Antimatter Pod

We are a seaQuest DSV podcast. We have always been a seaQuest DSV podcast. Specifically, we're discussing the pilot episode, "To Be Or Not To Be". The near future: 2018 So where's our reboot? Underwater Tom Paris Liz's very first Cranky Older Woman In A Position Of Authority Hitchcock/Kreig: okay, imagine B'Elanna and Neelix were married... Marilyn Stark: we want to love her, but she is not a good...

Anika and Liz discuss bisexuality in Star Trek -- a topic which has been on our agenda since the only on-screen representation was the Mirror Universe. Thank heavens times have changed! ...Right? Because, wow, the MU is not the place to go for good rep! Headcanons are not the same as canonical representation Pine is a top-tier Chris Deniable, erasable and word-of-God queerness in media The Trill P...

Liz and Anika go back to the '70s and discuss a write-up of a panel on feminism in Treklit. "Treklit?" you ask. We young'uns call it fan fiction these days. Topics covered include: Changes in the way we talk about fic Reminiscences about mailing lists How fic reflects the time it’s written Early fandom racism Anti-feminism in fic The thorny question of content curation, warnings, ratings and accep...

Anika and Liz revisit one of the most universally praised episodes of The Original Series ... and it really is that good. We have nice things to say about Shatner Edith's don't-punch-Nazis attitude is ... challenging in 2021! We hash it out with a little help from The Clone Wars How Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is like Game of Thrones The Kirk/Spock of it all We did not deserve DeForest Kelley A...

Liz and Anika sit down to discuss the Voyager pilot "Caretaker", and end up with a podcast almost as long as the episode itself! We are not good at maths “It’s a good pilot, but not a good episode.” The script has a really complicated relationship with Janeway’s femininity Tom Paris is a truly awful character in the pilot (and for a while after) Chakotay: stereotypes and racism abound Tuvok is mag...

It’s our 69th episode! Nice. Also, Discovery wrapped up its third season -- and finally stuck the landing. Notes: Season 3 repudiates nearly everything we hated about season 2 Finally Owosekun gets a moment Liz has decided to ship Owo/Zora “We are Starfleet”: it’s basically the flipped version of “this is not America” The new uniforms are bad and we hate them Liz quotes Meatloaf Expanding from mot...

Anika's back! But where is Lt Nilsson...? (Did Grudge eat her?) This ep has some audio issues, as Liz learns new software, but we manage to discuss: Is this Christmas homage a Die Hard episode? Osyraa and Vance level up in characterisation Osyraa/Vance arranged marriage fic now pls Does Osyraa need to raid Georgiou’s wardrobe? RIP Anika’s Andorian We EXPLICITLY SAID we didn’t want to know how the...

Liz is joined again by Fran as we investigate the cause of the Burn. Another haunted house, another recurrence of the season’s theme of confronting fear and ugly truths Su’Kal: the most 2020 hero The cause of the Burn: a child the Federation failed to rescue In fact, the Federation destroyed itself through its own complacency This is a story which prioritises emotional intelligence over logic Do w...

Liz is joined by Fran to discuss “Terra Firma” part 2. Where is Anika? Only mirror! Fran knows… So it turns out the mirror universe is not a fun place to hang? The Terran Empire was always destined to fall A redemption arc, or a reformation arc? “You don’t fail upwards in the mirror universe.” Saving Saru Liz spoils the end of The Good Place We talk a lot about Gabriel Lorca and Harry Mudd, which...

In which Liz and Anika step through a door.  • It was so nice of CBSAA to make an episode of Discovery just for us!  • Saru, Book and Vance are under the impression that they’re in a regular episode. They are very wrong.  • We strongly suspect Carl is not really a human from the 1930s.  • If you die in the mirror universe, you die in real life as well.  • A recurring theme of duty  • How Saru is K...

It's the Star Warsiest episode of Star Trek ever, and we are here for it! We're also talking about: Admiral Vance: does he have a drinking problem yet? Michael doesn't really understand the concept of letting others make choices, and it's probably Sarek's fault Misfits, outsiders, and why is piloting "macho" anyway? Saru is not a good captain (which is fine), but fandom won't admit it (which is ba...

Liz and Anika talk "Unification III", an episode practically made for us. Discussed along the way: the academic rigour of the Vulcan thesis defence the latest episode of The Mandalorian false binaries Tilly's career path Michael's quartet of complicated mothers It's the episode where we ask -- just how much of a creep is Grudge? And really? Baby Yoda has a name now?

