The Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy Returns With the Original Cast (arstechnica.com) 84
Jonathan M. Gitlin reports via Ars Technica: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy deserves a special place in the geek pantheon. It's the story of hapless BBC radio editor Arthur Dent, his best friend Ford Prefect, and the adventures that result when Prefect saves Dent when the Earth is unexpectedly destroyed to make way for a galactic bypass. Written by the late, great Douglas Adams, THGTTG first appeared as a radio series in the UK back in 1978. On Thursday -- exactly 40 years to the day from that first broadcast -- it made its return home with the start of Hexagonal Phase, a radio dramatization of the sixth and final book of an increasingly misnamed trilogy.
Although Adams died suddenly and unexpectedly in 2001, the universe he gave birth to lived on. Beginning in 2004, the original radio cast was reunited to dramatize the third, fourth, and fifth books. In 2005, a film adaptation was released, and then in 2009 came a final novel in the "trilogy," And Another Thing..., written by the novelist Eoin Colfer. It's this story that the BBC is now dramatizing, again using many of the original cast, along with newcomers like Jim Broadbent, Lenny Henry, and Stephen Hawking. Yes, that Stephen Hawking.
Although Adams died suddenly and unexpectedly in 2001, the universe he gave birth to lived on. Beginning in 2004, the original radio cast was reunited to dramatize the third, fourth, and fifth books. In 2005, a film adaptation was released, and then in 2009 came a final novel in the "trilogy," And Another Thing..., written by the novelist Eoin Colfer. It's this story that the BBC is now dramatizing, again using many of the original cast, along with newcomers like Jim Broadbent, Lenny Henry, and Stephen Hawking. Yes, that Stephen Hawking.
You can say what you want (Score:4, Funny)
but Trillian was the object of many fantasies!
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Radio or TV Series?
Re:You can say what you want (Score:5, Informative)
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Not just that, she was in Doctor Who as well...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Radio or TV Series?
I only remember one actor from the radio series, but it was repeated so often that it's burned on my brain.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Starring Peter Jones... As... The book.
...followed by that groovy Eagles riff.
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That is my alarm sound every morning!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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I've been through the radio show ten or a dozen times, so I've heard that piece exactly a million times. I didn't know the title until this morning. I only knew it was the Eagles because it was played as a bridge piece during an Eagles documentary. I grin every time I hear it; it would make a fine alarm.
Re:You can say what you want (Score:5, Interesting)
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Don't confuse the role with the actor. They could all be assholes privately.
Pfffft sense of humor failure there
Re: You can say what you want (Score:1)
Re: You can say what you want (Score:1)
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youtube
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...how does one start now, legally.
This [amazon.com] is how I heard it. I remember paying about a quarter of what they're asking now. I keep the mp3s I ripped on my phone; when I've been hospitalized, they keep me company. Youtube is an alternative.
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Trivia: The theme music played between episodes of that show is "Journey Of The Sorcerer" by The Eagles.
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Buy the CD's from somewhere (Amazon) or there are available on Audible, though one feels that the quality offered by Audible won't remotely do them justice. Personally I did at one point have a recording from Radio 4 FM onto a compact cassette tape, but I threw those in the bin years ago when I purchased the CD's. Though my copy of the stuff after the secondary phase is a capture via Freeview of Radio 4. Last night's which I felt had far too much explaining going on is a get_iplayer download :-)
Hashtag sorry-not-sorry (Score:5, Informative)
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Take it easy dickstain. You run out of cheetohs or something? mom would rub one out for you?
Re: Hashtag sorry-not-sorry (Score:2)
Re:Hashtag sorry-not-sorry (Score:4, Funny)
You might want to have somebody LOOK into that random caps-lock KEY of yours.
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He's just excited because he's addressing blasphemy. Continuing HHGTTG after Adams is like continuing Dune after Herbert.
can I jump in on this NERDRAGE bitchfest?!! (Score:1)
or continuing Star Trek after Roddenberry.
or continuing Twilight.
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I did notice they didn't mention continuing Twilight after anyone, seems more like a "Twilight shouldn't have been made."
Re:Hashtag sorry-not-sorry (Score:5, Interesting)
but when you start out with, "throw away the entirety of the previous books,"
What, a bit like Douglas Adams did when he produced multiple radically different versions of the story for the original radio play, the LP, the book, the TV series, (and the play? - and ISTR he was at least partly responsible for the film version), or the big chunk of the story that turned out to have taken place in a virtual reality universe in the HHGTTG offices? The unresolved cliffhanger at the end of the second radio series where Arthur runs off in the Heart of Gold with a rather nice archaeologist? Or book 4-5 when it turns out that there are parallel universes in which the earth wasn't demolished? Or the lampshading of how an exploding computer transports the gang to the end of the universe (in the versions where that happened)?
Seriously, the HHGTTG doesn't have "canon" - it has "cannelloni" that you ordered in that odd little bistro that wasn't there when you went back, and if you're going to worry too much about a consistent story, then you'd better put your analyst on danger money,
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Haven't listened to the original radio series or the LP.
