152. Hijinks Bonding (LD 4.01 and 4.02)

While Liz navigates a series of Voyager-themed obstacles, Anika encounters an adorable creature who eats bones. Yes, it's time for the season 4 premiere of Star Trek: Lower Decks, and we're here to talk about...

• "We're not gonna do Tuvix Discourse." We absolutely did Tuvix Discourse
• Voyager as a museum, curation styles and fandom: Liz has a THESIS
• Maybe the real Starfleet is the friends we made along the way
• Friendship ended with Beckett/Jennifer, Tendi/T'Lyn is our best friend now
• We're going to do our very best to pretend to be shocked when it turns out that Beckett and Ransom have been a thing all season
• We have NO IDEA who the mysterious new villain is, but we're cautiously prepared to rule out Boba Fett
• Liz has a recurring nightmare about bananas having bones, and, well. Ep 2 was very difficult for her.
• We already know there won't be Moopsy merch, but what if Paramount releases Moopsy merch? 
• Lower Decks is completely sincere (about Star Trek, about its characters) and that's why it works

Editor's note! Due to audio bleed, it was impossible to edit out all the overlaps and interruptions this week. Yikes, eh? Apologies for all the throat-clearing and overtalk and the whole thing where Anika is substantially louder than Liz…