[ENDGAME]
BEHIND-THE-SCENES
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After seven seasons and 172 episodes, the cast and crew of [Star Trek Voyager] have concluded their work on the series. Principal photography of the show's two-part finale, Endgame, officially wrapped on Monday 9th April 2001, which left just two days of second unit filming and a few weeks of post-production work to be completed before the final curtain fell on the fourth small screen incarnation of Star Trek. [#171 and #172 Endgame] was shot during the course of two-and-a-half weeks under the guidance of veteran Star Trek director Allan Kroeker, who also directed the previous Star Trek series' finale [DS9: What You Leave Behind]. Allan Kroeker also directed the following [Star Trek Voyager] episodes: [#63 Before And After], [#66 Displaced], [#76 Year Of Hell, Part One], [#80 Mortal Coil], [#106 Bride of Chaotica!], [#115 Juggernaut], [#131 Fair Haven], [#134 Memorial], [#146 Unimatrix Zero, Part One], [#152 Inside Man], [#162 Workforce, Part One], and [#164 Human Error].

Billed as a moving, exciting and surprising climax to [Star Trek Voyager], [#171 and #172 Endgame] revolves around the ultimate confrontation between Captain Janeway and the Borg Queen, and spans some 23 years. The finale has been scripted by [Star Trek Voyager] executive producer Kenneth Biller and writer Robert Doherty, based on a storyline developed by Biller together with former head writer/executive producer Brannon Braga and the Star Trek franchise's guiding light the executive producer Rick Berman.

Rick Berman in Communicator: "We have spent a tremendous amount of time working on the story. Ken Biller, Rob Doherty, Brannon and myself have worked for weeks on a very complex storyline. I think we had some big shoes to fill. If you look at the final episodes of [TNG] and [DS9], they have a certain sweeping heroic quality to them. I think they focused not only on our characters, but also on an action/adventure story on the grander human scale. We wanted the same thing to be true of the last episode of [Star Trek Voyager]. I'm very excited and I think the story we finally came up with is a great way to send the crew off."

USA television viewers were given their first glimpse of [#171 and #172 Endgame] in April 2001, when Entertainment Tonight offered a behind-the-scenes look at the making of [Star Trek Voyager]'s series finale (and thus presumably somewhat spoiling the freshness and surprise of [#171 and #172 Endgame] for when it actually aired! - why not show the making of programme soon or even immediately after airing [#171 and #172 Endgame] as viewers would be glued to their tv sets?). The report also enabled [Star Trek Voyager]'s leading lady, Kate Mulgrew (who plays Captain Janeway), to offer her thoughts on [#171 and #172 Endgame] for the first time.

Speaking during a break in filming, Mulgrew told 'Entertainment Tonight' that she expected viewers to be "unsettled by what the writers have come up with" but described the series' outcome as "profoundly clever and very moving".

A follow-up report by UPN 9 News revealed that the makers of [Star Trek Voyager] were taking drastic action to ensure that [#171 and #172 Endgame]'s plot twists remained under wraps prior to its USA broadcast.

Garrett Wang: "Usually what happens before every episode, everyone gets a copy of the script. That means all the crew guys - everyone - gets to see what's going on. This time, the actors have the script and that's it."

Following the completion of Endgame's principal photography, a host of Star Trek cast and crewmembers celebrated the fourth series' conclusion at the 'Star Trek: Voyager Series Finale Wrap Party'. Held at the elegant W Hotel in Westwood, California, USA, on Wednesday 11th April, the gala event was attended by some 500 guests, including [Star Trek Voyager]'s principal cast, [TNG]'s Brent Spiner (Data, who is mentioned by Torres in [#29 Prototype]), [DS9]'s Armin Shimerman (Quark, who appears briefly in [#1 Caretaker, Part One]), Rene Auberjonois (Odo) and Ira Behr (head writer/executive producer), 'Star Trek X: Nemesis] scribe John Logan, prolific Star Trek guest star John de Lancie (Q, who appears in three [Star Trek Voyager] stories), and the franchise's 'first lady', Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Nurse Chapel/Lwaxana Troi/LCARS computer, and is heard in most of the [Star Trek Voyager] episodes as the LCARS computer). Everyone present at the 'Star Trek: Voyager Series Finale Wrap Party' was presented with an exclusive signed and numbered blown-glass bowl which had been made to commemorate the series' end. [#171 and #172 Endgame] made its USA debut on Wednesday 23rd May, courtesy of UPN. It is tentatively scheduled to receive its UK premiere in August, thanks to Sky One (a satellite channel that not many in Britain have), and will be released on home video in both the UK and Australia during the final quarter of 2001. The video release was slightly delayed. I remember travelling back from holiday to buy the video and do the Episode Guide then went back on holiday. It amused me that none of my regular correspondents at the time, except someone who had guest-starred on [Star Trek Voyager] but was not a fan, was surprised that I did that.

His appearances in [Star Trek: Voyager] are as follows: the Romulan scientist Telek R'mor in [#7 Eye of the Needle] the former Borg drone Two of Nine a.k.a. Lansor in [#122 Survival Instinct] the Vidiian ship's captain in [#143 Fury] Alpha-Hirogen in [#155 Flesh and Blood, Part One] the Klingon scientist Korath in [#171 Endgame, Part One]

Korath

Of playing two Janeways, Kate Mulgrew says: "They were technically the most challenging scenes of my life. And that too was interesting to me. I was playing to nothing. When you see Admiral Janeway talking to the Captain, there's nothing there. [The challenge was] the height of the transformation. I had to really believe that she is there while I was looking at a dot or maybe there's a stand-in or something. But that's the work of the imagination, which is exactly what we're paid to do, right?"

Joseé Normand, the show's hair designer, says that for Kate Mulgrew to play Admiral Kathryn Janeway, "For Kate I was able to get a very beautiful silver-haired wig that may have been her favourite! She absolutely fell in love with it. It made her look so beautiful that she didn't mind having white hair at all. That's one thing about Kate - she didn't mind transformation even if it made her look ugly or old or whatever. If it helped with the character, that was the important thing."

Starfleet equipment was re-designed to produce kit which looked different and interesting whilst retaining the Starfleet look and importantly, so that changes looked like a natural progression, and which would there make it instantly recognisable and make the tv viewer feel comfortably "at home" despite it being 26 years in the future, the early 25th century.

Starfleet personnel wear new-style uniforms. The combadge is a design not seen in [Star Trek Voyager] before, although it was previously seen in [TNG: All Good Things] and [DS9: The Visitor].

Starfleet Academy cadets
	the Doctor wears the updated (science/)medical department uniform

The tricorder design was developed. Like its [Star Trek Voyager] predecessors (in both Season 1 and the upgrade seen in later Seasons), it is still hinged for folding but has a smoother outline and slightly different display.

See also article Tricorder 2404.

The personal computer was also updated.

Alan Sims, the show's properties master, says: "We developed new PADDs and new tricorders and a new phaser. It all became a little bit slimmer and more streamlined. The whole thing about science fiction is, there's no research on it. It's so much fun, because we create it all!"