I don't usually do standalone posts like this, but this felt like a significant enough milestone in the life of the series that I just had to share.
Late last night, I finally completed the first draft of the feature-length finale of EVA-Trek, "The Last Song." It took me about 30 hours, spread out over the better part of a week, to complete the one-hundred and twenty-four page script. This is a preview of the title page, just about the only bit I can show that's not spoilerific...
The fun thing for me is that this comes two years and two days after I first outlined my basic ideas and concepts of the finale on Christmas, 2021. EVA-Treks' finale is such an intricate story, with a lot of locations and players, that it took me the better part of the last two years to outline and refine before even hitting the script stage.
I'm excited to share this final installment when it drops in March! But for now, there's lots of tweaking and refining until then, in addition to doing final touches on the episodes between.
From the TV Guide listing... [P+] EVA-TREK (CC) -- Science Fiction/Drama
Stardate 49185.7: While Nerv comes to the aid of a Cardassian freighter, Asuka challenges Shinji to undertake Starfleet Academy entrance exams.
Happy 2024 out there! Hopefully, everyone has had an enjoyable and restful holiday season and is ready to come back and attack the new year with a vengeance.
Before we get into the episode, the casting department has handed me a couple notes: The role of Gul Recad has been given to Ray Chase, also known for the Netflix voice of Gendo Ikari. For the role of Recad's engineer, they somehow managed to get John Goodman in the booth to record.
So, that's enough of my gabbing. Let's get on to the main course with the first episode of 2024, brought to you in living color by the Studio Firebird Television Network!
Title Page: Alexander Singer (1928-2020) directed a total of 22 episodes across TNG, DS9, and Voyager, including "Relics." Early in his career, Singer worked as an assistant cinematographer on Stanley Kubrick's "Killer's Kiss." His final professional work before retiring from the industry was VGR: "Waking Moments."
Page 1: It's been roughly 3 or so months since Kensuke's injuries from Bardiel's infiltration of the USS Matsushiro in episode 14, "Learn to Fly."
Page 3: Refer to episode 4, "Come Alive," for Nerv's first use of the positron beam in their fight against Ramiel.
Page 5: Starfleet/Cardassian relations are a bit strained at this juncture of 24th century history, between the Federation/Cardassian War and the incipient Dominion War.
Act One:
Page 6, Scene 2.1: The Cardassian Groumall-class are principally freighters and transports and were frequently seen in DS9.
Page 6, Scene 2.2: Elsewhere in Trek, Dax is about to reconnect with an old flame in DS9: "Rejoined."
Page 9: Antedians were first introduced in TNG: "Manhunt." Their plasma bees, however, are something I created.
Page 13: Starfleet's psych test is also called the fear test, for reasons that will soon be apparent. It was first shown in TNG: "Coming of Age."
Page 14, Scene 12: Technically, the versions of the Groumall-class vessels we've seen don't have this rear hangar, but for the purposes of this episode, this variant does.
Page 14, Scene 13.1: The producers over at Deep Space Nine were kind enough to let us redress the Defiant Engineering set over on Stage 18 at Paramount for the Bretal's Engine Room.
Page 14, Scene 13.2: A Gul is the Cardassian military equivalent to a Captain.
Page 15.1: Radiometric converters absorb theta radiation that's given off by antimatter waste. Typically, this radiation is repurposed for repowering ships' systems, but as badly damaged as the Bretal was, they weren't able to reuse it. Transkinetic chambers were used in concert with the converters.
Page 15.2: Heisenberg compensators are a key component in transporters that allow the beam to lockdown the position and movement of the atoms of the subject's body. It takes its name for the Heisenberg uncertainty principal, which says you can either know the location of an atom, or its motion, but not both at the same time.
Act Two:
Page 18, Scene 18.1: Nora Lemming is originally from Full Metal Panic, a Light Novel/Anime/Manga series that has long been one of my favorites. She's a minor character that works with the Arm Slaves used by Mithril's Tuatha de Dannan.
Page 18, Scene 18.2: Yes, that's right folks, the Dipshit from Chicago did a stint aboard the USS Nerv following his unfortunate posting aboard the USS Constance at the Battle of Wolf-359, as depicted in Star Trek: Picard. He's still a grease monkey learning his trade under Kaji, not quite on his future career path in command. Shaw's already got that prickly demeanor that he developed as a coping mechanism following the trauma he experienced.
Page 20, Scene 20: Asuka more than likely put herself and Rei in the "hot teacher" outfits for Shinji's benefit, whether she realized it or not.
Page 21: Fermat's Last Theorem was proposed by Pierre de Fermat approximately 800 years before the events of this episode. It said that xn+yn=zn, where n > 2. Unfortunately, Fermat died before writing down the "remarkable proof" he had for its solution. When first brought up in Star Trek in TNG: "The Royale," it hadn't yet been solved. However, it was finally solved in 1993 by mathematician Andrew Wiles. This was mentioned in-universe with a line from Dax in DS9: "Facets."
Page 22: Mensa is a non-profit organization, open to those who score at the 98th percentile or above on a standardized and supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test. For Rei to have passed this test at the age of 10 is incredible by Human and Vulcan standards.
Act Three:
Page 25, Scene 22.1: Shuttle Chayefsky is named for writer Paddy Chayefsky (1923-1981). Some of his favorite works of mine include the screenplays for Marty (1955) and Network (1976). The latter of which is one of the most brilliant satires of the American television industry even today, and has the stunning final line: This was the story of Howard Beale: The first known instance of a man who was killed because he had lousy ratings.
Page 25, Scene 22.2: Type-7 shuttles are a larger mode of shuttlecraft, designed to match the organic and curved lines of the Galaxy class. They were designed by illustrator Andrew Probert, who also designed the Enterprise-D.
Page 25, Scene 23: A taspar is Cardassian, egg-laying animal. It's considered a delicacy, though to human eyes, it's rather repulsive.
Page 26: Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) was an abstract expressionist painter whose drip painting technique created signature pieces. An example is "Number 17A," recently sold for $200 million.
Page 27, Scene 23: Kaji refers to concept artist Doug Drexler, who worked on all of the Berman-era Trek series.
Act Four:
Page 35: Kaji and Takao's time in a Cardassian prison camp has been mentioned in previous episodes, and now you finally get the full story. While there, they had to deal with interrogation from Mr. Garak.
Act Five:
Page 48, Scene 40: Why could Kaworu be able to shoot such familiar energy waves from his body, I wonder?
Next time on EVA-Trek:
The crew of the USS Nerv deal with loss and grief in their own ways. Meanwhile, Ritsuko makes an important discovery.
From the TV Guide listing... [P+] EVA-TREK (CC) -- Science Fiction/Drama
Stardate 49187.2: The crew tries to come to terms with loss in their own ways while life and their duties must continue.
And we're back! EVA-Trek continues its march toward the end with this week's installment. Not many new things going on to announce this time, other than all scripts for the rest of the series have been locked, so it'll just be picking up any minor changes. After the last couple years of intensive effort, it feels sorta weird to not have to break any new stories. I've got so much time on my hands now!
One thing I'm still on the search for is a collaborator to write a two-minute piece for cello and acoustic guitar to be used in episode 21. I'm trying my damnedest to write it, but I just don't know if I'll have enough time to get it right in the next couple weeks. Let me know if you'd be interested in collaborating!
With that, we've got the digital film print ready in the projector, so enjoy the latest installment of EVA-Trek, "Show Me How!"
Title Page.1: The notation of "f.k.a." means "formerly known as." The episode was retitled following the release of Foo Fighters' latest album "But Here We Are." Appropriately for this episode, the album's theme of dealing with loss and grief made "Show Me How" an apt title.
Title Page.2: Jonathan West was the cinematographer for Star Trek: TNG and Star Trek: DS9, working with the franchise from 1992 to 1999. During that time, he also directed several episodes, including "Trials and Tribble-ations."
Act One:
Page 6: Rei's capture by an angel occurred in episode 13, "Lonely as You." For her telepathic connection with the USS Kyoto, see episode 16, "Come Back."
Page 11: See episode 17, "Make it Right" for Nerv's sojourn through Brenlaui space.
Act Two:
Page 17: Rodinium is one of the hardest substances known to Federation science.
Page 18, Scene 11: Kitakami is referring to the events of Zeruel's attack in episode 16.
Page 19-20, Scene 12: The "Academy Ratio" is the industry name for the 1.33:1 classic boxy frame typical of movies and television before the advent of widescreen.
Page 20, Scene 12.1: Sam was played by Dooley Wilson in Casablanca, the namesake of the line "play it again, Sam." Sadly, we won't get to see Humphrey Bogart in the bar this time around.
Page 20, Scene 12.2: "Moonlight Serenade" is one of Glenn Miller's most signature tunes. While it didn't come out until two years after Casablancacame out, I figured it was a song that fit the vibe of Rick's Café American.
Page 20, Scene 12.3: S.Z. "Cuddles" Sakall gave a memorable performance as the friendly and entertaining Carl.
Act Three:
Page 24, Scene 15: Shinji was the last person Gendo had to throw in the brig for stealing the Hakone during Zeruel's attack.
Page 24, Scene 16: It's never made sense to me that the canon entry plugs were built only large enough for teenagers to fit into the pilot's seat. Since Yui and Kyoko both had accidents while inside their units, how would they have been able to fit?
Page 32, Scene 30: I've established in prior episodes that prematurely cutting the Eva sync causes a minor headache. In Ritsuko's case, it's even worse.
Page 33: Delactovine is a stimulant used in cases of neural or systemic distress.
Act Four:
Page 35: I think this is the latest I've brought Shinji and Asuka into an episode at this point. Earlier drafts didn't even feature them here at all. They were not happy to have to show up to the studio for not even a half day of makeup, wardrobe, and filming.
Page 36, Scene 31: See episode 8, "My Hero" for the last time Shinji went to the phaser range.
Page 37, Scene 32.1: I figured Misato had to get her looks from her mother, so there'd be a bit of Generational Xerox there.
Page 37, Scene 32.2: After the year that Misato spent at Deep Space Nine, she served for a few months at Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco, where she befriended Lt. Nagara.
Page 37, Scene 32.3: The 602 Club was first mentioned in the Enterprise episode "Shuttlepod One," and then finally seen in the flesh in "First Flight."
Page 37, Scene 32.4: The senior officers portrait looks an awful lot like one of the publicity photos we took of the cast at the start of the season...
Page 39, Scene 33: It was previously established that Mari was close with Yui and Gendo back in their younger days.
Page 41: Clearly, Gendo in this timeline learned a few things about being a dad after taking care of Rei all these years.
Act Five:
Page 46, Scene 44: I felt that my version of Gendo deserved to see Yui again... unfortunately, he's got a lot of explaining to do, just as Yui told Shinji waaaaay back in episode 5, "Ain't it the Life."
Page 47, Scene 47: See this episode's production art for concept sketches and blueprints for our version of Cetacean Ops.
Page 48: Misato's reference to this area being a maze is a slight nod to her questionable sense of direction inside Nerv in the original series.
Page 50, Scene 50: Naoko's accident was before Kiel required the use of a hoverchair for mobility.
Page 51, Scene 51: Misato got a front-row view of Ritsuko's acrobatics with Maya back in episode 9, "Normal."
