Anika and Liz are not sports people, but they’re willing to watch from the sidelines as we discuss Star Trek: Starfleet Academy‘s “Vitus Reflux”, including…
- No stakes! Only shenanigans! It’s a Gen Z “Take Me Out To The Holosuite”!
- The War College kids are facing obsolescence and acting out, but their strategy, with overtones of hazing and sexuality, is also evidence of why the War College is being phased out
- This episode understands that growing up with access to sports is a privilege
- Starfleet Academy is not Euphoria, thank goodness
- Darem is queer! Lura and Jett are dating! Kyle is totally into Jay-Den!
- If any Star Trek is gonna give us polycule drama…
Transcript
(Please note this transcript was generated automatically by Apple Podcasts, and though it was edited by a human, some errors may remain.)
Liz: Hi, Antimatter friends, Liz here. Just ran into some problems with the edit. First, Anika’s recording froze and got out of sync with mine, so I wound up using our backup recording. And secondly, towards the end — well, at the end, it turns out — my computer decided to chuck a wobbly. First, I lost Discord, then my recording froze. And you know what? I took that as a sign from God that we were simply done for the day. So this is not quite the episode I had planned, but we actually said just about everything we needed to say.
Finally, I do have to apologize. I own the second loudest desk chair in podcasting, the loudest obviously belonging to Liam of Well There’s Your Problem. This is me making a commitment to you that sometime in 2026, I will buy a new chair. I’m going to go into the shop and I’m going to twirl in all the chairs and see how much noise they make. Anyway, thank you for your forbearance. On with the episode!
Anika: Welcome to Antimatter Pod, a Star Trek podcast where we discuss fashion, feminism, subtext and subspace, hosted by Anika and Liz.
Anika: Today, we are discussing Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, “Vitus Reflex”.
Liz: First of all, I think it’s very brave of them to put the word “reflux” in an episode title, because I just think heartburn.
Anika: Yes. Yes. I was worried, honestly.
Liz: There was a point about halfway through this episode where I was like, this feels like a Lower Decks episode. It has no stakes whatsoever. No stakes, only shenanigans. Then I realized that I was having a lot of fun. Did it need to be 61 minutes? Maybe not, but I think it’s actually quite smart to dedicate the third episode of the series to nothing but character development.
Anika: When we were talking about the first two episodes, and how the first one was just a lot of action and quips and flashy stuff, all those kinds of things, and then the second one was much quieter, and it was just world-building through relationship-building — and this one was even quieter than that. I think it’s great. I actually like this trajectory for this particular series.
My first note here is that they’re bringing on all the tropes for an Academy series. They’re really leaning into it all, and I think that’s very promising because they’re treating the purpose of the series — young people in an academic setting, learning about what Starfleet is, what the Federation is, what any of it all means — and making that the actual plot. It’s not a college AU of TOS. You know what I mean?
Liz: It’s also that these kids are kids, and they can’t determine the fate of the universe week after week. So, you know, last week we did have big high-level political stuff happening, but it was the kids watching the adults at work and making little nudges here and there. And this is purely them affecting the world at the level that they’re capable of making change at this point. And I think that’s important.
In writing, in plotting, there’s a concept called the promise of the premise. So you take your characters and you bring them into their new setting, their new world, and then you play with that for a few chapters. You explore that, you have fun with it, and then you bring in the extra complication of the plot. I think Prodigy did that, and I think Starfleet Academy is doing that.
Anika: I think that’s wonderful, yes.
Liz: I don’t want every episode to be like this, but I really appreciated it for the world-building and the character development and the nonsense.
Anika: Right, and we care more about these people and what they’re doing. I just think that the way this episode built out the relationship between Lura and Nahle — who are totally background in the actual action of the episode — it really built that relationship, and I think that’s so clever and so well done.
Liz: Yeah, we see them as captain and number one, and as colleagues who are getting to know each other, and who like each other a lot, but are still building the trust that forms the foundation of a really good captain-first officer relationship. Or captain, first officer, principal, vice principal — all of that.
Anika: Right.
Liz: The stuff with the rival school is so cheesy, but I really enjoy it. I feel like I should be more like, ‘I don’t know about this War College thing, it doesn’t seem very Star Trek.’ But I’m just really curious to know where it came from and what its future will be. Are these kids going to be incorporated into the Academy? And what does the War College do? After they’ve graduated, what kind of work are they doing?
Anika: Because at this point, the War College is the traditional, the history. The Burn was 120 years, right? So for those of us who do not live for 400 years, that’s a lifetime, you know? People alive now don’t remember pre-War College.
Liz: Yeah, yeah.
Anika: And so the War College is, as the Vulcan says, the proven way to do things. And that’s interesting. But now that we’ve brought back Starfleet Academy, I agree with you — there’s a tension there.
