It's wedding season! Anika and Liz are looking at some of Star Trek's key wedding episodes, beginning with the one that launched season 2 of The Original Series and rewrote a lot of people's brain chemistry: "Amok Time". And in typical "Antimatter Pod does it Antimatter Pod's way" fashion, we're gonna talk about ... how great it is for the Spock/Chapel ship.  Why we're doing a wedding series: we love weddings, and we love how they can be used as a characterisation and worldbuilding tool Vulcans secretly live for the drama It does not do to dwell on the science and evolution behind pon farr and we should not have tried Liz is very concerned for the wellbeing of asexual Vulcans There's a lot of orientalism in our first glimpse of Vulcans and their culture, and modern Trek hasn't really walked that back We don't appreciate William Shatner enough (William Shatner did not pay us to say this) It's actually quite possible that McCoy and Chapel have never spoken outside of work Strange New Worlds has destroyed this episode and also Spock as a character Vulcans: we are an advanced and sophisticated cultureAlso Vulcans: please do not ask about the child marriages Kirk's infatuation with T'Pau is very important to us

Noted Doctor Who podcasters Anika and Liz settle in to watch a very bad Steven Moffat pastiche.  Yes, it's time for the season 3 finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and spoilers, turning into a statue might be preferable to this. It turns out Marie's whole arc has been about becoming tradwife statuary The weird Christian subtext of the season intensifies, not in a good way The racial dynamics of this episode are very, very bad Do we need to dismantle the carceral state for the Vezda?  No more backstory for M'Benga, please, we have enough dog whistle racism Kirk, Spock, barroom mind melds, queerbaiting and the weirdness with La'an You almost have to respect the effort that went into dismantling Marie as a character before fridging her Speaking of dismantling characters: remember when we didn't hate La'an? When she was, in fact, one of our faves?

Anika and Liz get sucked into a wormhole and trapped on a moon orbiting a gas giant, which is actually pretty standard when you're adults with jobs trying to organise a board game night. We're discussing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 3, episode 9, "Terrarium", an episode which comes so close to being good before it snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.  "We're going to give you the stories you've been asking for since season 1, and then we're gonna end it with a twist that makes it all totally meaningless! Hurray!" Good news, Akiva Goldsman finally watched "Arena"! Next question, did he, um, understand it?  Anika has notes on Metron experiment design The AUDACITY of SNW criticising the Gorn for ableism This was an opportunity to let Uhura become a more complex and flawed character, but unfortunately Pike is bad at his job (and so are the writers) Is La'an actually psychologically fit for starship duty?  Why are we making fun of Spock's weight? Why is this whole season so dedicated to bullying Spock?  Endangering 4,000 people including children: that's the Christopher Pike way But seriously, why does Uhura have sole responsibility for this problem? Why is Pike setting her up to fail? 

With heavy hearts, Anika and Liz discuss "Four and a Half Vulcans", the worst episode of Star Trek's streaming era, and possibly one of the top five worst episodes of Star Trek ever. So that's fun.  Liz keeps returning to the question, "Is this worse than 'Code of Honor'?" "I understand that this is meant to be funny."  Genetics and hair don't work like that "I felt disrespected as a viewer." The whole "feminist career women can't cook, amiright?" trope was tired when they did it with Janeway in the '90s and it's more tired with Chapel and Batel now Anika: the only person on the whole internet watching "Amok Time" for the Spock/Chapel Comedy mind control rape (for the second time in a season) Uhura this season generally has whatever personality is required for the plot, but using her for TERF propaganda about groomers is unforgivable Romula'an is almost a good storyline, provided you don't know anything about genetics, Romulans or how "Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow" went Why is Marie's professional future wrapped up in a plot from I Love Lucy? Pike uses Marie's chronic condition to try to sabotage her career, because apparently their relationship is now a horror story from r/BestofRedditorUpdates You have to be really incompetent to come up with a dance-off that we hate this much!

It's documentary time! Anika and Liz look straight into the camera and share their feelings about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' "What Is Starfleet?", including... We have complicated feelings about this episode! It interrogates the documentary as a form of propaganda, but also interrogates the Federation in bad faith?  SNW is not equipped to deal with Israel/Palestine or Ukraine/Russia through allegory Liz would like to apologise to the Spanish speaking population of Earth for her pronunciation of "Beto" This is an episode about journalism that doesn't want the audience to ask too many questions Anika appreciates the messiness of this story Did we not? Have a whole Prime Directive? About not getting involved in foreign wars?  SNW has a lot of the same problems as Voyager We did not need a self-harm story from Spock, anymore than we needed an animal harm story from Pike It's not enough that now everyone joins Starfleet because of trauma, but now everyone is alone and friendless until they are assigned to the hero ship It's so unfair? How people keep bringing up that murder M'Benga did? It's actually really triggering for him?  Anika explains how Starfleet is like the spirit of Norway

