text: first flight ( star trek : enterprise ) " first flight " is the fiftieth episode of the american science fiction television series star trek : enterprise , the twenty - fourth episode of the second season . it first aired on may 14 , 2003 on upn . it was written by john shiban and chris black , and was directed by star trek : the next generation actor levar burton ( geordi la forge ) . set in the 22nd century , the series follows the adventures of the first starfleet starship enterprise , registration nx - 01 . in this episode , after captain jonathan archer ( scott bakula ) is informed of the death of his former colleague , a. g. robinson ( keith carradine ) , he relates the story of breaking the warp 2 . 5 barrier to t 'pol ( jolene blalock ) whilst investigating a dark matter nebula . the episode was inspired by the story of the first american astronauts as seen in the film the right stuff . several sets were specifically built for this episode , and a reference to the designer of the enterprise from star trek : the original series is included in the story . three crew - members from the u.s. navy aircraft carrier uss enterprise ( cvn - 65 ) appeared in this episode , and handed over a flag from the ship to the cast and crew . critical reception to this episode was mostly positive , with praise directed at scott bakula . however , the episode received the second lowest number of viewers received by enterprise at that point , which was blamed on it being aired opposite the series finale of dawson 's creek . plot as enterprise is about to investigate a dark matter cloud , captain archer is informed by admiral forrest that his former starfleet colleague , captain robinson , has died in a rock climbing accident . archer , seeking solitude , desires to travel into the nebula in a shuttlepod armed with spatial charges to excite the dark matter . sub - commander t 'pol , noting that captains are prohibited from traveling off - ship unaccompanied , joins him and while underway , she coaxes him into relating the story of the warp 5 program on earth . in a series of flashbacks , commander archer meets with commodore forest , and is informed that although he excelled in simulations , his colleague commander robinson has been awarded the test ship , the nx alpha . disappointed , archer goes to the 602 club , a local bar , bumping into robinson there . later , robinson takes the scheduled flight aboard the nx alpha , breaking the warp 2 . 0 barrier . he refuses a command from forest to stop and instead increases speed ; the craft soon destabilizes and is destroyed as it approaches warp 2 . 2 , but robinson escapes . the vulcans argue that the warp program should be postponed , but archer wants the program , and his father 's engine research , to continue . archer , and his new friend lieutenant tucker , then go to the 602 club to discuss the problem . robinson arrives and blames archer 's father , and the two end up in a fist fight . the next day archer discovers robinson packing up the contents of his locker . he concedes that it is primarily an intermix problem , but that the engine could still work . archer and robinson then steal the nx beta , with tucker in flight control , but it starts to suffer the same issues as the alpha . as starfleet security detains tucker , archer and robinson manage to coax the engines towards their goal of warp 2 . 5 . afterwards , archer and robinson are reprimanded by starfleet , and the vulcans ground the program for a year , but they eventually confirm that his father 's design was sound . back in the future , archer launches the charges into the cloud , and t 'pol suggests that it be named after archer 's close friend , robinson . production " first flight " was inspired by the 1983 film the right stuff , the story of the test pilots at edwards air force base and the first nasa astronauts . reference is also made to the apollo 11 lunar landing , when archer mentions that no - one remembers astronaut buzz aldrin 's first words when he stepped onto the moon . his actual first words were " looks like the secondary strut had a little thermal effects on it right here , neil . " warp drive was first mentioned in gene roddenberry 's first - draft pitch for star trek , dated march 11 , 1964 , although in that version it was referred to as a " space - warp drive " . the drive allows for a vessel to travel faster than the speed of light by warping space - time around the ship itself . in 1994 , physicist miguel alcubierre created the theoretical alcubierre drive , which used a similar theory . in the star trek universe , zefram cochrane invented the drive in 2063 . cochrane was portrayed by james cromwell in the film star trek : first contact and re - appeared in this role in the pilot of enterprise , " broken bow " . that episode showed the culmination of the development of the warp 5 engine , which was designed by jonathan archer 's father , henry , in the launch of the enterprise itself . the vulcans during this period gave oversight and advice to starfleet in the development of the warp drive , but sought to slow the progress of the humans . " first flight " showed a previously unseen period in the development of the fictional warp drive , with the pursuit of the warp 2 barrier . the dark matter seen in this episode is a real phenomenon , however it is unclear exactly what it is . it cannot be seen by telescopes , and it is theorised that it makes up a great deal of the matter in the universe . john shiban and chris black wrote " first flight " , the fiftieth episode of enterprise . former star trek : the next generation actor levar burton directed the episode , his second of the season and fourth overall . he had previously directed episodes of