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The Star Trek podcast where we talk fashion, feminism, subtext and subspace.
Episodes
Tuesday May 12, 2020
Tuesday May 12, 2020
Anika and Liz discuss the classic TOS tie-in novel My Enemy, My Ally by Diane Duane, particularly:
- Duane's take on Roman culture, and its ties to canon, especially in the wake of Star Trek: Picard
- Romulan language -- and how the heck do you pronounce "Mnhei’sahe"?
- Ael: a character we adore beyond reason
- Liz's elaborate headcanon about Romulan culture and politics in the 24th century
- Anika's eternal grief at not getting to learn Romulan, when Klingon is on Duolingo
- Fancasting Ael
- Liz pitches a loose adaptation for season 2 of Picard
- The sequels
Is Ael a Mary Sue? Do we care? Is it racist to compare your officer to pizza? These are just some of the important issues we cover!
Links:
Tuesday Apr 28, 2020
Tuesday Apr 28, 2020
Anika and Liz discuss the DS9 episode "Things Past", in which Sisko, Dax, Odo and Garak find themselves at the centre of an ugly incident during the Occupation. While Garak demands to see the manager, Odo has some guilt to work through. It turns out the Occupation was ... bad.
Along the way, we discuss:
- Odo's place in the hierarchy of the Occupation (and his claim to not have a place at all)
- how are Odo and Quark even allowed to be part of Bajoran society now?
- #decoloniseBajor
- somehow Dax's storyline is both peripheral AND the most compelling part of the episode
- DS9 versus Babylon 5; Liz's extremely secret Trekkie shame
- (it's not much a of a secret, she likes B5 better)
- we pitch a prequel comic about the Occupation
TL;DR we say, "It was really frustrating!" about 35 times.
Content note: given the presence of Gul Dukat in this episode, and his behaviour towards Bajoran women in general, there's a lot of discussion of abuse, grooming, Harvey Weinstein and other unpleasant matters throughout the whole episode, but particularly around the 39 minute mark.
Tuesday Apr 14, 2020
Tuesday Apr 14, 2020
Anika and Liz are joined by Jules (of @juleshastweets and Bad Pajamas) to talk about our favourite villains! Complete with sidebars about Star Wars and Avatar: The Last Airbender, and a a brief reinvention as an Expanse podcast.
Topics of discussion include:
- villains versus antagonists
- redemption arcs
- the mirror universe
- is Emperor Georgiou the Garak of Discovery?
- maybe Quark isn't a villain, but he should definitely be in jail
- speaking of incarceration -- Garak gets six months for attempted genocide, while Kasidy Yates gets the same sentence for smuggling medical supplies to the Maquis? Really?
- concept: the Prophets are not good people
- #seskadeservedbetter
- the magnificence of General Chang
Finally, going technically off-topic but when did we ever let that stop us, Julia talks about Picard's golem and Jewish myth.
Tuesday Mar 31, 2020
Tuesday Mar 31, 2020
Season 1 of Star Trek: Picard has come to an end! What a strange, messy show it's been.
Special guest Sam (@retconning) joins us for the first thirty minutes to discuss Seven of Nine, queer representation throughout Trek's history, the heteronormativity of this particular series, and THE HANDHOLDING SCENE (the caps are necessary) in the final thirty seconds of the episode.
Then Liz and Anika talk about...
- golems, squicks and spoilers
- did they ... forget ... Narek?
- it's okay, they also forgot that Soji is the female lead
- was the ending too pat? Or do we simply love space politics too much?
- the TNG characters as desserts
- Liz shares her philosophy of parenting with Anika, an Actual Parent
- but seriously, Maddox and Soong are/were THE WORST
- Agnes has come SO FAR and we LOVE HER
In conclusion, Worf is definitely a caramel drizzle and we will not be taking questions at this moment.
Tuesday Mar 24, 2020
Tuesday Mar 24, 2020
This week on Star Trek: The Next Generation, the crew beam down to an idyllic paradise whose scantily clad residents harbour a terrible secret.
