Antimatter Pod

Anika and Liz beam over to a long-abandoned and extremely haunted space ship. And instead of talking about what we experienced over there in the shadows, we're going to discuss episode 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' fourth season, "The Griffin Institute". 

• This episode is a huge step up from the premiere! And also still super-duper into the eugenics of it all! The away team's biggest fear is … their genes!
• This whole subplot with La'an is really leaning into racist stereotypes about Chinese women
• "I am continuously horrified by how this series portrays Spock's internal conflicts." 
• The episode wants us to think that Carol Marcus is the bad guy in the relationship, not James T "actually I'm gonna go to this conference instead of seeing my infant son" Kirk
• We are obsessed with the conference. What could possibly be relevant to Spock, La'an and Jim? Was there only one bed? 
• We are a Pro T'Pring Podcast
• Does SNW actually want us to be engaged with Spock/La'an? 
• Liz has a pitch for a Division 12 comic (spoilers: it involves Lorca)

The Enterprise goes back in time and doesn't prevent a genocide, but Anika and Liz would like to go back in time to prevent this episode from ever being made. Oh, did the fourth season premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds displease us? It sure did! 

"Don't overthink it!"

• This episode provides more evidence for our argument that Pike is bad at his job
• Words we use to describe this episode: "nonsense", "dreadful", "terrible", "morally broken", "anti Star Trek", "almost clever"
• Why does SNW want us to hate La'an? 
• Leaning into the biological determinism with this Kha'an arc
• The Martians and Spock are totally incurious about each other, because this is The Least Curious Star Trek
• "Let's not worry too much about that genocide we facilitated" is … not a great twist in 2026. Or ever.

Anika does 133 jumps while Liz infiltrates a Klingon ship. What could go wrong? Well, this episode is late, so...

Yes, we are discussing season 1, episode 9 of Star Trek: Discovery, "Into the Forest I Go". A nice walk in the woods! Everyone comes home! 

• Do all Starfleet captains disobey orders? Actually yes! Despite the stereotypes, the biggest exception is Kirk in TOS … and Liz has a theory about why that changed 
• "This conversation reminds me of a Tumblr post that mildly irritated me two weeks ago…"
• "You can't say anything against my baby Ash, okay? He's my baby girl." 
• We have some digressions and thoughts on the state of fandom and franchise media in the year 2026
• Anika's Wonderland Corner: Cornwell, Ash and L'Rell as Knight, Death and the Devil

Anika and Liz go for a nice walk in the forest and discuss Star Trek: Discovery's "Si Vic Pacem, Para Bellum", and ask ourselves: which Discovery characters are most likely to massacre a bunch of Tusken Raiders?

You may have noticed some audio issues lately, and this recording was particularly challenging, so Liz resorted to Descript's "studio sound" filter. This made everything more or less audible, but also weirdly muffled, like we were recording from inside a pillowfort. Alas! 

• Is it possible to tell a new Star Trek story? 
• If Dave Filoni wrote a Star Trek, it would be this episode
• Did Admiral Cornwell hold Starfleet Command's only brain cell? 
• We are going to say something nice about the pacing on Star Trek: Discovery
• Liz knows very little about chess and it shows

Anika and Liz don their finest 2017/2257 outfits and go to a party. 

Then they do it all over again.

Then they do it all over again. 

Yes, we are caught a time loop and discussing Star Trek: Discovery's "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad"! 

• "This, to me, is like if Strange New Worlds was good."
• Is this Anika's least favourite episode of Discovery?
• Ash is happier and more successful as a human being than he was as a Klingon
• Making Harry Mudd spend time with his wife is not a good or suitable punishment for his crimes? It is highkey misogynistic? Do better, show! 
• Liz is here to pitch Star Trek: Stella, where Meg Stalter plays Stella Mudd as she roams the galaxy being a sociopathic nepo baby with an amazing wardrobe, who disintegrates people

Anika and Liz take off for a cheeky little diplomatic meeting with some Klingons. What could go wrong? 

We are discussing Star Trek: Discovery's "Lethe", an episode which inspired our friendship, a whole lot of fic and a conversation about whether it is a flawless piece of Star Trek, or if it has merely a single flaw. 