Page 51, Scene 52: Spock is Ritsuko's cat, named for her favorite science officer. Maya took care of him when Ritsuko was taken hostage on her way to Daystrom Station in episode 17.
Next time on EVA-Trek:
The search for the angel lifesigns that has baffled Ritsuko for weeks finally comes to an end as the ship reaches the source and investigates.
From the TV Guide listing... [P+] EVA-TREK (CC) -- Science Fiction/Drama
Stardate 49199.9: During the investigation of mysterious lifesigns on Iota Cassiopeiae IV, an angel of light puts the Eva pilots in jeopardy.
It is time once more to sit upon the ground and tell stories of the twenty-fourth century, to paraphrase a certain English playwright.
We're down to the last block of EVA-Trek episodes. In fact, the finale is just two months away at this point! Things are gonna start heating up from here.
One thing you'll notice throughout the episode is the musical piece Shinji has been working on as far back as episode 13, "Lonely as You." It had been my intention to have it ready by the time the episode dropped, but... I ran out of time, and I couldn't wrack my brain for additional inspiration between finishing this and future episodes, along with illustrations I'm working on. I'm intensely sorry that I couldn't successfully include such an integral piece to the episode. Perhaps once the series is over, I can go back and try to finish it then. For now, you'll have to use the theater and symphony of the mind...
And speaking of said theater, allow me to lower the lights and turn on the projector so we can watch our twenty-first episode, "Headwires."
Title Page: EVA-Trek is proud to welcome back returning director Hanelle M. Culpepper, whose first effort was episode 16, "Come Back."
Page 2: While Asuka isn't known to canonically play an instrument, many fics I've read take inspiration from the string quartet sequences in the Death and Rebirth film, and have given her such abilities. Of course, since Strypgia's Advice and Trust is a major touchstone for my story, I've taken a bit of inspiration and Asuka plays the violin in both timelines.
Page 3, Scene 4: This shot is based off the oft-memed shot of Shinji in episode 7 of Evangelion where he peevishly holds a cup while glaring at an O.S. Misato. Asuka is based on a shot of her in the alternate reality sequence in the final episode of Eva.
Page 4.1: This programmable matter won't be canonically seen in the Star Trek franchise until Discovery jumps forward to the 32nd century, where it's used for all these purposes Kensuke lists.
Page 4.2: The magazine "Starship Design" comes from a well-known 1984 fan tech manual from Todd Guenther and Michael Morrissette of the same name - Star Trek Blueprints: Starship Design: Interstellar Forum for Naval Power. On a personal note, the 80's was my personal favorite era for technical manuals, with Mr. Scott's Guide, Starfleet Dynamics, the two volumes of Ships of the Line, and many others. Some incredible work came out of the fandom then, which involved the talents of people who would later work in the art department on the 90's Trek series.
Page 4.3: Nerv has kept a piece of Shamshel's core on board since episode 3, "Fraternity."
Act One:
Page 7, Scene 6: Iota Cassiopeiae is a quintuple star system about 133 light years from Earth, well beyond Cardassian space.
Page 7, Scene 7: The production was able to finagle a couple days out on location to film these planetside scenes at the Golden Oak Ranch in LA, better known as the Disney Ranch.
Page 8: See episode 8, "My Hero" for Shinji's last marksmanship exam.
Act Two:
Page 18: Though Touji and Kensuke aren't quite like Jay and Silent Bob, I think the same descriptor of their pairing applies.
Page 19: Have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy writing TsundeRei?
Page 20, Scene 15.1: True to Aoba's split passions of music and weaponry, he picks a multi-cultural display. The Vulcan lyre was first seen in Spock's hands way back in TOS: "Charlie X." Andorian ushaan-tors premiered in ENT: "United." Worf frequently used a mek'leth as a sparring weapon.
Page 20, Scene 15.2: It's well past time I gave names for Shinji's grandparents. Unfortunately, I haven't yet decided what Grandma Rokubungi's first name is.
Page 21, Scene 16: A matte shot refers to scenic analog or digital paintings that used to be used to matte out a portion of a live-action shot with a setting that would've been too expensive to construct.
Page 23: I've referenced Hyuga's brushes with death before, and maybe that's a tale I'll tell someday, but not right now. The koala and the black mountain are, of course, references to dying visions frequently mentioned in Lower Decks, and finally seen by Brad Boimler in LD: "In the Cradle of Vexilon."
Act Three:
Page 27: Rei and hugs are a cue I picked up from Advice and Trust.
Page 28, Scene 23: You can bet Mari is going to be asking Shinji a bunch of questions about this performance the next time he's in for a counseling session.
Page 29, Scene 25: The stage direction of "shimmering eyes" has probably come up before. This is a reference to the technique frequently used in anime where the highlights in the eyes will "dance" when a character is welling up with emotion.
Page 30, Scene 28: Visually, this rockface is inspired by Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, which features hexagonal basalt columns, a remnant of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. Interestingly, these columns look very similar to the bridgeways to the V'Ger "brain hemisphere" in Star Trek: The Motion Picture'sfinal sequence.
Page 31, Scene 28: To give an indication of relative noise levels, 20 decibels (dB) is equivalent to a broadcasting or recording studio. A quiet rural area typically has a background noise level around 45 dB. A normal conversation is approximately 70 dB.
Page 32: In-universe, the Great Bird of the Galaxy is a deity referenced by some Earth cultures. In reality, it's a cheeky reference to Gene Roddenberry.
Page 33, Scene 35: Per the Star Trek: TNG Technical Manual, the phasers aboard the Galaxy class have a range limitation of 300,000 kilometers.
Page 37, Scene 43: See episode 13, "Lonely as You" for Rei's last mental tangle with an angel. I really hadn't intended on making Rei a target by multiple angels so far... but it's just happened that way.
Act Four:
Page 40, Scene 51: As with the Iota Cassiopeiae scenes, this was filmed at the Disney Ranch.
Page 43, Scenes 60 and 62: There's a chance I took some visual inspiration from scenes in Event Horizon, a movie I can't even think about without my stomach churning...
Page 47, Scenes 73 and 74: Yes, this is a shameless reference to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Page 48, Scene 76.1: Lenses of 120° and wider get close to approximating the field of view in human vision. One particular filming process, called Dimension 150, utilized 150° lenses to provide a "Cinerama outta one hole" experience, which was what I was envisioning for this shot.
Page 48, Scene 76.2: I am not overstating or joking when I say the Trinity sequence in Oppenheimer left me with a primal feeling of fear and dread in the most incredible fashion possible. Christopher Nolan truly is one of the all-time greatest filmmakers.
Act Five:
Page 51, Scene 82: Given that Shinji is prone to blaming himself in a similar manner, Rei is well-equipped to deal with a self-persecution complex.
Page 51, Scene 83: Cortical stimulators are a common piece of medical tech in the 24th century. They serve to revive or stabilize neural activity in the brain of the patient.
Page 52, Scene 83: I don't think it was ever confirmed canonically whether an A.T. Field provides another layer of protection for a pilot. I extended the thought that, since Arael's light is said to function like an A.T. Field, an opposing field would mitigate the worst effects.
Next time on EVA-Trek:
Kaworu's life aboard Nerv is thrown into chaos as he contends with increasingly conflicting feelings in his dealings with Commodore Kiel.
Episode 22, "Have it All," coming February 16th!
Episode Artwork:
SC. 4: INT. OBSERVATION LOUNGE
SC. 7: EXT. CASSIOPEIAE IV (OPTICAL) – DAY
SC. 29: EXT. SPACE (OPTICAL)
CONCEPT ART – INT. CETACEAN OPS Operations Division logo based on a concept from Mr. Phreez over at the TrekBBS, who provided a lot of my inspiration for this.
I think this series' version of "In A Mirror, Darkly" could be a "Pilots are Augments" universe. I mean, Rei technically is an Augment already in NGE canon (half-Angel hybrid, Kaworu is a bit more muddled) and the "only people born after Second Impact because reasons" plot point screams "something was released in the environment that modified them somehow" which I guess should not be hard to Handwave into "someone tried to make Bashir and got Khan instead".
I think this series' version of "In A Mirror, Darkly" could be a "Pilots are Augments" universe. I mean, Rei technically is an Augment already in NGE canon (half-Angel hybrid, Kaworu is a bit more muddled) and the "only people born after Second Impact because reasons" plot point screams "something was released in the environment that modified them somehow" which I guess should not be hard to Handwave into "someone tried to make Bashir and got Khan instead".
Comparatively to how I'm writing a lot of the main characters in EVA-Trek, their mirror counterparts would almost be the canon versions. I think the only way Shinji and the other pilots would plausibly exist would be if they were all straight-up clones as well as Augments, simply created by the Terrans as tools.
Then again, DS9 gave us Mirror Vic Fontaine as a flesh-and-blood character with no explanation, so why even bother with plausibility?
It would be interesting to try to come up with a Mirror universe episode of EVA-Trek someday, though. The possibilities are tantalizing...
From the TV Guide listing... [P+] EVA-TREK (CC) -- Science Fiction/Drama
Stardate 49212.9: Tensions between Kaworu and Kiel come to a head as the young pilot re-evaluates his mission.
Short and sweet with the comments this week, folks. Efforts are continuing in the EVA-Trek production offices as we are bringing the plane in for a landing. By the time this episode drops, I'll have "locked" all scripts, except for the finale.
With that, here is the twenty-second installment of EVA-Trek, "Have it All." As you will come to see, that title will explain quite a bit.
EDIT, 2024.02.18: An error was pointed out in Act 1 and has been revised.
Teaser
Title Page: If I have to explain who Quentin Tarantino is, I'm going to be disappointed... During the production tone meeting prior to filming, we told Tarantino to avoid the urge to shoot any shots emphasizing feet.
Page 1: I love writing these poker scenes but hate having to research combinations of hands.
Act One:
Page 7, Scene 2: "Clockiel" is the fan name for the Seventh Angel in the Evangelion Rebuild continuity, which I've adopted here for clarity.
Page 7, Scene 4: Most of the Clockiel battle is adapted from Evangelion 2.0.
Page 13, Scene 25.1: Discovery established that clothing aboard starships are generated via replicators. In the case of plugsuits, which include specialized sensors and neural connectors, they would require slightly more intensive technology to clean and reclaim soiled plugsuits.
Page 13, Scene 25.2: Elsewhere in Trek, Quark, Rom, Nog, and Odo are accidentally sent back to 1947 Roswell, New Mexico in DS9: "Little Green Men." In the Delta Quadrant, Lt. Torres is enlisted by a sentient robot to construct new members of its race on VGR: "Prototype."
Page 15: The infuser array is the same piece of equipment that Lt. Commander Data believed would require techs to "ignite the midnight petroleum" to fix in TNG: "All Good Things."
Page 16, Scene 26: Compare this interaction between Takao and Tama to their prior dealings.
Page 16, Scene 28: Kaworu's authorization code is strikingly similar to Kaji's.
Act Two:
Page 19: Andronesian encephalitis is an unpleasant, but non-life threatening, airborne disease. It has the possibility to cause seizures, though it's considered a minor malady by this point in the 24th century.
Page 21: The holoprogram Kensuke speaks of is the very same Riker used in ENT: "These Are the Voyages."
