Antimatter Pod

91. Bad Paramount, No Biscuit (Prodigy 1.05 and Disco 4.01)

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 these episodes!
• Is Murf a person or a pet? (And if they're a pet, that is TOTALLY valid but we think Rok-Tahk might also like a puppy.)
• Does Michael Burnham need to be put in the James Kirk box?
• "And that's why we have to destroy capitalism."
• Book is Princess Leia (yes, this does make Michael Han Solo)
• We discuss our least favourite characters on Discovery; their identities may shock and enrage you.
• We don't love that someone is questioning Michael's capacity yet again, but that aside, we LOVE President Rillak and offer her the highest possible Antimatter Pod compliment: she reminds us of both Seska and Kai Winn.
• We have hair, make-up and costume notes.
• Saru is in this episode.

As a protostar is born, a planet is asploded. Or something.

90. Janeways All The Way Down (Prodigy 1.04)

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) and we have a lot of feelings!
• We should be more like Rok-Tahk
• The Alice in Wonderland of it all
• Connections between Star Treks
• Anika has an extremely controversial Garak opinion and will be recording future episodes from Nerd Protective Custody

89. Clippy Nostalgia (Prodigy 1.03)

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 racial undertones
• Likewise, Gwyn has done terrible things and has bad opinions, but she is also at the beginning of her journey to learn better
• The Federation is a classless utopia, yadda yadda yadda, but let's talk about how the Tellarites are sort of working class and marginalised
• Why is Paramount so bad at merchandising Star Trek?
• They're also missing a great opportunity to introduce kids to science!
• ALSO there should be two prequel junior novels, by known middle grade authors, on shelves by Christmas, how is Paramount so bad at this?
• Dal doesn't trust authority, but Star Trek fandom kind of loves authority too much
• 42:29: discussion of real life rape and murder, and the use of the carceral state as a tool to abuse Black children
• In conclusion: imprisonment is bad and redemption stories are good, and also is anyone else excited for the prospect of Team Protostar meeting Seska's kid or the Lizard Babies or any of the other many children Voyager abandoned in the delta quadrant?

 

88. Murf Slime Possibilities (Prodigy 1.01)

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!)
• We love and adore Gwyn, a character who was practically made for us
• The darkness of children's stories
• How did all these alpha quadrant species end up in a prison mine in the delta quadrant? We smell shenanigans!
• Angus Imrie's Emma Thompson impression
• Anika's theory as to how Drednok is a Jason Isaacs character

It's the episode where we are definitely shipping Dal/Gwyn!

87. Boimler‘s Everything

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 Star Trek without making them watch hundreds of hours of TV and movies, and we are HERE for it.
• We wound up LOVING the rest of Lower Decks season 2
• ...except the Pakleds
• We love Boimler now? Like, a lot? 
• Liz's confession: "I'm a Doopler."
• We loved "I, Excretus" so much that Anika can't talk about it without laughing!
• We want Captain Freeman to command the Enterprise
• Anika fangirls Dawnn Lewis

It's the episode where Liz has so many last-minute thoughts that this is basically the end of Return of the King, in Star Trek podcast form

86. Big Yikes (And Big Yucks)

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 except Liz (okay, and Anika)
• We had to cut a long discussion about how great Tuvok is because THIS IS NOT AN EPISODE ABOUT THE MEN IN KES'S LIFE
• Any situation which can be compared with the end of Breaking Dawn is probably bad
• Fury hits REALLY differently now we know more about Lien's departure
• COSTUMING, including our '90s aesthetics and a terrible quote from costumer Robert Blackman

Episodes to watch: 

• Elogium (an episode about Neelix deciding if he's ready for Kes to have a baby)
• Cold Fire (an episode about a guy recruiting Kes for his cult)
• Warlord (a man possesses Kes's body)
• Darkling (the Doctor is very concerned about Kes falling in love)
• Before and After (it's actually about Kes! Just don't think too much about Ocampa and human co-existence…)
• The Gift (an episode about Seven of Nine where Kes decides it's time to leave Voyager)
• Fury (but don't feel like you actually have to watch it to listen to this episode, Liz certainly didn't bother)

85. ”Mary Sue (respectful)”

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 event
• The Strange New Worlds characters
• Christine Chapel's backstory: any situation that involves the phrase "multiple sexy robots" is going to be regrettable
• Anika has a lot of feelings about the trend of taking male villains and reinventing them as women
• Despite all the evidence that this is a bad idea, ie, season 1 of Star Trek: Picard, we are very excited for season 2 of Star Trek: Picard
• We were wholly unmoved by the "Legacy" section of the event
• People we love: Mary Chieffo, Jolene Blalock
• We are here to defend the red carpet hosts!

It's the episode where we agree that, for all our mixed feelings about his father, Rod Roddenberry seems like a good egg.

84. The Boimler Who Became The Other Boimler

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 into the Pakleds!
• This remains a Beckett Mariner stan podcast
• Liz is still lukewarm on Boimler, but Anika finds him charming and appreciates the meta genius of making him a Tom Paris fan
• Where are the NGOs in the Star Trek universe?
• We talk about Kai Winn for a while because we love her

It's the episode where we had to cut out a twenty-minute chat about police procedurals because not even we could pretend it was on topic!

83. Saved by the Tech Millionaire

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 history
• The neoliberalism of DS9
• Anika's big Reagan rant finally makes it through editing into an episode!
• Empathy versus apathy
• This is a really bad episode for Liz to have a total mental blank around the word "complicit" (don't worry, the long pauses are edited out)
• The outstanding costume and set design

It's the episode where we go, "Has this just aged, like, really badly?"

82. Are You There, Surak? It's Me, Spock

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 it to the 30 minute mark before declaring Sarek THE WORST
• Where's Michael in the Yesteryear timeline? 
• Okay, now imagine if Sarek adopted Loki…
• So Spock loses a pet, and he can choose to forego emotion for the rest of his life, but the rest of us just have to deal with our feelings? Unfair!

It's the episode where we wish the tiny Vulcan children would put some clothes on!