Antimatter Pod

Liz has done it AGAIN: she forgot to move her microphone. She's audible but a little echoey for the first 10 minutes, before she has a horrible realisation.  Anika and Liz are spending their vacation AT THE LIBRARY, where they are checking out some books and checking in on Michael Burnham. Every single thing in this episode is Sarek's fault Libraries and archives are never apolitical Primarch Ruhn...

It is so awkward when you literally stick a guy in a refrigerator and then his death provides motivation for his grieving partner to go on a rampage. Anika and Liz discuss season 5, episode 7 of Star Trek: Discovery - "Erigah"(!!!). It is DEVASTATING that this is Discovery's last season and we're going to lose Rayner as fast as we got him Liz accidentally talks herself into shipping Michael/Nahn a...

Anika and Liz infiltrate a pre-warp society, where they absolutely do not enter a race, that is clearly a trap. Not because of the human sacrifice, because of the running!  Like episode 3, this felt a bit predictable, but ALSO like a rebuke to "Lift Us Up Where Suffering Cannot Reach" and "Who Watches The Watchers", so we're not mad about it What if obeying the Prime Directive is the unethical opt...

(Note: our episodes are getting shorter because the screeners are fairly low quality and don't have subtitles, so it's a bit harder to get deep into the weeds of a story than if we were recording as episodes air. But our day jobs are quite busy, so we need to record as far in advance as possible in order to make our self-imposed deadlines. It's a pickle!) Anika and Liz beam over to an eerily famil...

Anika and Liz are caught in a time loop, which is actually a nice opportunity for a nap when you think about it. We're talking about Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange"! Let's check in with Anika, The Only Person Who Hated "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad". She thought "Face The Strange" was … good "I don't wanna sound creepy, but I have a pretty good idea of where Jas...

Anika and Liz beam down to Trill, don their finest red cloaks and hoods, and discuss the third episode of Star Trek: Discovery's season 5, "Janaal". Including... This is a perfectly fine episode, but it seems a shame to waste our limited time this season on something that is merely competent RIP Star Trek: Lower Decks Introducing the beta shift when fans are still under the impression that the alp...

First, we both have essays out!  On Raffi by Anika Dane is in the current issue of Star Trek Quarterly The Diversity Paradox: Star Trek, Star Trek fandom, and the limits of fandom as progressivism by Liz Barr is in Speculative Insight SECOND, it's time. Anika and Liz are being called away from a fancy 32nd century cocktail party to stand in an empty void and discuss the first two episodes of Star...

Anika and Liz fire up the ancestry.com subscription and do a deep dive into an episode which does a deep dive into Kathryn Janeway's heritage. Yes, we're watching "11:59", an episode which has aged badly but maybe wasn't ever good to start with. This is ostensibly the sort of filler episode that people now say they want more of, but it mistakes trivia for character development "Small town business...

Anika and Liz assemble a board of inquiry and examine two episodes which turned out to be significant for Star Trek: Lower Decks - "The First Duty" and "Lower Decks". Are we gonna cry? Oh yes.  "The First Duty": Imagine if Beverly Crusher got to parent her son "Anika needs to talk about Jack Crusher" is an item in our outline We get into the really serious issue: who is dating whom in Nova Squadro...

Anika and Liz don their finest gold mesh and settle in to discuss a key Star Trek episode: "Space Seed"... It's been said before, but it bears repeating: this episode is super racist (would it have been better or worse if they had renamed Khan and made him Mexican?) Time to ask the real questions: why are there so many women in Star Trek named Marla? Marlene McGivers: aspiring tradwife We've found...

Last April, Anika and Liz each bought a copy of the June 1999 issue of the official Star Trek magazine. Then we had ... some other things to podcast about. But we've finally opened it, and we're talking about... Remember when we'd pay US$7.99 -- or AU$15! -- for a magazine that contained a couple of interviews, some facts we already knew about the Klingon Empire and a Bird-of-Prey pinup? The Kate...

We're back for 2024! With some genuinely awful sound quality because Liz is so out of practice that she forgot to move her microphone from its place on top of the printer to … you know. Somewhere in the vicinity of her mouth.  But the show must go on, and Anika and Liz are pulling the names of Star Trek men out of a hat and deciding whether or not they're any good in bed. Yes, it's the SEX … Now T...