Page 22: When you really break down all the weirdness in Enterprise's finale episode, so little of the events make sense, unless you assume it was one of those "based on a true story" types of historical fiction adaptions. Essentially, it's the Braveheart of Federation history. The Enterprise relaunch novels rewrote Tucker to have actually lived, later joining Section 31 in an effort to prevent the Romulans from sabotaging the Coalition of Planets.
Page 24: Rei somewhat bastardizes the line from Magnum Force (1973), "a man's got to know his limitations." Hyuga may have shown it at one of his movie nights.
Act Three:
Page 26, Scene 34: Visually, this shot is inspired by the last scene with Jack Crusher in PIC: "No Win Scenario," prior to his waking nightmare.
Act Four:
Page 38, Scene 54: Shades of Gary Mitchell in TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before," eh?
Page 40: Kaworu makes an oblique reference to the events of Strypgia's Advice and Trust, then a reference to Obi Wan Kenobi.
Page 42: As established in prior episodes, kelbonite and fistrium are materials that block scanning equipment.
Page 43: If you're wondering why Kiel is so interested in Rei, look back to episode 13: "Lonely as You."
Page 45: Much of Gendo's monologue here was partially inspired by Kirk's speech to the senior officers in TOS: "Return to Tomorrow" – the 'Risk is Our Business' speech.
Act Five:
Page 51: Trilithium weapons have the capability of stopping all nuclear fusion within a star, thereby causing it to go nova. This was the key weapon employed by Dr. Soran in Star Trek: Generations to reroute the Nexus.
Page 53, Scene 63: At this point, Federation starships are not inter-linked with each other, so Nerv is able to get away with dumping the transponder... something that the USS Titan won't be able to do thirty years later during Picard's third season.
Page 54: The "Mass-Production Evas" of this timeline are alive and well. Stay tuned...
Appendix:
Page 55, Scene 65: In Asuka's eyes, Touji's got about as much brain power as Lex Luthor's henchman Otis in Superman: The Movie.
Next time on EVA-Trek:
While on the run, Nerv encounters a mysterious anomaly that illuminates dark secrets in Rei's past.
Episode 23, "Erase/Replace," coming March 1st!
Episode Artwork:
Cast Photo: Commander Katsuragi enjoys a cup of raktajino in some of Nerv's finest branded chinaware.
From the TV Guide listing... [P+] EVA-TREK (CC) -- Science Fiction/Drama
Stardate 49237.3: Nerv runs across a mysterious anomaly that shines light on dark secrets in Rei's past.
We're now fully in EVA-Trek's endgame with this episode. This installment will answer a lot of questions, tie a bunch of canon together, and hopefully not give you a headache in the process.
At this point, work on EVA-Trek as a whole is about 95% complete. The remaining scripts are locked and a bunch of special features on the penultimate episode and the finale are done. The major things left to do are illustrations for the finale. We're getting close to closing time here at Firebird Pictures...
This episode is dedicated to the memory of Kenneth Mitchell, who passed away on Saturday, February 24th from ALS. Mitchell had sort of turned into the Jeffrey Combs of Star Trek: Discovery, having played four different characters over the first three seasons. May he rest in peace.
So now, without any further ado, is the twenty-third episode of EVA-Trek, "Erase/Replace!"
Title Page: EVA-Trek would like to welcome back Olatunde Osunsanmi, who last directed episode 12, "Good Grief," our Deep Space Nine crossover.
Page 1, Scene 1: Until now, Nerv's course has been through the heart of the Alpha Quadrant. The Beta Quadrant is home to major races like the Klingons and the Romulans.
Page 2, Scene 4: I've interpreted Takao's line of "when you die, you die, and that is it" in the third Evangelion Rebuild film to indicate he's a bit of a nihilist, but I thought it would be more interesting to make him an extremely lapsed Buddhist.
Page 3.1: Tachyons are subatomic particles that exist at faster-than-light velocities. They typically indicate the presence of time travel or other temporal distortions.
Page 3.2: Each universe carries its own distinctive quantum signature at which all matter resonates. The width of the divergence between signatures can prove harmful to one travelling between universes, as experienced by Emperor Philippa Georgiou of the Mirror Universe in season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery.
Page 4, Scene 9: This is one of the key moments in the series I had in my mind when I started sketching up rough ideas back in 2021.
Act One:
Page 6, Scene 11: In the original Evangelion series, their height was on a sliding scale, based on whatever looked good for the shot. The Rebuild films fixed the height at 80 meters. For the sake of clarity, I went with the eighty figure.
Page 7.1: See NGE Episode 19: "A Man's Battle/Introjection" for just how Unit-01 got the solenoid organ.
Page 7.2: See episode 16: "Come Back" for Asuka's time inside the Kyoto.
Page 8, Scene 13: See SNW: "Memento Mori" for the first official Gorn contact, which does create a bit of an inconsistency with the events of TOS: "Arena." Personally, I think making the Gorn the big-bad of Strange New Worlds is one of the weakest points of the show, when they could just make it a totally new alien species, but that's another matter for another day.
Page 9, Scene 16: It wouldn't be Eva without some biblical references, now would it?
Page 10, Scene 17: See The End of Evangelion for the details of Third Impact.
Page 10, Scene 18: For more on the layout of Nerv's Eva Cages, refer to the technical briefing at the end of episode 6, "The One."
Page 13, Scene 20: I sorta envision this procession of imagery from the original series to be in kind of the same manner as the sequence at the start of Third Impact in End of Evangelion.
Page 13, Scene 22: If you thought it had been a while since we had a "Shinji must suffer" episode... here we are.
Act Two:
Page 18.1: FTL = "faster-than-light."
Page 18.2: That's right, folks, we're bringing the Spore Drive into the 24th century in a big, bad way.
Page 22: Much like David Marcus used shortcuts in the creation of the Genesis Device in Star Trek II, Gendo faces similar sins.
Act Three:
Page 25, Scene 35: "ETK" in this context is shorthand for EVA-Trek. The numbers refer to the episode the scene took place.
Page 25, Scene 36: Canon!Rei's line here is from the Netflix dub of NGE episode 23: "Tears/Rei III."
Page 27: See episode 1, "New Way Home" for Shinji and Misato's first meeting.
Page 32, Scene 39: It's always been hard for me to square away the canon Eva's 5-minute internal battery. All that tech, and that's the best Nerv came up with?
Page 34: I've kept all of the explanation of the A.T. Field the same from canon. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Page 38: At this point, anti-time is still a fairly new concept, as first established in TNG: "All Good Things." And, like Mari says, trying to make sense of time travel can be hazardous to one's mental health. So, pardon me while I do a bit of lampshading...
Act Four:
Page 40, Scene 46: In simple English, the Spore Drive means this is your starship on 'shrooms.
Page 41.1: A lot of this was me attempting to make some sense of the Spore Drive with basic Trek physics.
Page 41.2: See DSC: "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part II" for the events resulting in the Discovery's disappearance.
Page 43: Remember that the angel that attacked at Starbase 375 in episode 15, "Friend of a Friend," was Zeruel, who was the culprit a berserk Unit-01 annihilated in the original series.
Page 47.1: In the original timeline, Hakone was renamed Tokyo-3.
Page 47.2: Yui's references to Gendo and Shinji's uniforms being Halloween costumes and nearly saying Star Trek is about as close to the fourth wall as I'm willing to get.
Page 47.3: The events of Third Impact in End of Evangelion are supposed to have taken place on New Years Day, 2016. In this timeline, we're in early spring of 2372.
Page 50, Scene 57: An inverse warp pulse is pure Treknobabble bullshit. A standard warp pulse is a method to attain warp speeds by field-saturating the nacelles before firing them at maximum intensity briefly, giving the ship a warp "push." As the Enterprise caused a subspace rift to widen with this technique in TNG: "Force of Nature," I felt it was only natural that the inverse would close one.
Act Five:
Scene 63: Some of my most enjoyable scenes to write in this series have been Shinji and Rei as siblings, and this sequence is probably my favorite one.
Page 57: See episode 11, "Times Like These" for when the pilots got trapped in the holodeck.
Next time on EVA-Trek:
Work on the Spore Drive is interrupted by the last angel... and this time, it may exact the heaviest price of all.
Episode 24, "If Ever," coming March 15th!
Episode Artwork:
Cast Photo: Commander Misato Katsuragi, Acting First Officer
Cast Photo: Lieutenant Commander (Doctor) Hitomi Amagi, Chief Medical Officer
Concept Art: Captain Gendo Ikari
Omake:
Author's Note: The following was originally written on June 28, 2023 in the Advice and Trust thread on Sufficient Velocity, though there are some minor revisions here. While it was meant as a humorous tie-in to A&T and Chronicles, therefore rendering it non-canon, elements here are still semi-canon to EVA-Trek.
----
In his office at the Department of Temporal Investigations, Agent Dulmur looked out dourly at the Golden Gate Bridge which dominated the view outside his window. It was a peaceful moment, unfortunately interrupted by the rapid footsteps of one of his junior agents rushing in.
"Sir... we might have a problem," his junior gasped, out of breath.
And it was going to be a simple day... "What is it, Lieutenant," Dulmur asked, turning towards his perspiring junior... Harwood? Braidwood? No - Bradbury, that was the name.
"Take a look at this." Dulmur accepted the PADD Bradbury handed him, promptly scowling at what he saw there.
"This better not be a joke," Dulmur said. "You know I hate those."
"No, sir. The report just came in from the USS Nerv, twenty minutes ago."
"Get me Lucsly."
----
One hour and a quick hail later, agent Lucsly ambled in. His dour look was a match for his partner's. Indeed, many in the DTI had difficulty telling the two apart occasionally, regardless of Dulmur's blonde hair compared to Lucsly's dark brown.
"Report," Lucsly said.
Dulmur handed the PADD over to Lucsly, "just got this from Captain Ikari of the Nerv. They encountered a spatial rift, deep within the Alpha Quadrant."
"Please tell me they logged it and moved on?" Lucsly knew the real answer, but even he wasn't opposed to have a sliver of hope.
Dulmur shook his head, "as one Commander Katsuragi, Nerv's Ops Officer, put it - they had a 'minor temporal incursion...'"
A knot formed in Lucsly's stomach. Those three miserable words meant a lot of paperwork and interviews, and he was not in the mood to travel today. He lost count of the number of times he and Dulmur had to add yet another starship to their "Kirk List," named for one of the biggest offenders of temporal mechanics in Starfleet. Seventeen violations - the man was a menace.
Dulmur continued, "the bulk of their report has been redacted by a Commodore Kiel, claiming 'Section 31' privileges, whatever those are. What they do say is that a bottle of Romulan ale fell into the rift as it closed."
Lucsly started reaching for the antacids. "How in the hell did a bottle of very illegal alcohol, that's not even supposed to be on a Federation starship in the first place, fall out of the ship and into the rift?"
Dulmur was eyeing the antacids, too, "Katsuragi said it just 'happened' to be sitting on top of a cargo container when whatever redacted business concluded, got dragged out of their shuttlebay's forcefield, and just 'happened' to fall into this rift."
Lucsly sighed, he better clear his schedule for the next couple weeks. "Did they get readings from the other end of the rift? How bad of a contamination are we looking at here?"
"Their sensors were having difficulty getting an accurate read on the temporal signature, but Akagi, their science officer, confirmed the quantum signature was not a match."
Lucsly was now taking a second dose of antacids. "So, they weren't content on merely contaminating our timeline, but that of a differentuniverse entirely?"
