Witness… The Final Frontier

I’ve never considered myself a diehard Star Trek fan. I would occasionally watch The Next Generation when my mom watched it, and during these quarantine times, she watched Voyager and Enterprise all the way through, so I sat down for some of those. I did a book report on the novelization of “All Good Things…” the series finale of TNG. But I can’t speak Klingon and I’ve never owned a Federation uniform. Then why, you may be asking (probably not, but roll with it), would I dedicate a whole episode as a sort of tribute to the world Trek introduced to us and continues to unfold to this very day?

Well, easy answer: I didn’t do that.

Yes, “The Eurydice Rescue” takes place in a world that is similar to that of Star Trek or, hell, even The Orville! It also may bear some similarities to John Carpenter’s The Thing, or hell, even the current game craze Among Us (I swear I wrote the script before I’d ever heard of that game). But my intention here, or at least my original intention, was to write a “space disaster” story. This might be my favorite genre, or it’s at least up there near the top. The “space disaster,” as I see it, is about a mission in space that goes horribly awry (so, the obvious thing that the name suggests). The key component, though, is that the characters get picked off, one by one. You’re introduced to this group, this crew, you find yourself getting attached to some or all of them, but you know from the onset that not all of them are going to make it out alive. So this genre doesn’t really include titles like Gravity or The Martian, but it does include Interstellar, Mission to Mars, Sunshine, and probably the pinnacle, Alien. Hell, even The Cloverfield Paradox can be flocked in there, even though it’s terrible.

I suppose this genre isn’t limited to just the vast reaches of space; if it’s an adventure, particularly a get from Point A to Point B kind of adventure, that’ll probably get me excited. Those Points, by the way, don’t need to be physical destinations; they can also be a task. a goal. I’m sure this just sounds like every story that’s ever been written, but look at movies like Children of Men and, again, The Thing, or better yet, look at novels like Jurassic Park, Congo, Sphere, Prey, and Timeline. Gee, what do those four titles have in common?

I said a couple weeks ago that I was a big Michael Crichton fan growing up. While I haven’t read his entire bibliography (and might not, as his political views, especially toward climate change, were somewhat backwards), the novels I did read inspired me to no end. Yeah, his characters were relatively two-dimensional, and his long rants or theories about whatever could sometimes read like pretentious soliloquies that he was delivering to himself in the mirror, but I ate up all the popcorn he dished out, specifically the sort of “last person standing” with which he surrounded his cast. Maybe it was a morbid fascination, but it was nonetheless a fascination, one that has stuck with me. “Eurydice” was a chance to bring that fascination to fruition.

First row: Joshua Love, me, Richard Barney. Second row: Kalia Armbruster, Marina, Misculin Molly Wiebe. Third row: Nate Deakers, Brianna Cala.

[This bit here is unnecessary, but I don’t want the text covering all of Molly’s face.]

“Eurydice” was recorded on November 7, 2020, and ended up being the cherry on top to an already phenomenal day. The day, as I’m sure you’re aware, started with the official announcement that Joe Biden had won the election. In celebration, right after I ate breakfast, I baked chocolate chip cookies, because FUCK YES (if you have differing political views, I don’t care, so why should you care about mine?). I keep a mood tracker on my phone for my mental health, and for this entire COVID bullshit, I haven’t gone above “okay,” but that day? That was the first day in seven months that I listed myself as “good.”

That evening, it was time to record. We were scheduled to start at 7, but Biden and Harris were now going to speak, and no one wanted to miss that. I opened up the Zoom meeting anyway, and then started watching the speeches on Youtube. Some people joined me and we were able to share the moment together. It was great. Once the future P and VP were finished, the rest of the cast began trickling in. Everyone was in a good mood, and what better thing to do with a good mood than record a short story where people are needlessly killed!

See? We’re all in a good mood!

Even my still photo is happy!

All of the recording sessions were blasts, but this was definitely felt special because of everything that transpired before it. It almost felt like old times, where after an improv show, we’d all go to a bar to just chill and shoot the shit. It was a group of friends who weren’t in the same room with one another (and in Brianna Cala’s case, not even the same state), but it didn’t feel that way. It felt like home, and I think that’s because we were all feeling optimistic. We were all feeling hopeful. It may not have been a permanent feeling, but fuck it if it wasn’t amazing in the moment. It wasn’t the end of a hellish year, but it was definitely some much needed, long overdue respite.

—Andy

During retakes, our various reactions to Qwyn’s “fart condom” line.

(Nate had to leave early due to a prior engagement. Also, please ignore that “Contacts” thing at the bottom.)