Antimatter Pod

182. A Situationship (Prodigy 2.11 and 2.12)

• We promised we'd be normal about Hot Chakotay, but we lied
• An incomplete list of people with whom Anika compares Hot Chakotay: 
  • Wolverine
  • Deanna Troi in "A Fistful of Datas"
  • Russell Crowe
  • Aragon
• Dal finally finds his mentor
• Chakotay: not a girl dad
• Ma'jel is too gay for this. She is here for the girls and the non-binary babes and wants no part of whatever Hot Chakotay has going on
• Gwyn and Dal and sharing leadership
• Chakotay and Hologram Janeway's codependent relationship
• Is it possible the TNG crew didn't try very hard to reach Beverly?
• It took 30 years, but we finally found someone we don't ship with Kathryn Janeway
• Content warning: the Antimatter Pod Shipping News is more than usually not appropriate for kids this week. Yes, when we're talking about the kids show. We're the problem with fandom. 

181. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOMS!!!!!!!!! (Prodigy 2.09 and 2.10)

Anika and Liz arrive at an ancient and timeless ziggurat, congratulate themselves on knowing how to spell "ziggurat", and settle down in a nice mid-century modern apartment to talk about episodes 9 and 10 of Star Trek: Prodigy's second season, "The Devourer Of All Things". Including...

• Wesley Crusher, Star Trek: Picard, "Assignment: Earth" and more
• Liz drops some obscure Doctor Who lore
• Why do so many time travel organisations have a mid-century modern aesthetic? 
• Adulthood is about making the hard choices, but youth is about rejecting the no-win scenario
• Anika wants to know how Janeway knows Wesley; Liz has a plethora of theories
• Don't worry, Anika can explain how Dal is like Anakin Skywalker

180. A Flower Crown Cult (Prodigy 2.08)

Anika and Liz don their finest flower crowns and make an appearance at a feast. What's that? You want us to go for a nice run? No thank you, we will stay comfortably seated, talking about the Star Trek: Prodigy episode "Is There In Beauty No Truth"...

• Star Trek bringing the anti-running agenda for 2024
• Maybe these non-corporeal adrenaline junkies should look into rollercoasters
• It's a really nice bit of worldbuilding that telepaths are bad at consent and boundaries, but accidentally gives rise to a subtext which feels transphobic
• Which is not to say that this is not a wonderful episode or a great allegory about both the trans experience and disability! 
• But it's complicated! We talk about it at length!
• ALSO this Feast of Senses would have been so much creepier if Gene Roddenberry or Rick Berman were around
• Jankom Pog dances like a Bluey character
• Dal and Gwyn and relationships that exist in small moments

Antimatter Pod Flashback - Past Tense

According to DS9 episode "Past Tense", the Bell Riots took place from 1 to 3 September 2024. Fandom is marking the occasion with, um, homelessness cosplay; we decided to repost our discussion of that two-parter from 2021.

Instead of dressing up as homeless people and doing riot LARP, this is a good time to support your local homelessness organisations and vote against politicians whose policies dehumanise and further marginalise the vulnerable.

Read the rest of this entry »

179. This Race Could Have Been An Email (Prodigy 2.06 and 2.07)

Anika and Liz hit a speedbump with their recording schedule (stupid jobs) and then hit a speedbump with Prodigy in the form of ... two episodes that we did not entirely love? Is that even possible? We're here to talk about episodes 6 and 7 of Star Trek: Prodigy's second season: "Identity Crisis" and "The Fast and the Curious"...

• Both of these episodes are mainly about putting the pieces in place and setting up threads for later
• What type of characters are allowed to be audacious and ambitious? 
• Does Prodigy have a problem with body diversity and same-face? 
• Zero/Ma'jel and the power of being chosen by someone instead of being thrown together by circumstances
• Anika has a new favourite Andorian
• Dr Noum: great at work-life balance, maybe not so great at … his job
• "I'm going to say something controversial and brave."
• We're not NOT shipping Gwyn/Ma'jel

178. Childless Dog Ladies (Prodigy 2.05)

When it doubt, Anika and Liz seek advice from a whale. Yes, we're talking about the Star Trek: Prodigy episode "Observer's Paradox"!