Dulmur, stone-faced as ever, replied, "looks that way."
Lucsly walked over to the window and gazed at the horizon for a moment, "let's get passage --"
"I already got USS Orville assigned to rendezvous with Nerv."
"Very good," Lucsly admired his partner's thoroughness. "Let's go."
Dulmur and Lucsly strode from the room. Though there was one lie after another in Captain Ikari's report, they knew the truth was out there.
From the TV Guide listing... [P+] EVA-TREK (CC) -- Science Fiction/Drama
Stardate 49250.1: Preparations of the fight against SEELE are interrupted by the final angel, which may sacrifice more than anyone is prepared for.
We're coming in for a landing here at Firebird Pictures as we present the penultimate voyage of EVA-Trek. Nerv's crew continues their efforts to save themselves and the future of the Federation.
Stick around following the episode for not just the usual episode artwork, but an extensive collection of reference sketches of thirty-six of EVA-Trek's main, supporting, recurring, and guest cast, followed by a short omake.
Now that the season is winding to a close, it's sort of appropriate that it coincides with the North American theatrical revival screenings of The End of Evangelion this weekend. I'll be there for my first time back in a theater in four years. Couldn't pass up the opportunity to see Evangelion's grand finale on the big screen for the first time!
With all that said, I am proud to present episode 24, "If Ever."
Title Page: Returning director James L. Conway previously helmed our second episode, "Enough Space."
Page 1.1: See episode 6, "The One," for the inaugural edition of Captain Ikari Day.
Page 1.2: A siscon (short for sister complex) is a state of strong attachment and obsession to sisters.
Page 6, Scene 4: See episode 13, "Lonely as You," for the last time Shinji and Gendo went fishing.
Act One:
Page 7, Scene 6: The Paulson Nebula was first seen in TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds" when the Enterprise attempted to hide from the Borg.
Page 8A: I couldn't help but pull the Ghostbusters reference.
Page 9: See episode 1, "New Way Home" for the fight against Sachiel.
Page 10: Kitakami speaks of the USS Glenn, which suffered a catastrophic failure of its spore drive in DSC: "Context is For Kings."
Page 11.1: It makes sense that Starfleet would do whatever they could to conceal the complete genome for the stellaviatori spore in the wake of the events of Discovery's second season.
Page 11.2: Delta 2 was terraformed and seeded with spore crops by the USS Discovery in DSC: "The War Without, the War Within."
Page 14: The runabout Ishikari takes its name from Japan's third longest river. As previously mentioned, Nerv's runabouts are all named for Japanese rivers, mirroring the naming convention of DS9's runabouts.
Act Two:
Page 16: If those outfits Shinji, Rei, and Gendo have on sound familiar, it's because they're based off Kirk, Spock, and McCoy's clothing from the start of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Rei also took some cues from Spock's camping preparations and research.
Page 17: Rei's beans are not based upon the famous McCoy family recipe, legendary for it being an explosive combination.
Page 18, Scene 13: Apparently, Yui didn't just pass down genetic material to her "daughter."
Page 20: The idea to make Maya a painter came from a bit of background design I did in a drawing of her and Ritsuko in her quarters, where I put a Van Gogh on her wall. Something inspired me to add a little literal and figurative color into her background.
Page 23: Gendo first told Shinji and Rei about Yui's lack of cooking prowess in episode 12, "Good Grief."
Act Three:
Page 29, Scene 25: That's the same John Sheridan from Babylon 5. We luckily got Bruce Boxleitner to do the ADR for this quick cameo. Just as in B5, Sheridan is captaining the Agamemnon here.
Page 30, Scene 28: The Miranda class was first seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, in the shape of the USS Reliant.
Page 31, Scene 33.1: Lt. J.G. Kurz Weber (originally from Full Metal Panic) has been mentioned in the series before. I imagine him being voiced by Todd Haberkorn rather than his original FMP actor... for good reason, if you're aware of the legal issues there. Coincidentally, Haberkorn played one helluva Spock in the fan series Star Trek Continues... which was unfortunately the brainchild of Kurz Weber's voice actor, however good the series was at the time.
Page 31, Scene 33.2: Ensign Th'Lan is an original character. I've wanted to introduce a bit more variety into the crew of the Nerv. Until now, it's been pretty heavy with humans. I imagine Th'Lan being voiced by Jack Quaid, better known as Ensign Brad Boimler on Lower Decks.
Act Four:
In general, this entire sequence mostly mirrors the canon Armisael engagement... for good reason.
Page 40, Scene 67: It seems logical that an angel infiltration would override the mental connection between the pilot and the host soul within the Eva's core, hence why Yui disappears.
Page 43, Scene 81: Prior episodes have established that Naoko has a hard time differentiating between Rei and Yui.
Page 44A, Scene 84: As usual, thanks to the TNG Technical Manual for getting my Treknobabble in the right place.
Act Five:
Page 47, Scene 86.1: On our calendar, this scene takes place on March 30, 2372. There's been some time between the loss of the Tokyo and Rei's birthday.
Page 47, Scene 86.2: Rei's birthday cake is not cellular peptide with mint frosting, in case you were wondering.
Page 51, Scene 88: Elsewhere in Trek, Julian Bashir, Secret Agent is about to go on his first mission in DS9: "Our Man Bashir."
Page 51, Scene 89: Apologies to Discovery for taking some pot-shots at its spore jump sequences.
Page 52, Scene 91: The Akaali system was first visited by Archer's Enterprise in ENT: "Civilization."
Page 56, Scene 94: I do love getting the opportunity to give Gendo some good Kirk-style speeches.
Next time on EVA-Trek:
This is the last song
That I will dedicate to you
Made my peace and now I'm through
(This is the last song)
That I will dedicate to you
Episode 25, "The Last Song," a feature-length finale, coming March 29th!
Episode Artwork and Character Reference Sketches:
Production Art
Cast Photo – Lt. J.G. Soryu, Acting Ensign Ikari, and Ensign Ayanami in Nerv's transporter room.
Cast Photo – Ensign Rei Ayanami
Reference Sketches
Putting the group of sketches behind a spoiler because there are a ton of them. Turns out I ended up drawing 36 characters... and there's still more I haven't drawn yet!
Acting Ensign Shinji Ikari, Pilot of the USS Hakone.
Ensign Rei Ayanami, Pilot of the USS Tokyo.
Lt. J.G. Asuka L. Soryu, Pilot of the USS Kyoto.
Commander Misato Katsuragi, Acting First Officer.
Lt. Commander Hitomi Amagi, MD, Chief Medical Officer.
Lt. Commander Ryoji Kaji, Chief Engineer.
Crewman Kaworu Nagisa, Pilot of the USS Osaka.
Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki, First Officer (Former).
Captain Gendo Ikari, Commanding Officer.
Dr. Yui Ikari (Costume based on Agnes Jurati's Daystrom outfit in the first episode of Picard, complete with Daystrom logo).
Dr. Kyoko Z. Soryu (Costume based on Leah Brahms' outfit from TNG: "Booby Trap").
Sakura Suzuhara, Medical Intern (Costume inspired by Kes' outfits on VGR).
Touji Suzuhara (Costume based on Q's ensemble from TNG: "Deja Q").
Hikari Horaki, Student Class Representative.
Crewman Kensuke Aida, Pilot of the USS Matsushiro.
Mana Kirishima (Costume based on Deanna Troi's excursion clothing in Star Trek: Insurrection).
Commodore Lorenz Kiel.
Ensign Henry Park, Nurse.
Nerv's Emergency Medical Hologram, Mark I.
Lt. J.G. Kurz Weber, Tactical.
Dr. Naoko Akagi (also has the same Daystrom Institute lab coat as Yui Ikari).
Ensign Th'Lan, Science Officer.
The Teacher of Shinji's class (outfit based on Picard's excursion clothing at the end of Picard S1).
Ensign Nora Lemming, Assistant Engineer.
Engineering Technician A. Nadir.
Engineering Technician T. Barnes. Troy and Abed on a staaaaaarship!
Omake:
"Let's get to work."
Somewhere, outside of the perception of the Bridge crew of the USS Nerv, he snorted derisively. "Not quite the speaker that some of your peers are, Ikari. Still...," he mused, "not bad."
As the enigmatic and Byronic being, known as Q to the corporeal beings of this universe, watched the humans of this vessel begin to work as one, he found himself reflective. "I must say, this group probably wouldn't be as fun to tease as Jean-Luc. They're far less stodgy."
"There you go again, Q." From nowhere, a disappointed voice intoned before he flashed into existence next to him. Here, they had no substance, existing on a plane beyond comprehension to lower life forms. If they were in a corporeal state, Q's lanky and dark-haired countenance would find itself frowning at his jovial blonde companion.
"I don't want to hear anything from you, Q," said the dark-haired man.
"Jean-Luc this. Jean-Luc that. You realize how many of us think you're treating that Picard like a beloved pet?"
"And there are just as many who find him intriguing as I do. Not many on this plane are able to conceive of the infinite possibilities of existence..." Q found his focus wandering.
"Which is why I've found you here."
Q nodded. "This other one. Nagisa. A strange boy."
"Yes, the Continuum has been observing him. He is a rare continuity across multiple dimensions."
"Indeed," Q replied. "I've encountered other versions of the people aboard this vessel before in other realities. Intriguing how similar they seem."
"Could it be due to Nagisa?"
Q's brows knit in thought, "hard to say, which is an unusual situation for us. He doesn't have anything in common with other beings that have evolved to break the boundaries of existence itself. Even his progenitors lacked that ability. Or rather, they destroyed themselves before they could gain that ability."
A sudden lull between them. Both Q and his companion had the same thought which neither of them wanted to voice... except Q just had to ask, "you don't think he could be...?"
"There's no record of our cultures interacting, but stranger things have happened. Amanda Rogers --"
"Yes." A sudden, harsh tone in Q's acknowledgement cut off that train of thought. His companion shrugged, deciding not to press further. After a moment, Q began at length, "we'll have to pay attention to this one."
"Thinking of putting him on trial, too?"
Q allowed himself a smirk, "he will have plenty of trials enough coming up to deal with." He turned to his blonde counterpart. "I think we should keep an eye on him for now. I'll drop in if he really becomes interesting."
The blonde Q decided to let it be at that. "Fair enough. I have to go anyway. We're dealing with that... troublemaker. He's going on about wanting to end his life again."
Q rolled his eyes, "just toss him in another comet to cool him off."
With that, the other man blinked away. Q observed for another moment, pondering the question of this Kaworu. Then, he went to do his customary snap away... and nothing happened. Q looked at his hand for a moment in confusion. How odd, must've been too distracted. Thinking no more of it on the second attempt, Q winked away as normal.
Reviewed at: Episode 1x01
First, the good. The screenwriting is very dense and efficient. It packs a lot of dialogue and trims a lot of fat description off the margins. An actual screenplay would assume designers would physically manufacture those and present them wordlessly on camera, which lets the screenplay focus on just the few that matter most for the storytelling. The resulting fic is both fast-paced and dense.
However, the fic doesn't quite nail the format. A metaphor like "We can practically hear the hard drive in his brain crash" seems out of place both in the instructions and in Star Trek, and that's only one example of several in the first episode. Also, proper care isn't taken to present all the necessary information to the fictitious TV audience. For example, it's fine if the stage directions assume the screenplay's consumers (the actors, costume artists etc.) will know what the nature of the relationship between Rei and Shinji is, but a TV audience who only hears the dialogue will need a bit more explanation than they get.