Liz: They’re looking at their own obsolescence.
Anika: You can see from the War College’s point of view that they can imagine — in a perfect universe, the school with “War” in the title is not going to be the one — that even they want to retain power, and they want it to not be disappeared, right? We want to live in the future where the War College is no longer necessary. But they are the War College, so that’s scary. And clinging to the status quo — there’s a reason that it’s a Vulcan and a Romulan.
Liz: Oh, yeah, yeah. The instigators. These are peoples who do not adapt well to change. I also think this is the Rayner story again, in terms of learning that the universe has changed. And we don’t know if Rayner went to the War College or if he was just plucked out of the Kellerun War and joined Starfleet from there.
I feel like Vance is more likely to have gone through an apprenticeship midshipman sort of system rather than going to the War College, because he doesn’t seem that War College-y.
Anika: He does not seem very War College-y at all.
Liz: Yeah, yeah. The universe is changing and the War College kids are justifiably concerned about their future, and they’re coping by being arseholes and mean kids, which I think is actually very realistic for this age group.
Anika: Absolutely.
Liz: Yeah, yeah. And again, for the War College to be aggressive at the midship games.
Liz: The first prank they play — beaming kids out of the locker room, the co-ed locker room — I’m just going to note that has sexual overtones of hazing and the sort of problematic behaviors that go on in fraternities when they’re given too much freedom and not enough supervision or boundaries. That’s interesting, and it tells us a lot about the culture of the War College and why it has to change.
Anika: Right. I mean, it’s the go-to — steal the towel so that they are stuck wandering around naked.
Liz: Yeah.
Anika: Yeah. I feel like it’s even in the Parent Trap remake. It does that. So it’s a very standard part of a prank war. But yeah, it is also — there are concerns. Poor Caleb.
Liz: I feel bad for Caleb, but I also feel like he has a lot more self-confidence for dealing with this situation than someone like Jay-Den, who doesn’t have as much self-confidence. I don’t think it’s coincidence that it’s Caleb and Darem who end up in their underwear or naked, and the girls and the less confident boy are not in that situation.
I almost wonder if the War College kids targeted them deliberately that way, knowing that it would be less traumatic for them. Because these kids are assholes, but they’re not monsters.
Anika: I don’t like the one without a name — Asshole Vulcan. I don’t know his name.
Liz: In a future episode, it sounds like he’s called Robbie, but I simply cannot believe we really have a Vulcan named Robbie. And also then I just think of Dr. Robbie from The Pitt, but he can be Robbie for now until he gets a real name.
Anika: Okay, I actually love Vulcan Robbie.
Liz: Yeah, he’s so great.
Anika: But yeah, he’s just annoying. He’s just yet another asshole Vulcan in Star Trek. But Dzolo, the Romulan mean girl, and Kyle, the precious, wonderful queer plant boy.
Liz: I love Kyle so much.
Anika: I know. They have so much personality with so little. I’m very happy with them.
Liz: I love that we have Kyle to prove that not all of the War College kids — it’s not just Tarima who’s a good one, it’s also Kyle. If he can become the keystone of the group, the clique, then they can be more productive. But also, maybe it’s possible that reunification was just an opportunity for Romulans and Vulcans to be bad influences on each other.
Anika: For real. I really love that it’s a Vulcan and a Romulan. With Robbie, you see this entire lineage behind him.
Liz: Oh, yeah.
Anika: I believe it. It’s very realistic to the rest of Star Trek’s legacy and I love it. It’s very, very fun. So I’m going to make a Jem and the Holograms reference.
Liz: Wow. Okay.
Anika: I know. Kyle is Stormer.
Liz: Oh, yes.
Anika: The nice Misfit who just wants to be in a band and be cool and do fun things. He’s never overtly purposefully mean. It’s just sort of following along, and every once in a while he stands up to the other two.
Liz: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is so apt. I love that. Kyle and Stormer, BFFs. I also think that Vulcan Robbie — this whole episode is a throwback to “Take Me Out to the Holosuite”, which gave us our first mean Vulcan. Robbie is really following in that. I really feel like it’s intentional that he’s Vulcan, and this is “Take Me Out to the Holosuite”, the Gen Z remix.
Anika: Yes, absolutely.
Liz: It’s silly, but it’s fun. We learn a lot about how Captain Ake expects her kids to learn, and what she expects them to learn.
Anika: Yes. Obviously her teaching practices are a little unconventional, but it’s just delightful and wonderful and amazing, and I love her. This is what I mean about how Lura and Ake get to know each other by the end, and they realize that their different approaches can actually complement each other.
Liz: Yes. It really is that great captain-first officer dynamic where the captain is more chill, and the first officer is the hard-ass, which is how it went at most of my schools. The principal was relatively chill and really only came out for disciplinary stuff for the really important things, and it was the vice principals you had to worry about.
