A character-driven piece featuring Linda Park as Ensign Hoshi Sato still getting used to the travails of space travel wrapped yesterday after a production schedule that took place mostly on ship sets.

In "Vanishing Point," the tenth episode of Season Two, Hoshi and Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) are surveying ancient ruins on an alien planet when a "polaric storm" approaches that forces Enterprise to beam them up. It's Hoshi's first Transporter experience, and she starts undergoing some strange aftereffects that make her believe she wasn't reassembled correctly. Could alien saboteurs have something to do with it?

Production began last Wednesday, October 2, and jumped right in with a scene from the middle of the script near the Transporter Alcove involving a green-screen optical effect, to depict the "vanishing" phenomenon referenced in the title. Other similar optical shots were sprinkled throughout the seven-day schedule (to be digitally manipulated in post-production, of course) on other standing sets including the Bridge, Sickbay, Hoshi's Quarters, the Mess Hall and Engineering. The Ship's Gym, a set that will be seen for the first time in next week's "A Night in Sickbay," was also put back in use.

On Tuesday, Park and Trinneer filmed the scenes in the "Primitive Alien Ruins" built on a soundstage adjacent to the standing sets. On Thursday, that same soundstage housed "Access Shafts" from deep inside the ship, where Park was joined by a pair of guest stars portraying a new variety of pinkish aliens.

On Wednesday, October 9, (Scott Bakula (Captain Archer) arrived at work to a red-carpet treatment — literally. It was his birthday, and no one would dare let him forget it. His trailer was draped with streamers and banners, and a red carpet was laid from the trailer across the way to Stage 18, where the Bridge set is located. As an added touch, production personnel wore black baseball caps with the word CAPTAIN stitched on the front — perhaps as a way of saying, "Oh captain my captain" to the birthday boy.

The guest cast of "Vanishing Point" includes two Star Trek veterans. Buck Bokai is back, this time as Hoshi's Father (seen in a subspace transmission). That's Keone Young, who played the 21st-century baseball great in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "If Wishes Were Horses." Morgan Margolis, who was a "Vaskan Visitor" in Star Trek: Voyager's "Living Witness," plays Crewman Baird, who temporarily replaces Hoshi at the comm.

The episode is tentatively scheduled to air November 27. It was written by series creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, and directed by David Straiton. Straiton previously directed "A Night in Sickbay" and last season's "Desert Crossing."

For more information about the second-season episodes, visit the Synopses and Cast & Crew sections of Production News.

Please note: All production information is subject to change.

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