10 Best Final Lines In Star Trek Episodes

There are few lines in television as good that they can pull double duty (or even quadruple in this case). "Set a course… for home," spoken by Captain Janeway on both occasions, ends the Star Trek: Voyager pilot Caretaker that begins the series, and it equally concludes the series finale Endgame just before Voyager is seen sailing towards Earth. This is a decidedly elegant way to bookend the series in the five words that summarise the crew’s overarching mission.

Endgame might have had a very different… ending, however. As producer Rick Berman has discussed, when the story for the final episode was being outlined, many "directions" were considered for Voyager’s ultimate fate including one that would have seen the crew remain in the Delta Quadrant. According to Berman, they held on to this idea for "at least a month" and had intended to make the point that "the meaning of it all was the journey". In the actual episode, this is echoed in Harry Kim’s impassioned speech as he realises that the destination is of less importance than the people he shares it with.

Either way, the final line may well have remained the same. It seems fitting for both scenarios, although it is doubtful that it would have had the same emotional impact if Voyager hadn’t made it home.