Warp Five: A Star Trek Enterprise Podcast

Season Four Retrospective Part 1.   Season four of Star Trek: Enterprise began with the resolution to the cliffhanger of aliens in Nazi uniforms that we saw in the final shot of "Zero Hour." How would the writers and producers resolve that plot thread, and how would the format of the show change now that the Xindi arc was completed? We begin a seven part series taking a look at the fourth season o...

Essential Enterprise Season 2.     In every season of every Star Trek show, there are some episodes that stand out more than others — but which ones are essential to their respective shows as a whole? We continue our four-part series where we look at each episode of each season and determine if they are essential to the overall narrative of the show. In this episode of Warp Five, hosts Brandi Jack...

NX-01 Movie Night: The Day the Earth Stood Still.   Friendship and fellowship is important for people's general health and well-being. All of the Star Trek series have shown some sort of interaction between the members of its crew on screen in varying ways. The Next Generation had poker, Deep Space Nine had Vic's lounge, Voyager had Sandrine's and the resort program, and Enterprise had movie night...

Warp Five 137: The H.M.S. Enter^3   Writing the Borg Queen's Origin Story.   Star Trek: First Contact introduced a new and unique villain to the Star Trek universe when Alice Krige appeared as the Borg Queen. Some loved her as a villain, some didn't, but no one can deny that she left her mark on the franchise. Even Season 2 of Enterprise had an episode with the Borg, using events from Star Trek: F...

Evolution and The Xindi.   The Drake equation is a formula devised by scientists that is full of variables, and if you knew the value of each variable, you would be able to calculate how many civilizations are currently in the galaxy. However, evolution can take different paths, and what happens when evolution leads to multiple sentient species developing on a single planet? Enterprise proposes th...

Joelle Bekhazi Interview.     Captain Archer sometimes feels like the most blue collar Captain, drinking beer and watching sports. In the episode "Vox Sola," we learn about his love for water polo, which is a sport that doesn't seem to be highlighted in the spotlight as often as other sports.  Joelle Bekhazi was named to the junior national team at age 16, going on to compete at the 2005 and 2007...

Porthos.   The producers of Enterprise tried to make the new series stand on its own, and came up with interesting characters and plot points to set it apart from the series' that came before. One way that Enterpsie stood out was the cute and cuddly loyal friend of Captain Archer - Porthos the dog.  Brannon Braga and Rick Berman had always wanted to have a dog as a character that appeared regularl...

Season Three Retrospective Part 6.     Season three of Star Trek: Enterprise was an brave experiment of storytelling with the franchises first season long story arc. As a response to the events of September 11, 2001, the creators of the show wanted to take Star Trek in a new, darker direction. In this episode of Warp Five, hosts Brandi Jackola, Patrick Devlin, and Brandon-Shea Mutala finish their...

"First Flight," The Right Stuff, and NASA.   It takes a special kind of person to strap themselves to a large explosive device in the name of science and exploration, but that is exactly what the early test pilots for NASA's space program did during the space race of the late fifties and early sixties. Inspiring generations of would be astronomers, the story of these pilots would be told in the Ac...

Friendship and fellowship is important for people's general health and well-being. All of the Star Trek series have shown some sort of interaction between the members of its crew on screen in varying ways. The Next Generation had poker, Deep Space Nine had Vic's lounge, Voyager had Sandrine's and the resort program, and Enterprise had movie night. Since the invention of home video releases of film...

The New Hosts and Their Favorite Episodes.   After bidding a fond farewell to Floyd Dorsey, Brandon-Shea Mutala passes the baton to the two new co-hosts of Warp Five. Loyal listeners may be concerned about the qualifications and Nerd Card validity for these new hosts, so we pause for a discussion where each hosts talks about their favorite episode from each season of Star Trek: Enterprise. In this...

"Damage" With Phyllis Strong.   The episode "Damage" from the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise was controversial for two plot points that took Archer and T'Pol into dark areas they hadn't been to before. The episode revealed T'Pol's addiction to Trellium D, the substance that was used to line starships and protect them from the anomalies that were scattered through the expanse. Meanwhile, Arc...

