Antimatter Pod

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 motherhood stories to parenthood stories
• The Moffat era of Discovery

We're taking a break for a month or so, but if there's a topic you want to hear us discuss, let us know! We're on Twitter at @antimatterpod, and you can also reach us at antimatterpod.tumblr.com.

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 replicators work
• Who is the Federation President? Our candidates include Voyager's EMH, and also Grudge

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 we need to report Book to the Space RSPCA?
• Osyraa’s costume tells a story 

It's the episode where we absolutely refuse to get into the question of whether the food you eat on the holodeck is real!

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 is weird since they don’t actually appear in this episode
• VICAR
• Sorry, we really did have to discuss Lorca’s priest fetish and make fun of his screen name
• The return and demise (again) of Ellen Landry
• Vance is oddly inconsistent
• Do we need to see Vance in his jim-jams? For ... character development reasons? 

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 Kristy Thomas
 • “And that’s why capitalism is going to destroy us all.”
 • The usual Mandalorian digression

Link Selenak’s review

It's the Star Warsiest episode of Star Trek ever, and we are here for it!

We're also talking about:

• Admiral Vance: does he have a drinking problem yet?
• Michael doesn't really understand the concept of letting others make choices, and it's probably Sarek's fault
• Misfits, outsiders, and why is piloting "macho" anyway?
• Saru is not a good captain (which is fine), but fandom won't admit it (which is bad)
• What the heck is going on with Georgiou? Are we building up to her departure?

It's the episode where Book levels up in Disney Prince!

Liz and Anika talk "Unification III", an episode practically made for us. Discussed along the way:

• the academic rigour of the Vulcan thesis defence
• the latest episode of The Mandalorian
• false binaries
• Tilly's career path
• Michael's quartet of complicated mothers

It's the episode where we ask -- just how much of a creep is Grudge? And really? Baby Yoda has a name now?

They had us at "unsanctioned mission".

• the Luke-Vader heist of Anika's dreams
• the teams are fracturing and it's AWFUL but also a bit great
• does Michael actually want to be in Starfleet? Did she ever choose to be in Starfleet?
• Michael Burnham and the Series-Long Badge Motif
• Michael/Book: how do we love it? We cannot even begin to count the ways!
• a Culmets duck family
• is Grudge a real cat: y/n?

We also go off on a wholly irrelevant tangent about the ENT episode "Carpenter Street".

Liz and Anika are shocked -- SHOCKED! -- to learn that Starfleet Command is maybe a bit shady.

Also covered:

• we care as much about 32nd century starship design as we do about the bridge crew
• how season 3 is structured like a video game
• Nhan's departure
• Georgiou's arc
• Discovery is not an ensemble show and should stop trying to be
• they really did manage two separate scenes where men tell Michael to watch her tone
• Saru's historiography is ... bad
• music: the score and the clue

Remember, statistically there is a high probability that Admiral Vance is evil!

Liz and Anika return to the Trill homeworld, and also attend an awkward dinner party. It's time to talk about Discovery 3.04, "Forget Me Not"!

We discuss:

• how very 2020 this season feels ... but in a good way?
• the Adira/Gray romance, representation, ghost stories, YA fiction and Truly, Madly, Deeply
• Saru's character growth
• Liz wants you all to know she hated "Calypso"
• it took three seasons, but Culber is finally the fully fledged character Anika always knew he could be
• Buster Keaton, and when the A and the B stories are the same

It's the episode where we reluctantly accept Linus's gift of popcorn!

(See antimatterpod.tumblr.com for more detailed show notes.)