I hate Star Trek: Voyager. I hate how it squandered an intriguing premise. I hate how contrived and boring it often was. I hate how it ruined the Borg. I hate Harry and Tom, B'elanna and Chakotay. It has always been, to my mind, the worst of Star Trek.

So you know I'm being as objective as a huge Trek dweeb can be when I place "Endgame" so high on this list. I don't put it here because I like "Endgame". To the contrary, I find a lot of it absolutely infuriating. But it's the right finale for Voyager. And that means a lot.

Let's break with tradition, shall we? I usually talk about the good first, before delving into my criticisms. Since I'm sure some of you will want to skip this part, let's get all my seething but impotent rage out of the way.

Where to begin. Oh, right -- #@$% Admiral Janeway, right in the jeffries tubes. And assume every time I call Janeway an "admiral" it sounds exactly like when Khan does it with Kirk.

It's a miracle Voyager made it home at all considering all the boneheaded moves she pulls. But instead of thanking her lucky stars, instead of accepting that sometimes you don't get everything you want, she decides to alter the timeline, try and get Voyager from the past home earlier. Never mind the consequences, screw the temporal Prime Directive, every other person in every single quadrant be damned, Seven of Nine and Chakotay are dead. Oh, and Tuvok is sick. What is this life to you, Admiral? A video game? Not good enough unless you get a 100% completion rating?

What guarantee is there that going back in time will yield a better outcome for anyone? None. Zero. Admiral Janeway brings back technology that she thinks will protect Voyager from the Borg, but it could just as easily been assimilated, thus making them even more unstoppable that much sooner. What the admiral did is dumb beyond the telling. And it's selfish. She is a selfish, stupid leader, and it's only by blind luck that everything works out as well as it does.

And let's talk about those two dead crewmen, shall we? Chakotay and Seven have some of the most non-existent romantic chemistry ever put to film. That plot thread only happened because Robert Beltran complained that Chakotay didn't have anything to do. It also happened because Paramount didn't like that so many fans assumed that Seven was dating Janeway. Sure, it's the future, but lesbians?! Not on Star Trek, friend.

But if you said I was just mad that I didn't get my way on that romance part, you'd be partly right. I think the chemistry wasn't there between Beltran and Ryan regardless, but I only care so much because I didn't want it.

The real truth is, even though I loathe Admiral Janeway and everything she represents, I also absolutely believe that she would do every stupid thing she does. And I buy that Captain Janeway would do all the things she does, too. For however cripplingly stupid I find the Voyager finale to be, it is absolutely in keeping with the tone and style of the show. The characters behave exactly as you would expect them to.

So help me, "Endgame" is actually pretty exciting. There's a building tension, there's that Borg transwarp hub (which I remember reading about in a William Shatner written Star Trek story called "The Return"), and there's Kate Mulgrew acting her darn pants off. Seriously, without Kate Mulgrew, how would this show have ever survived?

Considering how much time Jeri Ryan got on screen from the moment she arrived, "Endgame" feels like comeuppance. It's like Mulgrew said, "you gave the hussy in the catsuit years of attention, but you better believe this finale is gonna be all me".

Everyone gets a solid moment. Heck, even Harry Kim grows as a person and recognizes that Voayger's journey is more important than its destination. If you loved Voyager, then "Endgame" is a pretty satisfying wrap up.

I just personally hate it. Let's pretend I never said anything complimentary about it at all and move on shall we?