We asked, and the universe answered. Tonight is the final episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise" (8 p.m., UPN/KSTW) — the last episode of the final "Star Trek" spinoff series. Or is it? We asked you, dear readers, Trekkies and non, to come up with your own ideas, serious or cheeky, for what could propel the Starship Enterprise further into the future. Here is a sampling of readers' new "Star Trek" pitches. Paramount, are you listening?

"CSI: Vulcan": In which the ruthless use of logic and endless shots of green corpuscles demonstrate how science is used to determine who the deviant was who showed emotion.

— Karen Davis, Dallas

"Star Trek Idol": Assemble on the Enterprise the usual "Star Trek" assortment of costumed aliens, carbon-based and otherwise, as well as humans, of various races, professions and acting skills — of course, with all the females of whatever species in revealing, if other-worldly, dress. (And they all, remarkably, speak English, breathe Earth air and have compatible computers.) Each episode involves one of the usual "Trek" type quests, and at the end of each episode, the viewers vote one character off the Enterprise. That character is then transported to Alpha Omigod XVI to live out a life hanging out with Klingons and Ferengi, continuously getting beat up and cheated.

— Jim Distelhorst, Seattle

Go forward 50 years after the conclusion of "Star Trek: Voyager." There is dissension among the ranks of the Federation. The allegiances that once held the Federation together are beginning to crumble due to differing opinions on how to handle the ongoing war with the Borg that began a year after Capt. Janeway and Voyager destroyed the Borg's trans-warp hub on their return to Earth. A massive retaliatory invasion of the Alpha Quadrant by the Borg brought the Federation near the brink of destruction, only to be repelled by a counterattack that greatly depleted the resources of the Federation and caused millions of casualties on both sides.

Now, decades later, with the war at a stalemate but neither side willing to give up, tensions within the Federation are high. One side wishes to remain on the defensive while trying to negotiate peace with the Borg; another, more radical faction pushes for a new offensive with the goal of destroying the Borg once and for all.

If the two sides cannot agree on a course of action, the Federation stands to fall into disorder and possibly even civil war. Should the Federation dissolve, would the Borg renew their push into the Alpha Quadrant? How would others such as the Dominion or the Romulan Empire react to the situation?

— Judd Nathe, Seattle

I am totally mystified why Paramount did not do a spinoff with George Takei as captain of the Excelsior. The flashback on "Star Trek: Voyager" when Tuvok recalls his experience under Capt. Sulu was the perfect segue into a new series. That episode was very popular with Trek fans old and new. It's not too late ... get Berman and Braga out of the picture, get Harve Bennett into it. Call George and you will have a great new Trek series. Live long and prosper!

"The Red Shirt Diaries": Everyone knows that a red uniform is "Star Trek's" guarantee of premature doom. This riveting series will follow one ill-fated crewman each week as he or she draws draw closer to inevitable demise.

— Jeff Shannon, Lynnwood

With the aging of the baby boomers, the original fan base of "Star Trek," retirement themes become important. What happens when even Federation officers become too old to boldly go? They retire to part-time jobs on an R&R planet, a cross between a cosmic "Love Boat" and Six Flags Over Jupiter.

Hired because they are the only ones everybody trusts to keep peace during inter-species race friction, they also fall into scenarios of whodunits and cloak-and-daggers. On slower days, they reminisce and flashback to earlier times in their own lives, suitably adventurous.

— Lisa and Mark MacHogan, Seattle

"Defend-Your-Crappy-Writing! Trek": "Star Trek"-episode writers are put on trial each week to defend their scripts.

— Margaret McEwen, Seattle

"Star Trek: Risa": Hyperspace high jinks and holographic hanky-panky are just another day for the friendly staff of the famed Federation shore-leave planet Risa. The hotel doctor protests when a new phaser-cloaking birth-control device is challenged as a violation of the Prime Directive.

Meanwhile, the "green honey" Orion barkeep introduces "Flaming Hydrogen" shots of synthohol. A trying time is made by a visiting Decor Consultant, who wants to detonate a Genesis Bomb within a Borg vessel, thus creating the galaxy's greatest flower box.

— John Giudice, Westerly, R.I.

