The Voyager series finale 'Endgame' promises to be as much of an emotional ride for the viewers as it was for the actors. Executive Producer Kenneth Biller warned "Not everything will have a neat little bow."

"[The] finale is really less about pyrotechnics than it is about the people themselves," he told TV Guide Magazine, which is commemorating the end of the fourth Star Trek series with with a four-cover special edition of the magazine. "Our biggest challenge has been to surprise the viewers yet still satisfy expectations," Biller continued. Voyager co-creator Rick Berman agreed. "I believe this finale will keep people guessing until the very last moment."

TV Guide was able to observe the filming of a scene that took place in the Briefing Room, in which and an older Admiral Janeway comes to Voyager from 26 years in the future to take the ship home. Her tactics will give the ship a ten second window of opportunity to get home in an attempt that could have tragic consequences if it ends in failure. Captain Janeway refuses to make the attempt unless all her senior staff agree to take the risk. They unanimously vote to take a chance. "Maybe it's not the destination that matters," says Harry Kim, "Maybe it's the journey." The scene ends with the senior staff raising their glasses in a toast.

Another scene takes place on the Voyager bridge, with the ship under attack from the Borg. The battle is triggered by Admiral Janeway, and forces Voyager to come face to face with the Borg Queen played by Alice Krige and her armada of Borg cubes. The two Janeway's will face off in the scene, as the ship is rocked by Borg weapons fire. Little more is known about the scene, but Rick Berman promised that it will not disappoint. "There is a lot of action in the final act of Voyager, a lot of money on the screen, a lot of boom," he said.

The finale will also see the birth of B'Elanna Torres and Tom Paris' baby. But in true Voyager style, the birth does not go without complication. "Paris isn't there for the delivery because he's busy at the helm," Roxann Dawson revealed.

Robert Beltran (Chakotay) confirmed that the hints of a romance between Voyager's First Officer and the former Borg do materialise in the final episode. But he was still bitter over the way the Janeway and Chakotay relationship was handled. "Chakotay made his feelings known to Janeway and was quickly shut down — callously in my opinion," said Beltran.

The final few days of filming were a time for a considerable amount of retrospective evaluation about the series. Berman was very proud of what Voyager had achieved. "The show's virtue was that it was fresh and different," he said "Having a captain who acted independently of Starfleet gave us lots of story possibilities, but on the negative side, Star Trek is about going out into space, not trying to come back in. There was always a bit of a taint in the mind of fans who love that sense of exploration."

Kate Mulgrew (Kathryn Janeway) described her biggest challenge. "The largest Trek demographic is the young male 15 to 25, so you can only imagine the horror on an anthropological level — with which most of those boys looked upon me," she said. "It was like having their own mother be captain! It took me a good year or two to seduce them."

The fourth season of Voyager saw the addition of a new crew member, Seven of Nine, played by Jeri Ryan. "Nothing personal, but on a deep level I thought, 'Damn, if only they'd given me more of a chance..." she said, discussing the network's decision to bring in Ryan's "blonde bombshell presence to raise the ratings." Ryan was defensive on the issue. "Until the addition of Seven, Kate was the one all the publicity focused around," she said. "I'm sure it was tough for that focus to shift. But what was I going to do — not do press so that I wouldn't step on toes?"

But even though Janeway has ordered her final black coffee from her replicator and the final scene of Voyager has been shot, the series will still be alive for many years to come. "The producers warned our cast from the beginning," said Robert Picardo (the Holodoc) "That once we enter this world we will never exit, except by death. And even then your T-shirts, posters and action figures will live on."

The full interview with the cast and producers of Voyager can be found in the latest edition of TV Guide which is on sale now. It includes more from the producers, comments from Wang, Russ and Ryan, and more from Mulgrew who discusses writing her memiors of the epic seven year journey. Alternatively, it can be found on their web site. Voyager merchandise and an exclusive magazine cover will also soon be on sale in the TV Guide Store.

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