Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe is the title character of 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. The eighth series was released in 2009, and previews of Ruby 9 were posted on the ZBS website in July 2012. In each of the series, Ruby is hired to solve some metaphysical problem for clients.
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, twelve Ruby adventures have been released, the most recent in 2015.
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.
This story was the very first cyberpunk radio drama. In it, Ruby is hired by Rodant Kapoor to find out who is manipulating the media on Summa Nulla.
Ruby Two is hired to find out who's "windowing" the Bulldada.