Sometimes, I hear about the death of someone I had no personal connection with, and I feel sad anyway. Yesterday's news about Majel Barrett Roddenberry was one of those times. The widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, Majel appeared as Nurse Chapel in the original series (you know, the nurse with the huge blonde beehive?), Deanna Troi's outrageous mother on The Next Generation, and every Star Trek incarnation including every series, game, and movie - including the as yet un-released J.J. Abrams re-boot - as the iconic voice of the Federation's computer system. I also particularly remember her from a Babylon 5 episode in which she played the widow of the late Centauri emperor, called to the station by Londo because she was a prophetess, and he wanted his prophecy - a strong, fantastic episode anchored by her graceful and dignified character.
Entertainment Weekly did me in by posting, as an obituary, a clip from that TNG episode werein the crew discovers a cryogenically frozen Scotty floating in space. In short time, Scotty realizes that it's some three hundred years since he was last conscious, and everyone he knew or loved is dead, and the clip EW posted was of his powerful, private, thoroughly heartbreaking toast to those gone so far before him. That's always made me cry; I didn't need to hit 'play' on the video to recognize the scene, and it did me in anyway.
What else did me in, in a very sobering way? The reminder that, even in this day and age, in the most eminent first-world country on Earth, and being able to afford excellent medical care, people can still die from pneumonia. There's nothing like hearing that one of the greatest TV sci-fi icons ever has died of pneumonia complications to shock a person into realizations about their own vulnerability.
Anyways...Majel Barrett Roddenberry. I'll remember her best here by not making a syrupy pun using Star Trek euphemisms about passing into the afterlife.
:(
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