`STAR TREK' MISSION BEGINS 4TH DECADE : GENRE CHAMP WEAVING SAGA AT WARP SPEED.

Byline: Lee Winfrey Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

``Never trust anyone over 30,'' Jerry Rubin advised hippies in 1966. Does that mean that ``Star Trek,'' the most popular science-fiction television series of all time, can no longer be trusted?

Millions of Trekkies and Trekkers, as the series' fans variously call themselves, emphatically say no. Their loyalty is long since proven: Since the original ``Star Trek'' premiered on Sept. 8, 1966, three more prime-time series, one animated series and seven movies have followed, with an eighth film - ``Star Trek: First Contact'' - coming up in November.

Probably only Paramount Pictures, the always-attentive owner of this colossal cash cow, knows how many millions of dollars have been made from ``Trek'' toys and memorabilia.

Commanders have taken the bridge in proud procession: Capt. James Tiberius Kirk (William Shatner) on the 79 episodes of the original ``Star Trek'' (1966-'69); Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) on the 178 episodes of ``Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (1987-1994); Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) on ``Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' (1993-still running in syndication, Saturdays at 8 p.m.); and Capt. Kathryn Janeway on ``Star Trek: Voyager'' (1995-still on UPN, Wednesdays).

And a gaudy gallery of villains continues to emerge from under the artful hands of makeup master Michael Westmore: Klingons and Romulans, Cardassians and Ferengi, the Borg and the Kazon. The chances of the 21st century's beginning without a ``Trek'' series on the little screen seem as small as the Phillies' hopes of winning the National League pennant this year.

On a balmy day this past May, Kate Mulgrew sat at a table in one of Manhattan's most romantic restaurants, the Sign of the Dove, and talked about perhaps the most burning question hovering over ``Star Trek: Voyager'': Will Capt. Kathryn Janeway ever make love?

Janeway has been celibate since the starship Voyager first took video flight on Jan. 16, 1995. Mulgrew conceded that, among fans, there is ``terrific interest'' in seeing the captain enjoy some romance.

``If I have any voice in this,'' Mulgrew said, ``she will not have a love affair until it can be done with extreme delicacy, good taste and integrity. She is a role model, the first (``Trek'') female captain. I do not want her to be promiscuous. I do not want her sexual needs to prevail over her moral character.

``Kate Mulgrew believes it is absolutely important that Kathryn Janeway should be a lady,'' she continued. ``She does not sleep around. Captain Kirk could take off his shirt and do whatever, but Captain Janeway doesn't have such license.

``There is such an eagerness on the part of the audience for Janeway to fall in love. But my instinct as an actress is that a huge mistake could be made, that we have to be careful. I would not consider it a disappointment if I looked back on ``Voyager'' and she never had a love affair at all.''

Mulgrew, 41, is the mother of two sons, Ian, 13, and Alexander, 12. She was divorced in 1993 from their father, director Robert Egan, after an 11-year marriage. She was accompanied at the Sign of the Dove by her boyfriend, ``Trek'' director Rick Kolbe.

She asked him: ``How shall I refer to you: my `companion?' ''

`` `Companion' sounds like I push you around in a wheelchair,'' Kolbe demurred.

With a sweet smile, Mulgrew decided on ``my love.''

``Star Trek'' conventions are earnest conclaves, but they can also be zany. Ask any ``Trek'' actor for a convention story and a good one will come back at you at warp speed.

``They are, by and large, very intelligent people, their attention to detail is extraordinary, and their devotion is disarming,'' Mulgrew said of ``Trek'' convention-goers. She recalled ``Janeway wardrobe competitions, the best Janeway hair bun. They are intensely serious about it, and they're all 5 years old.''

Her biggest surprise came when a couple waited in line for several hours to ask her, ``Will you give us your blessing in marriage?''

``That was so daunting,'' Mulgrew said. ``I said, `Are you serious?' ''

Assured that they were, Mulgrew made the sign of the cross over the table that stood between them and told them, ``May God be with you.''

``Star Trek: Voyager'' premiered its third season Wednesday night with the conclusion of a two-part cliffhanger that began at the end of the second season. Brad Dourif sparkled as a guest star, a sociopath named Ensign Suder, but the hour otherwise was a relatively routine report on how Janeway and crew escape from a primitive planet called Hanon Four, where they were left stranded by the Kazon.

Next week's episode is much better: Subtitled ``Flashback,'' it salutes ``Trek's'' 30th anniversary by summoning George Takei, who played helmsman Sulu on the original ``Star Trek,'' to make his first appearance on ``Voyager.''

It begins with a bit of whimsy typical of ``Trek'' during its lighter moments. Voyager's Talaxian chef, Neelix (Ethan Phillips), offers a new blend of orange juice to the starship's Vulcan security officer, Tuvok (Tim Russ), who dubiously observes: ``The success rate of your culinary experiments has not been high.''

When Neelix says Ensign Golwat liked this blend so much that she drank a second glass, Tuvok is still skeptical. ``Ensign Golwat is a Bolian,'' he says. ``Her tongue has a cartilaginous lining. It would protect her against even the most corrosive acid.''

That's the last bit of levity from Tuvok in this episode, however, since he is soon felled by a mysterious ailment that first causes him to tremble and collapse, and then to see terrifying flashbacks in which, as a boy, he vainly tries to save a girl from falling to her death. Perplexed, he tells Voyager's holographic physician, Doc Zimmerman (Robert Picardo): ``It never happened. The girl was unfamiliar, and I've never been in that situation.''

Vulcan medical practice recommends a mind meld for problems such as this, so Tuvok blends his brain with Janeway's. She will serve as his ``pyllora'' - his guide - as they travel back in time in search of a solution, with Tuvok the only one able to see Janeway while she is his pyllora.

Their search leads back 80 years, to when the 29-year-old Tuvok was serving in space for the first time as a junior science officer on the starship Excelsior, commanded by Capt. Hikaru Sulu. ``Trek'' devotees will recognize these scenes as reshot versions of action in ``Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.''

The mystery is eventually solved, of course, in an excellent episode reflecting that ``Star Trek'' is, now and seemingly forever, alive and well.

In a telephone conversation last week, Takei cleared up a widespread misconception: Sulu is not Japanese.

In the original ``Trek,'' Sulu had no first name. Vonda McIntyre first called him Hikaru in a ``Trek'' novel, ``The Entropy Effect,'' and it was first used on-screen in ``Star Trek VI.'' McIntyre took the name, which translates as ``the shining one,'' from a classic Japanese novel, ``The Tale of Genzi'' by Murasaki Shikibu.

Takei said the late Gene Roddenberry, who created ``Trek,'' found his character's name when he looked at a map and saw the Sulu Sea, which borders the Philippines. But he said Roddenberry thought of Sulu as ``pan-Asian,'' a blend of several nationalities rather rather than any one in particular.

Takei is a Japanese American who spent his childhood from ages 4 to 8 in two World War II internment camps, one in Rohwer, Ark., and the other in Tule Lake, Calif. That experience opens his autobiography, ``To the Stars'' (1994).

But don't try to tell the Japanese that Sulu isn't one of their countrymen. Said Takei: ``When `Trek' was sold to Japan and it was dubbed into their language, they kept the original names of all the characters except Sulu. They made him Japanese and renamed him Kato, a name as common in Japan as Smith in America.''

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2 Photos

Photo: (1) ``Star Trek'' began its NBC run on Sept. 8, 1966. It has since spawned three more prime-time series and a soon-to-be-released eighth movie.

(2) Episodes of the original ``Star Trek'' focused on cast members DeForest Kelley, left, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.