Anika and Liz battle an ancient and unbeatable enemy: grimdark anti-morality in Star Trek. We're discussing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' "The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail", an episode with all the ingredients of Star Trek except its soul... This feels like a backdoor pilot for a series which has been around for nearly 60 years Why are we spending so much time developing James Kirk instead of the regulars? We have had a whole movie trilogy about Kirk learning to be a good captain! Take a drink every time Anika says this should have been an Una episode! SNW does not understand why people love watching Kirk and Spock together, and we say that as people who don't ship K/S It's weird how Kirk's characterisation in Strange New Worlds has so little to do with "Where No Man Has Gone Before". We have never asked this question before, and we hope to never ask it again, but: do we need more Gary Mitchell up in here? How much was season 3 impacted by the strikes? Pike sending La'an into danger while he hangs back is not a good look "I wasn't sad about killing 7,000 people until I found out they were human" is bad ethics and bad Star Trek How many NFTs do we think Pelia owned?

Anika and Liz beam down to a nice planet where nothing bad happens and everyone leaves with the same amount of eyeballs they started with. WAIT, NO, we're discussing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' "Through the Lens of Time"... This once again felt like several unrelated episodes smushed together Like season 5 of Discovery, this video game is on easy mode La'an is completely out of character in this episode, being both stupid and mean in a misogynistic way (NEVER date Spock, he is BAD FOR WOMEN) Since when was trust a problem between Spock and Christine? Hey, a queer-coded male character! Wait, nevermind SNW doesn't have enough episodes to tell these stories We are no longer interested in Uhura/Beto The Gorn, the Vezda, and setting up for an Aliens v Predator story

Anika and Liz are here, and we hunger for braincells! Unfortunately, before we can celebrate our favourite episode of the season so far, we have to talk about the Spock/La'an of it all... When Anika said she shipped Spock/La'an, she didn't mean in canon! "I want to slut shame Spock, and not in an ironic way." At this point it's gonna look pretty bad if Spock DOESN'T hook up with Uhura This episode has literally the same ending as "Charades" AND NOW on to the rest of the episode, which was perfectly solid and did not deserve this The show within a show: Sanctuary Moon intensifies Brace yourself, Liz has nothing but praise for Anson Mount's performance as TK Burrows Lucille Ball and Ida Lupino, honouring the women who worked behind the scenes in Hollywood Everyone was great, but Melissa Navia stole the whole show "It's 'Our Man Bashir' and it's 'The Big Goodbye', but just for a moment, it was 'Far Beyond the Stars'."

Anika and Liz go on a nice road trip to pick some flowers, and nothing bad happens to anyone.  Okay, fine, we are discussing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 3, "Shuttle to Kenfori", including... First of all, WHAT IS HAPPENING ON REBECCA ROMIJN'S HEAD Season 3 has a recurring motif where a woman states explicitly what she wants, and her romantic partner decides to do the opposite Batel and M'Benga both tell Pike repeatedly that Batel has the right to make her own medical choices, and Pike never actually agrees "I really have to finish my Tuvok/Azetbur fan fiction." RIP Liz's Klingon wife Our only beef with Erica's storyline is that it worked by making Una hold the idiot ball Joseph M'Benga: the only doctor in Starfleet who respects people's privacy

Anika and Liz put on their cutest wedding outfits and settle in to discuss episode 2 of Strange New Worlds' third season: "Wedding Bell Blues". Liz is gonna try not to talk about Pike. Anika is going to do her best not to implode. It's fun!  This episode was engineered in a lab to target Anika personally Is this a mean-spirited commentary on shippers?  We did not need a second sequel to "The Q and the Gray". Or a first sequel. Or "The Q and the Gray".  Christine: I don't want any big romantic gesturesSpock: Big romantic gesture, got it It's weird how we're being gaslit into thinking Korby is a decent guy "It's gonna be really hard for me to not talk about dinosaurs on my podcast." We're so happy for an Orgetas subplot that we're not even mad it's the same as Detmer in season 3 of Discovery Batel is firmly in the Girlfriend Box, not the Captain Box The snake/garden of Eden/Taylor Swift's Reputation era styling of Christine's "wedding dress" was a … choice

