On which show can you see latexed butterly girls, decontamination rub-downs and the captain's underwear all in the space of two hours? The answer, of course, is Enterprise, and its producers say the cheeky new attitude is here to stay.

"We learned from Seven of Nine that 'Star Trek' could use a little sensuality," co-creator Brannon Braga told Dan Snierson at Entertainment Weekly. "I wouldn't say 'sex' per se. It's not like the crew is going to be off boffing one another. But sensuality? You'd better believe it."

The cast have certainly been thrown in at the deep end. "I had to shave my chest and all that stuff," said Connor Trinneer (Charles 'Trip' Tucker), the male half of the decontamination duo. "Never done that before."

His partner in gel, Jolene Blalock (T'Pol), has to make do with a form-fitting catsuit. "What could be more comfortable? It's like long johns," the actress said. "I'm not going to say leotards, because that would be a fashion faux pas." But there's a cloud for every catsuit lining. "My people made me change my phone number and my address," Blalock said with a nervous laugh.

Humour is also an important component in the revitalised Trek. "We're trying to make the show funnier out of the gate," said Braga. "The way we approached humour in the past, we would occasionally do the funny episode. But there was always kind of a visceral feeling that the show was not inherently humorous. It was very serious, a somewhat brooding kind of thing. We wanted to create a show that would have organic humour every single week, humour that didn't feel forced."

Co-creator Rick Berman agreed. "My favourite line - the shuttle craft lands, and as the dog runs out of the craft into the woods, Trip looks up and goes, 'Where no dog has gone before.' And the dog is running right for a tree. Granted, it's not quite Seinfeld - nor should it try to be - but, c'mon, if you can't laugh at deep-space dog wee-wee, what can you laugh at?"

The full Entertainment Weekly cover story can be found in next week's issue. Extracts from the article are available to read at the magazine's web site.

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