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Hey, all.  Once again, keeping it brief before this week’s episode, which gives Nerv’s Chief Medical Officer her moment in the sun.  Stay tuned afterwards for more concept art in The Ready Room.

Let’s boogie!

ACT NOTES:

• Title Page.1: ‘Tunde has returned to the series to direct another episode this week.
• Title Page.2: See The Ready Room for the original pitch this episode’s story is based on.
• Episode Title: Here is Frank Turner’s “Little Life.”

• Page 1, Scene 1: Elsewhere in Trek, Major Kira works with one of her contacts to reinitialize dissident movements and gets caught up in political machinations on Cardassia in DS9: “Ties of Blood and Water.”  In the Delta Quadrant, the Voyager crew defends a planet being bombarded by asteroids in VGR: “Rise.”
• Page 1, Scene 2: Misato’s legendary aboard the Nerv for her utterly awful cooking skills.  How she was able to break Ritsuko’s lockouts will probably require a Starfleet commission to reveal.
• Page 2: Zane Gray’s Riders of the Purple Sage is a 1912 novel that is considered by scholars to have played a key role in shaping the modern state of the Western genre.
• Page 3, Scene 3: TNG started the trend of referring to the American West as the “Ancient West,” which from the perspective of the 24th century makes sense.
• Page 4, Scene 4: I can only imagine how Golsat V managed during “The Burn,” as established in Discovery’s third season.  Likely, the supply went critically low there over the course of the next 800 years.

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ACT NOTES:

• Page 6, Scene 8: Exteriors of the mining encampment were filmed at Melody Creek Motion Picture Studio in Santa Clarita, CA.  This was used in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood for the backlot in Bounty Law.
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• Page 6, Scene 9.1: Sam Richardson returns as the Kelpien Lt. Commander Sa’Kat.
• Page 6, Scene 9.2: Veteran character actor Clint Howard plays Commander Maxwell Chambers.  Howard is one of Star Trek’s first guest actors, originally appearing as Balok in TOS: “The Corbomite Maneuver” (the first produced series installment) way back in 1966.  He’s since appeared in DS9, Enterprise, Discovery, and Strange New Worlds.  It was only natural he would eventually appear in EVA-Trek.
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• Page 6, Scene 9.3: Voice actor Cristina Vee portrays Marisol Vargas.  She’s had a lengthy career in anime and video game dubbing, with one of my favorites being Mio Akiyama in K-On!
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• Page 8: Marisol has been mentioned and shown on the show before – first in episode 1x08 “My Hero,” and then we saw her in Hitomi’s flashback in 2x07 “Demons.”
• Page 10:  I always like adding these little bits of humorous business between characters during a scene.

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ACT NOTES:

• Page 15, Scene 16: Once again, the Trek franchise finds itself in another cave that looks awfully familiar...
• Page 17.1: The interior of geodes are quite beautiful, and this one approximates the feel of the cavern in this scene.
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• Page 17.2: One of Trek’s most versatile guest actors, Jeffrey Combs, plays Dr. Alan Krieger.  He last appeared in episode 1x07, “Walking After You” as Brunt from the Ferengi Commerce Authority.
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ACT NOTES:

• Page 26: Betazoids and their empathic/telepathic abilities were first established with Deanna Troi in TNG.
• Page 30: Ritsuko may not enjoy her command-level duties as First Officer, but she can be commanding enough when she needs to be.

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ACT NOTES:

• Page 33: I never intended it, but Misato’s getting the shit knocked out of her this season, whether it be by Brenlaui, illness, or a cave-in.
• Page 41: Metral’s Disease is a degenerative neurological condition and is something I came up with to broaden the lore of Betazoids.  Think of it as a more insidious and painful equivalent to Alzheimer’s.

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Next time on EVA-Trek:

The crew participates in a joint Federation/Klingon commemorative ceremony for the Battle of the Binary Stars.  Meanwhile, Asuka’s love for Klingon culture is driving everyone around her crazy.

Episode 2x13, “Common Ground,” coming June 6th!

ACT NOTES:

• Page 44, Scene 35: Discovery established that Kelpien’s have the ability to run incredibly fast, coupled with heightened strength.
• Page 46: Don’t ask me how the entire planet of Golsat is sentient, or how that would work... I haven’t thought that far.
• Page 49, Scene 40: Steve Blum returns as Dr. Sorrd.  That deep baritone voice of his is just perfect for a Vulcan.

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FADE IN:

INT. “THE READY ROOM” INTERVIEW SET

WIL WHEATON stands before CAMERA.  In the b.g., we SEE the interview set.

WIL WHEATON
On this episode of The Ready Room,

CUT TO:

MONTAGE OF IMAGERY

Starting with a character portrait of Dr. Hitomi Amagi.

WIL WHEATON (V.O.)
(continuing)
We’ll present production art created for this episode as well as the original 1987 memo that formed the basis of the story.

CUT TO:

INT. “THE READY ROOM” INTERVIEW SET

As before.

WIL WHEATON
(continuing)
This week’s edition of The Ready Room kicks off right now!

FLASH LOGO – “THE READY ROOM”

CUT TO:

INT. “THE READY ROOM” INTERVIEW SET

Wil has taken a seat in the host’s chair.

WIL WHEATON
Hey, nerds!  I’m Wil Wheaton and this is The Ready Room, your official behind-the-scenes hub for the Star Trek universe.  As we mention every week, we’ll be covering things in our after-show that veer into spoilers, so I am calling for --

Wil gestures and the lighting on the set goes RED.

WIL WHEATON
(continuing)
A red alert!  If you’re coming straight here without reading this week’s episode, “Little Life,” skip back a few chapters and come back here.
(grins)
I’ll wait.

The LIGHTING goes back to normal.

WIL WHEATON
So, without further ado, here is showrunner Allansfirebird to delve into the details.  Control room – roll that... text!

CUT TO:

SERIES OF IMAGERY

As yours truly begins to narrate...

ALLANSFIREBIRD (V.O.)
Thanks, Wil!  We’ll keep things short and sweet this week with a couple character design sketches for key guest stars for “Little Life.”  First up is Marisol, whose design is partially based on Electra Ovirowa from Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.

ALLANSFIREBIRD (V.O.)
(continuing)
And finally, Maxwell Chambers, whose design was inspired by his voice actor, Clint Howard.  I applied Howard’s 90’s look with the Santa Clausian-style beard he currently sports, as seen in SNW: “Under the Cloak of War.”

ALLANSFIREBIRD (V.O.)
(continuing)
And finally, here is the original 1987 memo written by D.C. Fontana covering a few Star Trek: The Next Generation story pitches from eventual staff writer Hannah Louise Shearer.  I’ve redacted out the first and third pitches that I didn’t end up using.  Larry Nemececk and Shearer herself covered this memo on The Trek Files podcast back in 2022 and you can find the full document on Memory Alpha.

CUT TO:

INT. “THE READY ROOM” INTERVIEW SET

Wil as before.

WIL WHEATON
Thank you as always to EVA-Trek’s showrunner, Allansfirebird for taking us behind the curtain with background on this week’s episode.  And a special thanks to you, the readers, for your interest!  We’ll see you all back here next week for another edition of The Ready Room!

Wil takes a momentary pause, then:

WIL WHEATON
Til then, I’m Wil Wheaton --
(he gives the Vulcan salute)
Live long and prosper.

FADE OUT.