Anika: Absolutely. It’s always the vice principal who is the authority that you have to be afraid of.
Liz: Yeah. And then we have Nahle’s own rival in terms of Cal Rek — is it Cal Rek, the guy running the War College?
Anika: I think it’s Kelrec.
Liz: Kelrec. Cool. I kind of really like him because you expect the Chancellor of the War College to be this hyper-masculine soldier type — a mirror Lorca-ish type of guy, a Rayner type of guy, the type of soldier that Pete Hegseth would approve of — and instead he’s a total dweeb.
Anika: Absolutely. He has these obsessive-compulsive tendencies. This is the way it’s supposed to be done and you are not supposed to be wearing that — why are you doing this? I love their dynamic because she just does not care and she’s just going to poke fun at him.
But similarly to the way that you said the War College students don’t take advantage of Jay-Den or Sam, and it’s Darem and Caleb who get the worst of it because they can take it — I feel like Nahle is doing the same with Cal, where she’s riding right up to that line of, I’m going to annoy you to no end, but I’m not going to cross over to do anything harmful.
Liz: Yeah. She makes fun of him, but she’s never disrespectful to him in public. In public, they present a united front.
Anika: Exactly.
Liz: It really is a fun mom/strict dad dynamic, which is a bit of a flip from the normal stereotype and I respect it.
Anika: I loved that she was dressed all in black in the previous episode, and she’s just all in white in this episode. It really feels like she’s playing mind games with him.
Liz: I am obsessed with Nahle’s wardrobe. She has clearly come out of 2020 with no hard clothes in her wardrobe. It’s just soft clothes all the way and very few shoes.
Anika: The way she puts her feet up on the back of his couch.
Liz: Yes.
Anika: That whole scene was delightful. His tea-stirring lesson, and he was just trying so hard, and she was just lounging on his sofa — it was amazing.
Liz: It’s really great, and I feel bad for him because he is socially out of his depth, but I also feel like this is going to be good for him. Probably Nahle is going to learn something from him too.
I really appreciate that we do get interesting dynamics between the adults as well as the kids, and we do get glimpses of the adult side of the story. The recruitment ads — is this actually a good way to promote ourselves? Because the oversight committee is coming. Stuff like that.
Anika: That ad was terrible.
Liz: Oh my god, it was so bad.
Anika: I think that the Paramount and CBS merchandise teams are responsible for that ad. I was like, oh, so they’re even bad at marketing in fiction.
Liz: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Anika: That’s incredible. It’s meta — wild, layers upon layers of bad marketing.
Liz: It’s amazing. It goes all the way to the top.
So I’m not really interested in calica as a sport. I’m sure we’re going to get people playing calica the way we get people playing Quidditch, and good on those nerds for finding a sport. But it’s fun to watch, it’s just not really my jam.
I think I’m more interested in it for what it says about the characters — that Genesis and Darem are equally skilled, but she’s a better leader. And it’s the kids who grew up in privilege, or close to the imperial core, like Genesis and Darem and Tarima, who have experience with this and who are into the sport; and kids like Jay-Den and Caleb, who have not grown up with that privilege, are new to the idea and kind of hesitant.
And I feel like Caleb really wants to play, but he’s also like, I’ve never been a child and I’ve never played. I don’t really know how.
Anika: I think that’s absolutely Caleb. I really liked that Genesis was respectful of Jay-Den’s desire to not join in. But she signed Caleb up and basically tricked him and forced him into it because she understood that Caleb needed that push — that Caleb wasn’t going to do it on his own, but he actually really wanted to. And that he would enjoy it if he got there. That he would learn something about himself too.
And he’s really good. It was such a great throwaway line where Jett says, “lone wolf has game,” because that’s exactly it — he’s really good at it because those are skills that he was required to learn. To run and duck and hide and shoot are totally things that Caleb learned probably when he was eight. So he’s really good at it, but it wasn’t a game when he was doing it at 12 and 16.
He doesn’t know how to play basketball — it was very clear in that scene that he doesn’t actually know how to play basketball. He was just sort of following her lead and doing what was expected of him. He never once tried to actually throw the ball.
Liz: No, no. And I don’t play a team sport, but I respect team sports for how you can build a community around a team. Obviously, this is a way to get our main characters on the same side as each other, even though Darem is an asshole. And Jay-Den prefers not to be part of the sport, but he is part of the group. We even have a literal mascot in terms of Tarima’s brother.
Anika: Ocam — he has a name.
Liz: Ocam, okay, good.
Anika: I don’t know how it’s spelled, but it’s Ocam. Yeah. First of all, I have to say, I love him.
Liz: Oh my gosh, he’s such a gift.
