Antimatter Pod

173. Progenitor-Aged Whiskey (Discovery 5.09)

Anika and Liz put buckets on their head and infiltrate a Breen ship, pausing along the way to have a serious personal conversation. We're discussing the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Discovery (WE ARE NOT READY), "Lagrange Point"! Including...

• What sort of ending do we want for Moll? 
• We already have a crush on Primarch Tahal
• Michael and Book parallel Michael and Ash in "Into the Forest I Go" - is infiltrating an enemy ship a date? 
• We are briefly interrupted by an appearance from Anika's cat's butt
• Paul and Hugh have been sidestepping drama all season and it's great? 
• Saru: relationship role model
• We're not NOT shipping Rayner/Tilly

172. Being Inner Lit (Discovery 5.08)

Liz has done it AGAIN: she forgot to move her microphone. She's audible but a little echoey for the first 10 minutes, before she has a horrible realisation. 

Anika and Liz are spending their vacation AT THE LIBRARY, where they are checking out some books and checking in on Michael Burnham.

• Every single thing in this episode is Sarek's fault
• Libraries and archives are never apolitical
• Primarch Ruhn heard there were drag queens doing storytime at the Eternal Archive, and he is NOT happy about it
• Anika has been linking Labyrinth and Alice in Wonderland for YEARS
• An alarming amount of people don't believe in atonement or redemption
• Michael's riddle is, do you understand the point of Star Trek: Discovery?
• Is the Federation bigoted against slime people?
• "What I'm about to say is going to make it sound like I ship Vance and Rayner, and I want you to know that I do."

171. Ice Cold Hot Take (Discovery 5.07)

It is so awkward when you literally stick a guy in a refrigerator and then his death provides motivation for his grieving partner to go on a rampage. Anika and Liz discuss season 5, episode 7 of Star Trek: Discovery - "Erigah"(!!!).

• It is DEVASTATING that this is Discovery's last season and we're going to lose Rayner as fast as we got him
• Liz accidentally talks herself into shipping Michael/Nahn and also Nahn/Ortegas
• We have unlocked Rayner's tragic backstory
• Hot take: Michael is now a better captain than (prime) Georgiou
• Anika is here to make it about Jack Crusher
• We aren't puzzle people, but neither are the Discovery writers, and it kind of shows
• Jett/Pelia has never been more canon

170. Kovich Ex Machina (Discovery 5.06)

Anika and Liz infiltrate a pre-warp society, where they absolutely do not enter a race, that is clearly a trap. Not because of the human sacrifice, because of the running! 

• Like episode 3, this felt a bit predictable, but ALSO like a rebuke to "Lift Us Up Where Suffering Cannot Reach" and "Who Watches The Watchers", so we're not mad about it
• What if obeying the Prime Directive is the unethical option? 
• (Caretaker + Who Watches the Watchers) x (Lift Us Up Where Suffering Cannot Reach + Sacred Ground) - Christopher Pike/Evil Ex + Michael "Fuck the Prime Directive" Burnham
• Hugh Culber and ChatGPT therapy
• Paul and Hugh are both at turning points, but it's not a crisis for them or their relationship
• This season is the opposite of a mystery box
• Discovery has always been a series where science and religion co-exist
• Paramount, the most competent media company, accidentally took Anika off their Star Trek list and put her on the Knuckles list. So … we talk about Knuckles! 
• Is Kovich a little too omniscient?
• We are not here for fandom's fatshaming of Mary Wiseman

169. (Anika's Version) (Discovery 5.05)

(Note: our episodes are getting shorter because the screeners are fairly low quality and don't have subtitles, so it's a bit harder to get deep into the weeds of a story than if we were recording as episodes air. But our day jobs are quite busy, so we need to record as far in advance as possible in order to make our self-imposed deadlines. It's a pickle!)

Anika and Liz beam over to an eerily familiar starship, steal a locket and a plush gecko, and discuss episode 5 of Star Trek: Discovery's fifth and final season, "Mirrors".

• It's a double date for L'ak and Moll and Book and Michael!
• We take it back about not being able to emotionally engage with L'ak
• Liz has a theory about what this episode is setting up
• We're checking in with Hugh
• Respectfully, so far the puzzle isn't very puzzling
• Rayner's performance anxiety

168. Wig Continuity (Discovery 5.04)

Anika and Liz are caught in a time loop, which is actually a nice opportunity for a nap when you think about it. We're talking about Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange"!

