10 Best Final Lines In Star Trek Episodes
8. "60,000 Light-Years Seems A Little Closer Today."
When The Doctor is transferred back to Voyager from the Alpha Quadrant in Message in a Bottle, he returns with news that Starfleet now knows the crew is alive and will do everything to get them home. Captain Janeway gives the above line in reply, and we are all a little moved as a result. In its conclusion of the episode, the line is a major turning point for the series as the tone shifts towards contact with, and the eventuality of returning to, Earth.
Apparently, this scene had been planned to take place in the mess hall with the entire crew (would they even have fit?) for, according to Robert Picardo, "a big emotional moment [with all these extras]". Again according to Picardo, "they decided [this] was too much like The Waltons," so the plans were scaled back and the scene was filmed in Sickbay with Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok (and The Doctor).
Once more, Kate Mulgrew gives an acting masterclass in her delivery of this final line. She skilfully pauses between "light-years" and "seems" as her tone rises and descends, holding back the tears. Her voice trembles with just the right amount of emotion given the gravity of the Doctor’s announcement, and the hope it brings.
This episode should also get a mention for one of the best bits of technobabble in Star Trek history: “The secondary gyrodyne relays in the propulsion field inter-matrix have depolarised.”