In Captain Kirk's day there were sentient cloud creatures around practically every corner. So where are the noncorporeal entities in the 22nd century? They're out there, trust us, you just have to look far enough.

In "The Crossing," which wrapped principal photography yesterday, the Enterprise cast faced challenges that almost every Star Trek actor sooner or later has to: reacting to non-existent objects invading their bodies, and switching back and forth between personalities. The NX-01 is approached and engulfed by a weird, otherworldly vessel occupied by wisp-like entities. The creatures start flying into the bodies of crew members and temporarily exchanging consciousnesses with them, sending the crewmen off into a blissful realm while the "wisps" get a taste of corporeal existence. They claim to be simply explorers like the humans, but Archer is not sure whether to trust them, and the situation ultimately gets out of hand.

The seven-day shooting schedule took place almost entirely on standing ship sets, including the Bridge, Ready Room, Mess Hall, Engineering, Corridors, various Crew Quarters, etc. The Catwalk sets (built for "The Catwalk") were even put back into service for a couple of days. There was one swing set constructed to depict an interior portion of the alien vessel — which Scott Bakula, Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating walked through wearing EV suits — but it was bordered by a greenscreen whereby computer-generated views of the cavernous vessel will be optically inserted later.

Of course, the "wisps" will also be rendered digitally in post-production, to be overlaid on the footage of the actors reacting to their presence and twitching their bodies from the creatures' entries and exits. The actors also had fun trying on odd new behaviors, and for those whose characters were not possessed by the creatures, playing off those creepy new personas.

The guest cast consisted only of extra crew members. Joseph Will reprised his role as "Rostov" from "Vox Sola" and "Two Days and Two Nights" (he was also in the Star Trek: Voyager episodes "Muse" and "Workforce, Part II"). Matthew Kaminsky — "Cunningham" from "Singularity" — also returned. Quite a few extras were put into uniform for various scenes, as many as 20 at a time. With no aliens to create, the makeup crew got a bit of a reprieve this time. There was some roughhousing taking place, so a few stunt people were employed, including Shawn Crowder ("Stunt Trip"), Cortney Manns ("Stunt Mayweather"), Kevin Derr and Brian Bennett ("Stunt Crewmen"), with Vince Deadrick Jr. coordinating.

Popular Trek director David Livingston helmed "The Crossing," his fourth Enterprise segment this season (after "The Seventh," "Precious Cargo" and the upcoming "Stigma"). The story was conceived by Rick Berman, Brannon Braga and story editor Andre Bormanis. The script itself was penned by Berman and Braga. The episode is tentatively set to air March 19.

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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