Mission to Zyxx

In addition to their main roles, cast members frequently portray minor one-off characters and secondary recurring characters.

• Alden Ford as Pleck Decksetter, a farm-boy and young member of the Tellurian species from the planet Rangus VI. Clumsy and often responsible for the crew's shortcomings, but friendly and well-meaning, he comes to consider himself a "Zima Warrior", a being defending the "Fresh Side", the positive side of a force known as "The Space", and aiming to defeat its negative side, the "Wack Side"; he believes he is the fated "The Chosen One", the universe's only hope against the Wack Side.[1]
• Allie Kokesh as:
  • Dar, the security officer of the crew, anon-gender binary being using female pronouns, and a hypersexual omnisexual who belongs to a species of large beings whose name is unpronounceable to other species. She is resourceful and physically able, but can be rude and unpredictable.[1]
  • C-RED-I-T-5, a "credits and attributions droid", a robot who provides credits to the audience at the end every episode.
• Jeremy Bent as Protocol and Diplomatic Relations Droid C-53, or simply "C-53", a robot with encyclopedic knowledge of the universe who is tasked with assisting Pleck.[1]
• Seth Lind as Nermut Bundaloy, the operations manager of the crew. Instead of being aboard Bargie, he remotely communicates with the crew, giving them their missions and receiving their reports on said missions; he later devellops a romance with Dar, and comes to be physically involved in several of their missions. Friendly but insecure, and aged twenty-three at the beginning of the series, he is a Lird, a small lizard-like species with an average life expectancy of twenty-six.[1]
• Moujan Zolfaghari as The Bargarean Jade, or simply "Bargie", the sentient spaceship the crew lives and travels in. She used to be a popular and successful actress, having starred in many holos (the series' equivalent to cinema and television) before her career went downhill. She is self-centered, uncaring and unreliable, sometimes acting on a whim regardless of the rest of the crew's mission or well-being, although she gradually warms up to thm. In season 3, she decides to change her identity;, and her official name is changed to "B4Яj13", which is still pronounced "Bargie".[1]
• Winston Noel as:
  • The Clone Light Infantry Nomadic Troopers, or simply "C.L.I.N.T.s", clone soldiers who enforce the laws of the Federated Alliance. Needlessly agressive and mentally limited, the C.L.I.N.T.s never get along with each other, and are generally unfit at working together. They are physically modelled after Rolphus Tiddle (also voiced by Noel), the Commander of the Rebellion, and often act as secondary antagonists.
  • Beano, a strange being acting child-like and looking like a bean with limbs and acting child-like. Introduced in season 2, he hatched from a bean the crew acquired in season 1, and travels alongside them.
  • AJ-2884, or simply "AJ", a C.L.I.N.T. introduced in season 3, when he devellops a near-instant loyalty to Pleck, whom he sees as both a mentor and father figure. He is genuine and always eager to help, but his limited intellect and short attention span lead him to have a very limited understanding of most situations.

Characters appearing in at least two episodes, not voiced by members of the main cast.

• Jeremy Crutchley as the narrator providing the introduction to every episode.
• Justin Tyler as Derf Dinkleson, or "Old Derf", a member of the Tellurian species and a Zima Warrior, who teaches Pleck about The Space and tells him that he is fated to lead the battle of the Fresh Side against the Wack Side. He used to be known as "Young Derf", but spent so many years waiting for Pleck that he is now old.
• John Robert Wilson as The Grower Mind of the K'hekk, a being who remotely inhabits the bodies of many other beings, assimilating other beings into becoming part of the K'hekk, the beings it controls. It used to be closed friends with Bargie.
• Brennan Lee Mulligan as Kor Balevore, a mostly cyborg being and former Zima Warrior who turned to the Wack Side.
• Leslie Collins as Janelle Fitzmeyer, the creator of the C.L.I.N.T.s. Friendly and amicable, she is also the estranged mother of Rolphus Tiddle, and made the C.L.I.N.T.s. in her son's image using his DNA.

The podcast is improvised by its comedian cast and recorded by Shane O'Connell, who also performs subsequent sound design and mixing. Editing is done by Seth Lind, Alden Ford, and Jeremy Bent.[1] Each week there is a special guest comedian who plays an inhabitant of the Zyxx Quadrant that encounters the crew. The guest pitches two or three episode ideas to the main cast, and one is picked that fits best with the story arc of the show.[3] Filmmaker Magazine interviewed the cast and highlighted the combination of improv comedy and longform narration as a major source of creativity and freedom for the podcast.[4]

