DVD Extras - Part 3: Character Studies
DVD Extras - Part 3
CHARACTER STUDIES
This group of Character Studies is a collaboration between priority and zeppomarx. In the cases where the character was created by priority, zep's interpretation of the character will follow the creator's.
CHAPTER 2
Dr. Alan Pevey
(created by priority for Exigencies)
priority: Dr. Alan Pevey (based on Dr. Ayersman from the episode “The Mistake”). Late 50s, medium height, white haired and balding. He’s a transplant surgeon at PPTH whom House once blackmailed to operate on a patient by threatening to expose Pevey’s numerous affairs to his young trophy wife. Pevey agreed to do it, but House, on general principle, mailed a letter to the trophy wife telling her about the affairs anyway.
Pevey’s held a mighty grudge ever since. He was delighted when House was arrested for murder and thrown in prison. When the truth of what happened came out and House was released from prison, Pevey probably thought that House was guilty of plenty of other schemes (like blackmail!) and deserved to be in prison regardless of his innocence in Cameron’s murder.
Pevey is a member of the hospital board. As such, when Lisa Cuddy proposed to bring back Greg House as head of Diagnostic Medicine, Pevey opposed the idea vehemently. He hates and despises House, and doesn’t much care for Wilson, whom he thinks is “in with” House. House’s team isn’t on Pevey’s Christmas card list, either.
zep: Alan Pevey (“the little weasel,” as Cuddy calls him) was a heart surgeon at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital before a run-in with House changed his life. He’s a thin, sharp-featured, brown-haired man, whose features are similar enough to a weasel that Cuddy’s description of him is not only a reflection of his personality but also of his appearance.
He has a good reason to dislike House, who had blackmailed him into performing heart surgery on one of his patients by threatening to tell Pevey’s wife about an affair he’d had. After the surgery, House tells the wife anyway, which pushes Pevey over the edge.
CHAPTER 3
Dr. Naveen Ajunta
(created by priority for Exigencies)
priority: Dr. Naveen Ajunta is about 40 years old, originally from Gujarat, India, but has lived in the U.S. for 16 or more years. A neurologist, he’s been at PPTH at least 10 years. He’s 6 ft. tall, very slender, soft-spoken with an ascetic face and friendly eyes. He’s divorced, no children.
Ajunta didn’t know House well before Thompson came into the picture. When Lisa Cuddy suggested re-hiring post-Contract House, Ajunta was all for the idea. He knew House wasn’t conventional, that he was a man with rough edges and a rude demeanor, but he also knew of House’s reputation in the field of diagnostics. Ajunta considers House an eccentric genius and is willing to overlook some of House’s faults because they’re balanced by the lives House can save.
zep: Born in Miami Beach, Florida, Naveen Ajunta went to school at the University of Kansas Medical School. He’s married with three kids. His wife is a 5th grade teacher. The kids, all boys, are 8, 17 and 19. He got into medicine because his father was a doctor in India before emigrated to the U.S. Naveen was the first in his family to move away from Florida. He’s the middle child of five children: three girls, two boys. He’s 5’7” tall, slim with salt-and-pepper hair. He speaks with a soft voice.
CHAPTER 5
Ellen Markham
zep: Ellen Markham is the prison hospital nurse sent to watch over Rainie Adler when she is transferred to PPTH. She’s in her mid-40s, single. She was hired because she was tough enough-or detached enough-to deal with prisoners. Part of the new staff hired in the wake of the Thompson scandal that led to the arrest of many prison and prison hospital staff. She’s just as glad to have been sent with Rainie to PPTH, because Rainie is so out of it that Ellen really doesn’t have much to do other than read. She’s addicted to romance novels.
CHAPTER 6
Michael Samura
zep: Michael Samura is the PPTH nurse assigned to Rainie Adler’s care after her conviction is overturned. He’s young, in his twenties, and well-intentioned, if inexperienced, which explains why he was careless enough to talk to Pevey’s friend about House’s role in Rainie’s care. Samura is of West African origin. Born in Senegal, he came to the U.S. at the age of four, when his family left Africa to settle in lower Manhattan. A genial, large man-6’3” and close to 300 pounds-he’s the first in his family to finish college. Not terribly ambitious, he’s quite content to continue doing what he’s doing for the rest of his life.
CHAPTER 6
Janice Pierson
zep: Janice Pierson is the head of PR for PPTH. She’s stereotypic: Blonde, pretty, vapid. When the PR work means schmoozing with donors, writing press releases about medical accomplishments, she’s relatively good, although her writing skills are lacking. For example, she doesn’t know the different between its and it’s, which is a source of annoyance for anyone as obsessive-compulsive as Cuddy. She’s completely out of her league when it comes to anything as delicate as the House/Rainie Adler situation. Cuddy is considering hiring a PR specialist who understands the ins and outs of such situations, to work with Pierson.
CHAPTER 6
Karen Langley
zep: Karen Langley is six feet tall, a natural-born redhead, although now that she’s beginning to go gray, she's touched it up. She’s an orthopedist who spent six years running the ER at Columbia Presbyterian in New York, one of the toughest gigs in the country. Nothing much phases her, which makes her breakdown with Wilson even more remarkable. She has been one of two orthopedists working with House since his release from prison, and has personally performed several of his surgeries. Divorced. One child. She relinquished custody, saying her ex could provide a more stable home life. Her daughter is now 22 years old. They’re on good terms. Her job is her life.
CHAPTER 6
Jacey Liu
zep: Jacey is 53 years old. She’s 5’2” tall, slim, with graying hair. Born in California. Her parents were first-generation Japanese-Americans who were among the many confined in internment camps during World War II.
She had an older brother-12 years older-her only sibling, who went to Vietnam. He came back with post-traumatic stress disorder. The military refused to acknowledge his problem, and so he was castigated by his military friends. When Jacey was 14, he killed himself, and she found the body. Because of this experience, she is obsessed with understanding and treating people with PTSD. Went to Harvard Medical School. Her determination and intelligence took her quickly to the head of her class. Then attended Johns Hopkins for advanced study. Her residency was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, dealing with many vets. Branched out to other PTSD patients, trying out her own theories. Much published, and often lectures. Considered one of the top two or three specialists in the field.
At the time of this story, she has just come to Princeton for a two-year teaching stint before returning to Hopkins. Having her at PPTH is considered a real coup.
At age 30, she married a history professor names Henry Millay, a distant relative of Edna St. Vincent Millay. He teaches at the University of Baltimore. They have no children. While she has been at Princeton, they alternate weekends: one weekend he’ll come to Princeton, and the next she’ll go home to Baltimore.
CHAPTER 6
Anna Stein
zep: Anna Stein is a neurologist on staff at PPTH. In her mid-40s, short, plump, she has a good reputation within the hospital, although she’s not a “star” doctor like Jacey Liu or House. Foreman has done some training with her, although he finds her pedestrian and she finds him arrogant.
CHAPTER 6
Synthia Little
zep: Pain management specialist Synthia Little has been at PPTH for close to 20 years. When House suffered his leg injury, worked with him for months to find a pain management technique that would help him. After he had tried physical therapy, biofeedback and numerous cocktails of drugs and settled on a regimen of Vicodin, she released him into his own care, with Wilson as his prescribing physician. She was never completely happy with the Vicodin solution, but understood why House chose it. After his release from prison, she worked with him again-this time with considerably less argument from House-and established the routine he’s now following.
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