Burton Augments Spiner Arc

See Also: 'The Augments' Episode Guide

Director LeVar Burton sprung for lunch for the cast and crew of Star Trek: Enterprise on his last day of shooting "The Augments", the final episode of the arc that reunited him with his Next Generation co-star Brent Spiner. But most of the principal cast was absent, playing basketball for a scene in the next episode in the pipeline, "The Forge."

The official Star Trek site posted a production report on the filming of "The Augments", the climactic final installment of the arc in which Dr. Arik Soong (Spiner) reunites with the genetically modified humans he developed and steals the embryos of a new group of Augments, planning to raise these enhanced beings to replace ordinary humans. But the adult Augments rebel, insisting that they should not flee as Khan Noonien Singh did but stand their ground by triggering a war between Starfleet and the Klingon Empire.

Spiner and Burton were reunited on September 2nd, when the episode began filming, and worked together for seven days with the Monday off for Labor Day, with Spiner receiving only a single day off, an unusually intense schedule for a guest star. One of Burton's episodes from last season, the well-regarded "Similitude", won an Emmy earlier this week for its musical score.

"The Augments" primarily utilized existing sets, including Klingon ship and Cold Station 12 installations built for earlier episodes in the Soong trilogy. A room on a Klingon ship was converted into a laboratory using props from the C-12 sets, and a Klingon escape pod was built.

The guest cast list for the episode, penned by staff writer Michael Sussman - who wrote "Twilight" last season - is as follows:

• Brent Spiner as Dr. Arik Soong
• Alec Newman as Malik
• Abby Brammell as Persis
• Adam Grimes as Lokesh
• Richard Riehle as Jeremy Lucas
• Mark Rolston as Captain Magh
• Kristen Ariza as Augment #1

Burton's catered lunch was interrupted when director Michael Grossman took most of the main cast to practice basketball for a scene in "The Forge", which Grossman will direct. Shooting was also arranged around media outlets arriving to interview the cast for promotional materials, including the filming of behind-the-scenes footage for a future Star Trek: Enterprise DVD set still in the planning stages.

"The Augments" is scheduled to air on Friday, November 12th. For the original production report, visit this page at StarTrek.com.

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