Anika: He’s such a disaster and he’s wonderful. I’m so glad that he gets to be the mascot, because he is. And how he was introduced to us is clumsy and a mess, and I’m just like, he’s perfect in every way.
Liz: Yes, yeah.
Anika: And as a contrast to Tarima, it’s so good. I love her being good at sports, and good at presenting herself and being a diplomat and being a leader of her own type. And he’s just happy to be here. Yeah, yeah. That’s just a fun dynamic, I think. The overachieving sister.
Liz: But also, he seems pretty comfortable with who he is and where he is.
Anika: Yes, and she is absolutely not.
Liz: Yeah, no, no. She literally has an implant to flash red when she’s having strong feelings.
Anika: Can you imagine?
Liz: I don’t need that because I have Bluesky and I can just see from my posting patterns when I’m having strong feelings.
Anika: I really liked that moment when it blinked red and Caleb noticed and he said, did I do something? They created this situation and it was just like, oh, they’re going to be a mess. But I love it. I’m into it.
Liz: I like how Caleb flirts with her because he’s not overbearing, he’s not sleazy, he doesn’t demand her attention, and he backs off when he senses that she needs him to back off. But Tarima is sending a lot of mixed signals.
Anika: Yes.
Liz: Because that’s what you do when you’re 18.
Anika: Yeah, she doesn’t know who she is or what she wants. And she feels a lot of pressure because she thinks that there’s something really, really wrong with her, and that she has to fix that before she can be, you know, a full person again — the most Anika-coded character ever.
But I think that because of those things — she’s attracted to him, but she’s afraid of that because that’s a feeling and it’s a big feeling.
Liz: Yeah. And I also feel like, you know, you read about how younger people today, college-aged people, are not hooking up as much as older generations did, and they’re more intimidated by the emotional side of relationships.
And sometimes when they are hooking up, there’s an understanding that it’s not exclusive, that it’s casual, that there’s no feelings behind it, because that’s an imposition. You don’t want to trauma dump on someone. So I feel like Tarima’s experience kind of reflects what a lot of young people are going through.
Anika: Yeah. It’s rough out there.
Liz: Yeah.
Anika: It’s a really, really hard time to come of age.
Liz: I mean, I don’t know if there’s ever an easy time to come of age, but I think one of the things that I like about Starfleet Academy as a series is that it’s kind of engaged with the 2020s.
Anika: Yes. In a way that is not Euphoria. I don’t know if you’ve seen Euphoria, but it’s not that. It’s not trauma-dumping on us, I guess.
Liz: No. I was thinking of watching Euphoria because I really like Zendaya, and then I read the Wikipedia summary and I was like, oh, this is not for me.
But Star Trek is a heightened reality. These kids are going through things that no normal person in the world will ever go through. But at the same time, there’s an emotional realism to it — we’ve all felt like an outsider, we’ve all felt like we don’t fit in.
I do feel like — I think I said this last week, but Caleb’s story feels like a really good version of the first-generation college student experience. But then you have Darem and Genesis, who both have very high parental expectations that have messed them up. Genesis deals with it by being incredibly empathetic, whereas Darem copes by being selfish.
Anika: Trying to control every situation.
Liz: They’re both trying to control every situation in different ways.
Anika: Yeah.
Liz: Genesis is less toxically manipulative than Darem, but they actually have very similar approaches. Just Genesis is more open to other people’s needs. And I think that’s a sort of gendered thing, that girls are expected to extend empathy outwards, and boys are expected to demand empathy.
I like them both, but I am actually looking forward to getting into some of Genesis’s weaknesses. Because right now she’s super competent, and super smart, and super great, and she supports her friends and they support her. And I love that. I think she’s fantastic. But also, now I want to crack the facade. I want Genesis to fail, and then get back up again.
Anika: Based on the fact that this episode began and ended with Darem’s letters — similar to the personal logs of Strange New Worlds, where every character got to do a personal log at some point — I feel like we’re going to probably go around and get everybody’s little episode where they get their moment. It wasn’t that Darem was the main character of this episode, but he bookended it.
And I feel like at some point we’re going to get Genesis-bookended episodes, and we’ll get to hear more of her inner dialogue, more monologue. And then that’s when we’ll have a better handle on what her flaws are.
Liz: Yeah.
Anika: We’ll be opened up to it. She did lose it in this episode.
Liz: True.
Anika: So it’s there. It’s coming. I can see how we’re going to get the cracks. It’s just obviously all wrapped up in her family and the family expectations, similarly to Darem’s. It was another, oh, these two are on the same type of path and they react in different ways.
Liz: Yeah. I feel like this is sort of how I envision Cornwell and Lorca at the Academy, where they’re roughly equal and they’re both very intense about their success and eventually they become friends and more. But also, at some point, Darem is going to be swapped with an evil Mirror Universe counterpart.
Anika: Our little fish boy.
