#antimatter pod

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Anika and Liz beam over to a long-abandoned and extremely haunted space ship. And instead of talking about what we experienced over there in the shadows, we’re going to discuss episode 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ fourth season, “The Griffin Institute”. 

This episode is a huge step up from the premiere! And also still super-duper into the eugenics of it all! The away team’s biggest fear is … their genes!

This whole subplot with La’an is really leaning into racist stereotypes about Chinese women

“I am continuously horrified by how this series portrays Spock’s internal conflicts.” 

The episode wants us to think that Carol Marcus is the bad guy in the relationship, not James T “actually I’m gonna go to this conference instead of seeing my infant son” Kirk

We are obsessed with the conference. What could possibly be relevant to Spock, La’an and Jim? Was there only one bed? 

We are a Pro T’Pring Podcast

Does SNW actually want us to be engaged with Spock/La’an? 

Liz has a pitch for a Division 12 comic (spoilers: it involves Lorca)

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The Enterprise goes back in time and doesn’t prevent a genocide, but Anika and Liz would like to go back in time to prevent this episode from ever being made. Oh, did the fourth season premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds displease us? It sure did! 

“Don’t overthink it!”

This episode provides more evidence for our argument that Pike is bad at his job

Words we use to describe this episode: “nonsense”, “dreadful”, “terrible”, “morally broken”, “anti Star Trek“, “almost clever”

Why does SNW want us to hate La’an? 

Leaning into the biological determinism with this Kha’an arc

The Martians and Spock are totally incurious about each other, because this is The Least Curious Star Trek

“Let’s not worry too much about that genocide we facilitated” is … not a great twist in 2026. Or ever.

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Our video editor called this file "Antimatter Pod Roasts Captain Pike For Two And A Half Minutes.mov", and it has made some men on TikTok rather cross.

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https://antimatterpod.com/236-nixon-broke-starfleet-dsc-1-09/

Anika does 133 jumps while Liz infiltrates a Klingon ship. What could go wrong? Well, this episode is late, so…

Yes, we are discussing season 1, episode 9 of Star Trek: Discovery, “Into the Forest I Go”. A nice walk in the woods! Everyone comes home! 

Do all Starfleet captains disobey orders? Actually yes! Despite the stereotypes, the biggest exception is Kirk in TOS … and Liz has a theory about why that changed 

“This conversation reminds me of a Tumblr post that mildly irritated me two weeks ago…”

“You can’t say anything against my baby Ash, okay? He’s my baby girl.” 

We have some digressions and thoughts on the state of fandom and franchise media in the year 2026

Anika’s Wonderland Corner: Cornwell, Ash and L’Rell as Knight, Death and the Devil

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https://antimatterpod.com/235-ghosts-of-pahvo-dsc-1-08/

Anika and Liz go for a nice walk in the forest and discuss Star Trek: Discovery‘s “Si Vic Pacem, Para Bellum”, and ask ourselves: which Discovery characters are most likely to massacre a bunch of Tusken Raiders?

You may have noticed some audio issues lately, and this recording was particularly challenging, so Liz resorted to Descript’s “studio sound” filter. This made everything more or less audible, but also weirdly muffled, like we were recording from inside a pillowfort. Alas! 

Is it possible to tell a new Star Trek story? 

If Dave Filoni wrote a Star Trek, it would be this episode

Did Admiral Cornwell hold Starfleet Command’s only brain cell? 

We are going to say something nice about the pacing on Star Trek: Discovery

Liz knows very little about chess and it shows

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https://antimatterpod.com/234-mushroom-party-dsc-1-07/

Anika and Liz don their finest 2017/2257 outfits and go to a party. 

Then they do it all over again.

Then they do it all over again. 

Yes, we are caught a time loop and discussing Star Trek: Discovery‘s “Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad”! 

“This, to me, is like if Strange New Worlds was good.”

Is this Anika’s least favourite episode of Discovery?

Ash is happier and more successful as a human being than he was as a Klingon

Making Harry Mudd spend time with his wife is not a good or suitable punishment for his crimes? It is highkey misogynistic? Do better, show! 

Liz is here to pitch Star Trek: Stella, where Meg Stalter plays Stella Mudd as she roams the galaxy being a sociopathic nepo baby with an amazing wardrobe, who disintegrates people

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Anika and Liz take off for a cheeky little diplomatic meeting with some Klingons. What could go wrong? 

We are discussing Star Trek: Discovery‘s “Lethe”, an episode which inspired our friendship, a whole lot of fic and a conversation about whether it is a flawless piece of Star Trek, or if it has merely a single flaw. 

We are not here to be cool or reasonable about Admiral Kat

Normal Human Guy Ash Tyler and Normal Federation Captain Lorca

At any time, it is reasonable to assume that Sarek is disappointed in at least one of his children

Ash Tyler could never appear in SNW because his whole existence is a rebuke to that series’ biological determinism

Anika’s Wonderland Corner: the Vulcans at Michael’s graduation are dressed as chess pieces (Michael, like L’Rell, is a white pawn)

We have. A lot. Of feelings. About Katrina Cornwell

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Anika and Liz are thrown into a Klingon prison, where they are absolutely choosing Lorca’s pain. But no one is having a worse day than that poor innocent tardigrade! 

We’re discussing episode five of Star Trek: Discovery‘s first season, including: 

This is the worst Saru episode of the entire series. It’s rough, man

Overthinking the “five best captains” list

For an awful moment, we start to ask dangerous questions like “how many starships does Starfleet have?”

This episode is a card trick: your attention is on Harry Mudd, but really it’s introducing Ash Tyler

Liz has normal and rational feelings about the historical Buran

We play a fun game called “which other captains would leave Mudd in the Klingon prison” (Archer)

Introducing Ash means we have to talk about Ash, L’Rell and the misguided sexual assault subplot

Antimatter Pod: We aren’t really into m/m ships Also Antimatter Pod: We will die for Lorca/Tyler

Our hot take: Saru did NOT deserve that telescope, this is NOT a sweet scene to be immortalised as a Hallmark ornament, this is REWARDING his BAD BEHAVIOUR