The two setting mesh, not seamlessly, but they do complement each other. The Mobile Unit fills a hole in the Federation military tech stack. Classically, a Federation expeditionary force would escalate straight from marines with handheld phasers to anti-ship weapons on their space warships with no options in between. This fic gives a single-seat space fighter one sentence of screen time, but I don't remember the Federation ever having something like that - I don't know all of Star Trek so it may show up somewhere, but if so it's not normal. And the away teams often end up in tricky situations precisely because they lack a heavy option separate from their ship. So the Federation has a logical need that the giant humanoid war machines fulfill. The fic has a moderate amount of tonal dissonance between the Star Trek elements and the Evangelion elements, particularly with the process of Shinji joining Star Fleet and with the first episode's combat script, but aside from the one ugly problem it's within bounds for a crossover.
The ugly problem is that I find this incarnation of Misato to be intensely aggravating, and the twist at the end of cut 133 suggests that it's only going to get worse because she's willing to abuse the power she has over Shinji to do more of the stuff that's driving me away from the fic. And the Misato problem feeds into another incongruity where it seems like the USS Nerv has an all-girls school on board, not for any practical reason, but just to put Shinji in awkward but otherwise pointless situations. So I'm willing to peek into episode two but I'm pretty sure it's going to finish killing my interest.
Reviewed at: Episode 1x01
First, the good. The screenwriting is very dense and efficient. It packs a lot of dialogue and trims a lot of fat description off the margins. An actual screenplay would assume designers would physically manufacture those and present them wordlessly on camera, which lets the screenplay focus on just the few that matter most for the storytelling. The resulting fic is both fast-paced and dense.
However, the fic doesn't quite nail the format. A metaphor like "We can practically hear the hard drive in his brain crash" seems out of place both in the instructions and in Star Trek, and that's only one example of several in the first episode. Also, proper care isn't taken to present all the necessary information to the fictitious TV audience. For example, it's fine if the stage directions assume the screenplay's consumers (the actors, costume artists etc.) will know what the nature of the relationship between Rei and Shinji is, but a TV audience who only hears the dialogue will need a bit more explanation than they get.
The two setting mesh, not seamlessly, but they do complement each other. The Mobile Unit fills a hole in the Federation military tech stack. Classically, a Federation expeditionary force would escalate straight from marines with handheld phasers to anti-ship weapons on their space warships with no options in between. This fic gives a single-seat space fighter one sentence of screen time, but I don't remember the Federation ever having something like that - I don't know all of Star Trek so it may show up somewhere, but if so it's not normal. And the away teams often end up in tricky situations precisely because they lack a heavy option separate from their ship. So the Federation has a logical need that the giant humanoid war machines fulfill. The fic has a moderate amount of tonal dissonance between the Star Trek elements and the Evangelion elements, particularly with the process of Shinji joining Star Fleet and with the first episode's combat script, but aside from the one ugly problem it's within bounds for a crossover.
The ugly problem is that I find this incarnation of Misato to be intensely aggravating, and the twist at the end of cut 133 suggests that it's only going to get worse because she's willing to abuse the power she has over Shinji to do more of the stuff that's driving me away from the fic. And the Misato problem feeds into another incongruity where it seems like the USS Nerv has an all-girls school on board, not for any practical reason, but just to put Shinji in awkward but otherwise pointless situations. So I'm willing to peek into episode two but I'm pretty sure it's going to finish killing my interest.
Thanks for the review! I definitely understand how this series may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I appreciate you taking the time to read.
Looking back on the first episode, I certainly view it as the weakest of the bunch compared to where it's at now, two years later. I think the details and exposition that clarify the world start to even out in episodes 2 and 3. Really, the first two episodes are sort of a two-part story themselves.
Hopefully the next episode helps to smooth out your concerns over Misato. Honestly, I think I made her too much of a teasing aunt type here in the pilot episode. I'd like to think her characterization improves, but I'm hardly an impartial judge.
There wasn't enough story room in the first episode to introduce everyone in the class, so that's why I can see you'd get the impression it was all-girls.
I didn't get "teasing aunt" from the pilot episode, because she seemed way too dedicated to the flirting/teasing for that to the point where any time she seems to do something normal I second-guess whether it's a setup for another flirt.
I didn't get "teasing aunt" from the pilot episode, because she seemed way too dedicated to the flirting/teasing for that to the point where any time she seems to do something normal I second-guess whether it's a setup for another flirt.
From the TV Guide listing... [P+] EVA-TREK (CC) -- Science Fiction/Drama
Stardate 49334.2: Nerv launches their final onslaught against Commodore Kiel and SEELE. Will Shinji and the others be able to stay alive long enough to clear their names and save the day? Find out in the action-packed feature-length finale!
Finally... after two-and-a-half long years and 339,293 words (if you total the count from the scripts themselves along with the counts listed here on AO3), here is the two-hour finale of EVA-Trek, "The Last Song." Everything I've been building to with the story has all been for this. Hopefully, many questions will be answered, and the story is brought to a satisfying conclusion.
To start off, "The Last Song" features its own 53-minute soundtrack! It's the culmination of weeks of combing through the scores for multiple Berman-era finales and movies to find the right pieces to fit the story.
Videos with each cue are placed adjacent to their starting point in the script, and their start is indicated like this: [Start Track X: Cue Name]. While the cues are not exactingly timed to the script, they should at least enhance the reading experience with the appropriate vibe of the scene. Act 9 and 10 have cues that are intended to follow with the script, and those timings are listed for your benefit. A cue assembly guide is provided after the episode in Appendix C.
Next, you'll notice that the usual cast and set lists, pronunciation guide, and shot code sheets are not at the head of the script. This is to avoid any spoilers as you start reading the episode as they'd give the whole story away before starting. Instead, they've been moved to after the body of the screenplay.
Storyboards for each act have been included throughout the episode for key moments. Note that they're (mostly) in a rough form, as appropriate for pre-production artwork.
Stay tuned after the finale for an epilogue, afterword, and the usual artwork. The Ao3 version also features a couple additional special features - EVA-Trek's original series arc notes from two years ago, and the first draft outline of the finale episode!
Secrecy Notice: The bulk of this memo is based off a similar document issued to the cast and crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation with each copy of the script for "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II."
Title Page: We couldn't think of anyone better to helm our final installment than "Two Takes" Frakes.
Page 1, Scene 1: Elsewhere in Trek, Captain Janeway seeks an alliance to secure Voyager's passage through Kazon space in VGR: "Alliances." Technically, in terms of their placement in the season, the events of DS9: "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost" should occur around this time, but as the stardate for the latter episode is inconsistent, and the former doesn't have one, I figure that DS9 two-parter takes place sometime following the events of the EVA-Trek finale... for reasons that may become apparent.
Page 1, Scene 2: It wasn't until now that I had room to bring Misato's pendant she received from her father into the fray.
Page 10, Scene 11: I will leave it a mystery as to what Gendo was going to tell Shinji.
Act One:
Page 12, Scene 17: I've been wanting to give Nerv's Evas a new paint-job from the start, but it didn't make sense until they were fugitives.
Page 17, Scene 37: Robert Picardo is back as Nerv's Emergency Medical Hologram, which shows just how dire the situation is, as much as Hitomi dislikes its use.
Page 19, Scene 46: I was super tempted to have Takao say he's "giving her all she's got, Captain!"
Act One Storyboard:
Act Two:
Page 23, Scene 62: You have no idea how many drafts and revisions I've had to do over the last couple years to make the intricate intercutting of this sequence work...
Page 24, Scene 67: Asuka makes a shameless reference to the Tim Burton Batman (1989).
Page 26, Scene 73: Shinji still has some rage issues that he needs to work on.
Page 31, Scene 91: We've got a classic Star Trek shot of the camera tilting sideways to indicate a large impact on the ship.
Page 31, Scene 93: Nagara is now the third gold-shirt at the rear Bridge stations to have gotten injured over the course of the series.
Act Two Storyboard:
Act Three:
Page 35, Scene 103: My version of Asuka won't be losing her eye today, thank you very much.
Page 36, Scene 104: Takao's body roll is an homage to the one that Geordi LaForge often did on TNG.
Page 37, Scene 108: What might've protected Kensuke from harm, I wonder...?
Page 40, Scene 121: This first vignette is taken directly from The End of Evangelion.
Page 42, Scene 132: See episode 7, "Walking After You," for Shinji and Asuka's sync training.
Act Three Storyboard:
Act Four:
Page 47, Scene 144: Imagine Kaji with the most majestic and nautical beard this side of William T. Riker. Even when I was first developing the series, I was always going to bring him back for the finale.
Page 47A: Kaji references Admiral Alynna Nechayev and Admiral Owen Paris, both significant members of Starfleet Intelligence and Operations. Nechayev (portrayed by Natalia Nogulich) was heavily involved with the events in the Cardassian DMZ during the prior decade. Paris (most significantly portrayed by the late Richard Herd) is currently heading up the Pathfinder Project, which aims to contact the lost USS Voyager... where his son, Tom, is the helmsman.
Page 48, Scene 145: The music cue for this scene is way longer than it would actually play out on screen, but it feels so right that I couldn't think of a different track to use.
Page 51.1: A protoplaser is a medical device used for the treatment of various injuries.
Page 51.2: As Federation technology would normally handle an injury like Gendo's with ease, the only way to make his specific injury fatal would be to introduce molecular degradation.
Page 52.1: If this scene feels familiar, it's because Gendo first saw this when he had an orb experience on DS9 during episode 12, "Good Grief." Now you know why I specifically called out that the crew were wearing the DS9 jumpsuits in the original episode.
Page 52.2: The bloody handprint is a specific call-back to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Act Four Storyboard:
Act Five:
Page 54, Scene 151: Sadly, we were unable to make the scheduling work out to bring back Todd Stashwick as Lt. J.G. Liam Shaw.
Page 60: Misato may or may not have a bit of that Kirk energy to her when it comes to command.
Act Five Storyboard:
Act Six:
Page 63, Scene 160: The type-2 phaser is the "dustbuster" version of the weapon.
Page 64: In regards to the tailor, see episode 12, "Good Grief."
Page 66, Scene 163: The walls of the elevator lobby are some of the few vestiges that remain of this timeline's equivalent of the Nerv pyramid, whatever it might've been.
Page 67, Scene 163: Thoron fields have been used in the past to mask or fabricate the presence of weapons or technology.
Page 68, Scene 165: Yes, this is exactly that level counter you remember from the original show.
Page 69: This was the best place I could think of to put my attempt at merging the First Ancestral Race history from Eva with the ancient species from TNG: "The Chase" that seeded the Milky Way galaxy with their DNA.
Page 70, Scene 166: I've pulled a bit of the effects of Lilith's "call" from Advice and Trust.
Act Six Storyboard:
Act Seven:
Page 78: I realize I have Kiel acting extra cruelly to Rei, but he is a sociopath with nothing to lose and one who will do anything to achieve his objective.
