Warp Five: A Star Trek Enterprise Podcast

Horror on Enterprise. Star Trek has a great tradition of taking classic elements of horror and putting a spine-tingling, futuristic twist on them. The Original Series did this especially well, whether riffing on vampires in “The Man Trap,” possession in “The Lights of Zetar,” or even Jack the Ripper in “Wolf In the Fold.” As a prequel to TOS, Enterprise frequently dipped into horror as well—no dou...

Season One Highs and Lows. When Enterprise premiered it was seen as an attempt to breath new life into a franchise that had produced fourteen years of stories set in the same time period. While The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager each had their own unique take on the 24th century, they shared the same Starfleet, the same technology, and the same crowded political landscape. By the ti...

Charles “Trip” Tucker III. In creating the cast of characters that would man the NX-01, the writers sought to recapture the spirit of The Original Series with a dynamic triumvirate. As with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, this 22nd-century trio would include two humans and a Vulcan—and dash of Southern charm. Only this time, rather than in a doctor, that charm would find itself in a younger and perhaps le...

Continuity and Consequences. When Star Trek premiered in 1966, episodic television was the norm. By the time Enterprise premiered in 2001, serialized dramas were becoming the standard. Today we expect stories that span a season or an entire series. We also expect that the events of one episode will impact those to come. For Star Trek fans, this is something that DS9 did brilliantly. So how did Ent...

The Temporal Cold War. Resistant to the idea of a prequel series, the studio went in search of an element that could give Enterprise a futuristic storyline that would extend beyond Voyager. “The 22nd century is already futuristic,” you are no doubt thinking. And you would be right. But it wasn’t futuristic enough and so Brannon Braga dusted off an idea that he had been considering for a separate t...

Season One Blu-rays. When it was first announced that Enterprise would be released on Blu-ray, many fans wondered why Deep Space Nine or Voyager wasn't next. The answer, of course, was that Enterprise, having been shot in HD, didn't require the time-consuming restorations of the earlier series. So CBS could have easily pressed Blu-rays, thrown the discs into new packaging, and placed them on store...

Klingons on Enterprise. They're the best-known villains in Star Trek, born of The Original Series and appearing in every series and every film. Yet they're not the most fleshed-out alien race in Star Trek despite their longevity and rich warrior identity. Enterprise did wonders for our knowledge of the Vulcans. Could the series bring anything new to the Klingons? In this episode of Warp Five hosts...

Hoshi Sato. The Universal Translator made communications easy for the likes of Kirk and Picard—but it wasn't always so simple. One of the many ways in which Enterprise sought to build a deeper connection with own time was in taking a more realistic approach to language. Much as The Original Series had a dedicated communications officer in Uhura, Enterprise gave us the same in Hoshi Sato. Only in t...

Archer and The Prime Directive. Non-interference with developing cultures is a cornerstone of Star Trek. Starfleet General Order 1—or The Prime Directive as it is more commonly known—is the rule that guides the exploration of our galaxy. It is also the source of great debate both amongst fans and inside the Star Trek universe itself. Is it an absolute rule or is it a relative one? In terms of Ente...

The Sphere Builders. They were a fascinating yet mysterious element of the Xindi Arc, thrown into the third season of Enterprise too late to be fleshed out yet early enough to have an impact on the battle for Earth's future. In this episode of Warp Five hosts Christopher Jones and Kate Walsh discuss these quasi-Founder, quasi-Prophet aliens from another realm who played the Xindi for their own pur...

The MACO. The idea of exploring deep space and taking a NASA-like approach to the cosmos is great, but Archer and Starfleet quickly learned that the galaxy is a dangerous place. Following the Xindi attack, purely military personnel were assigned to the Enterprise marking the an important shift in identity for United Earth's young space agency. In this episode of Warp Five hosts Christopher Jones a...

The Augment Arc. The Eugenics Wars are one of those events from Star Trek history that we've learned very little about despite their extreme importance. During its fourth season, Enterprise revisited the Eugenics Wars and their aftermath in a three-part arc comprised of “Borderland,” “Cold Station 12,” and “The Augments.” In this episode of Warp Five hosts Christopher Jones and Kate Walsh discuss...

Robert Duncan McNeill. Star Trek has a history of allowing actors to direct episodes. Often this comes in the form of a dual role on a specific series, but also familiar faces from one incarnation of Star Trek have gone on to helm stories in later installments. One such case is Robert Duncan McNeill, who not only gave us brilliant performances as Tom Paris but also brought a wonderful creative vis...

T'Pol. Enterprise was set up to recapture the triumvirate of The Original Series; and having a Vulcan in that mix was only logical. In a pre-launch interview in Star Trek Communicator, Larry Nemecek described it this way: "Stoic rationality with a dose of paternal arrogance. The character of Sub-Commander T'Pol embodies everything humans have come to feel about Vulcans in the short span since Zefr...

Inside Phlox’s Sickbay. Dr. Crusher used fancy Starfleet technology to solve medical puzzles. Dr. Bashir used those things too—along with his genetical enhanced mind. Practicing medicine in the 24th century seemed to be mostly about teching the biotech. But for those of us who grew up with TOS, Dr. McCoy’s ability to come up with unique solutions, or eyeball the mixture of an elixir, gave us the f...

Doug Drexler. The creative challenge of designing a ship that would be retro within the Star Trek universe yet still accessible to our modern technological sensibilities was a huge challenge. And when efforts to settle on a concept came to a stalemate, they called in the big gun: Doug Drexler. The Academy Award-winning makeup artist and Emmy Award-winning visual effects designer whose hand can be...

An Enterprise Sampler. Many Star Trek fans who are viewing Enterprise for the first time—or those who are returning for a rewatch after many years—ask us for episode recommendations. They want to know which episodes best represent the spirit of Enterprise. In this episode of Warp Five, hosts Christopher Jones and Kate Walsh share their picks for the stories that best capture the tone of the show,...

The Suliban. Each series has its signature villain, though it may not be the foe originally intended to be the thorn in our heroes' sides. The Ferengi were set up as the baddies on TNG. On Voyager it was the Kazon. And on DS9 it was… Rumpelstiltskin? When Archer set off on his first mission aboard the NX-01 he crossed paths with the flexible, yellow-skinned antagonists of Enterprise—the Suliban. I...

Captain Archer. Before there was Picard, Sisko, Janeway, or even Kirk, there was Archer. When it came to casting the captain of Starfleet's first Warp 5 vessel, Scott Bakula was the more than just a person of interest—he was the prize. And they got him. Despite his established geek cred as Quantum Leap's Sam Beckett, reception of Bakula's Jonathan Archer by fans and media was lukewarm. In this epi...

Brannon Braga Talks  Enterprise . He started his career with Star Trek as an intern on The Next Generation and went on to become one of the most influential creatives behind the evolution of the franchise, penning the classic "All Good Things…" as well as Generations and First Contact before moving on to Voyager. Brannon Braga is responsible for some of Star Trek's most memorable voyages, and in 2...

Launching Enterprise with Dave Rossi. When talk began about the series to follow Voyager, there was plenty of speculation to go around. The most common theories involved an Excelsior series starring George Takei and one set at Starfleet Academy. When it came down from the studio that we would be getting a prequel, the fan base was divided—and it remains so to this day. Enterprise is without a doub...