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is back, baby! Anika and Liz fight off some Gorn and settle in to discuss the premiere!  (We did not realise, when we recorded, that "Hegemony" part 2 would be dropping along with "Wedding Bell Blues", so we're only discussing that first episode now.) This is certainly an episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Is Chris Pike the human embodiment of a Democratic Party fundraising email? Are men too emotional to be in command? Pelia is single-handedly inventing Scotty Thank God we've confirmed that Ortegas is the pilot and flies the ship, we were really confused on that point We are really optimistic for La'an's story to keep evolving this season "They are actively trying to destroy Christine Chapel, and I take it personally." There's some worrying stuff in this episode, and even more alarming comments made by Akiva Goldsman at the premiere We are very much in favour of religion in Star Trek, but Pike praying before telling his girlfriend her consent and bodily autonomy don't matter is… The USS Pablo Picasso was … a choice Concept: Christine and Marie should ditch their boyfriends and date each other We're glad Captain Batel isn't dead; now we're concerned she's gonna get the Bix ending Has SNW killed Pike/Una as a thing people ship?

Anika and Liz let their hair down, and as it tumbles over their shoulders in perfect beach waves identical to the hair of every other woman on television in the 2020s, they return to their discussion of hair and hair styling in Star Trek... Liz has a theory about why Janeway's early hair was … like that. And we're sorry, but it does involve Margaret Thatcher and Madeleine Albright Enterprise: the end of the torturous updo WASP beauty standards, "professionalism" and Michael Burnham The Romulans of season 1 of Picard (yes, Anika is going to wax lyrical about the Romulannisters, and you WILL like it) Every single woman in season 3 of Star Trek: Picard except Raffi has American Girl Doll Samantha hair (Anika will explain American Girl Dolls and Samantha) (Una and Batel have The Hair too) Tasha's hair did not necessarily signify queerness in the 1980s, but Ortegas's hair absolutely does today, and so it's weird that they don't … you know …  We actually don't have much to say about Pike's hair, save that it looks … sticky

Anika and Liz put their hair up and settle in to discuss the most pressing topic of our time -- hairstyles in Star Trek.  We talked for so long that we wound up splitting this into a two-parter, which is PEAK Antimatter Pod, but in this first half, we discuss... Janice Rand, Marie Antoinette and Sabrina Carpenter Pavel Chekov, The Monkees and appealing to girls WASP beauty standards, "professionalism" and Deanna Troi Tasha Yar and the changing meanings of short hair on women since 1987 "I'm sorry, I'm thinking of Reagan again, and it makes me angry." Beverly's hair is always changing, but without much intentionality behind it Sisko's hair tells a story (sometimes that story is about racism) Kira's "busy suburban mother of a toddler" hair

Anika and Liz put on their least comfortable lounging clothes and settle in to discuss Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 6, episode 22, "Suspicions". Why is Beverly Crusher hosting an astrophysics conference? And other questions that will forever go unanswered However, this episode, which makes no sense in the context of TNG, makes a LOT of sense in the context of Star Trek: Picard, and its theme of marginalised people doing SCIENCE is resonant in 2025 You're not gonna believe this, but you can't actually just substitute Beverly for Geordi and Worf and not make any other changes to a story Breaking down the Star Trek monocultures This unremarkable episode has one of Picard's best speeches in the entire franchise Beverly Crusher puts on heels and pantyhose to lounge around at home, because athleisurewear had not yet been invited in 1993 PITCH: the next streaming movie should be about Philippa Georgiou and Guinan DOING A HEIST

It's our 200th episode! A victory for quantity over quality and our small, chill audience of friends! To celebrate, Anika and Liz are talking about Star Trek: Open A Channel - A Woman's Trek, Nana Visitor's book about women in Star Trek.  Open A Channel is much more substantial than just girl power feminism. How Lucille Ball was erased from Star Trek's narrative The throughline of mentorship We gently interrogate Nana Visitor's second wave biases We also have two separate (but related) rants about Janice Rand and the "glorified secretary" concept Hair Trek Marina Sirtis versus … a lot of people Bodyshaming from fandom. "The idea that fat people should not exist in your utopia is really horrible and RFK Jr coded." The editorial decision to exclude Michelle Hurd

Anika and Liz don their sparkliest shirts and biggest earrings, and sit down to watch Star Trek: Of Gods And Men, a fan film starring Nichelle Nichols, Alan Ruck, Walter Koenig and more. You can watch it here, or -- in a much smaller window -- watch an unauthorised HD remaster.  We're in our Alan Ruck era, but we were not prepared for the unbelievable hotness of Garrett Wang, or the SURPRISE LIBERTARIANISM. We take … issue. With the timeline-changing catalyst.  This comment from a Redditor who claims to have worked on the production sets it in context.  Of Gods and Men is in conversation with the other science fiction of its era (2006-2008) in an interesting way. Nichelle Nichols carried this movie, and it is tragic she never got a showcase like this in official Trek Alternate Universe Chekov is a LIBERTARIAN FREEDOM FIGHTER with an unspeakable wig Alan Ruck and Chase Masterton have great chemistry The costumes are … hmm. Well. You should know that the entire time Anika is talking about Alien Nation, Liz was thinking of Coneheads