Page 79, Scene 182 and 183: I can't believe I never established the voice casting for Grandma and Grandpa Rokubungi, but I have in mind Loretta Swit and Mike Farrell, best known as Nurse Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan and Dr. B.J. Hunnicut on M*A*S*H, one of my all-time favorite television series. Farrell has an interesting Trek-adjacent connection through Gene Roddenberry's The Questor Tapes, in which he played the show's co-lead alongside Robert Foxworth, who would later appear in DS9 and Enterprise. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend checking out Questor. It's a legitimately good pilot that unfortunately got screwed by the network when they tried to wrestle control away from Roddenberry. Kino Lorber's blu-ray release is fantastic!
Page 80, Scene 186: Just like their counterparts from The End of Evangelion, the mass-production Evas of this timeline are like an antibiotic-resistant infection that keeps coming back.
Page 84, Scene 195: In case you were wondering how Kiel was going to use Rei's powers when he'd implemented angel inhibitors...
Page 84, Scene 196: SEELE #1 and #2 just got tang'd, or burst into their component LCL.
Act Eight:
Page 86, Scene 198: Don't start playing "Komm Susser Tod" just yet.
Page 86, Scene 200.1: The Kanto region of Japan includes the greater Tokyo area, Hakone, and Kanagawa (where the Rokubungi restaurant is located).
Page 86, Scene 200.2: To be exact, the Black Moon is some 13.75 kilometers in diameter, based on production sketches.
Page 88, Scene 203: In fandom parlance, this is "Giant Naked Rei."
Page 94, Scene 216: Kirk's Gambit, of course, refers to the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Act Eight Storyboard:
Act Nine:
Page 104, Scene 242: Yet another Wrath of Khan reference.
Page 104, Scene 243: That is indeed the USS Cerritos, commanded by Captain Carol Freeman, from Star Trek: Lower Decks.
Page 106, Scene 254: Remember that Shinji got his rage issues from his mother.
Page 110, Scene 269: See episode 15, "Friend of a Friend," and episode 16, "Come Back," for the outcome of Asuka's berserk maneuver with Kyoto and its aftermath.
Page 113: Continuing Rei's predilection for formal language with a lack of contractions, I liked the idea of Lilith speaking of herself in the third person.
Act Nine Storyboard:
Act Ten:
Page 121, Scene 295: Elsewhere in Trek, DS9's fourth season is coming to a close as Dr. Bashir works to rid a planet of a Dominion-engineered plague in "The Quickening."
Page 121, Scene 296: Shinji's new haircut is inspired by the cover illustration of Gendo from volume 7 of the Evangelion manga's special edition. Rei's comes from the character Tsubaki in 2.5 Dimensional Seduction. Specifically, her cosplay hairstyle in chapters 120 through 122.
Page 123, Scene 299: The Fleet Museum was mentioned in many episodes of the franchise before finally being seen in all its fanservice glory in PIC: "The Bounty." Two of its major displays are the NX-01 and Kirk's Enterprise. The Picard art department managed to get Doug Drexler's proposed fifth season redesign of the NX-01 into the show, finally canonizing it.
Page 123, Scene 300: Touji being a human typhoon is a reference to his voice actor, Johnny Yong Bosch, also being the English voice of Vash the Stampede in Trigun.
Page 123, Scene 301: Hyuga and Aoba are playing the holoprogram of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
Page 124, Scene 303: This ties back to the events of episode 12.5, "Beyond Me," in which Hitomi and Sakura have been working on Nerv's EMH to give him less of a bed-snide manner.
Page 125, Scene 305: We last saw Section 31 operative Luther Sloan in episode 18, "Breakout."
Page 126, Scene 308: Reminder that in this timeline, Asuka's father is Pieter Langley.
Page 129: This last shot of Shinji was the first thing I came up with for the finale, because I wanted to end the story with a mirror action from the pilot episode. We began with Shinji waking up, and end with him going to sleep. It's also similar to Lost's opening and ending shots, though it wasn't completely intentional on my part.
Act Ten Storyboards:
COSTUME REFERENCE SKETCHES – ACT 10 – Shinji
COSTUME REFERENCE SKETCHES – ACT 10 – Rei
Sc. 298: INT. READY ROOM
CAST PHOTO: Pilots Aida, Ayanami, Ikari, Soryu, and Nagisa
"Aaaaand, CUT! Print it!"
Allansfirebird watched with unending admiration as Jonathan Frakes called an end to the take on the current scene. For the last couple hours, the crew had been working on scene 10 from the shooting script. The big, expository Bridge scene that set up much of the first act battles in the ambitious finale.
Frakes conferred with his A.D., or assistant director, then said aloud, "it's looking good, just a couple of notes, guys."
As he ambled quickly over into the set to speak with the actors, Allansfirebird marveled at the insanity of the day. After the last two and a half years of working on EVA-Trek, the production was now into its final weeks of shooting. So many long days and nights banging the scripts into place and working with the crews to rebuild all of the Galaxy class sets on stages 8 and 9 at Paramount nearly made him feel like he'd been doing it all on his own.
The good thing for him was he finished the last round of revisions to the surprisingly thick shooting script last night. He nearly shed a tear when he typed "THE END" for the final time. From there, he was here to handle any line change requests on the set and shadow Frakes to get some on-the-job training as a director. Allansfirebird had always wanted to direct, but EVA-Trek sucked up so much of his time that it was the furthest thing from his mind. But, since this was at the studio's request, he wasn't going to look a gift Vulcan in the ears.
He peered closer to where Frakes was animatedly talking with Gendo and Misato over a bit of business. He laughed to himself at that thought. During the first day on set all those months ago, the cast decided they wanted to be called by their character's names until the series wrapped. Method actors, he sneered and shook his head in disbelief.
He glanced around more, seeing a bunch of the other cast members not even involved with the scene amongst the waiting crew. The production intentionally scheduled the Bridge scenes on a day where they could get as much of the cast together as possible, since it was probably going to be the last time everyone would be together. It really gave a feeling of closing time, even if there were still a few weeks left in the schedule.
Now in his field of vision came a perspiring production assistant, freshly off from a run. He approached Allansfirebird.
"Hey," the PA called, "Alex wanted you to drop by the production office when you've got a moment."
"Alex, really?" He was surprised. Alex Kurtzman, the head honcho of the Trek franchise, tended to stay out of their hair here on the Paramount lot. A lot of his time was spent shuttling around between Discovery and Strange New Worlds' production offices and all of the current series' writers rooms here in Los Angeles and their sets up in Toronto. If he was coming here, it must be important. "Sure, I'll be right --"
"Guys, let's take an early lunch. We've got some camera issues here," the 1st A.D. announced over the din. A group of folks were gathered around the Panavision camera alongside Benji Bakshi, the finale's cinematographer.
Allansfirebird turned back to the PA, "guess I'll head on over."
On the way to the offices, he decided to take a short detour through Stage 9 to avoid a sudden cloudburst that was hitting LA that morning, dousing the city with more rain than it knew what to do with. The crews were busy redressing the sets for the battle and fighting scenes that second unit would be filming the following week.
Such a shame to be ruining these sets, he thought to himself. After all that effort to recreate them, the producers figured it didn't hurt to put extra effort in really wrecking the shit out of the main Nerv sets. Not like we'll need them much longer, anyways. Allansfirebird did think it was strange that the order to strike and demolish the sets hadn't been scheduled yet but he put the thought out of his mind.
He waved a quick hello to Doug Drexler, Mike Okuda, and Denise Okuda, who were putting some final touches on Main Engineering. When he was able to successfully lobby to bring three of his favorite Trek designers back onboard to EVA-Trek's art department in full-time capacities this season, he couldn't believe his luck. Having them around gave the show an extra layer of verisimilitude and made it feel like it was 1994 again. The only thing he couldn't do was convince CBS/Paramount to dig the Enterprise-D Bridge set from Picard out of storage. They had to re-rebuild it from scratch in order to make something suitable for regular filming again. In the end, that turned out to be a blessing. He loved that expanded Bridge set first seen in Star Trek: Generations. It was no exaggeration to say it was his favorite set they filmed on.
A few minutes later, he entered the Zukor building at the heart of the studio lot, where EVA-Trek's production offices were. Unlike the 90's, which used the Hart building all the way across the lot, the Zukor was just a short walk away.
He found Mr. Kurtzman already waiting in the hoteling office they used for visiting producers. He was just ending a call, by the sounds of it, with Michelle Paradise who was working to finish the final cuts on Discovery's last season.
Hanging up the call, Alex turned to him with a pleasant smile, "good to see you! Hope I'm not pulling you away from set for too long?"
"Nah, we just wrapped for lunch a little early, so this was perfect timing. What's up?"
Alex eased back in his chair, his smile flattening out into an inscrutable expression. It made Allansfirebird uneasy, not knowing what was about to happen. "I had some news I wanted to you to hear before it breaks."
"U-uh... lay it on me, Alex." Famous last words...
Alex looked impassively at him for another moment... and then, he smiled. "We just got the word from the studio about an hour ago." He stood and warmly clasped his hand, "you've been renewed for season two. Congratulations!"
Allansfirebird's mouth vocalized empty air for a moment as his brain bluescreened. It was an utter miracle EVA-Trek was greenlit in the first place. Being able to come back and increase production after the double strikes last year was another miracle unto itself... and now his creation was coming back for more episodes? He was excited... but then the months of exhaustion from managing this train on the tracks caught up with him.
Later, he and Kurtzman would look back on this moment and laugh, but presently, all his exhausted brain was able to do was inhale a breath and --
About six miles away up the 101 Freeway in Burbank, it was a cloudy and dreary morning on the Warner Brothers lot as one of the lot's maintenance engineers turned on the power washer. Normally, the bleak weather would take the energy out of him. But today? Today was special. The current work order he was executing was one which had been a long time coming, and it brightened his day. He savored each second as he blasted away the paint from the pavement:
A "Z" was blasted away...
Followed by an "A"...
An "S"...
"L"...
Another "A"...
Finally, the "V."
He relished blasting away the last remnants of the former studio boss' personal parking stall now that he'd been made a scapegoat for the millions in losses over the last few years. The former CEO nearly cost him his job and livelihood, so it was with particular satisfaction he was still here to mark this occasion.
The maintenance engineer turned off the power washer, satisfied with his work. Suddenly, however, he could've sworn he heard a voice, just carried over the wind, yelling "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!"
Whew! It's been a long road, getting from the pilot to this here finale, folks!
I'd like to begin this final blurb by confirming that, yes, I'm intending to continue EVA-Trek with season two AND BEYOND!
During the initial development of the series back in late 2021 and early 2022, I realized that I had more ideas for stories and characters than I could realistically include in a 26-episode season. So, once I locked the first draft of my series arc notes in March of 2022, I already had notes for multiple seasons-worth of future episodes.
Though I'd intended on making EVA-Trek structured like the Berman era series, which ran for seven seasons each (save for Enterprise), it eventually settled down to a more manageable five seasons. I'm fully committed to carrying out the series' five-year mission... and hopefully not get it cancelled after the third season.
As it currently stands, the series arc notes for seasons two through five are about 35+ pages, with pitches and ideas for just about every installment. Where might we be heading in the future? That would be spoilers, darlings, but here's an extremely sketchy and vague outline:
Season 2: "These are the voyages..." The year is 2373. With the Angel War finally behind them, the USS Nerv is an exploratory and scientific vessel once again. 15 episodes.
Season 3: "Next time on EVA-Trek..." The year is 2374. 10 episodes.