The new series will be called "Starfleet" and it will feature many different stories about many different ships across the "historical" spectrum. Rather than focusing on one ship's improbably positive adventures, we will look in on all of the nasty things that happened to all of those other vessels that bear the NCC designation. A lot of directors would love to explore their own interpretations of our now shared vision. And you get to keep costs down by rotating these directors, writers, and most importantly the actors.

Everyone acting in this series would know that their tenure will be brief. By removing the spotlight from a single perspective, we might actually be able to tell the kind of story that Gene Roddenberry envisioned with his "Wagon Train" to the stars: a story of humanity achieving its manifest destiny of enlightenment against the backdrop of an unforgiving universe.

— W.A. Bauer, Seattle

"Star Trek Creation": Commander Kirk — now old and chubby but born-again — assembles as many of the old crew as possible to search the universe for proof that the whole shebang was created in six days.

All the members of the crew also are born-again but in different faiths so the Enterprise becomes ripe for drama, conflict and, yes, angels. Does God live in a worm hole?

— Michael Wentzel, Rochester, N.Y.

"Extreme Star Trek Makeover": Time to overhaul those poor "Star Trek" fans who don't have proper costumes for conventions.

— Maryke VanBeuzeko, Shoreline

"Revenge of the Borg": Final movie opens door to new series. Borg take revenge by using Kirk's time-travel technique to go back and capture their major Starfleet opponents. But on trying to return to their time, radiation kills all the Borg (humans survived in suspended-animation containment vessels) and the [Borg] ship becomes caught in our sun's gravity.

Seeking someone to help them, they find Hero, an eccentric egghead college student, who is a genius but wastes all his time playing Dungeons & Dragons and fantasizing that he is the king of some mythical medieval kingdom.

He tricks the Borg computer into letting him claim salvage and then sets up his medieval kingdom in space.

However, he soon not only discovers the human Star Trek crew(s) on board, but that the Borg have opened the door for another planet, the Colans, to invade Earth, resurrect the old Nazi movement, and try to conquer and control our world.

— Daniel Shaddox,

"Star Trek: The Q Continuum" will feature John Delancey reprising his role as the quixotic Q. He is joined by continuum co-workers P, R, S and T. Also brought to you by the number 3. Q and his Qbmates will weekly challenge humankind on matters of trivial importance as they trick audience members into imagining deep thoughts while wasting time in front of the tube. Guest stars will include former members of previous "Star Trek" series who remain otherwise unemployable plus Big Bird and the Cookie Monster in the first season's cliff-hanger finale. Trekkies who can document seeing all the episodes will be given a bachelor's degree in Non-Terrestrial Philosphy from Star Fleet Academy.

— Mike Berg, Kirkland

"Star Trek: Cold Case": Sometime in the early 1990s, the quality and very meaning of "Star Trek" was killed, rendering "Star Trek" a hollowed-out shell of a franchise. In 90 percent of murder cases, it is someone close to the victim who did it. Watch the new crew, led by Hugh Laurie as Capt. Gregory Dwelling, M.D., as each week they uncover clue after clue pointing to franchise-runner and executive producer Rick Berman as the murderer, who claims innocence all the while. Berman's false memories and amnesia obfuscatez Capt. Dwelling's task during the requisite seven-year run of the series.

— Timo Reger, Seattle

"Star Trek: To Boldly Go": Starring Gary Busey as Capt. Paul Garner of the starship Encounter. His mission: to "score" with as many alien women as his five-year mission will allow, purely for scientific reasons, of course. His tag line is, "Whoa, was THAT kinky or wha?" Co-starring Dominic Keating as Malcolm Reed, his attorney, and John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox, his bemused ship's doctor. In episode one, the husband of a Bunafian Warrior comes home early, while on a nearby planet, Malcom battles a paternity suit. Later, Phlox seeks a cure for "Bunafian Bubbles." It is predicted that millions of women will tune in just to scream "Don't do it!" at their televisions.

— Joe Dolan, Seattle

"Star Trek: The Colony": The show would have a group of "pioneers" that have volunteered to set up/live permanently in a colony on a faraway solar-system planet. You might think of it as "Little House on Valcona." There would be about 20 people at this colony outpost. The initial leader would be killed in some unusual accident in the first episode and two virile young men would be rivals to take over as leader. There would be a young woman who had secretly become pregnant (against the rules) by one of the other participants shortly before making the trip to the new colony. There would be other couples and singles in the group and the usual misunderstandings, temptations, and jealousies. And, of course, there would be members of the group who had unusual physical attributes and skills.

