Star Trek: Voyager (1995 - 2001)

Though I catch only about two viewings a season of Star Trek: Voyager (the opener and ender), even I know that Kate Mulgrew's Captain Janeway presided over the USS Voyager with a jaw as prominently steely as any to have graced a Starfleet Command ship without ever slipping into inadvertent camp -- as the original ''Trek'''s William Shatner did -- or unwarranted huffiness, as Avery Brooks did on ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.'' (Patrick Stewart's ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' Captain Picard remains the standard of unprecedented subtlety by which ''Trek'''s lead actors are measured.)

To help me judge this week's series finale (after a long and prosperous run; ''Voyager'' debuted in '95) I turned to an expert -- my next door neighbor Mark, that rare fellow with extensive ''Trek'' knowledge who also remains an articulate adult. We viewed the two hour sendoff, which commences in the future of ''Voyager'''s already future: a flash forward to most of the crew, once over 70,000 light years from home, now safe on Earth. And when I say ''most,'' I mean even my antennae went up when a returned Janeway was asked about Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan, another sci-fi paradox: a stiff hottie) and replied ominously, ''I'd rather not talk about Seven of Nine.'' Uh oh…

Neighbor Mark pointed out that the final ''Voyager'' bears a strong resemblance to the series' popular 100th episode from 1998; in both cases, it's necessary for the crew to travel back in time to attempt to undo something awful, thus breaching the hallowed ''temporal prime directive'' -- i.e., don't screw with time periods, something UPN actually needs to do more often. There's a special appearance by arch archenemy, the Borg Queen, once and again played by Alice Krige from the film ''Star Trek: First Contact'' -- not the character's original actress, ''Once and Again'''s Susanna Thompson.

Robert Picardo, as the holographic Doc, remains wittily prissy and priapic to the end, there's a satisfying payoff to this season's pregnancy of B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson), and you've gotta like a space opera that has Janeway yelling ''Just get these Klingons off my tail!'' When Mark and I turned off the VCR and showed each other our notes, we'd arrived at the same letter grade, a fair measure of ''Voyager'''s success to fan and casual viewer alike. I hope our vibes are similarly attuned when I plant that new tree on the border of our property. (Note: Grade is for finale; as for series run grade, fight amongst yourselves.)

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