Besides having the entire network being sold to Viacom, UPN yesterday also organised a meeting for the press to announce its development slate for the 2000-2001 television season. As was to be expected, Voyager was renewed for a seventh season. Also expected, though perhaps not what many fans hoped for, was that UPN confirmed season seven will be Voyager's final season. According to an article on this by Variety's Michael Schneider, Voyager will air a special two-hour edition in November, 'in preparation' for the series' end. Naturally, this causes all sorts of speculation as to whether this double-length episode will see Voyager returning home, but of course it could also just be a TV movie along the lines of 'Dark Frontier', not dealing at all with the ship's homecoming.

At the press meeting, Tom Noonan, who heads UPN's programming division, promised advertisers 'a surprising conclusion' and a 'smashing finale', which will air sometime in May 2001. Voyager premiered on UPN in January 1995, making it the longest-running series on the network, and, until 'WWF Smackdown!' premiered this year, also the top-rated show.

At the meeting, UPN chief Dean Valentine also said the network was already talking to Voyager's producers about a new Trek series to take Voyager's place, but he wouldn't give out any details as to what the series would actually be about. This does seem to confirm that Series V will also be shown on UPN, though, but the final decision on that of course remains with Paramount Pictures.

For more on Voyager's end next year, you might want to read the Reuters article or the Variety article. And in related news, another TrekToday item will go up in a few minutes focusing on the Viacom UPN buy-out, as well as the other shows UPN will be launching next year.

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