"Assignment: Earth," "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," "Future's End" ... The fine tradition of bringing Star Trek heroes back in time and seeing them deal with our contemporary world is carried on in "Carpenter Street," a continuation of the Temporal Cold War saga that puts Archer and T'Pol in the urban jungle of Detroit in the year 2004.

In the story, temporal agent Daniels (last seen over a year ago in "Shockwave, Part II") appears to Archer and tells him that three Xindi-Reptilians have been detected in Earth's timeline where they should not be. He wants Archer to go find out why. The captain recruits T'Pol for the mission, and the two suddenly find themselves 150 years in the past in the Motor City.

After a relatively simple "bottle show" in "Similitude," the cast and crew were back on a rare location shoot a mere two weeks after "North Star" (related story), and spent almost an entire week literally working from dusk 'til dawn. Most of the principal cast was spared this nighttime schedule, however, as the on-location scenes required only Scott Bakula and Jolene Blalock among the show's stars. The guest cast in this episode is topped by Leland Orser as "Loomis," a pathetic Detroiter who obliviously gets involved in the Xindi's nefarious activities.

You probably remember Orser's striking performance as "Dejaren," the intensely paranoid hologram in Star Trek: Voyager's "Revulsion." He was also "Colonel Lovok" in "The Die is Cast" and "Gai" in "Sanctuary" (both Star Trek: Deep Space Nine). He is a very familiar face in genre fare, having appeared in "Independence Day," "Alien: Resurrection," "Se7en," "Daredevil," The X-Files and much more. He can currently be seen in "Runaway Jury."

The schedule on "Carpenter Street" commenced Friday, October 10, on the Enterprise soundstages with scenes in standing sets such as the Galley and T'Pol's Quarters, plus a swing set of Loomis' tenement apartment. Those apartment scenes continued Monday morning, with the afternoon spent in additional photography for "Twilight" and "Similitude." Then everyone slept late on Tuesday so they could report to work just before dark in downtown Los Angeles. The entire night was spent shooting scenes in and around various vehicles. Most of the time was spent in moving shots throughout downtown (depicting Detroit), with a camera rig on two principal vehicles — a pickup truck and an old Chevy station wagon — with Bakula driving and Blalock in the passenger seat, along with Orser in some scenes.

From Wednesday night through the rest of the week, filming shifted to the Lacy Street Production Center, a studio northwest of downtown not far from Dodger Stadium. This facility provided most of the other urban settings, mainly the exterior of an abandoned factory on the titular Carpenter Street (which, by the way, actually exists in the Detroit metropolitan area), along with dark alleys, rooftops, and streets, plus the interior hallway of Loomis' tenement. Most of the guest cast, including three Reptilians, a couple of Prostitutes and some Cops, did their bits here.

After the weekend, it was back to Paramount and a more normal schedule. Swing sets depicted the interior of the Carpenter Street factory, then after dark everyone moved outside again. Paramount's historic New York Streets backlot provided the rest of the Detroit Streets scenes, including one involving an ATM machine on the same corner where Marlon Brando's character was shot in "The Godfather." Just behind one of the Enterprise soundstages, a small fast-food drive-up set was constructed, and Bakula got back behind the wheel of the Chevy with Blalock and Orser for an amusing scene involving "animal products."

The Enterprise Art Department had the unique challenge of making set details look realistic rather than fantastic. For instance, instead of futuristic transparencies for command consoles, they had to create a back-lit "Burgerland" menu. And they covered the street sets with graffiti and urban posters. Though you'll be hard-pressed to see them in any detail on screen, those posters are filled with inside jokes, using the names and visages of crew members to depict them as boxers and rap artists.

Shooting on this episode continued through Wednesday of this week, going into second-unit on Tuesday as it overlapped commencement of the next episode (titled "Chosen Realm" directed by Roxann Dawson). As usual there may be some additional post-production photography, but this episode will be particularly light on the visual effects. (There will be some phase-pistol blasts and the like.)

As for the other guest actors, Matt Winston returned for the fourth time to play Daniels, of course. And one of the Xindi-Reptilians is played by Tom Morga, who has worked extensively on Star Trek for many years, on both the movies and TV shows. He's mainly a stuntman, but he has received acting credits in such heavy-makeup parts as "Glinn Corak" in "Chain of Command, Part I" (Star Trek: The Next Generation), "Soto" in "The Sword of Kahless" and a Jem'Hadar Soldier in "The Search, Part II" (ST:DS9), among others.

Mike Vejar took the reins of this unconventional Trek episode. Vejar is a veteran director from TNG, DS9 and Voyager, and has six prior Enterprise credits including the recent "Rajiin." "Carpenter Street" was written by executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga.

This show is tentatively scheduled to air November 26. More information can be found at its Episode Detail page.

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