Majel Barret was previously known as Nurse Chapel in the original series. In this incarnation she plays Lwaxana Troi, Counselor Troi's domineering mother. Brassy and excessively be-cleavaged (but with better dress sense than her daughter), Lwaxana fits the stereotype of the pathetic middle-aged woman who can't face the fact that she is getting older. However, when she is kidnapped by the amorous Ferengi, she uses her intelligence and wit, and becomes quite a force to be reckoned with...

Majel Barrett
"I love her. I've had women yell at me across parking lots at supermarkets, saying 'You've done more for women over forty than any movement in America!'"

Majel Barrett is also, of course. the widow of legendary Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. She witnessed the genesis of the show and admired the way he tried to promote his liberal sixties views through the medium of telly...

Majel Barrett
"Back in the sixties, there was a fierce amount of censorship that was going on, and you couldn't talk about things - you couldn't talk about war, you couldn't talk about the black/white problem ... There was a whole list of taboos, and Gene always wanted to tell people how he felt about it ... He'd like to kind of set an example and talk about it, and he wasn't allowed to, so he thought, ''Maybe if I stick these people in funny costumes and stick them in space, I can get by the censors with it'', and by God, he did!"

Funny though. From the start, Gene Roddenberry wanted Star Trek to examine social issues like racism, superpower conflict, and sexism. So how come 23rd Century women turned out to be space babes in lurex?