The cast of the show are veterans of improv comedy performance, with all having performed with Upright Citizens Brigade[5] and separately or in smaller groups with other improv casts. Additional credits include writing, performing and directing comedy content/shows such as CollegeHumor and UCB Comedy Originals[6] (Alden Ford, Jeremy Bent, Winston Noel),[7][8][9] The Good Cop (Allie Kokesh),[10] Last Week Tonight and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Moujan Zolfaghari).[11] Co-creator Seth Lind is Director of Operations at the highly successful podcasts This American Life,[12] Serial,[12] and S-Town.[13] Shane O'Connell, the show's sound engineer and designer, has worked with Ben Harper, Half Waif, and NAO.[14]

Podcast episodes are about 30 minutes, edited down from an initial 60-90 minute recording.[3] Each episode opens with an opening crawl narration by Jeremy Crutchley. As the story progresses, the narration changes to reflect the happenings of the Zyxx Quadrant, the Tremillion Sector, and the entire galaxy. The series introduction for the first season is:

The period of civil war has ended. The rebels have defeated the evil Galactic Monarchy and established the harmonious Federated Alliance. It’s totally less evil. Now to restore diplomatic relations between systems, the Federated Alliance has deployed teams of ambassadors throughout the galaxy. The Alliance’s newest recruit, a young farm boy named Pleck Decksetter steps aboard the starship Bargarean Jade to embark on his first diplomatic mission: a MISSION. TO. ZYXX!

The show also occasionally releases live episodes set in previous eras/seasons.

Like many podcasts, Mission to Zyxx generates revenue through sponsored advertisements in the form of advertising breaks. This podcasts is unusual, however, as these are done by the voice actors or guests as minor characters from the show, delivered in-character. The ad breaks are canon, consistent with the show's characterizations and events, occasionally delivering minor plot points or foreshadowing for the main storyline.

The Alliance's newest recruit is Ambassador Pleck Decksetter, a naive, gung-ho farm boy whose crew includes trusty, know-it-all droid C-53, and hulking, omnisexual security officer DAR.  They travel aboard the outdated, sentient starship The Bargerian Jade - aka Bargie - who has as many ex-husbands as stories about her glory days. Their mission is nominally overseen by junior Missions Operation Manager Nermut Bundaloy, a striving, entry-level bureaucrat yearning for respect.[15]

Mission to Zyxx returns after dealing a crippling blow to the Federated Alliance, Pleck Decksetter and his intrepid crew find their way to the Rebellion, where they are welcomed as emissaries with the missive: Long Live the Rebellion! With a little more experience and understanding of the Zyxx Quadrant, the crew make their way through the galaxy with help from Beano and The Space.

Mission to Zyxx is back. Thanks to Beano's noble sacrifice, the Crew has survived the Battle of the Planet Crushers only to find themselves stranded on the opulent planet Holowood. Zima Warrior Pleck Decksetter, with the help of his newly found acolyte AJ, brings everyone back together, and they set out to rally forces across the galaxy to face down Emperor Nermut Bundaloy, ensconced in the Zyxx Quadrant.

In this season, the crew of the Bargarian Jade must locate Leader of the Rebellion Seesu Gundu, in the hopes of reuniting the galaxy after the defeat of Emperor Bundaloy, and the formation of the Allwheat (which looks like the love child of a quasar and all your regrets). The crew must facilitate an election, come to terms with parenthood, understand their changing relationships with one another and the pliable nature of time and space, and meet weird bug creatures and stuff.

In this Final Season, the crew of the Bargarian Jade find themselves in a galaxy far, far, away. Rescued from certain doom by the pan-galactic representatives, the Themm, the crew is brought on to continue the Themm's mission of outreach and diplomacy, in exchange for resources and aid in finding their way back to home. Meanwhile, in the Zyxx quadrant, the dreaded Kor Balevore enacts his plan for galactic domination, gathering allies in unlikely places, wreaking destruction on the unwary, and throwing the balance of the space out of wack. The adventures of our intrepid heroes culminate in the final push to return to something resembling peace and prosperity, to fulfill their true selves in whatever form that may be, and meet (or become?) weird bug creatures and stuff.

Like Star Wars, Mission to Zyxx is a space opera. Zyxx makes several references to Star Wars, including the CLINTs (referencing Star Wars' Clone Troopers) and "The Space" (referencing Star Wars' The Force). Rather than the Force's Light and Dark sides, Zyxx has "Fresh" and "Wack," respectively. Zyxx also has Zima warriors that fight with woodsabers (sticks) - analogous to Star Wars' Jedi warriors and their lightsabers.

Show co-creator Alden Ford has cited the Chicago-based improv podcast Hello from the Magic Tavern set in a Narnia/Middle-Earth-like fantasy realm as partial inspiration for the format of Mission to Zyxx.[16]

The concept of diplomatic relations missions mirrors that of diplomat crews in the Star Trek universe.

An episode of the podcast is named The Worry with Wiffles and has a similar plot in a direct homage to one of the most famous episodes of Star Trek, The Trouble with Tribbles.