Liz: I have this mental list of characters most likely to die, and of the kids, Darem is close to the top because I can see him heroically sacrificing himself for others.
I’m mostly concerned about Nahle because A, Holly Hunter, and B, the wise old mentor always dies — and Gandalf gets to come back as Gandalf the White, but Obi-Wan is only ever a Force ghost. And eventually Ewan McGregor.
Anika: Okay, so I don’t want to talk about who’s going to die.
Liz: No, no, no.
Anika: I understand that this is the way that everything works and I’m mad about it, but anyway — Darem already tried to sacrifice himself in the first episode.
Liz: That’s true.
Anika: Maybe that’s enough.
Liz: He’s definitely the one who has that capacity. And I know you know this about me — I hate the redemption-death trope so much.
Anika: Oh no, I know.
Liz: I don’t want this to happen.
Anika: He can die, but he is set up for it.
Liz: Yeah. I am simply concerned. That’s all. Let’s talk about more important things, like the queer representation — that Darem is queer and poly, and Jett and Lura are dating and Jett calls her Kitten, which is precious.
And I feel like, because I’ve seen the later episodes, I went back and paid attention to Kyle this time, which is how I remembered his name — he is always checking out men and especially Jay-Den.
Anika: So I didn’t read your notes until after. And I clocked, when they have that scene where Jay-Den is distracting them — quote-unquote — with his quote-unquote humor, I was like, oh, Kyle is super into him. I was like, is this going to be our queer ship amongst the younglings? Because I am here for it.
Liz: I still think that people are going to ship Caleb and Darem, but also Caleb is very much for Tarima. And I would like to think that they would have a queer main character, but I’m not sure — it’s still Paramount.
Whereas I think Jay-Den might possibly be gay. And I feel like Kyle is definitely queer. And I really hope that Darem’s identity is more than a throwaway line about someone he dated once, the way it wound up being with Christine.
Anika: Christine, yes. But I mean, multiple polycule underwater hookups is great. That should be a T-shirt. And I hope everybody latches on to it, because that’s exciting. And the fact that Caleb says it.
Liz: Yes.
Anika: I mean, so there’s a pool.
Liz: Yeah, yeah.
Anika: Just saying. There’s a Starfleet Academy pool.
Liz: And also, if any Star Trek is going to give us canonical polycule drama, it’s this one.
Anika: Exactly.
Liz: Everyone on Discovery was way too well-adjusted. Strange New Worlds won’t go there. I think it has to be this one.
Anika: Because it’s the teen drama, the teen soap — Gossip Girl. It happened on both versions of Gossip Girl. And also because it’s the far future. And they’re aliens. And they can get away with more on this show than they can in a Strange New Worlds where one of the main characters is Spock. Even though Spock would be down.
Liz: Yeah. Strange New Worlds has the attention of the mainstream and the loudest and worst side of fandom, and that’s who it appeals to. But also, expectations in YA fiction are changing and there is an assumption of queerness. One trilogy literally just wrapped up with the love triangle becoming a polyamorous situation rather than the girl choosing one or the other. So, yeah. I’m cautiously optimistic about the queer rep.
Anika: Yes. We have at least acknowledged that queer people exist and are in relationships. So, you can move on from there and we’ll see where it goes. But let me tell you, Kyle has a crush on Jay-Den.
Liz: Absolutely. And I really do hope that it’s a slow-burn type of thing, because it’s been so long since Star Trek had a slow-burn relationship. And characters who are stretching it out and the excitement of, oh, my characters stood next to each other, oh, they made eye contact. And especially between two men — the Star Trek fandom hasn’t had that for a while.
Anika: And Jay-Den is so shy and awkward. And yeah, I’m pulling for them. And I would love it to be a slow burn. It would be sweet. Jay-Den is not going to rush into any kind of relationship.
Liz: No, he doesn’t seem that guy.
Anika: And we know nothing about Kyle other than that he’s perfect. I can make up an entire list of headcanons about him. And it would include things like he’s patient, and he’ll just send cute little plants to Jay-Den. He’ll look up what kinds of plants are on Qo’noS, and he will woo him quietly in the background. You know what I mean?
Liz: I think that is so precious and very plausible. And I’m excited to have this situation.
Does this bring us to the shipping news? I feel like this episode is relatively insubstantial and we can move on to the most important phase. Oh no, we need to talk about fashion.
Anika: Yes.
Liz: Obviously, I need warp core pajamas right now.
Anika: Warp core pajamas. That whole scene was such a tour de force of acting because it had those layers again. Nahle was playing angry with you and secretly telling you things at the same time. So Holly Hunter was playing Nahle playing these two different things that are opposed. And it was just so good. And at the same time, the chemistry between Nahle and Caleb over the stupid pajamas — it was so good.
