Decoder Ring Theatre

In the margins of every adventure story there are stories untold and heroes unsung. This episode we step into the spaces between the comic-book panels for a very special story. If you've ever wondered about The Red Panda's oft-mentioned, never-seen "agents"... or if you've ever simply stared out over the rooftops of your city and dreamed of being a hero; you won't want to miss a moment of When Darkness Falls!

What could be finer than a peaceful Sunday morning? Just about anything if your name happens to be Kit Baxter and your hobbies include fighting injustice, protecting the innocent and gliding over the city as The Flying Squirrel. But getting the city's mighty champion out of the garden and away from the newspaper is another matter entirely. If there's to be any excitement, The Red Panda will have to find it in The Sunday Supplement!

A mysterious stranger dies in the street in front of the fashionable Club Macaw. Were his claims of membership simply the sad ravings of yet another victim of hard times, or is there something far more sinister at work? Could he truly have been the son a wealthy house, long thought dead? Can even The Red Panda and The Flying Squirrel succeed in a struggle with The Hand of Fate?

Our DVD-Extras/special features episode, celebrating our first full season of all-new audio adventure and mystery! If you've ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at the Decoder Ring Mansion, how these shows are made or just what everybody's "real" voice sounds like, then this is the one for you! Interviews with our cast, outtakes, rare tracks, a deleted scene, answers to your Frequently Asked Questions and more. And it's entirely possible that there's a fabulous prize to be won in our first-ever Decoder Ring Theatre Triva Challenge! Enjoy!

Every man has his ghosts. Old square-jaw didn't figure he had any right to expect to be the exception. But sometimes the past takes on flesh and looks you in the eye... and things can never be quite the same afterwards. When that moment comes for Jack and Trixie, will it bring down the whole house of cards, coffee and gaudy metaphors; or will it re-introduce those most contradictory concepts - Justice and the Happy Ending?

   They say all's fair in love and war, and Jack and Trixie are about to put that to the test. When Jack finds a drowned rat of a piano player who's both struck by love and several dozen gangsters, love and war don't seem like such different concepts anymore. It's a mad charge into the lion's den, all in the name of romance. Even the hard-boiled have their soft spots.

 Jack may not know much about art, but he knows what he likes... and what he doesn't. He doesn't much like Nick Franklin's looks, or his self-satisfied grin or his manicured fingernails. What he does like is a client that can afford a fat insurance policy and a couple of gumshoes to go with it. But can Jack and Trixie fit in with the arty set enough to protect Franklin's latest "discovery"? Where will they stand when the Hammer of Justice falls?

It was the end of an uncharacteristic flurry of activity at the mighty world headquarters of Jack Justice Investigations. Trixie was crossing the final i's and dotting the final t's when she looked up and realized Jack was nowhere to be found. And he'd taken their old snitch Freddie the Finger Hawthorne with him into the ether. Sometimes a gal's just got to look a gift horse in the mouth , and if she ever wants to see ol' square jaw sashay in the front door again, this is one of those times. But can she and her "new partner" keep away from each other's throats long enough to turn up her old one, or is this the beginning of life with No Justice?

It was the third straight day of rain that did it. People had been cooped up for days, riding out the storm, and Black Jack is sure that a flurry of human misery, or as he likes to call it - rent money is on its way. But when he turns out to be more right than either he or Trixie could have guessed, they find themselves on an island in the middle of the city, with the water rising fast. An island of the "gaudy, hard-boiled metaphor" variety, admittedly; but sometimes that's the way it goes. 

Mordecai Brasseau had been nothing but bad luck for Jack Justice Investigations since the first time he walked through the door. A nice man, but a jinx - quite possibly the unluckiest man in the world. Each time Jack and Trixie took on a case for him, they swore it would be the last. Sooner or later they had to be right... and the registered letter inviting them to the reading of Mordecai's will suggested that time had finally come.... Or, maybe not.

What does one do when one has seen it all? Done it all? Been to every corner of the former Empire and hunted every quarry known to man? Where does the mighty hunter turn for a challenge? Col. Barker Whistance-Smith, late of his Majesty's service, turns to the wilds of the urban jungle, and his quarry is the new breed of Mystery Man. But when he sets his sights upon The Red Panda, will he learn the folly of hunting The Deadliest Game?

"Simon Radford released this morning. Apparently cured. Thought you should know." So reads the terse note from The Red Panda's agent. But can a maniac like Radford, who once terrorized the city as the villainous Electric Eel ever be truly reformed? And if so, who is behind the reign of terror that sweeps across the city? Can our heroes crack this case while struggling with their own... Duality?

A cargo ship, hopelessly lost in the fog... from out of the darkness comes an eerie glow, bringing with it an impossible spectre from the past - and disaster! Again and again the terrifying scene is played out, until the city can bear the attacks no more. Our heroes take to the water to bring this menace to an end - but can even The Red Panda solve the mystery of The Ghost Ship?

An ancient killer stalks the city through shadows and fog. Each night brings new terrors, new victims. With each new dawn there are more questions, more outrage... and the lingering dread of the darkness to come. Who dares to hunt the hunter? To bring the light of justice to a metropolis under siege? The city cries out for its champions; but can even the Terrific Twosome of Toronto, The Red Panda and The Flying Squirrel, withstand the fury of... The Shadow Hunter?

Beaton Hall, an idyllic resort not far from the city, an oasis from the cares of the world... or a spider's web of danger and death! When the guests of Beaton Hall begin to meet with a series of unfortunate accidents, the press decides the old family manor must be cursed. The City's Greatest Champion suspects murder rather than misfortune. Can The Red Panda and The Flying Squirrel defeat this deadly game, or will they become the final victims of The Curse of Beaton Hall?

Someone is on a spree of high-profile robberies throughout the city. Someone wearing a very familiar bright red mask! Can it be true? Has the city's champion turned traitor to the cause of law and order? Can even Kit Baxter, The Flying Squirrel save her friend and mentor once the call has gone out - Red Panda: Dead Or Alive!  

It wasn't much of a holiday by most people's standards... just a turn around the park in the sunshine... but boy oh boy, how the work piles up at Jack Justice Investigations. Piles up right in the middle of the floor in a still-fresh pool of blood. Now all Jack and Trixie have to do with the rest of the day is figure out who the triggerman was and why the corpse had a thousand dollars in an envelope with their names on it. And if they can manage it, solving the case before the law puts them away for it wouldn't be a bad idea either.

If it sounds too good to be true, it's all in a day's work at Jack Justice Investigations. When one of the city's most high-powered lawyers wants to buy the agency, Lock Stock and Barrel, Jack and Trixie have just twenty-four hours to figure out what the catch is and torpedo the best offer they've ever had!

When Jack and Trixie are hired to solve a seven year old murder, they figure it's a fool's errand. But if this case is so cold, why all the heat from upstairs to lay off? Will they finally run into that brick wall that has their names on it... or will they deliver Justice Delayed?

Sometimes the answer's right in front of your eyes. Sometimes you're so busy with what you think you saw, you can't be bothered to stop and look again. When Jack and Trixie pay the bills with a little "Peeping Tom" routine, they don't expect the commandments being broken to include the biggest "Thou Shalt Not" of 'em all. But then again, sometimes Justice Is Blind!