Women at Warp: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast

We’re joined by guest Amanda Wong to talk about Star Trek’s in-universe artists and their art. We discuss Marla McGivers’ dictator portraits, Kira’s attempts at sculpture, Jake’s writing, and themes like political art and works by artificial lifeforms like Data.

Mother of Klingons Mary Chieffo returns to the show for a deep dive into the role of women in Klingon culture. We discuss the Klingon fixation with Honor, how Klingon women have succeeded despite the patriarchy, and how the Klingon women who came before helped to inform the characterization of L’Rell.

Raised on an lawless colony world, Tasha Yar dedicated her too-short life to order and justice. This week we discuss Tasha’s origins and plumb the depths of her most memorable moments, from “The Naked Now” to “Yesterday’s Enterprise.”

The crew chats about what makes a good friendship, onscreen and off, and the best of the best friendships in Star Trek, as well as those we wish we got to see more of and some missed opportunities.

The crew picks up the jewelers loupe to better examine the “Facets” of Jadzia Dax, as her former hosts embody her friends on Deep Space 9, and talk about mentorship, bodily autonomy, gender, imposter syndrome, and more.

It’s time to take another look at a captain’s love life. This time, we’re talking about those characters who grabbed Kathryn Janeway’s attention, from Mark to Kashyk to Jaffen; and even some of those ‘ships that never left port, like Chakotay or Seven of Nine.

Is Data over-used? Is the Prime Directive an excuse to turn a blind eye to inconvenient problems? Is “The Wrath of Khan” overrated? Should Tuvix have returned to the Alpha Quadrant with Voyager? The crew discusses some “unpopular” Star Trek opinions, from us and our listeners.

Our crew dives into Una McCormack’s Star Trek Picard tie-in novel, “The Last Best Hope,” discussing the additional character and story background it provides and parallels to today’s geopolitical and social issues.

In this super-sized episode, Jamala joins Jarrah and Sue to look back at the first season of Star Trek: Picard. We discuss overall impressions; new and returning characters; themes of xenophobia, mental health, queer representation, government corruption, sexuality; and SO much more.

This week, the crew talks everything Nurse Christine Chapel, played by the incomparable Majel Barrett (after Number One was axed, of course). We discuss the character’s background, best and worst scenes, and whether her “promotion” to Doctor is a positive character development or a slight to the nursing profession.

We gender-bend TNG, asking how would it have been different if the same creators had cast women in the men’s roles and vice versa. And we suggest which actors of the era would have been best in each role.

Lydia joins the crew to discuss everyone’s favorite curmudgeonly lawman, Odo. We talk through some of his key episodes, best moments, conflicts, character growth, and relationships - and touch on themes like otherness, gender expression, and asexuality.

We're continuing our series on women villains with a look at memorable characters like Martia, Mirror Georgiou, Admiral Satie, Lenore Karidien ("The Conscience of the King") and of course, The Borg Queen.

The crew takes a look at the 6 new Short Treks we’ve seen this fall: Q&A, The Trouble With Edward, Ask Not, The Girl Who Made The Stars, Ephraim and Dot, and Children of Mars. We discuss each short in detail, and examine the story, themes, and what hints they might provide about more Trek to come...

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Star Trek: Voyager this week, our crew talks about the series’ creation and takes a deep dive into the pilot episode “Caretaker”, discussing first impressions and how it holds up today.