Production
Chris Black was the sole credited writer but noted that many others contributed to creating the episode. The episode began as pitch from science advisor Andre Bormanis who suggested an orphan planet without a sun, that managed to support life because of its extreme geothermal vents. It was combined with other ideas, the premise of doing some kind of a "safari show", and producer Rick Berman added the idea of using a poem by William Butler Yeats called "The Song of Wandering Aengus". [2] [3] Black explained the episode was not intended to be an anti-hunting story, as his family would hunt, and that it was about finding a way to explore the character of Lieutenant Reed and his interest in the tactical elements of hunting and tracking. It was only when the species was revealed to be sentient that it became a moral issue. [4] The episode was a balance between story and theme, Brannon Braga said they wanted to "tell a good story about people first, and let the themes emerge." [5] Black had no complaints about how his script was translated to the screen, and praised Dominic Keating for enhancing what he had written through his performance, specifically by adding ambiguity to the line "Don't worry, captain, I won't kill anything". It wasn't in the script but Keating reasoned that the character "Well, he might like to take a shot—you never know." [4] Editor Robert Lederman found the episode interesting as it shows the Enterprise discovering of a species of shapeshifters for the first time. [6]
In this episode actress Stephanie Niznik guest stars as the wraith alien. She was previously cast in the 1998 movie Star Trek: Insurrection as Kell Perim, a Starfleet Ensign, and also known for her role on the series Everwood . [7] [8] Conor O'Farrell, who plays Burzaan, the leader of Eska hunting party, previously appeared in the Deep Space Nine episode "Little Green Men", and in Enterprise again in the season 3 episode "Chosen Realm". [9] This was the fourth Star Trek series that Eric Pierpoint had appeared in, and he returned to Enterprise again in season 4. [10] Keith Szarabajka previously appeared in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Repression", and was known for his recurring role on the series Angel as vampire hunter Holz. [11] [12]
Dominic Keating said that it was a difficult shoot, and conditions were unpleasant: "This planet has no light we're in some dark, dingy, forest. You turn the torch on all you can see are particles in the air, and we're breathing it in 15 hours a day." They were still able to have some fun with the guest actors, he said. "They are hysterical! So sometimes it's really work, but in amongst that we're just laughing like hyenas." [13] During shooting, director of photography Marvin Rush had to use a powerful flashlight to paint the path of the laser beams to create realistic illumination across the leaves for the weapons fire that would be added in post production. [14]
The "Rogue Planet" of the title presented some challenges for Ron B. Moore and the visual effects team at EdenFX. As it was a planet that did not orbit a sun, there was no light to show it. They were excited about the shot they had put together until supervising producer Peter Lauritson asked if they were going to put stars on the left side of the image, not realizing that the absence of stars was caused by the planet. Moore realized they would have to go with something less realistic and cheat by increasing the light levels so that the planet was more noticeable.Dan Curry and John Teska were responsible for the design of the planet's CGI creatures. They took advantage of improvements to LightWave, the software they were using, and created a wild boar-like creature by repurposing the Klingon targ that appeared in the episode Sleeping Dogs. They also designed the true form of the wraith. [14]
