Liz has done it AGAIN: she forgot to move her microphone. She's audible but a little echoey for the first 10 minutes, before she has a horrible realisation. 

Anika and Liz are spending their vacation AT THE LIBRARY, where they are checking out some books and checking in on Michael Burnham.

• Every single thing in this episode is Sarek's fault

It is so awkward when you literally stick a guy in a refrigerator and then his death provides motivation for his grieving partner to go on a rampage. Anika and Liz discuss season 5, episode 7 of Star Trek: Discovery - "Erigah"(!!!).

• It is DEVASTATING that this is Discovery's last season and we're going to lose Rayner as fast as we got him

Anika and Liz infiltrate a pre-warp society, where they absolutely do not enter a race, that is clearly a trap. Not because of the human sacrifice, because of the running! 

• Like episode 3, this felt a bit predictable, but ALSO like a rebuke to "Lift Us Up Where Suffering Cannot Reach" and "Who Watches The Watchers", so we're not mad about it

(Note: our episodes are getting shorter because the screeners are fairly low quality and don't have subtitles, so it's a bit harder to get deep into the weeds of a story than if we were recording as episodes air. But our day jobs are quite busy, so we need to record as far in advance as possible in order to make our self-imposed deadlines. It's a pickle!)

Anika and Liz beam over to an eerily familiar starship, steal a locket and a plush gecko, and discuss episode 5 of Star Trek: Discovery's fifth and final season, "Mirrors".

• It's a double date for L'ak and Moll and Book and Michael!

Anika and Liz are caught in a time loop, which is actually a nice opportunity for a nap when you think about it. We're talking about Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange"!

• Let's check in with Anika, The Only Person Who Hated "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad". She thought "Face The Strange" was … good

Anika and Liz beam down to Trill, don their finest red cloaks and hoods, and discuss the third episode of Star Trek: Discovery's season 5, "Janaal". Including...

• This is a perfectly fine episode, but it seems a shame to waste our limited time this season on something that is merely competent

First, we both have essays out! 

On Raffi by Anika Dane is in the current issue of Star Trek Quarterly

The Diversity Paradox: Star Trek, Star Trek fandom, and the limits of fandom as progressivism by Liz Barr is in Speculative Insight

SECOND, it's time. Anika and Liz are being called away from a fancy 32nd century cocktail party to stand in an empty void and discuss the first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery's fifth and final season...

• Compared with the over-the-top emotional drama monarchs of Star Trek: Picard's third season, it's just nice to be with competent professionals who get the job done

Anika and Liz fire up the ancestry.com subscription and do a deep dive into an episode which does a deep dive into Kathryn Janeway's heritage. Yes, we're watching "11:59", an episode which has aged badly but maybe wasn't ever good to start with.

• This is ostensibly the sort of filler episode that people now say they want more of, but it mistakes trivia for character development

Anika and Liz assemble a board of inquiry and examine two episodes which turned out to be significant for Star Trek: Lower Decks - "The First Duty" and "Lower Decks". Are we gonna cry? Oh yes. 

"The First Duty":

• Imagine if Beverly Crusher got to parent her son

"Lower Decks":

• Picard's relationship with Sito

Anika and Liz don their finest gold mesh and settle in to discuss a key Star Trek episode: "Space Seed"...

• It's been said before, but it bears repeating: this episode is super racist (would it have been better or worse if they had renamed Khan and made him Mexican?)