A Comet's Tale

A Comet's Tale is an episode of Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars.

Audio

Patreon exclusive.

Cast

WorkJuice Players

• Sparks Nevada - Marc Evan Jackson
• Croach the Tracker - Mark Gagliardi
• The Binary Kid - John Ennis
• The Marshal Station Doors - Annie Savage
• Folksy Hal (Narrator) - Hal Lublin

Guest Stars

• Simon Pure - Carlos Alazraqui
• Young Simon Pure - Ed Helms
• Rusty - Chris Hardwick

Detailed Summary

Still searching for information about the destruction of Mars, Nevada and Croach are found by the first marshal on Mars, Simon Pure who leads them to the Marshal's Station. On the way he tells them a tale of his android deputy Rusty. The cattle rustler The Binary Kid tied marshal Pure to the spacetrain tracks and left him for dead. It wasn't long before the marshal was found by his deputy, the android Rusty, who utilized Ray-Dar to locate him. Before releasing the marshal, Rusty tries to negotiate a raise, but it is denied by the marshal, who rather fires him. Finding himself with extra time on his hands, Rusty takes up untying knots and practices on untying the marshal's ropes. Grateful for his life, the marshal offers Rusty his old position. The two ride from the train tracks, ignorant of the comet flying through the atmosphere.

The android's soh-nar detects the blowing up of an ultracow rustled by The Binary Kid and upon arriving on the scene they find the cattle rustler dying in the midst of carnage. Then came the comet's destruction, which destroyed the first settlement and razes the area to the ground. Rusty throws the Marshal into a bunker built by and currently filled with martians, but is struck by a comet fragment and dies amongst the wreckage. Despite his best attempts to piece him back together, Pure was unable to save his friend.

The story ends, and Our Heroes find themselves at the Marshal's Station, and Pure warns them of the comet's return. Pure grabs the public announcement system and tries to initiate the evacuation plan, but just manages to create panic as such evacuation plans do not exist. Croach realizes that the comet's path will lead it back every 76 years, and recognizes the event dubbed by martians as "The A'pokk'alip-sss". Vowing to save the planet, Nevada stands his ground.

Notes

• This episode marks the first appearance of the marshal's station and its talking doors
• It is noted during the discussion of evacuation that the second marshal (and Nevada's predecessor, Dale Treamain) went mad with power and destroyed all evacuation plans and escape pods, and Nevada has been unable to reinstate the plans as the mayor claims that doing so would not instill confidence.
•  Rusty and Simon discuss a recent town hall meeting, in which the populace was voting on what to call martians. Pure preferred Marzos, while Rusty prefered Marsites, which he came up with. At some point in the following 76 years, the term Martians became the name of choice.
•  Unofficial Transcript by SparksSpeaks

Continuity

• This is the 11th episode of the Thrilling Adventure Hour.
• The prior episode is Beyond Belief - The Devil and Mr. Jones.
• The next episode is Down in Moonshine Holler - The Cadillac of Beans, with the short ad A Word From Our Sponsors - Thomas Jefferson (TAH #11.5) in between.
• The prior Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars episode is The Agony of the Feet (TAH #6).
• The next Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars episode is Blast from the Past (TAH #14).

Production

The episode was recorded on August 7, 2010 at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles, California. It was released on March 20, 2011.

• Writers: Ben Acker and Ben Blacker
• Director: Aaron Ginsburg
• Music: Andy Paley and the Andy Paley Orchestra
• Sparks Nevada theme by Eban Schletter