Antimatter Pod

Put a feather in your hat and put on the silliest French accent you can manage, we're talking about "Stardust City Rag"!  And maybe it's time to admit that Star Trek: Picard is not a good show ... and that's okay?  Also discussed:  That shocking death in the teaser Kirsten Beyer as a writer Seven and Bjayzel Raffi is doing her best, okay? We love her. Star Trek: Picard features the consequences th...

Episode 4 of Star Trek: Picard raised a lot of questions! Like, does the show want us to dislike Picard? And, when will Elnor get his cat?  Discussed this week:  a Twitter troll accused Liz of having a "heavily misandrist" Star Trek podcast, and yes, we are very proud, thank you  Una McCormack's The Last Best Hope, a prequel to Star Trek: Picard (including spoilery chat about one particular subplo...

The End! Is the Beginning!  It's season 1, episode 3 of Star Trek: Picard, and we're discussing:  Romulannisters! Uh, are we meant to see this much chemistry between the Romulan siblings? [If this subject matter squicks you, skip ahead to about the 03:50 mark.] Smoking and space bongs and visual shorthand in Star Trek Ego as Picard's besetting flaw It's always a mistake to think too hard about the...

We discuss episode 2 of Star Trek: Picard, "Maps and Legends" -- an episode which contains very few legends and no maps at all. We're talking:  Romulans! (And Vulcans) Exposition! Women dunking on Picard! Detective fiction! Classism!  And more!

We're back! And we're talking about the first episode of Star Trek: Picard, "Remembrance".  It's difficult to get into a full list of topics covered without spoiling the episode's twists, but here's the short, vague version -- we talk about... exposition the treatment of black people in the script journalism in Star Trek 21st century moral dilemmas the characters the settings nuclear fission -- or...

In our last episode before the launch of Star Trek: Picard, we talk about the character of Jean-Luc Picard himself: an aristocrat who aspires to be a street hero, a man who seems to embody the Federation establishment, yet surrounds himself with outsiders. We also consider:  hobbies and ongoing education in the world of Star Trek legacies depictions of PTSD in Star Trek the secret underground bear...

"This isn't a romance. It's a horror story."  Anika and Liz take a look at TNG's "Sub Rosa". And, you know, we try really hard to be positive about matters Trekkish, even in the face of (say) a favourite character taking a photon torpedo in the face.  But there's no getting around it: "Sub Rosa" is terrible.  We talk about consent, depictions of sexuality in Star Trek, and the ... interesting take...

We're considering the notorious Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, wildly reviled as the worst Trek movie ever. And, well, we kind of like it! Why? Spock turns out to have yet another sibling he forgot to tell anyone about! The Nimbus III Three David Warner has never been sexier Who doesn't love a space cult? Caithlin Dar and Vixis and Uhura, oh my! We also wonder:  Is it possible Shatner is a bette...

Slightly belated discussion of New York Comic Con and the new trailers for Discovery and Picard, and also the two new Short Treks: "Q&A" and "The Trouble With Edward". (Well. They were new when we scheduled this episode.) Also covered:  Liz met Jason Isaacs Are the Disco writers softening us up for something controversial? How the Federation is like the Catholic Church No, really! Are we meant to...

To celebrate getting to thirty episodes, we invited listeners to submit questions! And went from worrying we wouldn't get any (so embarrassing) to putting out an 80 minute episode... We get to talk about the evolution of Star Trek's storytelling after the introduction of the VCR; assembling an all-female-character heist team; Klingon clickbait; genderswaps; our hopes for season 3 of Discovery; and...

Having spent their formative years in Voyager shipping circles -- don't worry, we'll define terms -- Liz and Anika talk romance on Voyager.  (Note: although we are generally family friendly...ish, this episode is definitely more PG-13 than others. And Liz uses the term "bone down" more than once, which is weird, because the words had never passed her lips before the day of recording.) Pairings dis...

Anika and Liz watch "Encounter at Farpoint" and discuss... ugly sweaters why is everyone on this ship so unfriendly? Tasha's backstory the state of the world today the Federation's failures umbrella frames as couture We managed to get more than 30 minutes in before we even mention Q. Take that, self-appointed judge of humanity! Check out a compilation of the @TrekDocs posts at Reddit , and see ant...

At various stages of TNG's development, the Enterprise's resident teen genius was going to be Leslie Crusher -- a girl. Anika and Liz wonder what it would have been like to have a girl STEM genius on television in 1987. Would she have been well-written? Would audiences have hated her as much as Wesley? Would she have inspired girls of our generation to become engineers?  We also talk about similar...

