Antimatter Pod

Okay, team! It's time for the final two episodes of Star Trek: Picard season 2. Anika and Liz exchange awkward hugs, get stabbed a little, and return to the early 25th century as we discuss... To be blunt, we did not enjoy these episodes or, ultimately, the season CONTENT WARNING: We discuss the Yvette storyline, suicide and mental healthcare from 5:04 to 25:20. If you are vulnerable or simply not...

Anika and Liz are locked in the FBI's basement to discuss the latest two episodes of Star Trek: Picard, "Monsters" and "Mercy". We have a few follow-ups to our discussion of mental health in our mini-ep, but otherwise we're skirting around the Yvette plotline in "Monsters" Liz maybe owes Michael Chabon an apology Okay, but it's probably a bad sign when Law & Order addresses the same issues as Star...

Anika and Liz had such strong feelings about episode 7 of season 2 of Star Trek: Picard, Monster, that they organised a quick out-of-schedule catch-up to rant. Accordingly, this episode (and its show notes!) contains much fresher spoilers than usual. We discuss: Our concerns about the Yvette Picard plotline came true, with a fun domestic violence fake-out twist! Multiple ableist tropes: the tortur...

Anika and Liz cut the lights, grab the mike, and discuss episode 6 of Star Trek: Picard's second season: "Two of One". The casting announcement!  Will we get a Star Trek: Stargazer? Poor Kore, and poor Isa Briones, who has to spend every season playing a woman facing an identity crisis The pacing on this show is SO BAD, but at least it's bad in a different way to Discovery? Through trial and error...

Put on a nice dress and bring your imaginary friend, Anika and Liz are here to talk about Star Trek: Picard's "Fly Me To The Moon"! We have a bit of a scheduling change coming up! Tallinn: is she now or has she ever been a cat? Liz is overthinking things like it's her job Renee Picard and Kore Soong: not so much characters yet  Liz has this whole THING about Persephone, aka Kore, and the Egyptian...

Liz and Anika take a trip [a couple of weeks] back in time and into another [section of the] universe: season 2 of Star Trek: Picard. We really loved the first two episodes Although Liz suspects she may have once said something about Laris and Picard having a father-daughter relationship, which, yikes The other two episodes… It's hard to be invested in relationships when the foundations are weak T...

We have a finale! Anika and Liz put on a lightshow, blow up a techbro, and discuss… We get our nitpicks out of the way first Michael is a hard act to follow when it comes to big speeches Ndoye has taken the final step to becoming a fully fledged character, and we love it We find opportunities to compare TWO characters to Admiral Cornwell #ourbrand The "emotions? In my Star Trek?" argument comes up...

Anika and Liz meet the 10-C, shout enough to scare Grudge, and contemplate… What can Book's fate possibly be? Liz has a theory! Tarka is WORSE THAN GUL DUKAT, YOU GUYS A VERY brief digression into matters Picard related (note spoilers) "Why is Star Trek about feelings all of a sudden?" We cannot believe this is even a point of discussion, but since it's come up, we have a rant we prepared earlier!...

Trekapalooza begins! Anika and Liz put Picard on hold to talk about episode 11 of Discovery's fourth season: Rosetta. Join us as we visit a new planet, huff some feelings dust and discuss… It's been a while since we had a nice landing party on this show! Star Trek should never, ever try to be cool  If you are tired of hearing Liz complain about Detmer, good news: she has completely changed her opi...

Discovery enters the Galactic Barrier, and while real world physicists weep, Anika and Liz turn down the saturation and discuss: Just when we thought Disco had mastered pacing... The Tarka problem endures Saru! T'Rina! Their love! "Insecurity is universal." Discovery is a deeply insecure show. Is MURF Species 10-C?! Translation, alteration and unconscious bias Liz's next door neighbour does a bit...

If an episode is titled Rubicon, you can bet some sort of ... line is going to be crossed. Anika and Liz discuss: We have some prurient speculations about Saru's … experience; also, we ship Saru/T'Rina A LOT but please never make us look at his hands again Nahn is back! Is this … emotional continuity? Gosh! Book and Michael are sort of spinning their wheels, narratively and emotionally Ruon Tarka...

Discovery is back, baby! With hijinks! Maybe even SHENANIGANS! Anika and Liz beam down to the Karma Barge to discuss... An update on our giveaway Captain Picard Week is coming… Wanna make a place seem dodgy in 2022? Fill it with a crowd of people! We are on the record as loving terrible dads in fiction, but we also love good dads! And also … dadmirals! We know you know this, but it bears repeating...

