Enterprise's start of shooting last Monday was reportedly preceded by hurried negotiations to get the main cast in place. But according to new reports, Paramount's construction crews had been working just as frantically to get the show's new "heavy duty" sets completed before filming.

With Voyager's sets no more, "[Enterprise] is being built from the ground up," SFX Magazine reported (via the Great Link). The UK science fiction magazine's source said that the crew had been working 12 hour days, 7 days a week just to get the sets built.

The long working hours stemmed from the fact that these new sets are "heavy duty" and very large, built by Paramount for the long run.

Previously, the Engineering set had been located on Stage 9, the building that had housed the warp core since 1977, when the sets for the aborted Phase II were constructed. However, as that building was recently declared unsafe (story), the new engine core room will be on Stage 18. This move also allowed the designers to move away from the traditional Engineering lay-out seen in the most recent series, as they were no longer constrained by the pre-existing set structure.

Location scouting has also begun for the new series. A week of shooting was scheduled to take place at the Hyperion Sewage Plant in Los Angeles. Previously, this was used as part of the power centre in the film 'Logan's Run.' Other locations considered include the city of Bakersfield and a hill in Malibu.

Filming is slated to begin this week in the Vista Del Mar area, known as the "Mexican Caribbean," and is expected to last from May 22 to 24. On May 30, a day of shooting has been scheduled at Westward Beach, Malibu. Photos of these locations can be found below.

The full report from SFX Magaxine can be found here at the Great Link. Thanks to TrekWeb for the location shooting update. The above photos are courtesy of Vitco Corp (Hyperion Sewage Plant), Mexico Dream Villas (Vista Del Mar) and Location Scout (Westward Beach).

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