With filming on Enterprise's third season reportedly scheduled to begin on June 26 (story), the producers are planning to introduce several new elements to shake up the series — including fresh writers, characters and new story arcs.

"We've got story changes, new design elements and new characters that we will be introducing, and new costumes that will be added to some of our new characters," executive producer Rick Berman told Star Trek Monthly (via Sci-Fi Pulse). The new characters will likely be a group of marines which joined the Enterprise NX-01 in the season finale to provide some military muscle in the Delphic Expanse.

There may be a some fresh faces behind the camera too, with Berman looking for some new recruits to join Enterprise's writing staff. "We're in the process of interviewing a lot of writers now and we're hopefully going to be hiring two or three new writers for the show." There have been changes to the writing staff each season, with last year's additions being co-executive producer John "Minefield" Shiban and consulting producer David "Judgment" Goodman.

Berman and his fellow executive producer Brannon Braga have already got stuck into plotting the season's initial stories. "We're working on a variety of different arcs and set-ups for the first half dozen episodes," he said. "All of that was set up by "The Expanse" and we're both very pleased by how it all came out."

Enterprise's new mission to seek out the Xindi has opened up a myriad of possible plot developments, according to Berman. "I think that we've set it up properly, with Archer having been given this remarkable and auspicious responsibility, Trip dealing with the death of his sister and T'Pol having made a commitment to Archer. It's set up a very exciting new direction. And the Delphic Expanse is going to be a very strange and spooky place. So, the finale is enabling us to come up with some fresh and exciting story ideas that we're now in the process of writing."

To read the full interview, in which Berman also talked about Star Trek Nemesis and fan response to Enterprise, pick up issue 106 of Star Trek Monthly. Alternatively, further excerpts are available at Sci-Fi Pulse.

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