trek producers have not continued to use Majel's voice as the Federation starship computers. Especially considering S3 of PIC is the swan song for her time period. The other series have opted not to use her either. Just seems odd considering Majel’s voice had been recorded phonetically before her death in 2008 so that she could continue as the voice of the computer indefinitely and no modern show runner has availed themselves of it. This article talks about the fact that current Trek has moved on, and I've seen a Tweet from Terry acknowledging the new computer voices in S3 of PIC, but no real explanation as to why they are not using the phonetic library. Anyone seen an explanation for why they have opted out of using Majel's voice?

 

[Harpsichord]

Rod Roddenberry talked about this in an interview last year:

RK: Can you tell me about the history of recording archives of Majel’s voice as the computer?

RR: Everyone thought of this when Apple and Google were coming out with their voice assistants. They reached out to my mother many years ago and asked if she would be willing to do this. Nothing ever came of it. Although, if I heard correctly, before Google’s voice assistant went public, its internal code name was “Majel.”

I thought it was such a great idea that before she passed, I told her, and she agreed. We got a recording studio in the house, and we recorded her voice and tried to get everything phonetically. High Fidelity recorded the WAV files.

We approached Google once and tried to get them to incorporate it into–what I would love is that to be her voice every time we hear an automation machine. At least, I think her voice should go down in posterity as the computer voice.

When we talked to Google, we were missing a few elements of the phonetic sound of her voice. At the time, they suggested a voice artist come in and finish the sounds, and I felt that wasn’t authentic enough. Now, I’ve been told there is the technology that can take a sample of all this and then fill in those gaps pretty organically or make it sound organic. I think it’ll happen one day.

AI voice synthesis has gotten significantly better in just the ~year since this interview (elevenlabs, voice.ai, etc..) I don't think it's "use in a television show" good yet, but maybe in a year or two.

 

[StewMc]

AI voice synthesis has gotten significantly better in just the ~year since this interview (elevenlabs, voice.ai, etc..) I don't think it's "use in a television show" good yet, but maybe in a year or two.

AI James Earl Jones in Obi-Wan Kenobi last year was pretty damned good to be fair.

I think Matalas said recently he wasn’t aware of the Majel recordings during production of S3.

 

[Ronald Held]

I ask him last year at a con. The short answer is that it is not ready yet for voice assistants.

 

[darrenjl]

In-universe I guess, just like the universal translator, they hear it to whatever their personal preference is.

I mean it's not like the current Alexa voice is going to be around in twenty years without some kind of personalisation by it user.

 

[Tosk]

I get the emotional desire to hang on to Majel, but I never really got the seeming obsession over keeping her as every Starfleet computer. Why wouldn't different captains choose a different setting?

 

[The Wormhole]

I was going to say something about uniformity within the fleet, but these days Starfleet doesn't even wear the same uniforms across the fleet anymore.