SPOILER ALERT!!!

Earlier this season "Borderland" gave us our first, very delicious look at an Orion Slave Girl since the Original Series. Sadly, though, it was way too brief. Now the latest episode to complete photography gives us a chance to spend more time with our favorite green-skinned ladies and really experience what makes them notorious across the galaxy.

The show is called "Bound," written by showrunner and die-hard Star Trek fan Manny Coto. Enterprise is approached by an Orion trader named Harrad-Sar with a proposal that could smooth relations between the Orion Syndicate and Starfleet. He offers to give Archer coordinates to a planet rich in a valuable mineral if Starfleet will build mining facilities there and cut him in for a percentage. To celebrate the transaction, Harrad-Sar insists that Archer accept a special gift: three Orion Slave Girls. Once they come aboard Enterprise, the Orion females' renowned allure starts having effects on the crew.

The story has a great deal of the flavor of the Original Series, hearkening all the way back to the first pilot, "The Cage," and the famous scene where Captain Pike sees Vina dancing for him as an Orion female. You should also recognize echoes of "Mudd's Women," and there's some old-fashioned seduction, fighting, and even some Kirk/Spock/McCoy-like repartee near the end.

The three Orion girls are named "Navaar," "D'Nesh" and "Maras," and they're played by Cyia Batten, Crystal Allen and Menina Fortunato, respectively. You might recognize Batten from a somewhat less sensual role, the terse racer "Irina" in Star Trek: Voyager's "Drive." Batten was also the first actress to play Tora Ziyal, Gul Dukat's half-Bajoran daughter in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, for "Indiscretion" and "Return to Grace." However, Batten is as much a dancer as she is an actress — she is a member of The Pussycat Dolls burlesque troupe of Los Angeles, so she knows a thing or two about erotic movement.

Allen has been seen in such shows as Sex and the City, The Sopranos and was just in Boston Legal with William Shatner; she has also been in a few movies including one we don't like to talk about around here, "Maid in Manhattan." Fortunato is principally a dancer and model, with just a few acting credits.

For their dance routine in their introductory scene, the girls were coached by Travis Payne, an award-winning choreographer who has worked with many of the top names in music — Madonna, Michael and Janet Jackson, Britney Spears and many others — with an extensive resumé in music videos, commercials, film, TV and live shows around the world. He has won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography four times, among other honors. In the film world, he choreographed "Coyote Ugly," "From Justin to Kelly," and even worked with Jim Carrey in "The Cable Guy."

The Orion male in this episode, "Harrad-Sar," is described in the script as "powerful, imposing and fiercely intelligent," far removed from the mindless brutes in "Borderland." He's played by William Lucking, whom you may recognize as the one-armed Bajoran resistance fighter "Furel" in three episodes of DS9 starting with "Shakaar." The 63-year-old Lucking was made to look quite a bit bigger than he really is, with platform shoes and a bulky leather-padded costume. Like other Orion males, though, he was bald and green and had several "piercings" around his head of various metallic doo-dads. The only other greenskin males in the show were two Orion Guards played by extras, and they were mindless, bare-chested brutes like those in "Borderland."

The guest cast was rounded out by Derek Magyar, returning from his introduction in "Affliction" as Kelby, an engineer who butts heads with Trip Tucker.

Principal photography on this segment began Thursday, January 6, and ran through Friday, Jan. 14. Though that's seven days, in reality six days were spent in production on "Bound." Except for dance rehearsals for the Orion girls, Monday the 10th was spent entirely on additional photography for "Divergence" with David Barrett helming, with guest stars John Schuck and Ada Maris picking up an extra day of work. That's in addition to B-unit shooting that overlapped with the first day of "Bound" (related production report).

Lucking only had to spend one day on the set — Day 7 — to shoot all his scenes (though it was a 14-hour day for him including makeup). The girls, however, were a different story. All three were on the lot each day of the schedule. Five of those days they spent three to four hours in dance rehearsals with Payne in preparation for their big number on the last day, using empty space (such as in front of the Bridge set) on one of the three Enterprise soundstages not in use at the time. Aside from the dance number, the girls spent portions of four days before the camera, doing scenes on ship sets scheduled around the rehearsals.

The one elaborate swing set built for this episode was the Main Cabin of Harrad-Sar's Barge, where Archer, Reed and two MACOs (played by extras) party with the Orion and watch the girls dance. The lavishly appointed space was reminiscent of an Arabian sheik's abode where you expect to see belly dancing take place, but with some high-tech equipment peeking through. The characters sat on reclining pillows, imbibed multihued drinks, and took part in a sumptuous feast with an alien animal as the centerpiece (the production notes called for "roast beast"). The only other swing set was a one-wall representation of the Orion Bridge, which is only seen on viewscreen.

Standing ship sets used included Sickbay, Crew Quarters, Corridors, Engineering, the Decon Chamber, the Ready Room and the Bridge.

The Makeup department had their greatest challenge, of course, spray-painting green body makeup over the Orions in special booths (those actors spent about four hours in makeup), and then seeing to the careful process of makeup removal utilizing the facilities of the studio's executive gym. Among their more standard duties, however, the makeup people spent more than the normal amount of time applying sweat to the faces of the male human characters. They also had to apply a few bruises and cuts as the Orion girls brought out the Alpha Male in the crew. An altercation between Tucker (Connor Trinneer) and Kelby was assisted by stuntmen Shawn Crowder and Paul Eliopolous.

The Hair department was prepared with the requisite black wigs for the women, and Wardrobe came up with some exotic and appropriately skimpy outfits. They also provided "civvies" for them when in the story it's decided their attire is too much of a distraction on the ship.

"Bound" was directed by Allan Kroeker, Star Trek's long-time go-to guy for important episodes. This season he previously directed the premiere "Storm Front" as well as "Home." Coto — though he has a hand in every script this season — last took sole writing credit on the two-part "Storm Front."

"Bound" is tentatively slated to air March 25. Updates will be posted in Episode Detail.

As the UPN airdate schedule currently has it, after the current run of new episodes through the end of February, there will be three weeks of reruns and then "Bound" (a stand-alone episode) and then two more weeks of reruns. Then the final five episodes of the season will air culminating with the finale on May 13. This schedule is highly tentative, though, so keep an eye here for changes.

Source; Paramount Pictures

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For a complete season 4 schedule with all the airdates, click here.
Or click here for the filming schedule.