Liz: They just get each other.
Anika: They just get each other. It’s in the smallest ways. And since we’re going to go from fashion to shipping news, I will bring up the chair now. Because at their last scene, Caleb figured out everything that she was doing and that she was the original prankster. So again, he just knows — he sees the connections and he can put it together because they are so alike.
Liz: He’s super smart, yes.
Anika: But in that scene, he was lounged out on the green chair the whole time. The one that in the previous episode he said, you should put this chair in my quarters for me — that should be part of the deal when we’re negotiating what I get out of doing the tour. And so he loves that chair. And I just feel like it’s his chair now in her quarters, her office — but it’s his chair. And it looks very cozy and plush. And it’s like he never had a bed.
So I can imagine that just being so comfortable for him, because it just looks like a pillow, a giant pillow, you know? And it’s important to me that it’s green, because in this particular show, which is really into the plant imagery and the plant analogies and the idea of growth and the idea of growing things from a seed and being patient, waiting for them to get there — it’s very clear that plants and flowers and the process of gardening are super important to this show. And so the fact that it’s a moss-green cushion chair that molds to fit him.
Liz: Yeah, yeah.
Anika: I just want to cry about the symbolism of the whole thing. And I know it’s only two episodes and I should get over it. And I’m reading way too much into it, but he loves that chair.
Liz: But also that body language — when they’re sitting on the chair back-to-back, it’s a found family vibe. It’s respect, it’s affection. They already really care about each other, but it doesn’t feel like she’s made him a project. You said last week, this doesn’t feel like a white saviour narrative. It feels like in a way, he’s saving her as well, that their respect is mutual.
Anika: There’s safety — they represent safety to each other. For Caleb, it’s really hard for him to trust people and to trust that he’s somewhere where he wants to be, that that’s okay, that he’s allowed to want to be there, and that he can stay here and it’s not going to just get ripped out from under him. And so he can let down his guard a little when it’s just the two of them at his chair. There’s this level of, I don’t have to put on a show for her.
Liz: Yeah, yeah, which he still does sometimes, but it’s more for her own entertainment than his self-protection.
Anika: Because both of them are people who are always putting on a show in one way or another. Yeah, yeah. It’s almost like this whole thing where he figured out that she was the prankster — it’s like he can see behind the curtains, and she can see behind his curtains, and they can be in on the joke together, even if they’re still performing.
Liz: I think that puts it really well. They enjoy each other’s company, and that makes them enjoyable to watch.
Anika: Yes.
Liz: The other fashion thing I need to talk about is the letter jackets, which are so silly — I don’t understand this as a thing in real life — but they’re also so stylish. If Paramount sees fit to release them as merch, I will try to get one. Obviously, we can never count on Paramount to successfully market its own show.
Anika: But I want one so much. I wore my version of a Star Trek letter jacket to the premiere. I was like, am I going to go glam and wear a space dress? And I put on my space dress. But then I decided that it’s January.
Liz: Yes.
Anika: I was cold in my strapless space dress. And so instead, I wore my Starfleet Academy jacket — the back of the jacket is the Starfleet Academy logo. Amazing. I was like, that makes sense, right? And then I felt really good about it when I got there. And people were like, oh, yeah. And then I saw this episode and I was like, oh, so Michael must have seen this episode when he made his red version of my jacket. We have pictures — I’ll post it. I’m sure they’re in some of the promo pictures. Someone must have been wearing this jacket.
Liz: Oh, yeah. And people have been complaining about it because obviously, what else do Trekkies do?
Anika: That’s all they do. It’s like there aren’t jackets in every other show that people were obsessed with — the Picard jackets. What is the difference?
Liz: Yeah, but those were for old people.
Anika: Oh my God.
Liz: The youth are bad, Anika.
Anika: I am not old. My son says I’m middle-aged, so I am middle-aged, and I still want to wear one. And I just said I wore one. And also, I mean, I work at a university.
Liz: Yeah, yeah. I imagine you see a lot of…
Anika: You can buy the Wesleyan version of this. And it’s very true to life. And you can say, oh, but this is the future, why would we have those? And it’s like, I would like to explain to you that Oxford was founded many hundreds of years ago. Get over yourself. These things are normal.
Liz: Also, this is embarrassing and I would never do it, but I can walk into a shop and buy a Harvard sweatshirt or a University of Michigan sweatshirt here in Australia. And it’s kind of funny because nobody wears the merch that our own universities sell, except for the American exchange students. But I do see people walk around wearing Michigan or Michigan State shirts, which is so funny — why Michigan?
Anika: Hilarious. I really want to know why Michigan. It is a theater school, maybe. Yeah.
Liz: My best friend’s wife went to either Michigan or Michigan State, and I never remember which is which, but she takes the difference very seriously. Because Americans, you guys do take your schools super seriously and I respect that.
