Antimatter Pod

148. His Job Is Just … Trek (SNW 2.08)

Anika and Liz get sucked into a vortex and are mysteriously transformed from cartoons into real human beings! Yes, it's time to talk about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 2, episode 7, "Those Old Scientists"!

• Hi, we loved this episode! 
• Boimler is fandom: he expects things to be a certain way and freaks out that SNW is different
• Mariner is also fandom: she loves Uhura and finds her inspiring, and has more respect for canon than she wants to admit
• Anika has a presentation on how "Those Old Scientists" parallels the plot of Barbie (2023)
• (this episode is also about identity)
• Liz can also make this about Oppenheimer (2023)
• Boimler is not excited to meet Christine Chapel (and he's wrong, but what does that tell us about the history of this era?)
• Stop saying Spirk. This is a callout post (for us)
• Save Mariner from SNW's heterosexual agenda
• It's self-congratulatory references all the way down, but would this crossover work with any other series?
• Does Pike need to be punched in the face by Jonathan Archer for his own good? Our theory is … yes!

147. Star Trek: Microaggressions (SNW 2.06)

Anika and Liz roll up to a cool-looking nebula, only to find it's alive! Hey, are we experiencing deja vu? Does the Federation mining industry need to be stopped at all costs? We're discussing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 2, episode 6, "Lost in Translation"!

• Please stop using disabled bodies as monsters, show!
• It's interesting how SNW is reproducing the problems (episodic storytelling, the reset button) that stymied Voyager
• White men and Christine get development through hijinks and romantic adventures; everyone else gets trauma, and a disproportionate amount of it falls on Black characters
• Is La'an jealous because Jim is hanging out with Nyota? Jealousy plots: they're not good! On the other hand, La'an has a pile of feelings she cannot process with anyone else…
• Uhura has been so underused this season, it's great to see her get some focus, but why is she constantly being bombarded with microaggressions? First Spock in season 1 and now Kirk are like, "Hey, maybe you don't belong in Starfleet"? Come on, guys!
• Why does Star Trek keep casting men who are far too old for their roles?
• Modern Star Trek's relationship with subtlety and subtext: "I don't know her"
• Liz is seeking expressions of interest for a new Blorbo

146. Awkward Dinner Party, Vulcan Edition (SNW 2.05)

It's time to discuss Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 2, episode 5, "Charades". Liz eats a pile of bacon; Anika has a lot of feelings about Christine Chapel, and we discuss...

• This episode is a gift specifically for Anika
• The theme of this season is "identity"
• On one level, this episode is a 60-minute mother-in-law joke with bonus ethnic stereotypes, and that is not great!
• Have short seasons killed slow burn UST?
• The aliens of the week are racist AND acephobic
• Spock, honey, you're a Jewish vegetarian, put down the bacon

145. Whose Utopia Is It Anyway? (SNW 2.04)

Anika and Liz put on their cute away mission hats and, in between high-pitched noises and Liz's neighbour revving his car, discuss the Strange New Worlds episode "Among the Lotus Eaters"...

• Liz had a visceral reaction to this episode: a timeskip-inducing migraine would have been preferable
• WORSE, Anika is indifferent
• Character development for Ortegas: she flies the ship! 
• Hey, space millennials! Don't go wanting career advancement! Don't even put a toe outside your designated box! 
• Speaking of designated boxes, the whole Warrior!M'Benga thing? Yikes
• It feels like Pike is incredibly bad at his job
• Captain Batel, honey, girl, you deserve better. And also a first name
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: for when the Berman Era isn't heteronormative enough
• Pike is a complacent captain for a complacent Star Trek
• Contemporary Star Trek and the American liberal arts bubble
• …so what does it say that Ortegas, the most 'working class' character, is kinda racist?
• "I realise that I'm reading a lot into my favourite character, but that's what I do."

(Liz would like to apologise for the revving sounds in the first fifteen minutes. She has already bought a better microphone that will record less outdoor noises and probably more chair creaks.)

144. Rom(ulan)Com (SNW 2.03)

Anika and Liz find themselves stranded in 2023 Toronto, and over some Tim Hortons and poutine, catch up to discuss the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow"...

• FIRST we are very angry and sad about the cancellation of Star Trek: Prodigy
• SECOND, we were extremely nervous going into this episode, and then … we loved it? 
• Introducing Paul Wesley's Kirk via a set of AUs is really smart
• Is this the best episode of Enterprise or the sequel to "Time and Again" we didn't know we needed? Yes. Is it a problem that SNW keeps revisiting old stories? Yes. Did we love it regardless? Yes
• Okay FINE we're shipping La'an/Kirk BUT IN THIS TIMELINE ONLY
• An actual Secret Romulan that we didn't make up? A GIFT FOR US! (Also, again, aliens among humans, THERE'S A THEME)
• The UNIT Dating Controversy of it all
• It took three goes, but finally Khan Noonien Singh is played by a South Asian actor!
• Anika calls it: we're gonna see Brent Spiner in the finale
• "Progress requires trauma" - does it, though? Does it really?
• Are we the first Star Trek podcasters to talk about Pete Davidson?

