A thick jungle set and creature makeup that rendered some of our main players nearly unrecognizable distinguished the third episode of Season 3, the fifth turn at the helm of Enterprise for actor/director LeVar Burton.

In "Extinction," written by Andre Bormanis, the NX-01 crew locates a Xindi vessel on a jungle planet. When Archer, Reed, Hoshi and T'Pol go to the surface to take a look, they are infected by a biological agent on the planet that mutates them into some sort of primal alien lifeform. Things get more complicated when alien "decontamination agents" arrive intent on containing the mutagen by "neutralizing" the crewmen with their blowtorch-like plasma flame weapons.

Production concluded Tuesday after a seven-day schedule where more than half the time was spent in the Alien Jungle, a setting created with truckloads of foliage brought in to the swing-set soundstage, with a Xindi Landing Pod fresh from the woodshop placed amongst it. On the final day of shooting, the production crew gave the forest a "scorched" look, to represent the aftermath of the alien decontamination efforts. There were also a number of underground Caverns and Tunnels, a re-use of facades we've seen before, but some of those shots will have optical effects inserted later, imagery which should prove to be rather spectacular (sorry, that's a story point we won't give away). Among the standing ship sets, Sickbay and the Bridge had most of the scenes, but shooting also took place in a Shuttlepod, the new Command Center and some Corridors and Crew Quarters. The Decon Chamber was also used to cage a mutant Malcolm Reed for a while.

And speaking of that, Scott Bakula, Dominic Keating and Linda Park got a taste of what castmate John Billingsley goes through every shooting day, coming in early to report to makeup and have their faces covered with appliances. They spent five of the seven days in various stages of alien mutation, which included "fleshy bladders" on the men's throats that flared out when they "growled." Jolene Blalock also received some of the alien makeup, but her character's Vulcan physiology kept most of the mutations at bay.

Also taking on the mutant makeup was a significant cast of stunt people who performed the more strenuous jumping and fighting actions called for by the script. Diamond Farnsworth and Dan McCann both stunt-doubled for "Alien Archer"; Marty Murray filled in for Reed, Gail Monian did a few moves as Hoshi, and Boni Yanagisawa doubled for T'Pol. Kiante Elam (a veteran of "Star Trek: Insurrection") played "Stunt Alien Humanoid," which was really a mutated Xindi-Sloth (apparently the pilot of that landing pod) in one scene. The stunt crew was supervised, as usual, by coordinator Vince Deadrick Jr.

The guest cast features Roger Cross as "Tret," the leader of the alien decontamination team. Cross is new to Star Trek but not to the genre -- he's been seen in the Patrick Stewart movie "X2: X-Men United," the Sci-Fi miniseries "Taken," and the TV shows Andromeda, Stargate SG-1 and The X-Files, among many other credits. Daniel Dae Kim reprises his MACO role as "Corporal Chang" from the first episode of the season.

Burton has directed over 20 episodes in all four of the contemporary Trek series. Last year he helmed "Cogenitor" and "First Flight," two of the best received installments of Season 2. Bormanis, formerly Trek science consultant and now story editor, is credited with several Star Trek: Voyager and Enterprise scripts, but has contributed to many more among the four modern shows.

UPDATE: "Extinction" is the first episode to feature the new title graphic reading "Star Trek: Enterprise."  The show ends with a title card paying tribute to First Assistant Director Jerry Fleck, who passed away on September 14 (related story).

More details about "Extinction" can be found at its Episode Detail page.

Please note: All production and story information is subject to change.