They had us at "unsanctioned mission". the Luke-Vader heist of Anika's dreams the teams are fracturing and it's AWFUL but also a bit great does Michael actually want to be in Starfleet? Did she ever choose to be in Starfleet? Michael Burnham and the Series-Long Badge Motif Michael/Book: how do we love it? We cannot even begin to count the ways! a Culmets duck family is Grudge a real cat: y/n? We a...

Liz and Anika are shocked -- SHOCKED! -- to learn that Starfleet Command is maybe a bit shady. Also covered: we care as much about 32nd century starship design as we do about the bridge crew how season 3 is structured like a video game Nhan's departure Georgiou's arc Discovery is not an ensemble show and should stop trying to be they really did manage two separate scenes where men tell Michael to...

Liz and Anika return to the Trill homeworld, and also attend an awkward dinner party. It's time to talk about Discovery 3.04, "Forget Me Not"! We discuss: how very 2020 this season feels ... but in a good way? the Adira/Gray romance, representation, ghost stories, YA fiction and Truly, Madly, Deeply Saru's character growth Liz wants you all to know she hated "Calypso" it took three seasons, but Cu...

Discovery season 3 might be Voyager 2.0, but it still only takes them three episodes to get home to Earth. Downside: turns out you can't go home again. Anika and Liz discuss: the narrative language of Star Trek Michael's year on her own Adira: Wesley Crusher but make them non-binary Pronouns! Earth's moral failure in the face of a crisis hugging CGI trees capslocking about Keyla, or, Discovery has...

Like season 3 of Discovery, Liz and Anika are a little bit delayed but totally worth the wait. We hope! We're discussing the first two episodes of Discovery's third season: "That Hope Is You" and "Far From Home". And, along the way, we talk about... Grudge, a good catte Cleveland "Book" Booker, a Jedi and a Disney princess Aditya Sahil, the bureaucrat who waited We ... kind of maybe don't care abo...

Liz and Anika revisit "Balance of Terror" and "The Enterprise Incident" -- the only two TOS episodes to feature the Romulans on screen.  We discuss:  parallels and contrasts honour, duty and espionage Romulan fashion why do we like the Lenard Commander so much when he killed so many people?  And more!

We take a deep dive into episode 8 of Enterprise's third season: "Twilight", and discuss:  how much we love this episode (A LOT) we kind of maybe ship T'Pol/Archer here Rosemary's Baby, feminism and psychological horror the fascinating things this episode does with gender storytelling through costume, hair and make-up the destructions of Earth and Romulus it turns out that JJ Abrams is a hack????...

Halfway through its first season, Liz and Anika revisit Lower Decks. Spoilers, we still like it! BUT... it really is awfully heterosexual and isn't it weird how, out of all the modern Trek series, only one actively pursues queer representation and the others just fall into a heteronormative default? is the solution ... a letter-writing campaign??? But also! this is still a Beckett Mariner stan pod...

Anika and Liz select characters, concepts and ideas which, if copyright law didn't exist (and also they controlled Star Trek, which, for some reason, they still don't), they would bring into the Trek universe. We're talking about... the value of retelling stories Star Trek: SVU a Tal Shiar Red Room (the Black Widow kind, not the Twin Peaks kind, but Liz is actually thinking of Amazon Prime's Hanna...

Hey, remember two weeks ago, when we were like, "Well, maybe Star Trek: Lower Decks won't be for us, and that's okay."  SPOILERS: WE LOVED IT.  This is now a Beckett Mariner stan podcast We want to know a lot more about Rutherford and his prosthesis (Attention mad scientists: if you need a test subject, Anika volunteers) Corridor bunks? Corridor bunks! Liz has a pitch for the season finale Tendi:...

Anika and Liz discuss the news out of this year's virtual San Diego Comic Con. And ... there's not much of it!  We understand the reasons, but we're still disappointed at the lack of release date for season 3 of Discovery (three days later: 15 October!) We're keen for Star Trek: Prodigy Maybe Star Trek: Lower Decks won't be for us ... and that's okay! The All The Star Trek Ladies panel, which has...

It's almost unheard of for a network to reject a pilot, only to request a new one. But Star Trek always was a bit special. Anika and Liz are here to discuss "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the second -- and successful -- Star Trek pilot. And we have to ask -- is this real Star Trek, or just a generic action-adventure story wearing a Starfleet uniform, a shameless money grab, a blatant jumping of t...

It's our 50th episode! And we're celebrating with silliness: we've come up with 25 questions each, and given the other 60 seconds to consider important issues like:  why does Anika blame Jonathan Archer for everything that's wrong with the Federation? can Liz narrow down a single favourite violation of the Prime Directive? whisky-flavoured chewing gum: yes or no? And that barely scrapes the surfac...