other shows in the franchise , including the hundredth episode of star trek : voyager , " timeless " . in this episode , tucker states that his commanding officer at the testing facility is captain jefferies , this is a direct reference to matt jefferies , designer of the original uss enterprise ( ncc - 1701 ) . jefferies died two months after the episode was aired . production began on march 10 , 2003 , and concluded on march 18 . the first days ' shoot consisted of scenes in the shuttlepod with blalock and bakula as other members of the cast were still shooting scenes for the episodes " horizon " and " regeneration " . the present - day scenes were completed on the second day of filming , with the remaining five days of shooting being devoted to the flashback scenes . sets were built specifically for this episode , including the nx command center , the 602 club and the interior of the nx prototype vessels . casting the guest cast in " first flight " included the return of vaughn armstrong in the recurring role of admiral forrest , although this was his most demanding shoot so far , requiring him to be on set for five of the seven days of filming . keith carradine was cast as a. g. robinson ; carradine is also a musician , and won the academy award for best original song for " i 'm easy " from the 1975 film nashville . he is also the half - brother of fellow actor david carradine . this episode also saw the return of some actors who had appeared in other series of the star trek franchise . these included michael canavan , who appeared in this episode as a vulcan advisor , but previously appeared in the star trek : deep space nine episode " defiant " as a member of the maquis terrorist group . also appearing in " first flight " was victor . he had previously appeared in ds9 , voyager and the movie star trek : first contact . " first flight " also provided the stage for an exchange with the united states navy aircraft carrier uss enterprise ( cvn - 65 ) . three crew members of the real - life enterprise had been voted as " sailors of the year " by the u.s. navy , and so were given the roles of extras in this episode . this was not the first time such an exchange had occurred ; previous winners had appeared as crew members on board the fictional enterprise in the episode " desert crossing " . however , this time around they were given roles at the nx command center instead . aviation maintenance 2nd class james d. frey portrayed a technician , navy counselor 1st class kathleen j. grant played a senator and hospital corpsman 3rd class thomas p. hunt was the senator 's assistant . all three were pleased to be appearing on the show , with grant saying that " my nephew told all of the kids at his school his aunt was going to be on star trek . that makes the experience even more of a thrill for me " , and hunt saying " this will be on reruns for years to come , when i 'm 60 , i 'll be able to say , ' hey , that 's me on enterprise . ' " . in return , the three sailors presented the cast and crew of star trek : enterprise with a flag that had been flying on the aircraft carrier earlier in the month . reception and home media release " first flight " was first shown in the united states on may 14 , 2003 on upn . it was aired on the same night as the following episode , " bounty " . both episodes saw a reduction in viewing figures compared to previous weeks , which was attributed to them being broadcast at the same time as the series finale of dawson 's creek on the wb . " first flight " received a 2 . 4 / 4 % share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49 . this means that it was seen by 2 . 4 percent of all 18- to 49 - year - olds , and 4 percent of all 18- to 49 - year - olds watching television at the time of the broadcast . it was the second lowest rating received by the series at that point , and " bounty " received a slightly decreased rating of 2 . 3 / 4 % , but the viewing figures were higher . bounty was watched by 3 . 54 million reviewers , whereas " first flight " was watched by 3 . 3 million . " first flight " was the 93rd most watched programme of the evening . the episode aired during the following week was the season two finale , whose figures rebounded slightly ; " the expanse " had a final rating of 2 . 8 / 4 % with an audience of 3 . 88 million . michelle erica green reviewed the episode for treknation , and thought that scott bakula in particular gave one of his best performances of the show so far . both he and carradine worked well together , but thought that the other characters in the flashback were clichéd . overall , she thought it was a " superbly filmed episode " with several new sets which were well used , and the visual effects were good . jamahl epsicokhan at his website " jammer 's reviews " gave the episode a score of three out of four , saying that he welcomed the back story to the series being fleshed out in this episode . he thought that the episode itself wasn 't very challenging to watch , but thought that the melancholy ending was fitting . he even thought that it might be worthwhile to go further back in time to see the actual founding of starfleet . " first flight " was first released for home media use on dvd as part of the second series box set of star trek : enterprise . the release featured text commentary on the episode from star trek and nasa designers michael and denise okuda . the episode also featured as one of the three enterprise episodes on the star trek fan collective dvd set " captain 's log " . the set featured episodes selected by each of the captains from the star trek series , and several chosen by the fans , a total of seventeen episodes . a release on blu - ray disc for season two occurred on august 20 , 2013 .