Liz takes a deep dive into Usenet archives and tells Anika about fandom's earliest discussions of Star Trek: Deep Space 9! (Please note, we are still having audio problems -- despite literally nothing changing in our set ups, Liz's feed is echoing on Anika's channel. This means Anika had to be muted for a lot of the time. At this point we may have to get two tin cans and a really big ball of string to record…)  What was Usenet? (Please do not fact check Liz on the technical details.) And who was using it? The initial response to DS9 before "Emissary" aired… …and after. Here's Roger Tang's 5 January 1993 post with his impressions: "EMISSARY betrayed far too many of the storytelling flaws that have plague[d] TNG over the last two-three years." The very gendered language of the era: Picard and Bashir are "weenies", Dax and Kira are "chicks", but Dax is also a "bimbo" or "airhead" and Kira "has balls". And that's before we get to the slurs… Anika defends Terry Farrell from the Trekkies of 32 years ago. We may not be a Pittcast, but we ARE ride or die for Trinity Santos, thank you for asking. Michael Lee Jacobs' commentary on "Emissary": "It was almost painful to watch TNG right after the two wonderful hours of DS9 this evening." How much are these Usenet posters representative of the wider fandom? Where were other conversations taking place?  Babylon 5 was The Orville of the 1990s, in terms of its fans coming into Star Trek spaces to say, "Stop watching that new Trek with the Black lead, this show with the white dude is way better!" A really fascinating (and incomplete) debate about whether the Garak/Bashir interactions in "Past Prologue" were intended as a homophobic depiction of queerness. A bunch of straight men say no!  The one thing from this era (and the years following it) that we would like to bring back is people sharing their long-form thoughts on new episodes of TV. Like this post on "Duet" which Liz didn't get around to talking about! Finally, shout out to this prediction, a week after "Emissary" aired, which was completely wrong but also … kind of right?

Anika and Liz apply a normal amount of hair gel and step into a grim alternate universe to discuss Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Yesterday's Enterprise", including... Is this TNG's best episode? It could be! This story turns on Picard absolutely trusting the word of a Black woman Rachel Garrett was Liz's very first female starship captain The original premise for this episode is FULLY BONKERS "Yesterday's Enterprise" takes a completely novel approach to writing Tasha: what if she's just good at her job?  We engage in a bit of Sela Discourse, because why not? "Yesterday's Enterprise" sets the template for Discovery

Anika and Liz are joined by guest Jonathan to discuss a movie Jonathan calls "the greatest Star Trek movie ever made": Star Trek: Generations. Our feels run the spectrum: Jonathan loves it, Liz loves everything except the plot and script, and Anika is … not a fan.  Everything that happens on the Enterprise B is the fault of Starfleet PR This is a movie that mistrusts nostalgia, but also believes really strongly in heterosexual domesticity, which makes for an interesting internal conflict Generations gives us the very first glimpse of the fourth estate in the world of Star Trek Anika argues that Picard's arc in this film is necessary for season 3 of Star Trek: Picard to work Liz and Anika have a LOT of feelings about Rene Picard Jonathan suggests that modern nostalgia-driven franchise media is the Nexus. "The '90s are something that everybody wants to go back to, and I promise you, you do not want to go back." It's funny how Kirk's fantasy life is basically cosplaying as Chris Pike (SNW edition) Is the Nexus the real villain of this movie?

Anika and Liz are here to discuss the NEW and WIDELY REVILED streaming movie Star Trek: Section 31. And here's Antimatter Pod's hottest take yet: we ... liked it? Not because it's good! (It's not!) But ... well, have a listen while we discuss... We feel cheated that we didn't get series that Erika Lippoldt and Bo-yeon Kim wrote But is it Star Trek? Yes. Next question! We are intrigued by Georgiou's decision to go into the hospitality industry Rachel Garrett is not quite a fully-fledged character, but she has enough potential that we're sad we'll probably never Kasey Ruhl in the role again Farscape, Alias and Enterprise vibes Is Zeph a transphobic joke in human form?  The costumes by far were the best part of the movie and we have a lot to say about Rachel Garrett's collection of blue pageboy wigs