Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe

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Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe is a science fiction radio drama series by the ZBS Foundation, written by Thomas Lopez. The first series, Ruby: Adventures of A Galactic Gumshoe, was created in 1982. In each story, the title character Ruby is hired to solve a metaphysical problem. New series have been released every few years, reaching Ruby 11 in 2023. Ruby is played by actress Laura Esterman.

Contents

Description

Ruby is a comic science fiction treatment of the hardboiled detective genre; the original series took place on the planet of Summa Nulla ("the high point of nothing") although later series took Ruby to other planets and solar systems.

Laura Esterman starred as Ruby in the first series and Karen Young starred in the second series as "Ruby Too", another version of the protagonist, while Esterman, as Ruby, had a cameo part in this series. Esterman returned to the lead role from Ruby 3 onwards, credited as Blanche Blackwell.

The series was originally syndicated to air on the radio in episodes of approximately three to four minutes long, but later released as half-hour episodes to radio stations. To date, thirteen Ruby adventures have been released, the most recent in 2019.

Ruby has been broadcast in 23 countries, including Canada (on CBC), England (on BBC), Australia (on ABC) and the US (originally on PBS, more recently on Sirius-XM Satellite Radio). Ruby entered Science Fiction's Audio Hall of Fame for Best Science Fiction of 1982. [1]

Series

Ruby: The Adventures of a Galactic Gumshoe (1982)

This story was the very first cyberpunk radio drama. [2] In it, Ruby is hired by Rodant Kapoor to find out who is manipulating the media on Summa Nulla.

Ruby 2: The Further Adventures of a Galactic Gumshoe (1985)

Ruby Two is hired to find out who's "windowing" the Bulldada.

Ruby 3: The Underworld / The Invisible World (1990–1991)

Part One: The Underworld:

Ruby is hired by the Aurorian Man Ray to trace a dark force entering Summa Nulla through the walls of Magnifico – City of Malls. Meanwhile, "techno-anthropologist" Inanna undertakes a quest to the dark and hellish Underworld to discover the meaning behind the mysterious "Seven Gates".

Part Two: The Invisible World:

Ruby, Inanna and Kapoor find themselves stranded in the Invisible World, where each of them is forced to confront the dark force in their own way.

Ruby 4: The Moon Coins of Sonto Lore (1994–1995)

Part One: The Moon Coins of Sonto Lore

Ruby is hired by Marimba Mambo to find the four Moon Coins of Sonto Lore - the mythical fourth moon of Summa Nulla. The investigation accidentally uncovers a planned invasion by extra-dimensional Reptoids.

Part Two: The Turban of El Morya

And/Or attempts to build an invisible "light machine" on the orders of Nikola Tesla (who may have a hidden agenda of his own), while Teru is held prisoner on the Reptoid planet.

Part Three: Dark Night of the Reptoids

Ruby returns to the Reptoid planet in an attempt to rescue Teru.

Part Four: Mad Moon for Rubina

Summa Nulla is pulled into the fifth dimension... with cataclysmic consequences!

Ruby 5: The Land of Zoots (1998)

Ruby is hired by President Koonstar Bootstah to find out who created the Land of Zoots, a fantasy land that has stated to be made real by the inhabitants of the Awakening Archipelago.

Ruby 6: The Illusionati (2001)

Ruby is hired by Oop Boop, an Illuboo from the planet Illuboo Roi, to uncover members of the Illuboo secret society, the Illusionati.

Ruby 6.5: Far Flung Farouk (2004)

Ruby, Teru, Kapoor, and And/Or are hired to investigate the royal tomb of Far Flung Farouk.

Ruby 7: Dream Weaver, Dream Deceiver (2006)

The Morpheusians are experiencing fear for the first time in their lives, and Ruby is hired to find out who, how and why.

Ruby 7.5: The Tookah's Tales (2008)

Ruby entices the Tookah to tell his strange tales of what it is like to live on other planets.

Ruby 8: The Good King Kapoor (2009)

Ruby is hired by Mother Kapoor to bring home her son Rodant, who is hiding out in another universe.

Ruby 9: Masque of the Red Moon (2012)

Two preview chapters of Ruby 9 were posted on the ZBS website in July 2012. The two chapters, "The City of Lost Illusions" and "The Hoochie Coochie Club" feature the series' main cast (Laura Esterman as Ruby, Bill Raymond as T.J. Teru and Tom Stewart as And/Or and Rodant Kapoor). The story involves the four characters going undercover on a steampunk-inspired planet.

Ruby 9.5: Who Knows How This Ends? (2015)

Deep in the jungles of the Great Zeezeeboos, on the planet of Summa Nulla, is the spiral city of Oroboros, once known as The City of the Future". But the future has passed, Oroboros has been abandoned, or so everyone believed.

Ruby 10: The Black Star of Summa Nulla (2018)

Kapoor sets himself up as a detective, and is hired to locate the Black Star of Summa Nulla – a magical stone that can tell the future. Once Kapoor's found the stone and disappeared with it, Ruby's hired to track him down.

Ruby 11: Little Fritzi and the Wonder Game (2023)

Ruby is hired to find a little girl who has disappeared into Siddhi Infini, an ancient oasis city in the Great Summa Nulla desert. The girl is a Fritzoid, she can stop her growth and appear to be a child, though she may be decades older.

When Ruby gathers her group together - And/Or, Rodant Kapoor, and T.J. Teru - she discovers T.J. has retired, he has sold his excavation business to Seymour Sneel, a fellow archaeologist who was tossed out of Siddhi Infini for wanting to activate the Wonder Game.

The Wonder Game is an ancient Nullian game that no one knows to how to play … and those who try, may find the game is playing them.

Pilots

The pilot for the Ruby series. Ruby Tuesday is hired by Colonel Abulah Abdullah to find out who has stolen Cleo, a small planet from Saudi Asteroidia in the Middle Eastern star cluster. Her only lead is the Advanced Fulcrum Magnetic Works of Fong on the planet of Dong-A-Long, who while previously unknown have recently appeared with highly sophisticated technology to move large asteroids around for easy mining.
Ruby Star is hired by Kapoor to locate "Mr. X", an earthling.

Spinoff

Ol' Cactus Kapoor (2006)

In 2006, ZBS released a collection of nine stories about Rodant Kapoor, Ol’ Cactus Kapoor and Other Prickly Tales. The collection included "Ol' Cactus Kapoor", "The Colossal Kapoor", "The Seven Sacred Sapphires of Kapoor", "Judge Rodant and The Rest of The Rats", "Extract of Little Fooie", "The Purple Purse", "The 12 Famous Land Sharks School", "Trader Kapoor and The Woolie Boolies", and "How Real Is Real Anyway?"

Major characters

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References

  1. ↑ Mark Time Award
  2. ↑ Colin Marshall (12 February 2015). "Download the first and coolest cyberpunk radio drama". Boing Boing. Retrieved 25 December 2015. So begins Ruby: The Adventures of a Galactic Gumshoe, the very first cyberpunk radio drama – and still, to this day, by far the coolest. This bit of hard-boiled yet slightly goofy dialogue, tonally representative of the entire series, occurs between Ruby, the detective protagonist heavily armed with "subtle feminine charms and other, less subtle, persuasions" (and, oh, the power to slow down time at will) and what now sounds like an awfully Siri-esque digital assistant.
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