Antimatter Pod

When we planned this episode, we thought we were just going to talk about the newly announced Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. But real events took over, and so we encourage our listeners to donate to the ACLU, Black Lives Matters groups, FreeHer and other organisations raising money to fight systematic racism, injustice and police brutality. Check out antimatterpod.tumblr.com for specifics.

It's very difficult to pivot from that important business to something as frivolous as Star Trek! But we also discuss: 

• the extremely unfortunate optics of announcing a new series with an all-white (so far) cast

This week's pitch for a series that will never happen: Alexander Rozhenko: Attorney at Law.

We're talking about the medical professionals of Trek, including: 

• the changing prominence of doctors and medicine in Star Trek

Episodes discussed in detail: 

• "Miri" (TOS)

There's also a lot more discussion than usual about Covid and US politics after about the one hour mark, which we're flagging in case you're tired and need to prioritise escapism.

Anika and Liz discuss the classic TOS tie-in novel My Enemy, My Ally by Diane Duane, particularly: 

• Duane's take on Roman culture, and its ties to canon, especially in the wake of Star Trek: Picard

Is Ael a Mary Sue? Do we care? Is it racist to compare your officer to pizza? These are just some of the important issues we cover!

Links: 

• The rec.arts.startrek.fandom post outlining Roddenberry's (alleged) problems with the Rihannsu books

Anika and Liz discuss the DS9 episode "Things Past", in which Sisko, Dax, Odo and Garak find themselves at the centre of an ugly incident during the Occupation. While Garak demands to see the manager, Odo has some guilt to work through. It turns out the Occupation was ... bad.

Along the way, we discuss: 

• Odo's place in the hierarchy of the Occupation (and his claim to not have a place at all)

TL;DR we say, "It was really frustrating!" about 35 times.

Content note: given the presence of Gul Dukat in this episode, and his behaviour towards Bajoran women in general, there's a lot of discussion of abuse, grooming, Harvey Weinstein and other unpleasant matters throughout the whole episode, but particularly around the 39 minute mark. 

Anika and Liz are joined by Jules (of @juleshastweets and Bad Pajamas) to talk about our favourite villains! Complete with sidebars about Star Wars and Avatar: The Last Airbender, and a a brief reinvention as an Expanse podcast. 

Topics of discussion include: 

• villains versus antagonists

Finally, going technically off-topic but when did we ever let that stop us, Julia talks about Picard's golem and Jewish myth.

Season 1 of Star Trek: Picard has come to an end! What a strange, messy show it's been. 

Special guest Sam (@retconning) joins us for the first thirty minutes to discuss Seven of Nine, queer representation throughout Trek's history, the heteronormativity of this particular series, and THE HANDHOLDING SCENE (the caps are necessary) in the final thirty seconds of the episode. 

Then Liz and Anika talk about...

• golems, squicks and spoilers

In conclusion, Worf is definitely a caramel drizzle and we will not be taking questions at this moment.

This week on Star Trek: The Next Generation, the crew beam down to an idyllic paradise whose scantily clad residents harbour a terrible secret.

No, wait! It's Star Trek: Picard, and any resemblance to season one of TNG is entirely ... unfortunate. This week on Antimatter Pod...

• Anika has a shocking confession

Soji can have a little genocide, as a treat.

Join Liz and Anika as we pick up some "Broken Pieces" -- starting with our own audio: due to technical shenanigans, a really excellent rant was lost. But here's what survived: 

• so many secrets have been revealed!

Somehow the rant about The Rise of Skywalker did survive, along with spoilers for Game of Thrones (Ned Stark dies!).

Don't forget to rate, review and sign our petition for Picard to never use the word "lover" ever again. 

Take a long, leisurely trip to Nepenthe with Anika and Liz as we discuss: 

• The Riker-Troi family, Kestra the perfect-but-not-in-a-Mary-Sue-way kid character, synths and stem cells and pizza

Anika also outlines the TOS novel The Lost Years by JM Dillard, and how it might tie in to the story here; and Liz is close to figuring out how to blame Sarek for everything, including the fact that she refers to both Elnor and Rios as Narek. 

• Times Anika cries: 1

Just when we had gotten used to the idea that Star Trek: Picard was a bit rubbish, it went and threw a good episode at us! Anika and Liz are talking: 

• redemption and atonement arcs

We also consider Rios's internal decorating, the nature of citizenship in the Federation, and the rights of Romulan refugees. These issues are equally important, shut up.