Martha Hackett

After seven long years trying to return home, it's no surprise that the seventh season of Voyager was emotional. It begins with the resolution to season 6's "Unimatrix Zero," in which Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), Torres (Roxann Biggs-Dawson), and Tuvok (Tim Russ) must find a way off the Borg Cube and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) faces the loss of the precious bit of humanity she has just discovered. "Human Error" focuses on Seven's further attempts to explore her human side (a romance comes from out of the blue).

In their sixth season trying to return to the Alpha Quadrant, the crew of Voyager continues to find signs that they may be close to home. They ran across another Federation starship in the season 5 cliffhanger, "Equinox," which is concluded in action-packed fashion. Then they benefit from a brief communications link to home thanks to the ongoing efforts of The Next Generation's Lt. Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz), occasionally assisted by Counsellor Troi (Marina Sirtis).

After Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) spent much of Voyager's fourth season trying to resist the pull of the Borg, and just when the tide of battle seemed to be turning, she returns to the Collective in a memorable confrontation with the Borg Queen (Susanna Thompson) in the centerpiece story of the fifth season, the two-part "Dark Frontier." The Borg also factor into the nightmare-laden "Infinite Regress" as well as "Drone," in which a strange Borg-human-EMH hybrid teaches Seven the experience of parenthood, of sorts.

After proving its long-term potential in season 2, Star Trek: Voyager served up some of the best episodes in its entire seven-year history. The second-season cliffhanger was intelligently resolved in "Basics, Pt. II," and the fan-favorite "Flashback" placed Tuvok (Tim Russ) aboard the U.S.S. Excelsior from Star Trek VI, under the command of Capt. Sulu (Star Trek alumnus George Takei).

If the first season of Star Trek: Voyager was a shakedown cruise, then season 2 represents a vital blossoming of the series' potential. As Captain Janeway, Kate Mulgrew maintained Starfleet integrity in the lawless expanse of the Delta quadrant, and became the ethical conscience of her still-uneasy Maquis/Starfleet crew, whose unanimous loyalty would be dramatically proven in "The '37's" (a first-season hold-over).

Another spin-off of the Star Trek series, Star Trek: Voyager centers on the Federation starship USS Voyager as its crew bands together with a group of Maquis rebels to return home from the far-flung Delta Quadrant.

Star Trek: Voyager began life in 1995 with some truly fascinating prospects in its two-hour pilot episode. Opening in the 24th century, a setting contemporary with that of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and carrying over story elements from each of those series, "Caretaker" finds Starfleet Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) stepping into the middle of Federation troubles with the Maquis, an army of rebels violently resisting the interplanetary organization's treaty with the brutal Cardassians.