To celebrate getting to thirty episodes, we invited listeners to submit questions! And went from worrying we wouldn't get any (so embarrassing) to putting out an 80 minute episode...

We get to talk about the evolution of Star Trek's storytelling after the introduction of the VCR; assembling an all-female-character heist team; Klingon clickbait; genderswaps; our hopes for season 3 of Discovery; and, most importantly, which characters -- if any -- could defeat a goose in single combat, armed with a bat'leth? 

Honk!

Having spent their formative years in Voyager shipping circles -- don't worry, we'll define terms -- Liz and Anika talk romance on Voyager. 

(Note: although we are generally family friendly...ish, this episode is definitely more PG-13 than others. And Liz uses the term "bone down" more than once, which is weird, because the words had never passed her lips before the day of recording.)

Pairings discussed: 

• Neelix/Kes (and Paris/Kes)

Also covered: are Discords the new mailing list? AO3 and the Hugo Awards. Wild speculation about Tuvok's prowess. B'Elanna and Seven's romance novel book club. And one wild card shipping option. 

Anika and Liz watch "Encounter at Farpoint" and discuss...

• ugly sweaters

We managed to get more than 30 minutes in before we even mention Q. Take that, self-appointed judge of humanity!

Check out a compilation of the @TrekDocs posts at Reddit, and see antimatterpod.tumblr.com for links to our personal social media and credits for our theme music.

At various stages of TNG's development, the Enterprise's resident teen genius was going to be Leslie Crusher -- a girl. Anika and Liz wonder what it would have been like to have a girl STEM genius on television in 1987. Would she have been well-written? Would audiences have hated her as much as Wesley? Would she have inspired girls of our generation to become engineers? 

We also talk about similar characters and significant female characters in other media, including...

• Doctor Who (Adric, Ace)

See antimatterpod.tumblr.com for more detailed show notes, including links to the production memos quoted.

We're joined by friend of the podcast Jules to discuss religion in Star Trek, and to interrogate the alleged secularism of the franchise.

You might know Jules as "the woman in the Captain Killy cosplay who asked Alex Kurtzman about the implications of erasing the Discovery crew from the record" at San Diego Comic Con -- and we talk about that, too. But by the end of this episode, you'll also know her as "the woman with elaborate and amazing headcanons about Worf's Seders".

Also covered: 

• Blair Imani, the hijabi fan whose Geordi LaForge-inspired cosplay gave us the idea for this episode

AND MORE!

You can find Jules on Twitter at @juleshastweets, and her DS9 rewatch blog at badpajamas.space. Check out antimatterpod.tumblr.com for more detailed show notes and links to our social media.

We're talking about Enterprise -- specifically the first two seasons:

• Our first encounters with the series, and why it wasn't a great introduction to Trek for Anika's eldest daughter

See antimatterpod.tumblr.com for more detailed show notes, including a link to Liz's old review site and the return of the podcast sketch.

[At the end, we claim the next episode will be covering Trek news out of SDCC. That is, of course, a lie; we changed the order around. Like the Prophets of Bajor, we exist outside linear time.]

San Diego Comic Con 2019 was massive for Trekkies, and we're joined by guest Sam (she first appeared way back in ep 3!) to talk about everything. Including:

• Star Trek: Picard - the trailer, the cameos, the new characters, everything. 

You can find Sam online at twitter.com/retconning, and you can find show notes and credits at antimatterpod.tumblr.com!

As requested by our Twitter followers, we're talking "Journey to Babel". Along the way:

• We provide a recap for viewers who haven't watched "Journey" lately/ever

And finally, we have a NSFW digression about, ummmmmmmmmmm, some infamous 1970s cosplay.

Check out antimatterpod.tumblr.com for more detailed show notes (including a link verifying the whole cosplay story).

We're talking about the Star Trek tie-ins of our formative years -- the ones we read until they fell apart. And it doesn't quite turn into a Diane Duane book club, but... 

Well. Novels we discuss in detail: 

• The Romulan Way by Diane Duane

You don't need to be familiar with these novels to listen to the podcast! How Much For Just The Planet is a classic, but it's also out of print, and retailing for a couple of hundred dollars on Amazon Marketplace -- or, as it turns out, just a couple of bucks on eBay. (Treat yourself. It's amazing.)

We also talk about the different needs filled by tie-in novels versus fan fiction, and why more recent Star Trek fiction just isn't doing it for us. 

Problematic faves! Anika and a sliiiiiiiiiiightly hungover (yet award-winning) Liz discuss the characters we love, but can't entirely recommend without a caveat. Or many caveats. 

But first -- we have to define terms. How do you narrow it down when literally every single work of fiction, along with every single human who ever existed, is imperfect?

Discussed: 

• Yeoman Tonia Barrows of "Shore Leave" (TOS)

And along the way, we talk about fandom's attitudes towards characters who do terrible things or represent terrible ideas, fan fiction as a safe place to explore ideas which don't have a place in canon, and more!