“Minefield” 20th-anniversary reflections

The Enterprise finds itself in the middle of a minefield and there’s one big problem: the mines are cloaked. There’s also a second big problem: some aliens calling themselves the Romalin [sic] Star Empire don’t want them messing around with their invisible bombs. When a mine attaches itself to the hull, Lieutenant Reed heads out to detach it, only he becomes attached himself and it looks like the end of the road for him. But this very bad, terrible, horrible day started much more simply. It started with breakfast.

In this episode of Warp Five, hosts C Bryan Jones and Matthew Rushing continue our 20th-anniversary retrospective that takes you through all of Star Trek: Enterprise, one episode at a time. In this installment, we continue Season 2 with “Minefield” as we get inside the heads of Reed and Captain Archer to explore why their relationship is what it is, why it differs from Archer's relationship with Trip Tucker, and why it’s important to think outside the box. We also discuss the value of simplicity in storytelling and, of course, the challenge of bringing the Romulans into the series years before their conflict with Earth and that famous viewscreen moment.

Hosts
C Bryan Jones and Matthew Rushing

Production
C Bryan Jones (Editor and Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer)