Connor Trinneer was lucky enough to spend much of the last week in very cramped quarters with an exotic beauty, as he was the featured player in "Precious Cargo," the 11th episode produced this season.

That beauty was Indian actress Padma Lakshmi, who plays "Kaitaama," a Tiburrian who becomes Trip Tucker's personal foil in this episode.

In "Precious Cargo," Enterprise answers a distress call from a Retellian cargo ship, and Trip goes aboard to repair a stasis pod holding Kaitaama in suspended animation. When the woman accidentally awakes, she reveals she's not a passenger, but a prisoner. The situation gets messy, and Trip attempts to rescue both himself and her, but Kaitaama's obstinate personality makes things difficult.

The seven-day shooting schedule began with two-and-a-half days on standing ship sets such as the Bridge, Ready Room, Trip's Quarters, Corridors and others. By Tuesday afternoon the cast was mostly reduced to Trinneer and the guest stars, as they shot scenes in the Alien Cargo Hold until Thursday afternoon. Then they moved to an adjoining soundstage where the production team had created an Alien Marsh with lots of vegetation and a fair amount of mud and water. (The people doing makeup on Trinneer had various instructions that included "Grimed & muddied," "Grimey, add wound," and "Rambo after mud look.")

As if rolling around in the mud wasn't fun enough, on Monday Trinneer spent the entire day crammed into a small one-person Escape Pod with Lakshmi. Tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.

The Retellian cargo pilots were played by Leland Crooke and Scott Klace, both of whom have been guest stars on Star Trek before. Crooke was the Vorta who collaborated with the Orion Syndicate in "Honor Among Thieves" (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine). And Klace was the radiation-poisoned Malon laborer who sabotaged his freighter in "Juggernaut" (Star Trek: Voyager).

The episode is directed by David Livingston, a familiar face on Star Trek sets since the days of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Captain Picard's fish was named after him). Earlier this season he directed "The Seventh," and last year he helmed "Strange New World," "Shuttlepod One" and "Detained." The teleplay for "Precious Cargo" was written by David A. Goodman from a story by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. The segment is tentatively scheduled to air December 4.

Please note: All production information is subject to change.