Antimatter Pod

Antimatter Pod

By Anika and LizTV & Film
Download on the App Store

Antimatter Pod episodes

  • 246. New Windows, Same Room (SNW 4.10)

    Anika and Liz don their cheapest wigs and TOS costumes to travel a year into the future: 1966. It's the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds fourth season finale, "Tomorrow's Enterprise", and don't be alarmed, but we actually like this one!

    • This is the same plot as "Once La'an A Time", which is the same plot as "Like Chronitons Through The Hourglass"
    • We've been on the "Pike is bad at his job" train since season 1, but at this point it feels like he's being deliberately written to make Kirk look good
    • Doubles and doppelgangers and split screens: this season has something consistent going on … but why? 
    • 27 minutes in: "Okay, now let's talk about what we did like." 
    • They're setting up a nice fridge for La'an
    • Hey, SNW remembered that Gary Mitchell exists! 
    • It's wild that Uhura changes so much in a year, but then she gives all the credit to Pike? And Kirk? (Everyone knows that if Black female characters evolve without the aid of a white man, they're just a sparkling Mary Sue)
    • THE TONAL SHIFT! The writers realised they were doing Good Star Trek and had to throw in some self-conscious post-Whedon dialogue about space babies
      • 1 hr 7 min
    • 245. Starring Paul Wesley as Chris Pine (SNW 4.09)

      Anika and Liz put on their prettiest fairytale costumes and settle in to discuss "Once La'an A Time" -- an episode which Liz hated and Anika loved! Let's fight! 

      (We're not gonna fight.) 

      • Looking back, "The Elysian Kingdom" was a gimmick episode - and this follow-up suffers from being one of so many gimmick episodes
      • This is an episode of Once Upon A Time wearing a Starfleet uniform, and Anika is okay with that
      • This is the same plot as "Like Chronitons Through The Hourglass"
      • Making Benny Russell a white woman is a … choice. A bad choice
      • Pike is replaced by a smarmy, cowardly duplicate and no one notices the difference
      • This has been a whole season of daddy issues and we're not into it
        • 1 hr
      • 244. The Penny Wong Concern-O-Meter (SNW 4.08)

        Anika and Liz take command of the Enterprise and discuss Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' "Orders of Magnitude". And Anika goes on a journey from "It's a good episode but I don't like it" to "Actually, maybe it's a bad episode?" 

        • Finally we're back to proper Strange New Worlds: a deeply regressive and problematic story, competently told
        • Why are we talking about the war like it was 20 years ago? 
        • Is SNW lightly criticising the IDF after a couple of seasons of pro-genocide subtext, or are we just taking a strong stance against the 2003 invasion of Iraq?
        • M'Benga sacrificing his career for Kirk is … bad optics to say the least
        • La'an has been single for all of thirty seconds, now she can pursue Jim
        • SIBLING MUTINY!
        • "It was a good episode for Kirk, but why is this episode about Kirk?"
        • The B plot: Temu Shran versus Starfleet's Worst Captain, while Uhura learns that killing is super cool and fun
          • 52 min
        • 243. Plot Device Daughter Girl (SNW 4.07)

          It's the soap opera episode. It's better than the puppet episode but not actually good. Season 4 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is killing Anika and Liz's will to live, one gimmick at a time.

          • Why is SNW doing a soap opera episode? It doesn't seem to be out of great love and respect for the genre…
          • Anson Mount is a much better character actor than leading man, and they should stop putting him in a leading man box
          • "Pike knows it's fake because he has already lived a soap opera" is a damning indictment of the third season finale
          • Imagine if Uhura ever got to have a storyline in her own right where she gets to be a competent adult
          • Deidre Hall understands the assignment
          • Take a drink every time one of us says, "It was rough"
          • "What an amazing idea that you did nothing with. Again."
            • 51 min
          • 242. Good F***ing Star Trek (SNW 4.06)

            Anika and Liz face an unexpected emergency situation: a ... good episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds? 

            We're discussing "Off Hour", and in a shocking twist -- we like it!