No, wait! It's Star Trek: Picard, and any resemblance to season one of TNG is entirely ... unfortunate. This week on Antimatter Pod...
- Anika has a shocking confession
- apparently we are meant to consider Bruce Maddox a great loss to humanity? Really?
- how Picard and Batman are quite different
- why is Sutra ... like that?
- we have so many questions about the depiction of women's sexuality in this show, and none of them reflect well on the writers
- this week, in Anika Ships It: Sutra/Narissa!
Soji can have a little genocide, as a treat.
Tuesday Mar 17, 2020
Tuesday Mar 17, 2020
Join Liz and Anika as we pick up some "Broken Pieces" -- starting with our own audio: due to technical shenanigans, a really excellent rant was lost. But here's what survived:
- so many secrets have been revealed!
- did the Borg/Seven subplot need more time?
- does the writing hold up?
- if you have to take to Instagram to explain plotholes, then no, it does not
- we make predictions for the end
Somehow the rant about The Rise of Skywalker did survive, along with spoilers for Game of Thrones (Ned Stark dies!).
Don't forget to rate, review and sign our petition for Picard to never use the word "lover" ever again.
Tuesday Mar 10, 2020
Tuesday Mar 10, 2020
Take a long, leisurely trip to Nepenthe with Anika and Liz as we discuss:
- The Riker-Troi family, Kestra the perfect-but-not-in-a-Mary-Sue-way kid character, synths and stem cells and pizza
- Our very, very strong reservations about Hugh's fate, and Anika has found The Worst Take
- The fruitless search for depth in Narissa
- Cris Rios (he is not a clever man)
- Narek (and his collection of fidget spinners)
Anika also outlines the TOS novel The Lost Years by JM Dillard, and how it might tie in to the story here; and Liz is close to figuring out how to blame Sarek for everything, including the fact that she refers to both Elnor and Rios as Narek.
- Times Anika cries: 1
- Times Liz says, "I'm eager to see what happens next": at least 5
Tuesday Mar 03, 2020
Tuesday Mar 03, 2020
Just when we had gotten used to the idea that Star Trek: Picard was a bit rubbish, it went and threw a good episode at us! Anika and Liz are talking:
- redemption and atonement arcs
- Anika has a LOT of feelings about Narek, okay?
- girl-as-mystery-box storytelling (with a semi-relevant interlude of Steven Moffat fangirling)
- Voyager references
- Rihannsu lore is creeping into canon and we are DELIGHTED
- Elnor's unexpected emotional insight
- Hugh and Seven: parallels and contrasts
We also consider Rios's internal decorating, the nature of citizenship in the Federation, and the rights of Romulan refugees. These issues are equally important, shut up.
Tuesday Feb 25, 2020
Tuesday Feb 25, 2020
Put a feather in your hat and put on the silliest French accent you can manage, we're talking about "Stardust City Rag"!
And maybe it's time to admit that Star Trek: Picard is not a good show ... and that's okay?
Also discussed:
- That shocking death in the teaser
- Kirsten Beyer as a writer
- Seven and Bjayzel
- Raffi is doing her best, okay? We love her.
- Star Trek: Picard features the consequences that TNG and Voyager lacked (and that's why we see fewer echoes of DS9)
- The aesthetics of Freecloud
- Picard, like, definitely doesn't really understand money, right?
- Everyone Loves Elnor: the hit sitcom coming to CBS All Access as soon as they start accepting our phone calls!
Tuesday Feb 18, 2020
Tuesday Feb 18, 2020
Episode 4 of Star Trek: Picard raised a lot of questions! Like, does the show want us to dislike Picard? And, when will Elnor get his cat?
Discussed this week:
- a Twitter troll accused Liz of having a "heavily misandrist" Star Trek podcast, and yes, we are very proud, thank you
- Una McCormack's The Last Best Hope, a prequel to Star Trek: Picard (including spoilery chat about one particular subplot; if you don't want to know, skip ahead from where Liz warns of spoilers to approximately 07:21)
- the regrettable racism in this series
- and sexism
- and heteronormativity
- Elnor is a perfect angel who deserves many cats
- we all deserve cats
And more!