• Kathryn Janeway pours a shot of espresso into a larger cup of coffee and then gives it to a teenager; she should not be allowed to care for children
• Murf definitely knows everything about the USS Discovery
• After thirty years, Chakotay is finally linked to a real Indigenous nation: the Nicarao people of Central America
• If we're not meant to be shipping Janeway/Chakotay, then why does this episode exist?
• The Antimatter Pod Shipping News: Anika has a terrible new OTP
• We have questions about the Doctor's holonovels, but ALSO romance novels are an important force for marginalised groups getting their work in front of audiences
• When the adult in the room is a whale

177. Nebula Zoom Call (Prodigy 2.04)

After some minor timeline mishaps, Anika and Liz finally stop to read Temporal Mechanics 101! Yes, we're discussing the fourth episode of Star Trek: Prodigy's second season, including...

• Intertextuality within the Star Trek canon
• Ma'jel upsets the group dynamic in a fun way -- every time a Star Trek starts getting stale, they should add a young Vulcan woman to the cast
• The binge model has robbed us of the joy of speculating wildly about who the mysterious benefactor is
• Ilthuran is not a regular dad, he's a cool dad! AND WE HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT HIM
• The Doctor is so well-used in Prodigy that we're more positive about his joining Starfleet Academy than we would have been a month ago!
• The Antimatter Pod Shipping News
• An interlude where we stop to dunk on Sarek for a while #OurBrand

176. Jankom Pog Politely Disagrees (Prodigy 2.03)

Anika and Liz attempt to change the timeline so Paramount never dropped Prodigy and we got to enjoy each episode week by week … but alas, we did not pay attention in Temporal Mechanics 101. 

We're discussing Star Trek: Prodigy's "Who Saves the Saviors", including…

• Rok-Tahk knows when to keep her mouth shut and when to tattle, and also has done nothing wrong (ever, in her entire life)
• Dal has never watched Star Trek and isn't about to start now
• We have conflicting feelings about birds, and Liz drops some Doctor Who lore
• Tysses and Noum are the Married Mean Gays that Star Trek has needed for eternity. Yes, we just made that up. But it's canon in our hearts. And we would subscribe to their podcast.
• This isn't even the first time Chakotay has abandoned a bunch of kids in the Delta Quadrant!
• Why is everyone so determined to put Janeway and Chakotay in parental roles when it's clear they would both be very bad at it?
• Jankom represents some of Star Trek's best disability rep ever
• Janeway is deeply flawed, and that's good writing

175. Gwyndala's Dad Has Got It Goin' On (Prodigy 2.01 and 2.02)

Anika and Liz sign up for an internship, accidentally steal a ship, and … well, we're discussing the second season premiere of Star Trek: Prodigy! 

(Please note we have seen the whole season, and although we make some very virtuous remarks about sticking to the episodes at hand, we cannot be trusted to respect the Temporal Prime Directive.)

• The binge model and Star Trek
• Dal versus the education system
• Sexualising the Diviner
• Zero's story is both a trans narrative and a disability narrative 
• The romances in this series are super low key and free of inherent drama … but would there be a bigger fandom if the show provided more fodder for ship wars? Is that better? Or worse? 
• Jankom and therapy and Dr Noum
• Rok-Tahk, rules and Liz's Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead trauma

174. The Puzzle is the People (Discovery 5.10)

Anika and Liz get all dressed up to attend a wedding. They just have to figure out the meaning of life first. Easy, right?

It's a very special episode as we discuss the series finale of Star Trek: Discovery, "Life, Itself"!

• We thought we were ready for Discovery to end, but we were wrong
• Liz suffered a finale-related injury and Anika has wine
• The Sega Star Trek: The Next Generation game (and also Jenny Nicholson's four-hour video essay about Disney's Galactic Starcruiser experience)
• It feels like they were setting up Primarch Tahal as the big villain for season 6
• We have even more feelings about Rayner than we do about the Galactic Starcruiser video
• Moll's ending is not what we expected, but we like it
• Discovery streaming movies when?
• The epilogue! The Star Trek: Legacy we deserve!