Season 4: "This is (Not) the End..." The year is 2375. 10 episodes.
Season 5: "All good things..." The year is 2376. The final season. 12 episodes. A fully-serialized story arc.
That's right – there are still another forty-sevenEVA-Trek episodes (an appropriate number, IYKYK) coming... eventually. Now that season one is completed, I'm going to take a long rest to recover from the last couple years' worth of effort. Once I'm feeling up to it, I'll start refining season two's story and settle on a premiere date.
Something I think would be fun for future seasons would be to assemble a writing staff, as any television show would have. Admittedly, it would help take a shitload of burden off my back. At the same time, it could be nice to broaden the show's voice. This entire time, I've worked on EVA-Trek purely on my own. I never used any beta readers or any co-writers. For better or worse, you've been getting 100% of the vision I've had.
So, before I wrap things up, here's a little taste of what's to come – a couple concept sketches, featuring the Dominion War-era Starfleet uniforms.
A FUTURE LOOK CONCEPT SKETCH: Captain Misato Katsuragi
A FUTURE LOOK CONCEPT SKETCH: Ensign Rei Ayanami
Friends, this is Allansfirebird, signing off for now with a line from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar:
And whether we shall meet again, I know not.
Therefore our everlasting farewell take:
Forever, and forever, farewell [...].
If we do meet again, why we shall smile;
If not, why then this parting was well made.
Hailing frequencies closed. See you out there...
What follows are the original notes I created when assembling the soundtrack for this episode. There are some minor differences due to decisions I made during the editing stage. By and large, this is still applicable to the final product.
Section 31 now has files on how to begin Impact-level events. Section 31. Sure, that's not going to end up in a lot of crimes against the galaxy sooner or later…
Section 31 now has files on how to begin Impact-level events. Section 31. Sure, that's not going to end up in a lot of crimes against the galaxy sooner or later…
Where Luther Sloan was the one who gave the isolinear chip with the SEELE files to Kaji in the first place. Section 31 has always had that information in the first place, it's just dependent on who utilizes the data. For as amoral as he seems, Sloan is loyal to the safety and stability of the Federation above all.
I mentioned it in the pre-episode blurb for the finale, but I went through each episode's script to figure out just what the real word count would be for season 1 of EVA-Trek:
Other than being bowled over that I've written more than a quarter-million words in the last 2.5 years, it surprised me to see each episode averages right around 10K apiece.
Going through the other media, I drew a total of 104 illustrations, and composed or edited 33 minutes of soundtrack between summer 2021 and March 2024.
Just a couple hours ago, I finished the writer's guide for season 2! That's helped me map out what my overall plans are for each of the characters over the next 15 episodes. Additionally, I've created a few new characters and "borrowed" some other characters from a couple other favorite anime series to fill out the recurring cast.
Next step: working on the season story arc and breaking the basic plots of each episode. Once that's done - the writing of episode 2x01 of EVA-Trek begins!
If all goes well, season 2 of EVA-Trek should be targeting a late 2024/early 2025 start.
INT. "THE READY ROOM" INTERVIEW SET
WIL WHEATON stands before CAMERA. He's peppy and excited as ever.
WIL WHEATON
On this episode of The Ready Room, we'll be presenting an EVA-Trek short story taking place after last season's finale...
CUT TO:
MONTAGE OF IMAGERY
Sketches of characters and blueprints.
WIL WHEATON (V.O.)
(continuing)
We'll also take you behind the scenes with a sneak peek at season 2...
CUT TO:
INT. "THE READY ROOM" INTERVIEW SET
As before.
WIL WHEATON
(continuing)
A special 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. It's been a couple months since the climactic end to the USS Nerv's journey, and Allansfirebird is back with a new short story! It's a Misato-led tale that we unfortunately can't present to you without stepping into some serious spoiler territory, so I am calling for --
Wil gestures and the lighting on the set goes PURPLE.
WIL WHEATON
(continuing)
A black alert! If you haven't checked out EVA-Trek's first season finale "The Last Song," I recommend you search it out, kick back, give it a read, and come back here.
The LIGHTING goes back to normal.
WIL WHEATON
So, without further ado, here is episode 126.5, "(Zero Hour)." Control room – roll that... text!
"Shuttlecraft Ellison, taking off."
Captain Misato Katsuragi felt the barest jolt from the type-7 shuttle lifting off the landing bay pad. Looking forward, she watched the walls of the landing bay fall away as the shuttlecraft left the bounds of Probert Station.
Next to her, Lieutenant Junior Grade Hideki Tama manned the controls. He opened a channel, "Ellison to Nerv. Getting the Captain started on her inspection tour of the ship. E.T.A., seven minutes."
"Acknowledged, Ellison. Shuttlebay 1 is on standby to receive upon your arrival."
Tama turned to Misato as he closed comms, "shouldn't take too long, Captain."
Misato winced, "easy, Lieutenant. I'm still not too used to hearing all that 'captain' stuff."
Tama did a little wincing of his own, "I won't salute if you won't, ca -- er, ma'am."
Misato smiled, "that new pip feeling a little heavy, too, Tama?"
"Just a bit, yeah."
Misato couldn't help but laugh understandably. In the last seven months since what many were now calling the "Battle of Earth," Starfleet had awarded several officers aboard Nerv with promotions - Tama, Kitakami, many of the enlisted staff, and even Misato herself.
Unfortunately, none of the ship's senior officers made the cut for reasons that still remain unknown to her. Even the Evangelion pilots were steadfastly denied – Shinji Ikari, Rei Ayanami, Asuka L. Soryu, Kensuke Aida, and Kaworu Nagisa. What was weirder was that none of them took the news that hard. Misato half expected Asuka to punch a hole in a bulkhead, but the young firebrand took it in stride. It probably helped that Misato didn't tell the pilots they were specifically denied promotions on age grounds.
Not that Misato wanted to complain, but she felt the mantle of that new gold pip quite often these days. It wasn't that she didn't want this command; indeed, it was always a dream of hers to become a starship Captain. She just never wanted it to happen this way... due to the death of Captain Gendo Ikari.
She still missed Ikari. He was never the most sociable man, but he had become one hell of a leader for Nerv. Nobody could've gotten the crew through the "angel war" the way he had. If Misato were brutally honest with herself, she wasn't sure she could match him.
Or even, for that matter, Number One – Kozo Fuyutsuki. The kindly former professor was still at Starfleet Medical intensive care in a coma, thanks to the angel Arael. The loss of the two men shot Misato up the chain of command, and Dr. Ritsuko Akagi (the ship's Executive Science Officer) along with her.
Once the dust settled from the defeat of Commodore Kiel and SEELE, Starfleet stunned Misato by offering her not only a promotion, but command of Nerv itself. She was told that her performance aboard the ship the last couple years secured her the job. It was only after talking with her mother, Ritsuko... and Kaji... that she finally accepted the post. Nerv was hers now.
On that thought, Misato could see the drydock enclosure just within sight now... and her home within...
Misato realized there'd been a lull in the conversation and that Tama looked a bit perplexed. "What is it, Tama?"
"Well, I was a little confused. Why are these inspection tours still a thing? You've been aboard the ship every minute of her refit, so what difference does it make?"
"Tradition," Misato replied with a smirk. "It's been a thing since Kirk's time, or so I hear. The Captain does an 'inspection tour' of the ship the day of her commissioning ceremony."
Tama mused as the shuttle approached drydock, "hmm, I guess I can understand it..." He suddenly smiled wide... as shuttlecraft Ellison banked a turn and the USS Nerv filled their view. "When you've got a ship like that, who wouldn't wanna take a good look?"
Misato's heart skipped a beat as she took in the graceful curves of the Galaxy-class starship. After months of refits and repairs, the ship was good as new. Her destroyed warp nacelle had been replaced. Any signs of the pounding she took from the fleet when they thought she was the enemy had been erased.
Even... Misato paused for a moment... even the Bridge carpeting which had been soaked through with Ikari's blood when he died there, trying to protect Rei and the ship. Misato sighed, the materials may have been replaced, but the memories would always remain.
Misato shook off that thought, wanting to stay in the here and now. There had been and would be time to remember the dead. Misato shifted her thoughts towards her pilots, her kids. She would be getting to see them in a couple days when they and the rest of the civilian population was due to embark.
The last time Misato saw Shinji, Asuka, and the others was at a family dinner in the Rokubungi Restaurant some weeks back. When Shinji's grandparents wanted to have a big celebratory meal for everyone, they went all-out. The entire senior staff, all the Bridge officers, the pilots, and their families were all invited.
It warmed Misato's heart to realize Shinji's grandparents thought of everyone aboard Nerv as part of the family now. A smile crossed her face as she remembered overhearing Ritsuko introducing Maya to them. If Misato didn't know any better, she'd have thought Ritsuko was their daughter, bringing the girlfriend home for their blessing.
And in a couple days, Shinji and Asuka would be moving back in with Misato again. Misato missed them terribly these last months. Shinji and Rei moved back in with their grandparents, Asuka got a place near the Rokubungi restaurant in Kanagawa, Kensuke and his father were back in Japan, and Kaworu even got his own apartment, too. But she was getting the band back together...
Tama keyed the comms, "Nerv, shuttle Ellison. We're on final approach."
"Acknowledged," the comm voice responded, "switching you over to automated flight mode to complete the tour. Welcome back, Captain Katsuragi."
Misato winced once more as the shuttle banked another turn...
After taking the shuttle on the pre-programmed automated path around Nerv, it finally touched down inside the main shuttlebay about five minutes later. Misato could see the heads of their four remaining Evangelions – the USS Hakone, the USS Kyoto, the USS Matsushiro, and the USS Osaka.
One would think the symmetrical arrangement of the two Evas to port and two to starboard was perfectly natural. However, the view never hadn't looked quite right since the destruction of the USS Tokyo earlier in the year during Rei's engagement with the angel Armisael. She'd been forced to self-destruct the unit after the angel infiltrated and attempted to assimilate her.
Misato glanced and could see Ritsuko – now her Number One, or First officer – heading towards the shuttle's landing position. She could tell Ritsuko had been pushing herself lately; her makeup hadn't quite wiped out the dark circles under her eyes.
Ritsuko was undertaking a major project to retrieve long-thought missing people from the Evas: Dr. Yui Ikari, Shinji's mother, from the Hakone and Dr. Kyoko Z. Soryu, Asuka's mother, from the Kyoto were up first. For the past year, they were the only known souls confirmed to be "alive" inside the remaining Evas. Ritsuko's mother, Dr. Naoko Akagi, had been inside the Tokyo's core, but had become mentally disturbed and helped to save Rei when the unit was destroyed. Ritsuko theorized having a host soul related to the pilot inside the Eva's core what made synchronization possible.
As to the Osaka and Matsushiro, it had yet to be confirmed whether the former Eva even possessed any soul at all for some time. Thanks to Kaworu's angel DNA, he had the capacity to synchronize and use any Eva at will.
Matsushiro was another matter entirely. Kensuke had reported for months he could feel a presence inside, but nothing concrete. Then, a few weeks ago, Kensuke reached a 75% synchronization threshold... and promptly met his mother, Aoi Aida. This left many questions as to how Mrs. Aida got there, when she had died from an incurable form of cancer five years ago. She had Kaji investigating the matter using his contacts within Section 31... though, she didn't hold out hope of getting any answers.