Anika: We do. We do take our schools very, very seriously. It’s always hilarious to me that anyone can buy a Harvard or Yale sweatshirt and walk around and pretend that they definitely went to Harvard or Yale.
Liz: Yeah. And I never would, but.
Anika: But yeah, they are a thing. And I had a high school jacket. I had one for swimming — I was on the swim team and I had a high school swim jacket. And I was in the show choir and I had a jacket for that as well.
Liz: Amazing. We didn’t have jackets for clubs or teams, but in 12th grade, everyone gets a jacket or a jersey — a football jersey — and everyone gets their name on it. And honestly, I really miss my jersey. So I’m not mad about the letter jackets and I think they look cool.
And I actually really like all the costumes for this series. You know how in season one of Strange New Worlds and through most of Picard, it looked like they were buying everyone’s clothes at Uniqlo? I don’t get that vibe with Starfleet Academy. Everything looks designed for the show. Everything looks really well made. I would love to find out where they sourced the foot jewelry that Nahle is wearing and if it’s actually comfortable, because mostly it makes her look like she has metal hobbit feet.
The detail that in the showers Caleb is wearing Chinese pillow slides, but in silver — love that, want that, need that. I took my pillow slides to the beach this week and now they’re pretty battered up, so I do need new ones, and I would like them to be silver Star Trek slides.
Anika: Again, Paramount is terrible at this. They ended up cancelling a bunch of their merchandise contracts. So I don’t know who’s going to be making these jackets for them, but I would totally buy — I want everything on screen. And I want the Her Universe version of all of Tarima’s clothes. The thing is that teens and twentysomethings will spend money on this stuff.
Liz: Yeah, yeah.
Anika: And so it’s really nonsense that I don’t expect any of it to exist.
Liz: No, no, it’s not as big a failure as the lack of K-Pop Demon Hunters merch, but yeah.
Anika: So I guess we will hope for the fan versions of our SFA jackets, although apparently Paramount is also going after all of those people.
Liz: Right.
Anika: I’m going to blame Bari Weiss.
Liz: Oh, 100%. Shipping news. I love that Jett and Lura are together, and I love that — wait, who was it that loved that they’re together?
Anika: It was Darem, wasn’t it?
Liz: Yeah, it was Darem.
Anika: It was Darem. Yes. But he was super into it, and it was wonderful. And I’m so glad that they wasted no time to make it clear. And also, what a wonderful reason for Jett to be on the show.
Liz: Yeah.
Anika: Oh my gosh. I mean, I do need to know how they met.
Liz: I need to know when they met. I have so many questions, but I’m excited for this story to unfold.
Anika: Everything about that was adorable. I love cooking together — oh my gosh, all of it. All of it was good.
And also, of anybody who was going to take Darem under their wing and be like, your parents suck, so if you need a mentor, I guess you can come to me — if you have parent questions, you come to me, only in emergencies though, okay, kid? That’s the vibe I was getting. I was like, this is great. They can meet Jett and Lura. They can parent him, but begrudgingly and only as necessary.
Liz: I kind of get — and this is weird — a Sister Michael and Derry Girls vibe with Jett, where she really cares about the kids but under no circumstances is she going to let them find that out. It has to be kept secret.
Anika: Exactly. That was a lovely scene and I liked the insight. And also, sometimes you just need that person who’s going to sit you down and say, just set some boundaries around your emotions.
Liz: Protect yourself.
Anika: It sucks. It’s hard. It hurts. And I’m sorry you have to go through that, but in the end it’ll be better if you’re not depending on them for your sense of self-worth.
Liz: Yeah, because they are not dependable people, and ultimately it’s going to be bad for you if you keep relying on them and they never come through. His little story about his recital and them walking out — you’re an asshole, but I understand that you don’t know better because your parents are assholes.
Anika: Right. He doesn’t know better because his examples were terrible.
Liz: And I feel like if we meet his parents, we’re going to find out that they are the sorts of bullies that he is, just in grown-up form. And this is why he needs to learn better. This is why that was his first instinct on coming to the Academy. And yeah, luckily he has friends who put up with his behaviour now — put up with it, but also call it out.
Anika: Call it out. Right. I liked that actually. He told that story and did the whole apology — he didn’t pull her out of the turbolift and say, let’s go talk about this quietly, just the two of us. He was like, I’m just going to do this here in front of everybody. I think that showed some sense of character.
Liz: Yeah. And then Caleb thinks it’s an act, which I think Caleb is wrong about, but I understand why he feels that way.
Anika: Right. Yes.
Liz: I get the feeling that Caleb has encountered a lot of fake apologies in his life.
Anika: Gosh. Caleb has had more people lie to him than tell him the truth.
Liz: Yeah.