Anika and Liz do a deal with some Orions and definitely know which Chek(h)ov had the gun on the mantelpiece, it is a joke, we are only accepting criticism if it is delivered via Mark Twain impression. And Anika is not home to Mark Twain impressions. Yes, it's the finale of season 4 of Star Trek: Lower Decks, "Old Friends, New Planets"! They stuck the landing! We remain, as we have been since episo...

Anika and Liz definitely failed Hoodlums and Racketeering 101 at the Academy, but that's FINE, we're just going to hang out on this nice jungle planet, hiding from various warring factions while we talk about the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks, "The Inner Fight"... Tom Paris and Nicholas Locarno are different people, which we knew, but sometimes it's nice to have it reinforced Impor...

Anika and Liz beam down to a cave, get trapped, and record the shortest regular episode of Antimatter Pod yet! But that doesn't mean we didn't enjoy Lower Decks season 4 episode 8, "Caves", or that we're not going to discuss important issues such as... It is not, in fact, time for Lower Decks to break up the band (But it is time for them to see other officers, and that's okay!) Are Vendorians real...

Anika and Liz grow some tomatoes and share some feelings in Evil Podcaster Therapy. Specifically, we're sharing feelings about Star Trek: Lower Decks episode "A Few Badgeys More", including: This episode was made for Anika, except it's about characters she doesn't care about The birds in Liz's neighbourhood were extra loud just for us The evil AI trope We're getting all Asimovian up in here Like a...

This episode is brought to you by Slug-O-Cola, platonic relationships, and Beckett Mariner's emotional crisis Is Beckett Mariner okay? Do Tendi and Rutherford have feelings for each other? Are we meant to think that they do?  We need to admit that Migleemo is the sex god of the Cerritos If there isn't a thriving Landlord Cops fandom by the time this episode drops, we will be VERY disappointed Liz...

It's Romulan ale o'clock! Anika and Liz fill their yard glasses with something brightly coloured and alcoholic, don their finest diplomatic bicycle shorts, and discuss Star Trek: Lower Decks episode "Empathological Fallacies"! This episode is truly a gift for Star Trek Las Vegas cosplayers Anika's Totally Spies theory Liz's Daria theory Here on the Taking Things Too Seriously Podcast, we are curio...

Faced with a choice between attending a wedding or dressing up as Mark Twain for conflict resolution via roleplay, Anika and Liz will DEFINITELY take the open bar. We're discussing season 4, episode 4 of Star Trek: Lower Decks, "Something Borrowed, Something Blue"! ORIONS! LIZ'S BELOVED! Are the Orions really all that secretive about their culture, or is it just that the Federation never asked?  T...

We've updated our operating systems and speedrun the allamaraine game, and now Anika and Liz are sitting down to discuss the third episode of the fourth season of Lower Decks, "In the Cradle of Vexilon"... We don't mind a bit of a workplace hierarchy now and then Liz has a WHOLE THEORY about how Captain Freeman's command style is why Beckett Mariner is the way she is We go off on a tangent about V...

While Liz navigates a series of Voyager-themed obstacles, Anika encounters an adorable creature who eats bones. Yes, it's time for the season 4 premiere of Star Trek: Lower Decks, and we're here to talk about... "We're not gonna do Tuvix Discourse." We absolutely did Tuvix Discourse Voyager as a museum, curation styles and fandom: Liz has a THESIS Maybe the real Starfleet is the friends we made al...

It's a Very Short Antimatter Pod! We take two and a half minutes to discuss the first Very Short Trek. Spoilers: it's bad!

Anika and Liz stop off in a small town in the ... midwest? to hang out in a diner? And discuss "Hegemony", the second season finale of Strange New Worlds? Which was definitely an episode of television? The Gorn problem (why are the characters so incurious about them?) SNW rips off the Alien franchise without understanding it Concept: promote Pike early, stash him on Starbase One with April, give B...

Anika studied musical theatre at college. Liz outrighted hated musicals until two weeks ago. And they're here to discuss … "Subspace Rhapsody"! And also fight crime. Star Trek crime. Which this episode is not, except when it is. Liz did a crash course in musicals, and then "Subspace Rhapsody" kind of does the same thing! "It's bad because it's Strange New Worlds, not because it's a musical." Liz h...

"Under the Cloak of War" is a really serious, complex episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ... but don't worry, Anika and Liz are here to talk about the sex pollen fic opportunities! And also: Looking at fan reactions to this episode, one might almost begin to think people apply a different standard to new Trek compared with the Star Trek of the '90s Liz completely misremembers the matter of t...