143. Star Trek: JAG (SNW 2.02)

Anika and Liz don their dress uniforms and stand trial for the crime of ... oh, something. Background bird noise and that helicopter, probably. But ALSO we are here to talk about season 2, episode 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: "Ad Astra Per Aspera", including...

• Gene Roddenberry would be SO MAD there's a civil rights lawyer in Star Trek! Which is not the ONLY reason it's great, but it's one!
• Utopias are hard work and civil rights progress via litigation is incremental, and this episode gets that
• This is a Neera Ketou Stan Podcast
• HOWEVER Liz thinks the writing veered into a couple of ugly tropes
• What's Vice Admiral Pasalk's deal? Is he a Secret Romulan???
• It would be interesting to dig further into genetic alteration as a cultural practice versus eugenics as a violation of civil rights
• It's allegories all the way down!
• "Aliens hiding among humans" seems to be a theme this season, but NOT in a paranoid way? Aside from our new hobby of Seeing Romulans Everywhere, of course
• Ortegas has a new facet to her character! She's racist!

141. Fake It Til You Make It (SNW 2.01)

Anika and Liz are left unsupervised for a moment, so what choice do they have but to steal the Enterprise?

Yes, season 2 of Strange New Worlds has begun, and we are here to discuss:

• This was a solid B+ of an episode! Why does The Algorithm want us to think everyone hated it?
• We know more about Pelia from two scenes than we've learned about Ortegas in a whole season
• The algorithm keeps bringing us the Bad Spock Takes
• But seriously, we can criticise the heteronormativity without being biphobic and/or misogynistic 
• Anika makes the argument for Spock/Christine
• La'an and Spock are mirror images
• M'Benga, Chapel and the homebrew super soldier serum
• Conceptually, the super soldier serum is great; in practice, the racial dynamic is … bad
• How much do we love Pelia? SO MUCH
• "This is getting out of hand. And awesome."
• The costume design for the away team is amazing and we love it
• For Nichelle

141. The Ninth Episode Curse (Star Trek: Picard season 3 - part 2)

Anika and Liz put on their most stylish Starfleet tactical vests and walk right into a trap. And along the way, we finish our discussion of season 3 of Star Trek: Picard, including...

• We are not impressed by Captain Shaw
• The Jack and Seven relationship is a HIGHLIGHT
• Worf treats Raffi better than literally anyone else in the whole of Star Trek: Picard, which is … bad. Like, it's great! But it's bad
• Liz hijacks the podcast to talk about Succession, and how Terry Matalas is like Logan Roy
• "Vox" is better than previous penultimate episodes of the seasons, but still not great! Everyone is suddenly an idiot! 
• Order 66, Star Trek style
• Romance is … not this series' strong suit
• We spend a good few minutes working out how an unexpected pregnancy in middle-age can happen in a 24th century "utopia", which is probably more time than the writers put in
• It's really hard to root for Seven/Raffi when they don't seem to actually like each other
• Stepford Laris
• Liz has a whole rant about autistic representation in Picard; Anika responds with nuance
• In conclusion, this is our pitch to showrun Star Trek: Legacy

140. The Main Character Of The Federation (Star Trek: Picard season 3 - part 1)

We're putting on our old uniforms, hijacking a starship and stealing a shuttle to rescue Beverly Crusher, and we have NO REGRETS. Yes, it's finally time for Anika and Liz to talk about Star Trek: Picard...

• There is a strong possibility that this was … bad
• In Star Trek: Picard, Borg nonsense is always on the horizon
• Is Terry Matalas mirror!Anika? The signs are there!
• A lot of our problems with this season are actually with season 2, ie, the discarding of the original cast
• Some TNG characters were incredibly well-served in season 3. Others… 
• Returning female characters, fridging, and men who hold grudges for three decades
• The MCUification of Star Trek
• Anika cannot be normal about Jack Crusher
• Something very odd is happening with the passage of time in this series, and in the absence of any other evidence, we're going to assume it's Janeway's fault
• Hey, remember when Soji was the female lead? Anyone?

139. Every Trek Everywhere All At Once (Q-Squared)

Anika and Liz confront their alternate universe selves (who are them but with more trauma and different hairstyles). Along the way, we discuss...

• Toxic masculinity spoils the party again
• Track A is trauma all the way down
• The entire multiverse ships Picard/Crusher, which, honestly? Feels right!
• We shouldn't have to say this, but infidelity does not justify murder
• Like
• Come on guys
• Content warning: we discuss real world family violence and the murder-suicide in this book from about 7:25 to 15:00
• (The specific details of the murder-suicide run from 11:42 to 15:00)
• (Also Liz's cat started walking acoss the desk and brushing his tail against the pop filter around the 15 minute mark -- at least, that's where it became impossible to mute the track because Liz was speaking)
• This book owes Deanna Troi an apology
• Tasha Yar, Hair Exposition and a long digression on the semiotics of short hair on women in the 1980s (Liz looked up Denise Crosby's Playboy shoot, but it was for research, honest!)

Finally, we are once again asking our listeners to consider supporting the fundraiser to cover Mr David's medical expenses and the renovations required to make his home accessible.