The sound of the shuttle's front hatch sliding open broke Misato out of her thoughts. She nodded at Tama, "thank you, Lieutenant. I'll see you at the ceremony."
Tama smiled in return, "aye, ma'am." He strode off, respectfully nodding at Ritsuko on his way towards the turbolift.
Misato left the shuttle and walked over to the waiting Ritsuko. "Hey, Ritz. Report?"
"Everything's ready for the commissioning ceremony later today," Ritsuko began, a touch of tiredness and irritation to her tone. "Nearly every division has things ready to go for our launch. Kaji says the ship is... mostly ready to go."
I don't like the sound of that, Misato thought. "Mostly?"
Ritsuko sighed. Uh-oh, Misato thought, feeling a cold sweat break out down her back.
"Kaji wants to meet with us down in Engineering," Ritsuko began, "Barnes and Nadir have a bit of a problem.
"Oh, god..."
The ride in the turbolift down to engineering suddenly felt like one of the longest in her life while she waited to find out what the "bit of a problem" was.
Ritsuko mentioned that her new lab was finally finished. SEELE's troops had destroyed her old one when they boarded the ship during the battle. One of Misato's first requests after becoming Captain was to get her new First Officer an upgraded laboratory to be able to continue her work.
The subject of the new classroom for Shinji's class also came up. Since that had been similarly trashed, Misato wanted to give them the best facilities possible. That included a new teacher, since their previous one predictably retired. The selection process was done, and the new teacher would be aboard soon.
Misato felt a sinking feeling in her stomach the moment she rounded the corner to Engineering. Chief Engineer Ryoji Kaji stood at the "pool table" along with his main Assistant, the burly Lt. Koji Takao. Unusually, two of his technicians were there, as well. The lanky and awkward Nadir and his counterpart, the jovial and stocky Barnes. Both looked rather guilty, which worried Misato even more.
"All right, Kaji. What the hell is the problem?"
Kaji cast a brief glance at his technicians, then turned back to Misato with his typical roguish grin. "So, we ran into a bit of snag with some of our refits this morning."
Misato was wary, "go on."
"We'd been working on improvements to the life safety systems in situations of structural damage," Kaji began. "I'd felt it was risky to depend on isolation forcefields by themselves and thought we could do something to better seal off compromised sections." He gestured at Barnes and Nadir, "they came up with an idea to beef up the ship's emergency isolation doors with self-sealing stem bolts."
A moment's pause. Misato felt more confused now than concerned. "Okay, and...?"
"They sealed themselves," Nadir interjected as if that explained it all.
Kaji better not be playing a prank on me because I'm not in the mood. "So, they work," Misato replied, deadpan.
Barnes quickly jumped in, "that's true, Captain. It's just... they worked so well... they've sealed off half of the saucer section when we ran a test this morning."
Suddenly, Misato wished she was back at her favorite bar in Los Angeles, having one of Guinan's Rigellian Starbursts. "I know I'm going to regret this, but... how long will it take to fix?"
The four engineers shared a look, then Kaji turned back to Misato, "next Tuesday."
"Paris is gonna kill me." Misato hung her head.
Once an angry yet measured Admiral Owen Paris closed the channel, Misato leaned back in her chair and sighed. Paris was none too pleased to hear Nerv's rather high-profile launch had to be pushed back nearly a week because of a 'bunch of stupid self-sealing stem bolts,' as he put it. "At least I've still got my pips."
As Misato recalled the haranguing she got from Paris, she absently looked around at her Ready Room. It was totally remodeled after its main wall was ripped away by debris during the battle. The only piece of Captain Ikari's spartan decoration that had remained in place had been his model of the Oberth-class USS Gehirn, his first command. Misato had it sent to Shinji's grandparents some time back.
The old pink upholstered walls had been switched out for a warm beige, making the room feel a bit brighter. Misato had already decorated it with some photos and mementos. At Misato's desk – Academy graduation with her mother and Ritsuko, her and the Eva pilots at Rei's last birthday. On the walls – photos from her days at Deep Space Nine, Starfleet Command, her with Ritsuko and Kaji during their Academy days. It was starting to feel like her space.
There was a chime at the door. "C'mon in."
The doors parted and Ritsuko came in. "How'd it go?"
Misato partially sat back up, grateful for the break in her reverie. "Barnes and Nadir are gonna need to lay low for a while, but I got Paris to calm down."
"Is he still coming aboard for the ceremony?" Ritsuko was almost enjoying this.
Misato let out another long sigh, "the commissioning ceremony will go on as scheduled."
"That's too bad," Ritsuko replied, not at all sympathetic.
"Oh, please," Misato rolled her eyes, "you know I hate public speaking. Can't you be just a little sympathetic, Ritz?"
Ritsuko simply shrugged, "we all have our crosses to bear, Captain."
A short while later, Misato had changed out of her new black-and-gray uniform and into a dress uniform and was now standing at attention in Ten-Forward. Before her was the entire senior staff, her Bridge crew, and nearly every division head across the ship. She tried to control her nerves while the elder Admiral Paris strode up to the podium. She decided to focus on the light reflection on the back of Paris' bald head.
Paris opened his speech on a PADD. "The commission of even the smallest and least distinguished of Starfleet vessels," he began in a practiced formal tone that didn't betray his earlier irritation, "is always accompanied by more ceremony than can be afforded in the recommissioning of this vessel today. But, with the aid of whatever Providence guides our spacefarers and the ships they command, we will one day repair this oversight."
He paused for a moment, an old pro at making an impact with a speech. "By order of Starfleet Command, this Federation vessel, USS Nerv, is declared re-commissioned and in service."
The audience applauded politely and sincerely. Misato's pulse increased, knowing what was coming next, as Paris smiled and turned towards her. "The Captain will now read herself aboard." He made way for Misato as she crossed over to the podium and took her place.
Misato looked out among the crowd, waiting for her words. Her crew... her friends... her family. She clicked open her orders and drew a breath.
"To Captain Misato Katsuragi, Stardate 49938.2. You are hereby requested and required to take command of the USS Nerv as of this date." Misato cast a momentary glance at the Admiral. "Signed, Admiral Owen Paris, Starfleet Command."
Paris stepped forward and shook Misato's hand, signifying the end of the ceremony. "Company dismissed," she added to the crowd. The applause was immediate and stronger for her, which allowed Misato to let go the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.
The crowd began to disperse and mix. Paris stood by for a moment to chat, "congratulations, Captain. I know you'll do us proud."
"Thank you, sir, I --"
However, Misato broke off as Paris' aide hurried over to his side. "Sorry, Admiral, but we're running behind schedule." He quickly added as an irritated Paris turned, "you've got that meeting in Yucatan in twenty minutes. The USS Quest... Nathan Bridger."
Paris' irritation quickly gave way to a long sigh. "Dammit, that's right. Now I remember why I've been in a mood today." Off Misato's look, he continued, "I have to see an old friend and I'm pretty sure he's got no desire to ever speak with me again. Well," he patted Misato on the shoulder and shook her hand again, "I'm sorry I couldn't stay longer. Good luck, Captain."
And with that, Paris and his aide were gone. Misato stood near the windows for a moment before Ritsuko and Kaji walked over.
Kaji already had a shit-eating grin as he said mockingly, "that was very good, mon capitain."
"Oh, shut it, Ryoji," Misato playfully swatted Kaji, only half-serious.
Ritsuko chimed in, "no, he's right for once. You did well. I could only barely tell you were ready to jump out of your skin at any moment."
Misato shot her a withering glare, "et tu, Ritz-ey?"
In response, Kaji let out a laugh while Ritsuko merely smirked.
"Some respect I get from my Number One and my second-in-command," Misato practically pouted.
"Look at it this way, Katsuragi," Kaji replied, "Ritzy and I are here to keep you honest."
"Gee, thanks," Misato rolled her eyes as the three turned towards the windows and looked out into space. There was a lull.
Ritsuko spoke up, "still, I don't know if I'm used to being a First Officer yet."
"We're all gonna be getting out of our comfort zones, I'm sure," Kaji added.
At this, Misato smiled, "good to know I'm not alone."
The three shared a warm, comfortable silence for a moment, then Kaji turned to Misato again:
"So, have you figured out what your 'thing' is gonna be when you order the ship to go to warp?"
FADE IN:
INT. "THE READY ROOM" INTERVIEW SET
Wil is back in the host's chair.
WIL WHEATON
We're now going to hand things over to EVA-Trek's Executive Producer and Showrunner, Allansfirebird, who will take us behind the scenes of the series' second season!
CUT TO:
A SERIES OF IMAGERY
As ALLANSFIREBIRD begins to narrate:
ALLANSFIREBIRD (V.O.)
Thanks, Wil. So, the supposed "long break" I said I was gonna take once I finished the first season turned out to be all of a few weeks or so. I got the itch to start working on breaking and developing the stories. In just the last couple weeks, I've completed the two most important aspects of pre-production:
ALLANSFIREBIRD (V.O.)
(continuing)
The second season writers' guide, which developed my ideas for where I wanted to take the characters this season. The second was the season arc notes, which constitutes my first, rough notes for the season's milestones and plot lines I want to hit in each of the fifteen episodes.
ALLANSFIREBIRD (V.O.)
(continuing)
Parallel to this, I'm working on updates to the sets this season...
ALLANSFIREBIRD (V.O.)
(continuing)
Our main sets on stages 8 and 9 will largely remain the same, just with a lot of cosmetic changes.
ALLANSFIREBIRD (V.O.)
(continuing)
The exciting news is that we're expanding our standing sets to stage 18 at Paramount! First up is the addition of an A.R. Wall set that'll give us more flexibility in showing "strange new worlds."
ALLANSFIREBIRD (V.O.)
(continuing)
We're also going to build new permanent sets for the Classroom and Ritsuko's Lab. Last year, they utilized the same confined "swing set" area on Stage 9 that also pulled duty with Mari's office. This will save the production a ton of time on changing out the set.
ALLANSFIREBIRD (V.O.)
(continuing)
I'll leave you now with a couple of new concept sketches of our cast in season 2, along with the titles of the first five episodes of next season... which should drop early 2025!
TITLE CARD UP
Showing the following:
Episode 2x01 – LITTLE CHANGES
Episode 2x02 – VITAL SIGNS
Episode 2x03 – POLAROID PICTURE, PART I
Episode 2x04 – POLAROID PICTURE, PART II
Episode 2x05 – I AM DISAPPEARED
CUT TO:
INT. "THE READY ROOM" INTERVIEW SET
Wil as before.
WIL WHEATON
It has been an absolute pleasure and such a privilege to dive into EVA-Trek with you this season. Thank you to showrunner Allansfirebird for the new story and a peak behind the curtain at season 2.
(pause)
We're going to close our hailing frequencies for a bit and get some well-deserved shore leave. We will be back in the Ready Room next year for EVA-Trek's next season and I cannot wait!
Wil takes a momentary pause, then:
WIL WHEATON
Til then, I'm Wil Wheaton --
(he gives the Vulcan salute)
Live long and prosper.
Put together this little project over the last few days - a new version of the EVA-Trek main title sequence! I reworked the arrangement, which I think sounds a lot smoother than before. I also scoured YouTube for appropriate clips of a Galaxy class starship warping past and cobbled them together.
