STAR TREK ENTERPRISE producer and co-creator Rick Berman updates fans in the latest issue of the STAR TREK Communicator (issue #146), which should arrive in subscribers' mailboxes and on newsstands soon. Berman reveals some additional plot details about the potentially season-long Xindi arc and comments on the show's direction.

"In our second episode ['Anomaly'], we are going to introduce the first of what will be more than one mysterious artificial moon," the exec tells the mag. "We don't call them that, but they are huge man-made spheres that are cloaked and emanating some very unusual types of radiation. They are going to play a part in our arc and our hunt for the Xindi weapon."

An integral part of the new, action-oriented direction is the addition of several Military Assault Command Operations soldiers (MACOs). In the photo of Nathan Anderson ('Sgt. Kemper') in a spacesuit, you can see an insignia for the team including a Maco Shark.

"They have different ideas about security issues sometimes, but by and large they are just a group of super high-tech 'kick-ass' soldiers who are here for the course of this mission," Berman says of the characters, which are led by actor Steven Culp and 'Major Hayes'.

But just how long with this mission to find and thwart the Xindi last? DEEP SPACE NINE made a TREK first with long-running serialized arcs. Could ENTERPRISE follow suit this year?

"We don't have the whole season arc worked out," Berman says. "We have a lot of thoughts and directions we want to go and elements that need to be reached and arcs that need to be concluded--but we don't have it all worked out yet [this interview was conducted during the filming of episode three; episode seven began production last week --TW]. As to whether this arc inside the Delphic Expanse is going to last half a season of two-thirds of a season or the whole season, it has yet to be determined. I think there is a good possibility that it will last the entire season."

Berman is quick to avoid placing--or accepting--blame for the show's loss of audience last season.

"We lost a lot of viewers in the second season, and it is no surprise that we are making efforts to bring some of them back," Berman does admit. "This is not a question of something 'not working.' I feel, as does Brannon [Braga], that the show is working. I feel we are turning out very good episodes of STAR TREK. Why a lot of our first-season viewers have stepped away from the show is very difficult. There are a lot of different answers to that. All we can do is try to give the show a new direction and do the best job that we can."

Rick also says that although there have been no discussions with Paramount about the future of the STAR TREK feature film franchise, he has no doubt that it will continue.

"Do I think that NEMESIS was the last STAR TREK movie?" he poses rhetorically. "That is highly doubtful!"

For the complete interview with Berman check out issue #146 of the STAR TREK Communicator. This issue also includes an interview with Robert Picardo ('The Doctor') about his involvement in the upcoming BORG INVASION 4-D attraction at the STAR TREK Experience in Las Vegas, Walter Koenig, Stephen Collins and Catherine Hicks, and much more.