Antimatter Pod

157. The Three Laws of Evil Robotics [LD 4.07]

Anika and Liz grow some tomatoes and share some feelings in Evil Podcaster Therapy. Specifically, we're sharing feelings about Star Trek: Lower Decks episode "A Few Badgeys More", including:

• This episode was made for Anika, except it's about characters she doesn't care about
• The birds in Liz's neighbourhood were extra loud just for us
• The evil AI trope
• We're getting all Asimovian up in here
• Like and subscribe to Badgeycast, the new podcast hosted by Badgey and the Cosmic Koala!
• Er, how many times has the Federation almost been destroyed by an AI using its subspace network? Guys, please install a firewall or antivirus software or something?
• (Is it a metaphor? For social media?)

156. Cop Landlords Slash Fic (LD 4.06)

This episode is brought to you by Slug-O-Cola, platonic relationships, and Beckett Mariner's emotional crisis

• Is Beckett Mariner okay?
• Do Tendi and Rutherford have feelings for each other? Are we meant to think that they do? 
• We need to admit that Migleemo is the sex god of the Cerritos
• If there isn't a thriving Landlord Cops fandom by the time this episode drops, we will be VERY disappointed
• Liz predicts there will be Rom Discourse
• "Joe Biden is not Rom. BUT…"

155. The Overthinking Podcast (LD 4.05)

It's Romulan ale o'clock! Anika and Liz fill their yard glasses with something brightly coloured and alcoholic, don their finest diplomatic bicycle shorts, and discuss Star Trek: Lower Decks episode "Empathological Fallacies"!

• This episode is truly a gift for Star Trek Las Vegas cosplayers
• Anika's Totally Spies theory
• Liz's Daria theory
• Here on the Taking Things Too Seriously Podcast, we are curious about the evolutionary implications of Catians hunting Betazoids
• "Shaxs, man. Shaxs."
• HOLISTIC SECURITY

154. Hijinks and Bad Sex Ideas (LD 4.04)

Faced with a choice between attending a wedding or dressing up as Mark Twain for conflict resolution via roleplay, Anika and Liz will DEFINITELY take the open bar. We're discussing season 4, episode 4 of Star Trek: Lower Decks, "Something Borrowed, Something Blue"!

• ORIONS! LIZ'S BELOVED!
• Are the Orions really all that secretive about their culture, or is it just that the Federation never asked? 
• The Orions need a gender equality movement
• Liz: "I don't know why I'm so unfocused." It's because she was coming down with covid. 
• Anika is not a fan of Mark Twain
• We are familiar with your human "humour". We understand "jokes"
• Antimatter Pod has a lot of feelings about labour and workplace justice

153. The Cosmic Koala (LD 4.03)

We've updated our operating systems and speedrun the allamaraine game, and now Anika and Liz are sitting down to discuss the third episode of the fourth season of Lower Decks, "In the Cradle of Vexilon"...

• We don't mind a bit of a workplace hierarchy now and then
• Liz has a WHOLE THEORY about how Captain Freeman's command style is why Beckett Mariner is the way she is
• We go off on a tangent about Voyager, specifically about that time Naomi Wildman died and was replaced by a duplicate. So, um, if dead baby chat is not for you, skip from 13:30 to 14:40!
• Ransom the art critic: chef's kiss
• Is a Gorn wedding the solution to ALL problems? Yes

152. Hijinks Bonding (LD 4.01 and 4.02)

While Liz navigates a series of Voyager-themed obstacles, Anika encounters an adorable creature who eats bones. Yes, it's time for the season 4 premiere of Star Trek: Lower Decks, and we're here to talk about...

• "We're not gonna do Tuvix Discourse." We absolutely did Tuvix Discourse
• Voyager as a museum, curation styles and fandom: Liz has a THESIS
• Maybe the real Starfleet is the friends we made along the way
• Friendship ended with Beckett/Jennifer, Tendi/T'Lyn is our best friend now
• We're going to do our very best to pretend to be shocked when it turns out that Beckett and Ransom have been a thing all season
• We have NO IDEA who the mysterious new villain is, but we're cautiously prepared to rule out Boba Fett
• Liz has a recurring nightmare about bananas having bones, and, well. Ep 2 was very difficult for her.
• We already know there won't be Moopsy merch, but what if Paramount releases Moopsy merch? 
• Lower Decks is completely sincere (about Star Trek, about its characters) and that's why it works

Editor's note! Due to audio bleed, it was impossible to edit out all the overlaps and interruptions this week. Yikes, eh? Apologies for all the throat-clearing and overtalk and the whole thing where Anika is substantially louder than Liz…

Very Short Treks: Skin A Cat

It's a Very Short Antimatter Pod! We take two and a half minutes to discuss the first Very Short Trek. Spoilers: it's bad!

151. Working Girl (Nyota’s Version) (SNW 2.10)

Anika and Liz stop off in a small town in the ... midwest? to hang out in a diner? And discuss "Hegemony", the second season finale of Strange New Worlds? Which was definitely an episode of television?

• The Gorn problem (why are the characters so incurious about them?)
• SNW rips off the Alien franchise without understanding it
• Concept: promote Pike early, stash him on Starbase One with April, give Batel the Enterprise
• Do the writers know Erika Ortegas is a regular character? Do they know Sam Kirk is not? 
• Is it because we're both career admin people that we don't vibe with Pike's leadership style? Anika has a whole theory about the 1980s comedy Working Girl and how Pike is the Sigourney Weaver character!
  
• "What if we do the 'Best of Both Worlds' cliffhanger, only … bad?" 
• Anika has a BAD THEORY about La'an's fate
  
• Liz has a WORSE THEORY about Paramount+'s fate and the odds of a third season

150. Extremely Off-Broadway (SNW 2.09)

Anika studied musical theatre at college. Liz outrighted hated musicals until two weeks ago. And they're here to discuss … "Subspace Rhapsody"! And also fight crime. Star Trek crime. Which this episode is not, except when it is.

• Liz did a crash course in musicals, and then "Subspace Rhapsody" kind of does the same thing!
• "It's bad because it's Strange New Worlds, not because it's a musical."
• Liz has some comments about sound mixing, which is PRETTY RICH coming from someone whose podcast sounds the way it does
• We've had a season of characterisation via romance to build up to a musical! It all makes sense! (Except that it's all so straight!)
• La'an and Una are failing the Bechdel test in song!
• We need more Batel, less Pike
• Christine Chapel has never done anything wrong, ever, in her entire life, and Anika has never loved her more
• "It's like the put all the pieces on the board, and then they threw the board in the trash" - the SNW Story
• If you look up "liberal white men who step back and let Black women do all the work of saving the world" you'll find a picture of Chris Pike

150. All Hurt, No Comfort (SNW 2.08)

"Under the Cloak of War" is a really serious, complex episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ... but don't worry, Anika and Liz are here to talk about the sex pollen fic opportunities! And also:

• Looking at fan reactions to this episode, one might almost begin to think people apply a different standard to new Trek compared with the Star Trek of the '90s
• Liz completely misremembers the matter of the Accountant of Auschwitz: it was Germany, not Israel, who put him on trial and sentenced him to prison, and he died before he began his sentence
• Did M'Benga do it?
• It's a real shame Starfleet's only competent admiral/mental health professional got blown up
• The Federation is America (derogatory)
• We are once again asking, whose utopia is it anyway?