There was an odd bit of synchronicity associated with the first episode to be produced this season (see related story). At the beginning of July, scenes were shot depicting a coal mine accident at Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania, and the rescue of a trapped group of miners. Within the same month, a real coal mine accident occurred at Quecreek, Pennsylvania, where a group of miners were trapped for three days. To the nation's great relief, the real-life men emerged alive and relatively healthy. (But as far as we know, there were no alien visitors involved in their rescue.) I wondered about this at the time, if the rescue hadn't been successful, I wondered if they would show the episode.
It began production on July 26, on location near San Bernardino, California, for two days. Blalock and the guest cast returned to the Paramount lot that Friday to begin shooting on sets depicting the titular Pennsylvania town, as well as the bridge of a 20th-century Vulcan ship. Bakula and Trinneer reported to work on Monday, July 8, to shoot the present-day (22nd-century) scenes on the standing Enterprise sets.
On Wednesday, July 10, everyone was back, as Dominic Keating (Malcolm Reed), Anthony Montgomery (Travis Mayweather), Linda Park (Hoshi Sato) and John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox) picked up where they left off — under threat by the Suliban Silik, played by John Fleck. Fortunately for Fleck and the other guest actors who had to endure the very hot and confining Suliban makeup, new air conditioning systems were installed in the Enterprise soundstages during hiatus. Vaughn Armstrong and Gary Graham, as Admiral Forrest and Ambassador Soval respectively, also returned for the second-parter during the seven-day shooting schedule, which took place entirely in the show's three Paramount soundstages.