Season Three Retrospective Part 5.     Season three of Star Trek: Enterprise was an brave experiment of storytelling with the franchises first season long story arc. As a response to the events of September 11, 2001, the creators of the show wanted to take Star Trek in a new, darker direction. In this episode of Warp Five, hosts Floyd Dorsey and Brandon-Shea Mutala are joined by Patrick Devlin and...

NX-01 Movie Night: Sunset Blvd.   On the NX-01, Trip Tucker led the crew on their great adventure through the history of cinema with Movie Night. Over the course of Star Trek: Enterprise's four-year mission, Trip showed 13 films. The first, For Whom the Bell Tolls, was covered by us on Warp Five episode 120. Today, we look at the second, Billy Wilder's Sunset Blvd. In this episode of Warp Five, Mi...

David A. Goodman Interview. A life long fan of Star Trek, David A. Goodman began his career in television working for the multi-Emmy award winning show The Golden Girls. That experience would lead him to many more opportunities, including writing four episode for Star Trek: Enterprise. He would also become a consulting producer for the show. Goodman would go on to write for animation with Family G...

"Precious Cargo" and "The Perfect Mate."   After 729 episodes and movies in the Star Trek franchise, you are bound to have stories that are similar in plot, which naturally leads to a discussion of comparison between episodes that are similar. Two episodes that are very similar, but tend to be overlooked by fans due to their subject matter, are the episodes "The Perfect Mate" from Star Trek: The N...

Essential Enterprise Season One.    In every season of every Star Trek show, there are some episodes that stand out more than others — but which ones are essential to their respective shows as a whole? We begin a new four-part series where we look at each episode of each season and determine if they are essential to the overall narrative of the show. In this episode of Warp Five, host Brandon-Shea...

Season Three Retrospective Part 4. Season three of Star Trek: Enterprise was an brave experiment of storytelling with the franchises first season long story arc. As a response to the events of September 11, 2001, the creators of the show wanted to take Star Trek in a new, darker direction. In this episode of Warp Five, hosts Floyd Dorsey and Brandon-Shea Mutala are joined by Heather Barker and Chr...

Star Trek: Enterprise Trivia.   Star Trek fans love showing off just how much they know about the characters and episodes that they love. One fun way of challenging each other is through trivia, and some podcasters have even made a trivia segment a staple part their shows. One of the most knowledgeable Trek fans out there is Dan Davidson, so we decided to invite him and his co-host over to the NX-...

Warp Five Role Playing Game.   While all Star Trek series have focused on a main set of characters, every once in a while an episode would come along and show the viewers what the lower decks of the ship, and what some of the less important crew members would be doing. Enterprise never got the chance to do this, until now... In this episode of Warp Five ,  hosts Floyd Dorsey and Brandon-Shea Mutal...

"Bound" Commentary.   The Orion slave girl is an image that has been associated with Star Trek since we first saw one in the episode "The Menagerie Part II." While a sexual slave is not a politically correct type of character, the writers of Star Trek: Enterprise tried to ret-con some explanations for this alien species in the fourth season of the show. Did they succeed? In this episode of Warp Fi...

Movie Night - For Whom the Bell Tolls .    Friendship and fellowship is important for people's general health and well-being. All of the Star Trek series have shown some sort of interaction between the members of its crew on screen in varying ways. The Next Generation had poker, Deep Space Nine had Vic's lounge, Voyager had Sandrine's and the resort program, and Enterprise had movie night. Since t...

Jim Moorhouse Interview.     Star Trek fans have dreamed about living the fantastical lives of the characters that they have come to love. They dream about visiting new worlds, encountering new life, traveling faster than the speed of light, and ... firing the torpedoes? For one fan, visiting the sets of the Enterprise and walking the halls of that ship became a reality for him when he won an onli...

"Dead Stop" Commentary.   One method of storytelling that the producers of Enterprise wanted to utilize was continuity throughout the episodes. Their desire was that actions in one episode would have ramifications in the next. One example was the damage that the NX-01 received during the episode "Mine Field." This begged the question: How would they repair their ship when the crew was in the middl...

Top 3 Phlox Moments.     Many Star Trek fans cite the alien crew members as their favorite characters to watch because of the unique perspectives that can be utilized by the writers. While he can definitely be cited as the most optimistic crew member in all of Star Trek, Doctor Phlox has many different sides to his character including anger, and sadness. In this episode of  Warp Five , hosts Floyd...