Anika: That’s why it’s important that he has Nahle now. And I’m sure that there will be times when it breaks down, because there’s a lot of history and drama in that relationship.
Liz: But they need to create a foundation from which they can disappoint each other.
Anika: Right. No, that’s a great way to put it. That’s such a wonderful way to put it. Yes. Okay.
Liz: But the other thing is that I am kind of shipping Caleb and Darem — not just because I keep confusing their names, but I just think that they have a tension which is absolutely not intentional. The show doesn’t want us to ship it, but I’m going to anyway.
Anika: You are allowed.
Liz: Thank you.
Anika: I’m not interested in that particular ship.
Liz: I’m not going to go so far as reading or writing fic, but I enjoy their dynamic and I enjoy thinking about what if they accidentally kissed and found that they didn’t hate it.
Anika: My boy-boy ship is Kyle and Jay-Den, which I’ve already given my thoughts on. And my girl-girl is Dzolo and Genesis.
Liz: Yes.
Anika: Because that’s the rivals-to-lovers type of relationship that I’m always about. Mean girl and actively-avoiding-being-mean-girl, but sort of set up for it.
Liz: Yeah.
Anika: Yeah. It would be super easy for her to be a mean girl.
Liz: Yeah. I feel like she has to fight that.
Anika: I think that’s a fun dynamic that they are definitely never going to do, but I hope that there will be some fic for it.
Liz: It’s not something I ship, but I really want Genesis and Tarima to have a scene together because I feel like they have a lot to talk about.
Anika: Yeah. I think it would be hard for them — they’re both very alpha, head-of-the-class types. But they could bond over that.
Liz: Yeah. I just feel like they both have very imposing fathers whose reputations they feel they have to live up to, and I feel like if Tarima would let Genesis in, I think Genesis has a lot of empathy, and maybe Tarima needs a friend who is empathetic but also not trying to date her.
Anika: Maybe.
Liz: Caleb’s not doing anything wrong, I just want to widen Tarima’s social circle for her sake.
Anika: Yes, absolutely. For her sake.
Liz: Yeah.
Anika: So that she’s not just Caleb’s love interest. And not just her brother’s sister. But that she’s not defined solely by those relationships.
Liz: Yeah, yeah. You run that risk when you have a character who is isolated from the rest.
Anika: Right. I’m just going to put it out there that Nahle and Kelrec should be a crack ship. I’m the type of person who’s like, oh, those people were in a scene together, so what if they were then kissing? The rival school adults are absolutely a setup for fun. And their personalities are so divergent.
Liz: Yes.
Anika: That it’s just really fun to imagine.
Liz: Also, it’s a very… we got drunk and kissed at the Christmas party, and now we’re not in a relationship, but we kind of keep kissing at the Christmas party every year.
Anika: Yes. Exactly. I can’t imagine them actually dating. Certainly not publicly.
Liz: No.
Anika: That would never ever happen. But oops, we have this weird, fun relationship that is very on again, off again — not due to any dramas or issues, but just, we’re into it now, and then we’re not, whatever’s happening. But yeah, got drunk at the Christmas party, hooked up, and then it becomes a recurring thing. I think that’s the perfect version of that relationship.
Liz: Yeah. Because I was like, should I be shipping Nahle and Lura? And I’m still open to it, but I need to know more about Lura’s relationship with Jett and their boundaries first. I don’t see Nahle and Jett being a thing somehow.
Anika: No.
Liz: I just don’t get that vibe.
Anika: They’re both quirky — there’s deadpan quirky and flippity-gibbet quirky, you know? And I think that wouldn’t mesh correctly.
Liz: No. I think they can be friends, but they’re not going to be more. I don’t get that vibe. Likewise, I don’t think Nahle is related to Pelia. Just the vibe I get. She’s probably too young to be Pelia’s child, but I definitely feel like Nahle turns up to places and Pelia has been there, and people are like, oh, you’re Nahle? Pelia said you’d pay these debts for her.
Anika: Oh my goodness. I don’t want to be involved in the discourse of, is Nahle related to Pelia because these are the only two people I’ve ever heard of and so they must be. Or any of these other questions of are these people related to this person or that person? I would prefer not.
Liz: No, no, especially because we have so many in-universe nepo babies already that we don’t need the long-distance descendant of Jack Crusher or whatever.
Anika: I mean, they are Nepo babies. They’re just Nepo babies of people we don’t know.
Liz: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. We don’t need to find out that Caleb’s mother is secretly…
Hello? Are you there?
And that’s where it died. So you can find us on social media — Bluesky, Instagram and Tumblr. And we are now on TikTok. We’re hanging out with the kids. The kids are pretty indifferent, as they should be, but give us a follow. And on Mastodon at antimatterpod@tenforward.social.
Okay, see you in a week. Next episode is going to be great. Bye!