— Sandy Guyll, Bellevue

"Star Trek: Deep Space Mime": Federation employees are so cut off from civilization they resort to making irritating hand and body gestures to solve intergalactic problems.

— Steve Johnson, No hometown given

The new Enterprise is a slip-stream ship that slips its crew into other galaxies. Creative viewers would submit stories via the Internet. A legal fund would be budgeted to handle any copyright-infringement issues. A separate reality show would feature the viewer-writers once a season.

— Leigh Forde, Seattle

I believe that the Mirror Universe two-parter on "Enterprise" really did show us the way. For those of us who were rabid fans of the original, who have stuck by its lesser descendants in hopes of seeing the magic again (although DS9 did have some great episodes), the key was shown when Archer and company seized the Constitution-class USS Defiant, transported across universes and back in time by a mirror-Tholian experiment. We got to see the grand old girl sail across the screen again, in all her CGI glory. Therefore, the perfect follow-on would be another TOS-era series, set aboard, say, the USS Constitution (NCC-1700), using modern production values (and tossing out that garbage about "oh, everybody gets along now!" — the Klingons would have eaten those people for lunch!).

— Jon Sills, San Diego

"Star Dreck: The Next Degeneration": Captain Baldy and the crew of the Starship Boobyprise are transported back in time due to a tempura flux. The flux distortion knocks the warp reactor offline. The crew must go on a quest with Xena, Warrior Princess to recover the Chalice with the Palace (or the Vessel with the Pestle). This container holds the antipasto needed to get the pasta/antipasto warp reactor back online.

— Ken Levine, Mercer Island

I would simply place a casting call to all Trekkies and on the show I would place each group into teams, with each Trekkie filling a major role on the bridge of the Enterprise (captain, pilot, engineer, etc.). The competition would have each team face a scripted "scenario" (the people on the competing teams would be unaware of the script). Each team would then be judged how they did in each mission in different categories: leadership, technical knowledge and so on.

The bridge and areas of the ship would be built, with actors filling in the lesser known roles on the ship (think "Star Trek: The Experience" in Las Vegas). With all the Trekkies competing and finally putting their geek knowledge to use, it would be a sci-fi sideshow for fans and nonfans.

— Tony Ravo. No hometown given

My ideas for the next "Star Trek" spinoff"

• The creation of the Federation from the view of the Klingons or Romulans.

• The adventures of Zephram Cochran just before and just after the first warp flight.

• A series based in the mirror universe, centered on the group of Vulcans who believe the universe can only survive by the formation of the Federation.

• A Federation bounty-hunter series.

— Stan Takemoto, Lynnwood

There was a planet that sent out a distress call. Overpopulation had depleted the planet's energy resources. The planet lacked adequate timber to build wood fires, there were no major oil or gas resources left, and they didn't have any major uranium.

The Enterprise is ordered to relocate to the disaster area. Upon arrival they realize there is a lot of star energy. So the ship dispatches factories to mass produce star powered hot-water heaters, cookers, water distillers, and greenhouses with water recycling powered by starlight — and even mini-atmosphere turbines. Large smelters make melted metal with starlight. And huge lakes of saltwater are created to change the desert climate to make rain. The crew arrived to a planet that was polluted, devoid of vegetation, and radiation from nuclear-power plants spewing.

But the crew, undaunted, organizes the entire planet to make and manufacture star and atmosphere energy equipment, helping people make their own energy.

Oops. Forgot. I just proposed an idea that never gets media attention: people making their own energy.

It will take a ship as powerful as the Enterprise to beam down James Kirk to have a little talk to our leaders, like President Bush, before they will ever allow people to make energy from starlight.

— Martin Nix, Seattle

"Star Trek: The Uprising": Now that it is 10 years after the Federation has stabilized every corner of the galaxy, all of the starship captains have grown old, made admirals, and became peace-time instructors at the Starfleet academy. And such tranquility would not last. One decorated admiral, Baquoa, in his latter day wisdom did not want his people to grow up under the safety net of technology, returned to his home world and started a cultural revolution that will challenge the Federation.

— Kin Ng, Kirkland