Quote:
Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger
I’m sure I’m the last Star Trek fan to learn this but..
The actress who played Troi’s mother Lwaxana was married to Gene Roddenberry, voiced the computer in almost all ST series/movies and played number one in TOS (now portrayed by Rebecca Romijn).
She’s like the trekiest person who has ever lived. I had absolutely no idea.
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The history of her being involved in Star Trek is hilarious to me. She
eventually married Gene Roddenberry, but during the original series' run she was his
mistress. The only reason she was even on the show in the first place was that she was Gene's side-piece. Or rather,
one of Gene's side-pieces: he was also bangin' Nichelle Nichols ('Uhura').
She played Number One in the original series pilot, "The Cage", and the NBC executives knew she was Gene's mistress and disliked both her performance and that Roddenberry foisted her into this starring role. After the series was picked up—with her role as the first officer written out—she wore a blonde wig in the new "guest star" role of Nurse Chapel to try to fool the NBC executives into thinking she wasn't the same woman who played Number One in the first pilot. They caught on pretty much immediately.
Allegedly Lucille Ball, owner and chairwoman of the board of Desilu Studios (which produced
Star Trek and
Mission: Impossible), found out about Roddenberry and Barrett's affair and wanted to fire them both (because she abhorred philanderers after her marriage with Desi Arnaz broke down). She
also wanted to fire
Mission: Impossible stars Martin Landau and Barbara Bain for the same reason, not realizing they were actually married to each other, and when she found out they were married she
still wanted them fired because she thought Landau got the role on the show because of nepotism and she wouldn't abide that either!
In the end none of them were fired after producers Herb Solow and Bob Justman (who co-produced both shows) defended them all.
