Tagged: Deep Space Nine

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who has been a part of every incarnation of her husband Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, has signed on to reprise her role as the computer voice in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek according to Variety.

As an actress, Majel Barrett was cast as Number One in the original television pilot but NBC had issues with a female as the second-in-command.  She was recast as Nurse Christine Chapel for the three seasons of the series and animated show that followed. She did a variety of voices for the show including the computer.

She reprised the computer voice for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager.  Her voice work was also heard in the feature films and she appeared as Chapel in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek: IV: The Voyage Home.

Barrett-Roddenberry also played Lwaxana Troi in TNG and DS9.

David Mack, not the Kabuki David Mack, is no stranger to the Star Trek writing universe, having written several well-acclaimed novels solo and also a couple of televison episodes with former Star Trek book editor John Ordover.  He dipped a toe into the Marvel Universe with his excellent Wolverine novel, Road of Bones (with a cover from the other Dave Mack). His latest work, the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy, spans several storylines that will change Trek literature forever.  The first volume of the trilogy is just now hitting bookstores so we thought it was a good time to catch up with Mack who was kind enough to discuss his career and future writing endeavors with ComicMix.

CMix: How did you get your start in Star Trek?

David Mack: Long story. I first set my sights on writing for Star Trek while I was a sophomore in college.  That was when Star Trek: The Next Generation announced its open-door policy for script submissions.  I collected many fine rejections but never succeeded in breaking through at The Next Generation.

I continued submitting scripts through the same venue for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and I collected many more fine rejections. I finally got my break when a college friend of mine introduced me to Star Trek fiction editor John J. Ordover. John had the connections to bypass the slush-submission process and pitch ideas to the producers; what he lacked was scriptwriting experience, for which I had been trained at film school. So we teamed up.

Working together, John and I made a sale during our first pitch session to Star Trek: Voyager, and another a few weeks later, to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The Voyager story was bought but never produced; the DS9 story became the fourth-season episode “Starship Down.”

We figured the floodgates would open after back-to-back sales. They didn’t. It was three years before we sold another story to Deep Space Nine (the seventh-season episode “It’s Only a Paper Moon”).  In the interim, to earn freelance money to help pay off my mountain of college-loan debts, I did editorial scut work around the Star Trek books office: reading slush submissions, compiling reference materials for the authors, organizing photo files, etc.

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