Mission to Zyxx is a space opera comedy podcast series, created by and starring Alden Ford, Allie Kokesh, Jeremy Bent, Seth Lind, Winston Noel and Moujan Zolfaghari.
The recorded dialogue is later edited for pacing by Ford and Bent, with Shane O'Connell adding music and sound effects reflecting the events featured in the story.
The crew consists of The Bargarean Jade or "Bargie", a sentient ship and former acting star, and her three occupants: Pleck Decksetter, a young farmboy who recently joined the Alliance, Dar, the crew's security officer, and C-53, a Protocol and Diplomatic Relations Droid, all working under the remote supervision of operations manager Nermut Bundaloy.
In the first season, the crew of The Bargarean Jade accumulates failed attempts at establishing lasting diplomatic relations; meanwhile, they progressively learn the many wrongdoings of the Federated Alliance.
After The Council of Seven, the Alliance's corrupt leaders, mistakenly identify the crew as part of the Rebellion attempting to overthrow them, they capture Nermut with the goal to execute him.
In a desperate rescue attempt, the crew manages to both save Nermut and destroy The Delegator, the famous Alliance ship he was held prisonner on.
In the second season, the crew continues to try to establish diplomatic relations with planets of the Zyxx Quadrant, this time attempting to have them join the Rebellion.
After being abandoned by Bargie so she could resume her revitalized career, the rest of the crew has separated and lives in hiding from the Emperor, who now rules the galaxy with an iron fist.
After the Emperor sends squads of C.L.I.N.T.s, the clone soldiers under his command, to kill the former crewmates, they reunite to survive, with the addition of AJ, a defecting C.L.I.N.T.
[3] Season five starts after The Bargarean Jade drifted into the unknown for several months before crashing onto a planet devoid of sentient life, on which the crew, together with Seesu Gundu and her family, have remained stranded, far away from anything known to the natives of their original galaxy.
After finally achieving lift-off, they make contact with the Coalition Of United Planets, or C.O.U.P., the leading organization of this part of the universe; with a return to Zyxx impossible in the near future, they are hired by the C.O.U.P.
[5] 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.
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.
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.
Douglas featured the podcast's cast on the How I Work series, which "asks heroes, experts, and all-around productive people to share their shortcuts, workspaces, routines, and more.