Anthony Montgomery takes center stage in an episode that explores Travis Mayweather's roots and his life choices.

The Earth Cargo Ship Horizon is the setting of "Horizon," which wrapped production on Wednesday. In the story, Enterprise backtracks a fair bit in its galactic journey in order to observe a unique planetary phenomenon. The detour takes them close to the flight path of the Horizon, where Travis was born and raised, so the ensign asks Captain Archer for a few days' leave to go visit. Travis' father, the freighter's captain, recently died, and after seeing the state of affairs on the ship the prodigal son realizes his family could use him now more than ever.

Portions of two soundstages were used to house the sets of the Horizon, which included a Bridge, Cargo Hold, Travis' Quarters (his mother lets him have his old room back), Mess Hall and Corridors. Lots and lots of large plastic containers affixed with futuristic labels were hauled in to fill the Cargo Hold. But the first three days of the seven-day schedule, starting last Tuesday, took place in standing NX-01 sets. Day 2 was spent mostly in the ship's "sweet spot" where Travis likes to go to relax in zero-gravity (last seen in the pilot "Broken Bow"). Two sequences were shot there, the second including Scott Bakula. As you can imagine, the actors were equipped with flying rigs to achieve a floating effect. Stunt doubles Austin Priester and Vince Deadrick Jr. were there for the more difficult movements.

After Day 3, the rest of the principal cast was dismissed and it was all Anthony's show from then on. He was joined by a guest cast that is mostly new to Star Trek. Corey Mendell Parker plays Travis' younger brother Paul Mayweather, who is serving as acting captain. Joan Pringle plays his mother Rianna, and Nicole Forester plays his childhood friend Nora (Forester was a Dabo Girl in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Distant Voices"). A handful of extras filled out the rest of the Horizon crew in various scenes. Ken Feinberg plays a hostile new alien.

As usual, post-production will involve the digital rendering of the Horizon itself — it will be the same basic design as the cargo ship seen in last season's "Fortunate Son," but slightly smaller (being a J-Class).

"Horizon," tentatively set to air April 16, was written by story editor Andre Bormanis and directed by James Contner. This is Contner's fifth Enterprise episode, his last being "The Communicator." Bormanis, who started out as science consultant on DS9 and Star Trek: Voyager, has a number of Voyager and Enterprise scripts to his credit.

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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