Nearly twelve years ago, the crew of “Star Trek: Voyager” set sail on their maiden voyage into the Badlands just north of “Deep Space Nine”. By the end of Act II, an alien scheme had transported them 75,000 light years across the Milky Way to the unexplored territories of the distant Delta Quadrant, home to such sinister outer space heavies as the Kazon, the Hirogen, the Vidiians, and the ultimate Star Trek villains, the Borg. Though it took her seven seasons and 172 episodes, Voyager’s courageous Captain Kathryn Janeway navigated the ship through dangerous waters, ultimately returning her brood to Federation space.

Beginning on Monday, December 18, Spike TV again sends Janeway’s crew packing for their long and dangerous journey. Spike celebrates the U.S.S. Voyager’s arrival on the network’s schedule with a week-long marathon of episodes.

In the two-hour pilot “Caretaker,” tough-as-nails Janeway squares off against a powerful but dying alien who has been snatching starships from the Alpha Quadrant, including the scout vessel where Janeway’s Tactical Officer, Tuvok (Tim Russ, presently appearing on “General Hospital”) has been masquerading as a Maquis agent. Banished to the Delta Quadrant, both crews, Starfleet and Maquis, eventually unite as one onboard Voyager. The return trip home is expected to last 75 years, after Janeway makes the ultimate sacrifice to save a race of innocents trapped in the crossfire of the unfolding conflict.

Joining the brilliant and beautiful Kate Mulgrew as the Captain many fans consider to be Star Trek’s best is an ensemble that includes Robert Beltran as First Officer Chakotay, Robert Picardo as the ship’s holographic doctor, Roxanne Dawson as half-human, half-Klingon Chief Engineer B’Elanna Torres, and Robert Duncan McNeill as reformed criminal-turned-crackerjack pilot, Tom Paris. Rounding out the cast are Ethan Phillips as alien tour guide Neelix, Garrett Wang as Lieutenant Harry Kim, and Jennifer Lien in the role of pixieish Kes, an Ocampan expatriate with latent psychic powers. Busty Jeri Ryan joins up with the gang in Season Four as the reclaimed Borg, Seven of Nine.

In 1995, Star Trek: Voyager didn’t merely kick off a fourth live-action entry into the venerable franchise; it also launched an entire network (the recently deceased UPN). Voyager was also the first spin-off to feature a strong woman in the Captain’s chair.

“Voyager made a very substantial and significant contribution to the mythology of Star Trek, with some very important differences,” says Mulgrew. “There seems to be a humanity to our show which endowed the Trek mythology with something even greater than its already epic science fiction approach.”

Following the week-long, nine-hours-a-day marathon, Voyager settles into the Spike schedule with two episodes each weekday, beginning January 2, 2007. Six days later, the anemic Star Trek: Enterprise — which followed Voyager as the franchise’s standard-bearer — launches in reruns over at the Sci Fi Channel.