Prodigy comes in for an almost flawless mid-season finale! Anika and Liz take a good, long look at Zero, and the discuss: The sheer joy of watching a carefully planned story, competently told If Lower Decks and Picard are sequels to TNG, and Prodigy is a sequel to Voyager, will the Section 31 series be a sequel to DS9? (Liz has suggestions and they involve casting Alexander Siddig…) We talk a lot...

It is the PENULTIMATE episode of Prodigy for now, and we LOVED it! Anika and Liz plan a reverse heist and discuss: Drednok: the Swiss army knife of henchmen (henchdroids) We love our fictional children We also love terrible dads in fiction and we don't apologise (HOWEVER, Anika has been accused of being a Gul Dukat apologist, and she wants us to know SHE WOULD NEVER) Maybe the Diviner has really g...

It's our ONE HUNDREDTH EPISODE! Can you believe it? We are so happy to be here, and grateful to our listeners for coming with us on this journey of digressions, ritual mourning for exploded admirals, Star Wars feelings and alleged misandry. ALSO we have some Star Trek to discuss! And ... quite a lot of Star Trek coming in the next six months, prayer circle for ... us. Prodigy! Time travel! Technob...

We are brushing up on our Rules of Aquisition and speedreading General Order One ... it's time for Prodigy! Did we NEED to bring the Ferengi into the 21st century?  Seriously, lots of things about Nandi left a bad taste in our mouths "The prime directive quandary was the most interesting part of the episode" -- words which we have NEVER said before now! Can Murf consent to being a transporter expe...

Anika and Liz are AWAKE and SOBER and delighted to talk about a new episode of Star Trek: Prodigy! OUR CHILDREN ARE BACK We are still talking about the unconscious racism in people's attitudes to Dal (and Michael, and Raffi, and Becket…) Understanding versus interpretation Gwyn finding her identity Things are getting a bit timey wimey up in here There probably isn't a secret plot to keep DS9 out o...

It's New Year's Eve. Liz has the fan running and is two drinks in. Anika has just woken up. What a perfect set-up to talk about "...But To Connect"! We speculate wildly about filming multi-storeyed crowd scenes in covid Should, uhhh, Book have been allowed at this meeting?  Earth is a bit genocide-happy and it's worrying Never trust anyone whose solution to their problems is moving to another univ...

Anika and Liz take time out from seasonal festivities to catch up and talk about Discovery 4.06, "Stormy Weather". And along the way, we discuss… This episode was great, yet it's not our favourite … and that is very much an us problem not a Discovery problem Must a Star Trek podcast be full of meaningful insights? Is it not enough that we have some Voyager comparisons and a whole digression about...

'Twas a few days before Christmas, and here on Discord, Anika and Liz got together to talk about Star Trek and politely overlook Liz's total and absolute inability to use rhyme or meter. It turns out we were onto something thematically relevant with our calls for prison abolition! "The Examples" feels like TNG or Voyager, and this time we mean it as a compliment (It feels so much like a Voyager ep...

Liz and Anika put on their dress uniforms and turn up to sit quietly and look official at a diplomatic event.  …but we're not very good at that, so instead we talk about:  The departing character, our feelings and our hopes This is an episode about Michael using her middle child powers Vulcans love drama almost as much as they love logic, and we are HERE for it Anika is delighted to see Hugh in ac...

It's a Qowat Milat road trip! Pack your sword, moisturise your hands and join Anika and Liz as we talk about "Choose to Live"! Actually we did not love this episode and feel slightly bad about it (but maybe the writers should feel worse?) PRESIDENT RILLAK DID NOTHING WRONG, Liz has a powerpoint presentation and an interpretive dance to persuade you if you disagree We are once again calling for the...

Paramount is an extremely clever and foresighted institution, which is why now part of the world has Discovery (sort of), while Americans get to squeeze it in alongside Thanksgiving. But Anika and Liz overcame the logistical challenges! And we are here to talk about... The anomaly's name is Greg now We talk a lot about grief in this ep, but also how Liz thinks Michael and Book should have a baby,...

Anika and Liz are UNDEFEATED by Paramount's shenanigans! We are HERE to talk about the fifth episode of Prodigy and the season 4 premiere of Discovery, and no one can stop us! Discovery has left Paramount Plus and basically Paramount has squiddled so much good will in one move, we are confused It's possible that two new Star Treks in 24 hours is too much There was not enough kissing in any of thes...

Liz and Anika execute a flawless landing and hang out talking about episode 4 of Star Trek: Prodigy! Along the way, we talk about how: We're glad we don't have to cover two Star Treks at once, but we're gonna miss these characters when Prodigy goes on hiatus Janeway is a week old and also a single mother and we love her Every single character is an orphan with a tragic backstory (or a hologram) an...