"Pow! Bam! Oo-la-la! It's new Enterprise"

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Pow! Bam! Oo-la-la! It's new 'Enterprise'

 

 

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- When the director calls "Action!" on the set of UPN's "Enterprise," stuff really flies.

 

 

A vase being used as a club smashes and scatters as a beautiful alien spy whacks chief engineer Charles "Trip" Tucker III across the back of his skull.

 

Guest star Nikita Ager is wielding the weapon on the Paramount Studios soundstage. She's playing the seductive Rajiin, who's wormed her away aboard the starship Enterprise. Dressed in nearly transparent pajamas, she has a bar code tattooed across her upper torso and purple lenses in her eyes.

 

Ager hasn't hit Connor Trinneer, who plays Trip, but rather his stunt double, Shawn Crowder. While Crowder gets up, looking a bit stunned, Trinneer gets a bloody fake gash dabbed on his head, then steps in to do the dialogue.

 

Even with stunt doubles, the cast members of this "Star Trek" prequel series are far from coddled. "See this bruise, see this bruise, this one," says Jolene Blalock, who plays Vulcan subcommander T'Pol. "And I love every one of them."

 

Blalock emphasizes there's definitely more action on the third season of the UPN series, which premieres September 10. Now in reruns, the show airs Wednesdays (8 p.m ET).

 

Earlier, T'Pol was in a "girl fight" with Rajiin. Stunt doubles handled some of the scuffle. Then the actresses took over. Rajiin pushed T'Pol hard onto the floor of the Enterprise's sleeping quarters and hypnotized her into submission.

 

Opening up

T'Pol has a new look, part of the producers' overall effort to boost the energy and imagination of the series, which lost viewers last season.

 

Her work clothes are still cat suits, but in white and bright pastels rather than her drab brown outfits of previous seasons. Her bobbed Vulcan hairstyle is "slightly longer, slightly lighter," Blalock says. "But, of course, I wouldn't want to cover my ears!"

 

Half-Vulcan, half-human Mr. Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy in the '60s "Star Trek" series, had pointy ears and slash-angled eyebrows.

 

T'Pol, a full Vulcan, also has those traits. But her decision to defy her race's commanders and stick with human co-workers following last season's Earth-threatening finale means she may now open up emotionally.

 

"I think it's great to have that character let her hair down a little bit and engage more," says Trinneer. "Spock, because he was half-human, was very curious about stuff, and giving T'Pol some of that is a good thing."

 

Along with providing comic relief for the show, Tucker now has personal tragedy to cope with. He lost his sister in the finale's cataclysm -- an attack by a previously unknown alien group called the Xindi -- and he's been having some sleepless nights as a result.

 

T'Pol's Vulcan acupuncture techniques are helping, but Trinneer says he doesn't know whether romance will ensue, despite Trekkie fan speculation that it might. "A back rub is pretty much it," he grins.

 

'Ante is up'

Assuming the terse Vulcan manner, Blalock sniffs at that description.

 

"That's really a little too forward and sexy. We like to call it neuropressure, a medical reason for touching!"

 

Whatever the rub, all the characters are undergoing change this season as the 22nd-century spaceship seeks out the menacing Xindi.

 

Series creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga have created a story line that allows for weekly conflict and resolution, but is essentially a 26-episode mission, "where there is a ticking clock ... where Earth and humanity are at stake."

 

Berman compares the structure to the original "Fugitive" series, with a singular direction and purpose, but also the opportunity for each episode to stand alone.

 

Scott Bakula, who plays Capt. Jonathan Archer, says the new season is "less about protocol, more about the job to do." Besides commanding the Enterprise crew, Archer now supervises a tough onboard military team.

 

The "ante is up" on the action this season, Bakula says. "A great shot of adrenaline" has been pumped in, along with "crazy fun."

 

Ager would agree the franchise continues to push new frontiers: "I've got bikinis bigger than the outfit Rajiin wears when she's first seen. The costumer arrived with what looked like a roll of string to be strategically placed. I went, this is 'Star Trek'? He went, 'Yep!' "

 

 

--CNN http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/08/18/w...e.ap/index.html

 

 

Master Q

StarTrek_Master_Q@yahoo.com

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Another Article

For me to avoided posting another topic I’m going to post it here

 

Captain Archer will be "stronger" and T'Pol will "let loose a little bit," promised UPN's new president, Dawn Ostroff, of next season's Enterprise.

 

In an Associated Press article picked up by ABC News, Ostroff stressed UPN's efforts to carve out its own identity aimed at 18-to-34-year-olds "that is bold, adventurous and fun."

 

"I would like people to have a distinct opinion of what UPN is, where our identity is clearly defined," stated Ostroff, emphasizing not UPN's niche audiences - African-American comedies, wrestling, and genre series - but their common ground among black and white viewers and the network's efforts to appeal across demographic lines.

 

Ostroff is confident that ratings will continue to rebound for the WWE, and though she called Enterprise a disappointment last season, she promised that many changes were on the way.

 

For more information about UPN's fall schedule and quotes by industry analysts on the likely doom of the network should its ratings not improve, see the complete AP article at ABC.

--TrekToday http://www.trektoday.com/news/180803_01.shtml

 

 

Master Q

StarTrek_Master_Q@yahoo.com