Old TNG buddies LeVar Burton and Brent Spiner were together again on a Star Trek set, one behind the camera and one in front.

Burton stepped up to direct "The Augments," the final chapter of a trilogy featuring Spiner as Dr. Arik Soong. In this story, Soong and his "children" flee Cold Station 12 with hundreds more embryos of genetically enhanced humans. Soong's intent is to go back into hiding on an isolated planet and raise the new group of Augments, with some "corrections" to their genome. But Malik (Alec Newman) leads the existing Augments in a revolt against Soong, believing they should not run like Khan Noonien Singh did on the Botany Bay, but take a stand. To that end, Malik devises a heinous plan to ignite war between the Klingons and Starfleet.

The on-set reunion was not only between Burton and Spiner, but among them and many of the crew members who have been with the franchise since Next Generation. As a gesture of friendship, Burton personally sprang for a special catered lunch for the cast and crew on the last day of shooting, which was this past Monday.

The seven-day schedule began on Thursday, September 2, with a day off for Labor Day. There were hardly any new sets built specifically for this episode, as most of the shooting took place either on standing Enterprise sets or pre-existing Klingon ship sets which have been utilitzed for all three parts of the Soong trilogy, starting with "Borderland." There was also some work left to do in the titular medical facility of part two, "Cold Station 12," for the opening scenes of this installment. About the only new set piece was a Klingon escape pod, though one Klingon ship room was converted into a makeshift laboratory for Soong, complete with a futuristic microscope, incubators, an embryonic stasis globe, and other set dressing and props transferred from the C-12 sets. Spiner worked every day of the schedule except one, which is unusual for a guest star, and at one point learned to speak a little Klingon.

Speaking of Klingons, the one principal Klingon character in this episode is named "Captain Magh," and he's portrayed by Mark Rolston. Rolston is yet another TNG alumnus, having played the killer engineer "Walter Pierce" in "Eye of the Beholder." He's also been featured in Enterprise before, as the rebellious prisoner "Kuroda" in "Canamar."

Among the other guest cast, Trek veteran Richard Riehle stayed on as "Dr. Jeremy Lucas" for the remaining C-12 scenes. As mentioned, Alec Newman continued as "Malik," along with Abby Brammell as "Persis" and Adam Grimes as "Lokesh," the other principal Augments.

There was a lot of extracurricular business taking place on and around the set during this shoot. As the others were enjoying Burton's catered lunch on the last day, the next director, Michael Grossman, stole away the entire principal cast (minus Jolene Blalock) for basketball practice ... for a scene in the next episode, titled "The Forge." The prior week, the set was visited by a number of media outlets — including STARTREK.COM — to shoot interviews and other video with the cast. Most notably, though, was Toolbox Production's Don Beck — the producer of special features for most of the Star Trek DVDs — who was on set with a camera crew to conduct interviews and shoot behind-the-scenes footage for a future Star Trek: Enterprise DVD set.

"The Augments" was written by Mike Sussman, a staff writer since the show began. This is his second script of the season, after "Home." Sussman had five credits last season, including the highly regarded "Twilight." Among the three episodes Burton directed last season is "Similitude," which just won an Emmy last Sunday for its musical score (related story).

This episode is tentatively scheduled to air Friday, November 12. (Per our last Production Report, we have confirmed that "Cold Station 12" is indeed scheduled for Nov. 5.) The complete cast list and a logline are posted in Episode Detail.