The Space Train Robbery is an episode of Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars.
Audio[]
The Space Train Robbery on Megaphone (starting at 18:25)
Cast[]
WorkJuice Players[]
- Sparks Nevada - Marc Evan Jackson
- Croach the Tracker, Space Train Passenger - Mark Gagliardi
- Piston Pete - Paul F. Tompkins
- Folksy Hal, Space Train Passenger - Hal Lublin
Guest Stars[]
- Space Train Passenger - Shannon Woodward
- Space Train Passenger - Brendon Small
- Space Train Passenger - Jared Logan
Plot[]
Immediately following the events of Icebreak, Sparks and Croach discuss onus and the pronunciation of Croach's name as they ride towards the escaped robot outlaws. Croach says one of the outlaws is purchasing a gun on Jupiter, kills the shop owner, and takes all the money. The pair head towards the space train tracks to stop the robots from robbing the space train.
Piston Pete, and his partner, a beep-boop robot who Pete cannot understand, break a hole into the train and begin robbing the passengers. They take anything valuable, and Pete spends time deciding which passenger to shoot first. One of the passengers speaks a little beep-boop, and offers to translate for Pete's partner.
Sparks leaps into the space train with their own hole, which offends Pete. He showsdown with Pete, and asks Pete if he stopped somewhere first before the train robbing. Pete is about to shoot Sparks, but then Sparks reminds Pete that he didn't lock up Pete in prison with his guns on him, so Pete is unarmed. Sparks dons his robot fists, while Pete tries to talk his way out of being arrested by noting that he hadn't technically taken anything yet and was only joking about robbing the space train, pinning it on the beep-boop robot.
Sparks punches Pete out the hole he came through, then Croach enters, asking if he needs to go after Pete. The space train passengers are terrified of Croach, worried that the martian will eat them. The human who understands beep-boop translates that the remaining robot still has an arm that translates into a gun, and shoots out the breaks, guidance system and anti-gravity generators of the train, causing it to go runaway.
Beep-boop generates a forcefield Sparks can't punch or shoot through. Croach asks if he can help fulfill his onus by stopping Sparks' metal enemies as well as tracking them. He uses his plasma canon to disintegrate the beep-boop robot, which also disintegrates their valuables, placing Croach under onus to the humans. Croach speechifies to himself, realizing that if he saves the humans, he will fulfill the onus to Sparks and the rest of the humans. He has Sparks remove the wormhole generator from his lasso, then tethers the space train to his hoversaddle with the rope. Sparks says he'll help, and explains to Croach that he helps because it's what he does, as the marshal.
The train passengers narrate Sparks and Croach's heroic deeds, and help the runaway train jump the gorge it's headed to, saving the passengers. Sparks hopes that this partnership can usher in a new era of human-martian relations.
As the episode ends, a flying saucer can be seen streaking across the sky,
Notes[]
- This episode was originally performed on March 5, 2010 at the first Workjuice performance at Largo, but the recording was lost.[1]
- The Space Train robbery with the Beep-Boop robot was also mentioned in Sparks and Croach's This American Wife episode.
- Piston Pete is also mentioned in "I Don't Want No Trouble In My Place" in The Piano has Been Thinking.
Continuity[]
- The previous episode, and the previous episode in Sparks Nevada canon, is Icebreak, also part of I'm...From Earth (TC #6).
- The end of this episode has Folksy Hal narrating that the events lead directly into Inside Out In Outer Space (TAH #2). However, there are several adventures that need to take place in between the time that Sparks and Croach first meet and Inside Out In Outer space for continuity's sake. See the listing at Sparks Nevada Universe Timeline, as well as the first side-story in Sparks Nevada's "I'm From Earth" Day Special (TAH #118).
Production[]
This episode was recorded in studio and released on April 29, 2019.
- Narrator: Hal Lublin
- Writers: Ben Acker & Ben Blacker
- Musical Themes and Arrangements: Paul and Storm
- Vocals: John Roderick & Paul Sabourin
- Produced, recorded, and engineered by Forever Dog
- Created by Ben Acker & Ben Blacker