We're joined by friend of the podcast Jules to discuss religion in Star Trek, and to interrogate the alleged secularism of the franchise. You might know Jules as "the woman in the Captain Killy cosplay who asked Alex Kurtzman about the implications of erasing the Discovery crew from the record" at San Diego Comic Con -- and we talk about that, too. But by the end of this episode, you'll also know...

We're talking about Enterprise -- specifically the first two seasons: Our first encounters with the series, and why it wasn't a great introduction to Trek for Anika's eldest daughter Liz unearthed her reviews on the Wayback Machine and was appalled by her attitude towards Jolene Blalock In this house, we love and support T'Pol Archer is the worst captain (but Anika loves him) Trek for the George W...

San Diego Comic Con 2019 was massive for Trekkies, and we're joined by guest Sam (she first appeared way back in ep 3!) to talk about everything. Including: Star Trek: Picard - the trailer, the cameos, the new characters, everything.  (There WILL be spoilers.) Star Trek: Lower Decks - we are ... cautiously optimistic! Star Trek: Discovery - well, we're still mad about the finale, but we're also ex...

As requested by our Twitter followers, we're talking "Journey to Babel". Along the way: We provide a recap for viewers who haven't watched "Journey" lately/ever Liz attempts to say "pacificism" Live headcanon construction Considering "Journey to Babel" in the context of Discovery Does Amanda buy into the Vulcan patriarchy? Tellarites and Andorians and Vulcans, oh my! Costume chat: Amanda wears the...

We're talking about the Star Trek tie-ins of our formative years -- the ones we read until they fell apart. And it doesn't quite turn into a Diane Duane book club, but...  Well. Novels we discuss in detail:  The Romulan Way by Diane Duane How Much For Just The Planet? by John M. Ford Survivors by Jean Lorrah The Pandora Principle by Carolyn Clowes The Devil's Heart by Carmen Carter Dark Mirror by...

Problematic faves! Anika and a sliiiiiiiiiiightly hungover (yet award-winning) Liz discuss the characters we love, but can't entirely recommend without a caveat. Or many caveats.  But first -- we have to define terms. How do you narrow it down when literally every single work of fiction, along with every single human who ever existed, is imperfect? Discussed:  Yeoman Tonia Barrows of "Shore Leave"...

It's our twentieth episode, and we're celebrating by getting totally self-indulgent. We talk about our childhood and adolescent experiences with Star Trek: discovering the series; discovering fandom; that time Anika was an awkward teenager at Alexander Siddig; Liz's mum's review of her early fan fiction... We also talk about Anika introducing her daughters to Trek, and our hopes for Star Trek: Pic...

We're joined by special guest Caroline (aka rikerssexblouse) to discuss mothers in Star Trek.  Anika ran the stats, and we talked about specific characters, including... Beverly Crusher (TNG) Lwaxana Troi (TNG, DS9) Keiko O'Brien (TNG, DS9) Ishka (DS9) Samantha Wildman (VOY) Winona Kirk (ST2009) Tom Paris's mother (who didn't even get a name!) (VOY) Miral Torres (VOY) Amanda Grayson (TOS, ST2009,...

We're talking about Starfleet's admiralty! Just how many Starfleet admirals are evil? Liz ran the numbers! Why are so many admirals antagonistic, if not outright villains? And what are the qualities which make a good admiral? Apparently we have more sympathy for Admiral Norah Satie than most people We're still pretty mad that Kat died Anika proposes a game: which Star Trek characters should or def...

Join us as we discuss the season finale of Star Trek: Discovery season 2, and ... well, we were not hugely positive about it.  Along the way, we talk about: space battles! ensemble moments we loved! we have ... concerns ... about the Ba'ul's wellbeing! Klingons! poorly executed character deaths! why doesn't Discovery trust its audience?! we hate the epilogue so much! why is season 2 such a mess?!?...

It's the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Discovery's second season, and we're talking about... how Michael is still Alice (in Wonderland) should we maybe not overthink the time crystals? a brief fantasy about Admiral Cornwell mentoring Kirk Enterprise bridge squee shipping the ships (and various people) eyeliner (seriously, we have a lot of thoughts about the eyeliner in this episode) a digressi...

We're talking season 2, episode 12 of Star Trek: Discovery, "Through the Valley of Shadows". And... Pike's character ("He is Starfleet") Can the ableism of "The Menagerie" be fixed? Signs point to no!  Ken Mitchell: he will play all the Klingons (Proposal: Mary Chieffo as the new Suzie Plakson) The L'Rell-Voq | Ash-Michael family unit and love triangle A very obvious plant Adventures in self-destr...