Antimatter Pod

Anika and Liz are here to drink holographic coffee and talk about episode 3 of Star Trek: Prodigy ... and they're all out of coffee. Long Janeway is Clippy, and we're sort of into it The kids who choose their roles and the kids whose roles are given to them It's wild that (adult) viewers are criticising Dal for mistrusting authority and not being a perfect Starfleet cadet, and there are also some...

It's time … for brand new Star Trek! Anika and Liz sit down to talk about Star Trek: Prodigy, and discuss:  It's a little bit Star Warsy … but we think that's a good thing Star Trek has a reputation for being extremely serious, and its fandom for being utterly humourless, and Prodigy is taking Star Wars and MCU fans and showing them that's not true Save the cat (no, please, save that poor kitten!)...

Anika and Liz catch up on New York Comic-Con and the second half of Lower Decks season 2. Which … we loved!  We talk about:  Anika's NYCC experience A new Discovery trailer! Gosh, people have awfully strong opinions about the Ferengi make-up… Serenading the cast Liz loves the Federation president and has pre-forgiven her for any war crimes she might do. Prodigy's goal is to welcome new people to S...

Liz and Anika talk about Kes, a character we loved more than Voyager's writers did. Kes did not even get an entry in her own right in the Voyager character bible We swore we weren't going to use Kes's episode to talk about Neelix, but seriously: why is Neelix? In fact, why are all Kes's stories about men?  Anika's home for wayward narratives How Soji is Kes 2.0 Everyone is wrong about Elogium exce...

Liz and Anika get together to discuss the news, trailers and outfits from Star Trek Day, 8 September 2021, including... We have concerns about the sidelining of female characters in Prodigy How will Long Janeway be changed by her time with the kids? The all-male Prodigy panel was followed by the Discovery panel, which featured no heterosexuals whatsoever An ugly incident of homophobic abuse at the...

Anika and Liz check in on season 2 of Star Trek: Lower Decks. And ... maybe it isn't for us? And that's okay! Along the way, we talk about: Walking the line between responding to fans versus pandering We have feelings about the depiction of Orion women in Lower Decks … and, in fairness, most of Trek We have even stronger feelings about the Ferengi here. "Why???" is a feeling, right? We're also not...

Anika and Liz sit down to discuss DS9's "Past Tense". It's one of those episodes where we go, "This is really good!" and then talk about its problems for an hour. Everyone knows "Past Tense" is a great two-parter, but what our theory presupposes is … maybe it's deeply flawed? But seriously, "This is a great episode" is the beginning, not the end, of the conversation The great man theory of fake hi...

Anika once said she had no interest in watching The Animated Series ... yet here we are, discussing "Yesteryear"! We may be a Star Trek podcast, but we're a Star Trek podcast with a lot of Loki feels (Seriously, this episode includes big spoilers for Loki and a big-ish spoiler for WandaVision) Children's media before stranger-danger was invented Abolish the time police  Ethical time travel We made...

Liz and Anika discuss shipping in Star Trek: The Next Generation -- at least until Liz suddenly realises she's messed up her calendar and has to flee to an appointment. We are very good at this whole podcasting business. Social media: it's good, actually "I stayed to watch, and there was something very important that she had to tell Jean-Luc, and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, she loves him!' And 30 yea...

Anika and Liz watch the TOS episode "Is There In Truth No Beauty". And wow, we have a LOT to discuss: Liz attempts to summarise the episode and we learn an important lesson about taking notes A Medusan character in Prodigy As a story about disability, this is … interesting. There's a lot to unpack. Including Kollos, because he lives in a box We only want the best for Miranda Jones "Both the Spock...

Anika and Liz take a trip back to 1995 and the first three stories in the Talking Stick/Circle fic series by Macedon and Peg Robinson, and discuss:  Usenet memories Decolonising Star Trek Chakotay, the significance of a Native American writer handling a Native American character, and the … notable lack thereof in the show itself Another round of religion in Star Trek “People need to understand tha...

Liz and Anika watch an episode of Star Trek: Continues, and just because it's not canon doesn't mean we aren't going to waaaaaay overthink it! we are maybe the wrong audience for a loving tribute to The Original Series… a loving recreation of a ‘60s aesthetic … that ends when women sit in the hair and make-up chair no one needed an explanation for “Turnabout Intruder” imagine a metaphor for Hillar...

We follow up our mothers-in-Trek episode by looking at ... dads! And, guys, there are so many terrible fathers in Star Trek. So. Many. Bonus points to the Hansens, where BOTH parents are terriblel Digressions: that careful balance where you don’t want to give up your whole life because you have a child, but also maybe you shouldn’t take that child into Borg space?????? Sisko, single fatherhood and...

Pour a shot of tequila and carve up the salmon, Liz and Anika are here to discuss the news and trailers coming out of First Contact Day -- along with the whole idea of fannish "holidays". The official Star Trek con will be held next year in Chicago, Liz's favourite city in the US. She still can't go, but… Star Trek: Prodigy and Long Janeway The Christine Baranski Cinematic Universe A new Star Trek...

We're joined by friend of the podcast Tim, who tells us about the IMDB ratings system and how it reflects fandom's biases. Sounds dry? No, it's fascinating! At least to us… [Note: we had some audio challenges with this episode, and Tim is not always as audible as we'd like -- apologies.] What is the IMDB ratings systems and why should Anika, specifically, care? The short answer: sexism  That is, c...

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...