• Let's check in with Anika, The Only Person Who Hated "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad". She thought "Face The Strange" was … good
• "I don't wanna sound creepy, but I have a pretty good idea of where Jason Isaacs is at all times."
• This season feels like an intentional final season, even though we know that's not true
• Michael is the collaborative leader that Pike pretends to be
• We are platonically shipping Rayner and Reno as BFFs
• Book's job in this episode is to turn up, take his shirt off and be supportive. Perfect, no notes
• L'ak is SO going to die
• So far Discovery has focused on fleshing out Rayner, but at the expense of Moll and L'ak

167. Trust the Process (Discovery 5.03)

Anika and Liz beam down to Trill, don their finest red cloaks and hoods, and discuss the third episode of Star Trek: Discovery's season 5, "Janaal". Including...

• This is a perfectly fine episode, but it seems a shame to waste our limited time this season on something that is merely competent
• RIP Star Trek: Lower Decks
• Introducing the beta shift when fans are still under the impression that the alpha shift bridge crew should be the leads: brilliant trolling
• We have always been Wilson Cruz Appreciators, but we are appreciating him extra hard!
• We are concerned about Paul
• "Not to be a Rayner apologist, but I am definitely going to be a Rayner apologist."
• The Vulcan alt-right sure does endure! 
• Adira and Grey are cosplaying maturity (and that's okay)

166. His Holiness Pope David Cronenberg (Disco 5.01 and 5.02)

First, we both have essays out! 

On Raffi by Anika Dane is in the current issue of Star Trek Quarterly

The Diversity Paradox: Star Trek, Star Trek fandom, and the limits of fandom as progressivism by Liz Barr is in Speculative Insight

SECOND, it's time. Anika and Liz are being called away from a fancy 32nd century cocktail party to stand in an empty void and discuss the first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery's fifth and final season...

• Compared with the over-the-top emotional drama monarchs of Star Trek: Picard's third season, it's just nice to be with competent professionals who get the job done
• Picking up the threads of Star Trek: Picard's first season
• Captain Picard is still the most important individual who ever existed
• This arc so far has the Star Trek V problem: they can't actually meet God, so the real meaning of life will be the friends we made along the way
• Tilly has a rare but valuable anti-ambition arc
• Moll and L'ak have wandered in from another series, but we're not mad about it
• It's nice that Vance has a wife and Tilly has a love interest, but we're still shipping Vance/Tilly and we're not sorry

165. Hallmark Trek (VOY 5.22)

Anika and Liz fire up the ancestry.com subscription and do a deep dive into an episode which does a deep dive into Kathryn Janeway's heritage. Yes, we're watching "11:59", an episode which has aged badly but maybe wasn't ever good to start with.

• This is ostensibly the sort of filler episode that people now say they want more of, but it mistakes trivia for character development
• "Small town business owner who hates progress and reveres the past" is a type that hits different in 2024
• Henry Janeway voted for Mike Pence
• Why are so many (white) starship captains from small town America? 
• "11:59" is not interested in exploring the forces that would drive a woman out of STEM and into homelessness
• Has any problem in the history of humanity ever been solved by a benevolent corporation? 
• At 26:06, Liz says "dystopian" when she means "utopian", please be assured this will keep her up at night for the foreseeable future
• We debate the benefits and otherwise of genealogy (content warning: from 34:03 to 34:27, this includes revelations about incest)

164. The Sito Jaxa Duology (TNG 5.19 and 7.15)

Anika and Liz assemble a board of inquiry and examine two episodes which turned out to be significant for Star Trek: Lower Decks - "The First Duty" and "Lower Decks". Are we gonna cry? Oh yes. 

"The First Duty":

• Imagine if Beverly Crusher got to parent her son
• "Anika needs to talk about Jack Crusher" is an item in our outline
• We get into the really serious issue: who is dating whom in Nova Squadron?
• Liz's knowledge of American high school life, as gleaned from YA fiction and Archie comics
• Star Trek is a place where it's okay to fail

 

"Lower Decks":

• Picard's relationship with Sito
• The Enterprise only takes the best. So why are the bridge crew SO bad at managing staff?
• Except Worf, an unexpected contender for Best Boss Ever
• And Deanna Troi, Holder of the Brain Cell
• We can infer a lot about Sito's personal growth between "The First Duty" and now, and her reconnection with Bajoran culture
• Our semi-regular one-sided correspondence with Mike McMahon continues
• Critiquing Worf's contouring