We are not here to be cool or reasonable about Admiral Kat

• Normal Human Guy Ash Tyler and Normal Federation Captain Lorca
• At any time, it is reasonable to assume that Sarek is disappointed in at least one of his children
• Ash Tyler could never appear in SNW because his whole existence is a rebuke to that series' biological determinism
• Anika's Wonderland Corner: the Vulcans at Michael's graduation are dressed as chess pieces (Michael, like L'Rell, is a white pawn)
• We have. A lot. Of feelings. About Katrina Cornwell

Anika and Liz are thrown into a Klingon prison, where they are absolutely choosing Lorca's pain. But no one is having a worse day than that poor innocent tardigrade! 

We're discussing episode five of Star Trek: Discovery's first season, including: 

• This is the worst Saru episode of the entire series. It's rough, man
• Overthinking the "five best captains" list
• For an awful moment, we start to ask dangerous questions like "how many starships does Starfleet have?"
• This episode is a card trick: your attention is on Harry Mudd, but really it's introducing Ash Tyler
• Liz has normal and rational feelings about the historical Buran
• We play a fun game called "which other captains would leave Mudd in the Klingon prison" (Archer)
• Introducing Ash means we have to talk about Ash, L'Rell and the misguided sexual assault subplot
• Antimatter Pod: We aren't really into m/m ships
  Also Antimatter Pod: We will die for Lorca/Tyler
• Our hot take: Saru did NOT deserve that telescope, this is NOT a sweet scene to be immortalised as a Hallmark ornament, this is REWARDING his BAD BEHAVIOUR

Anika and Liz are petsitting a tardigrade while we discuss the fourth episode of Star Trek: Discovery's first season, "The Butcher's Knife Care's Not For The Lamb's Cry". This episode introduces Admiral Cornwell, and we are gonna be so cool about that. You wouldn't believe how cool and chill we are. 

• This is decidedly not one of Discovery's stronger scripts
• "Lorca is so clearly flagged as evil," we said back in 2017, "that there absolutely has to be more to it than that." Anyway…
• Michael's skills and flaws are all on full display here
• "I also do not respect Saru." 
• Okay, but why is Saru the first officer? He frankly does not seem up to the job. Is Lorca keeping him around as a snack? 
• "Let's talk about Elon Musk."
• Discovery Stop Killing Off Women Of Colour Challenge
• Michael and L'Rell: parallels (parall'rells)

Anika and Liz continue their tour of Discovery's first season with "Context Is For Kings", an episode which introduces a whole lot of new regulars and dares to ask: is it possible to like Saru less? It's time to go down the rabbit hole as we discuss:  

• You are not gonna believe this, but Michael Burnham is the protagonist of Star Trek: Discovery. I know. Huge if true. 
• But Gabriel Lorca thinks he's the main character of multiple universes.
• Ellen Landry: one of the all-time worst people to wear a Starfleet uniform, and we are fascinated by her.
• Lorca absolutely practised his introduction to Michael in the mirror, possibly while flexing, because he's a monster, but he's also a giant dork

Remember 2017? Taylor Swift released Reputation. Kendall Jenner fixed racism with a Pepsi ad. And Star Trek returned to the small screen with the launch of Discovery. 

Anika and Liz go back in time to revisit the series which led us to become friends and launch a podcast ... and we are excited! We're starting with "The Vulcan Hello" and "The Battle at the Binary Stars", in which Michael Burnham has a very bad day. 

• "I am one of the first 500 people to sign up for CBS All Access. Which is a dubious claim."
• These episodes are not bad, but they are a terrible introduction to the series, both in terms of its ongoing tone and themes, and in terms of making people want to see more
• "Can I just say? T'Kuvma could get it."
• We are not opposed to subtitles, but the specific "Klingon" font used by CBS All Access was straight up hard to read
• Does the premiere ask too much of the audience? Both in terms of asking them to empathise with complex characters they've just met, and also in having basic media literacy?
• (Michael Burnham Did Not Start The War.)
• Saru's relentless negativity makes him a difficult character to like
• Returning to our roots as The Sarek Podcast
• The Klingons are MAGA, but they're also very Brexit-era Britain
• We are once again criticising the Federation's carceral state