The biweekly podcast Temporal Culture War, co-hosted by Mattie Lubchansky and Clayton Ashley, examines politics and pop culture in the United States during the early 2000s while watching Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005; formerly Enterprise), “television history’s most maligned property.”
“It’s a bad time for culture,” said Ashley. “And it’s also not a very good Star Trek.”
However, the podcast is very, very good. As the show returns after a brief hiatus, Comics Beat Star Trek Team members Avery Kaplan and Ollie Kaplan caught up with Lubchansky and Ashley over Zoom. You can watch the conversation for yourself at the bottom of this article or on The Beat’s YouTube page.
Temporal Culture War
The Star Trek shows that preceded Enterprise in the 1990s were, as Lubchansky said in the interview, “straightforwardly post-capitalist… what we would now call a little soy and gay.” By contrast, Lubchansky described the premise of Enterprise as, “What if… we had to get a Republican to watch it?”
Originally premiering on September 26th, 2001, Enterprise was in production when 9/11 occurred. In the first half of each episode of Temporal Cultural War, Lubchansky and Ashley tackle the current political and pop cultural events that took place during the week an episode of Enterprise first aired. And in the second half, they discuss said episode in-depth. Throughout each discussion, they examine how the foundations for the world we endure today were laid in the early 21st century.
“We still actually have a pretty fun time, despite how arduous it might sound,” remarked Ashley.
Available to listen now
Currently, Temporal Culture War is partway through the second season of Enterprise. You can catch up with previous episodes, including the one that was released last week, “Eternal Sunshine of the Vulcan Mind.” New episodes of the podcast are released every other Tuesday.
If you are interested in supporting Temporal Culture War, you can kick in a couple of bucks each month to join the Patreon. This will gain you access to special episodes that focus on relevant movies, like Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones and Ghost Ship.
Let’s go!
Keep up with all of The Beat’s Star Trek coverage here.
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