            • Pike does some good captaining AND spends a big chunk of the episode unconscious!
            • Erica has real command potential!
            • Scotty/Enterprise slow burn coworkers to lovers
            • SNW takes Christine Chapel's rather sexist 1960s backstory and persona (she joined Starfleet to find her lost fiancé! She's hung up on a guy who isn't interested!) and goes, "What if she's not the tragic spinster, but a woman who is absolutely unhinged in her dedication to the people she loves?" 
            • In short, we are not here to be normal about Christine and Joseph's platonic codependent relationship
            • Let! Christine! Have! An! Axe! All! The! Time!
            • Okay, we just said that Christine and Joseph were platonic, but we have to ask: have they hooked up?
              • 55 min
            • 241. Into the Washing Machine (SNW 4.05)

              Anika and Liz, very much against their better judgement, watch The Puppet Episode. Yes, it's Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' "Level Five Transporter Accident", and we are using words like "I regret having a Star Trek podcast" and "it's a crime against humanity". 

              • Hey, it's not as offensive as "Four and a Half Vulcans"
              • Anika talks about the ancient art of puppetry, commedia dell'arte and Punch and Judy
              • This episode does not understand the point of the "leave one human and the rest of the characters are played by Muppets" meme
              • In fairness, it also does not understand why Muppets are funny
              • The "joke" about Pike's chair
              • This is the third episode of the season where Spock is seeing things
              • Spock: what is wrong with this allegedly grown man 
              • "My girlfriend has been having a hard time and I did not reach out to support her, why did she break up with me?"
              • "So all of that happened for no reason."
              • La'an the reverse Pinocchio (not even the first woman in SNW who aspires to become an object!)
              • Liz got so irate she gestured violently and knocked over her water bottle. We are not good at podcasting. We are sorry.

                •  

                Manchild instrumental by Janette: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcpU4-auc54; song by S. Carpenter, A. Allen and J. Antonoff

                1 hr 5 min
              • 240. Casablanca Cosplay (SNW 4.04)

                It's Antimatter Pod, but we're in black and white! We're discussing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 4, episode 4, "A Case of Chiaroscuro". Did Anika include a pronunciation guide in the show notes? She sure did! 

                • This episode scales the giddy heights of "it's fine, I guess"
                • "It's interested in the aesthetics of resistance without actually exploring what it is we're resisting." 
                • Imagine if this episode spent less time having characters tell each other stuff they already know, and more time exploring those characters
                • Don't learn anti-fascist opsec from a Star Trek podcast, but definitely don't follow the example of this fake resistance whose leader keeps photos and a database in her office
                • This week we are TEAM LA'AN and also SPOCK STOP UNDERMINING HER
                • Christine is a better boyfriend to La'an than Spock
                • She has to be sidelined this season or else she would be TOO AWESOME A CHARACTER
                • Maybe La'an deserves to stab Spock a little
                  • 59 min
                • 239. Dude Where's My Shuttle (SNW 4.03)

                  Anika and Liz hang out with a cactus. Is it a tribute to the Doctor Who serial "Meglos"? No, we're talking about episode 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' fourth season, "Human Best Friend"!

                  • Strange New Worlds has become a show dedicated to pastiches of better media
                  • How many episodes inspired by Star Trek Las Vegas are too many episodes inspired by Star Trek Las Vegas
                  • They did it -- they finally found a planet even worse than Risa
                  • Are the gimmicks getting in the way of storytelling?
                  • On the other hand, it feels like the story is setting La'an up to be the big bad before she is written out of the series
                  • Kirk, you have a baby. Why are you at a resort? Alone? 
                  • "If you look hard enough, you'll always find something to be angry about." Which is a longer way of saying, "Don't overthink it."
                  • Liz is still formulating her thoughts on the depiction of alcohol in SNW
                  • Congratulations to SNW for discovering queerbaiting
                    • 1 hr 15 min
                  • 238. Evil Genes (SNW 402)

                    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)
                      • 1 hr 10 min
                    • 237. A Forehead Situation (SNW 4.01)

                      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.
                        • 1 hr 12 min

                      About Antimatter Pod

                      From the publisher's feed

                      The Star Trek podcast where we talk fashion, feminism, subtext and subspace.

                      More shows like Antimatter Pod

                      Star Trek: Khan by Star Trek

                      Star Trek: Khan

                      411 Listeners