There was a second 'original' radio series - starting with Ford and Arthur being rescued from prehistoric Earth - which is probably the most divergent from the other versions, so when the BBC did radio versions of the later books they had to pull a major Bobby-Ewing-in-the-shower to get around it - but the events in the second radio series were kinda amenable to that.
Its great that the radio version is now complete.
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I enjoyed it, stuffed full of modern cultural references as it was; Baywatch indeed. I even recorded it on cassette tape off FM radio just like the first episode 40 years ago (No TV license so cannot legally use the digital BBC product).
I have no idea what the story-line is, or who all the multiple personalities and daughters are; but it was a pleasant ride. I hope it slows down a bit and the characters have a conversation at some point as the first episode was just relentless soundbites punching me in the
Re:Hashtag sorry-not-sorry (Score:5, Informative)
(I actually tried to read it, but when you start out with, "throw away the entirety of the previous books," you might as well just write a different story.)
I'm afraid to burst your bubble, but THAT happened at the 3rd book. Could anyone imagine a better end than when at the end of the 2nd book, all literally comes together and the story forms a perfect circle?
Yes, Douglas Adams put lots of his typical humor in the next three volumes - but it will always feel like an add-on that's just loosely attached. And then... what is canon? I'd go for the books, but they already were re-writes that would not match a hypothetical "radio series canon".
My only consolidation is that Douglas Adams himself said, he didn't care about continuity because he had so much fun re-inventing the whole story again and again for each medium and rather cared what worked in that form (from TV to computer game) than what matches the previous installments.
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There's more anger in your critique of Eoin Colfer than there is is Luther's critique of Catholicism or the Sunni critique of the Shia.
I like the Radio 4 adaption of THGTTG, not so much the HERETICAL TV series or movies, but come on now.
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Didn't the TV series and the books come after the Radio version? My understanding is that the radio drama was the original HHGTG.
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Yeah the radio series came first, then the books, then the TV series, then the movie.
The radio series is remarkable.
"exactly 40 years to the day from first broadcast" (Score:5, Funny)
The BBC couldn't wait two more years?
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The BBC couldn't wait two more years?
It blew a hole through the space time continuum and dropped through like a stone through a wet paper bag.
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Re: "exactly 40 years to the day from first broadc (Score:2)
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The BBC couldn't wait two more years?
It was broadcast from 18.30 to 19.00, a slot on BBC Radio 4 that is used Monday - Friday for comedy, similar, shows. March 8 2020 is a Sunday, the 18.15-19.00 Sunday evening schedules Pick of the Week [bbc.co.uk]. Yes: 42 years would have been better, but the arithmetic of the calendar was against them.
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Douglas Adams : Killed by OS-X (Score:4, Funny)
https://www.engadget.com/2014/... [engadget.com]
I was going to wait till the summer to install it, but I succumbed and installed it last week. It takes a little getting used to, old habits are hard to reform, and it's not quite finished (what software ever is), and much of the software that's out to run on it is Beta.
But...
I think it's brilliant. I've fallen completely in love with it. And the promise of what's to come once people start developing in Cocoa is awesome...
A few weeks later he was dead.
Why? (Score:4, Informative)
"And Another Thing..." is awful. There are no original ideas in it at all, it's just a rehash characters from the previous books.
You should never allow another author to play in your universe, Dune and Harry Potter alone are proof of that.
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Wowbagger
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I object.
With Harry Potter I had the feeling that the story created that magical universe and it is a shame to waste it's potential. I want to see what stories other authors can find in there! I want to see how "Scrubs" would happen at St. Mungos. Or the Adventures of two Aurors in "Miami Vice" style.
HHGTTG was about people. and other authors indeed shouldn't play with them. We follow them through a series of settings, but without ever returning to the, see a development or creating a background story for t
Re: Why? (Score:2)
You should never allow another author to play in your universe
Yeah, no shit... those Rendezvous with Rama books weren't bad - that pederast knew how to write - but they lost their appeal turned after another took over.
Then there was the case of the duplicated Clive Cussler novel: I suspect the author of having succumbed to serious senility; he "co-wrote" a book with someone and apparently didn't realize they used the exact same premise and plotline from one of Cussler's earlier novels... I almost threw up in disgust.
Aging and aged publications (Score:1)
There are authors and authors, and some age better than others. I used to be amused by THGTTG, and Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, but that it is a long time ago. So, for me, Douglas Adams does not age as well as Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Pratchett is (was) wittier and seemed to understand technology much better, while Gaiman's work in the fantasy realm is unmatchable (American Gods vs. The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul).
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Aha, found the guy working for the complaints department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation!
A white man playing Ford Prefect?!? (Score:2)
Fucking whitewashing.
HHGG is the worst at whitewashing (Score:2)
I bet most of the actors playing aliens are all from Earth! Infuriating!
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The worst part is when they try to do the accent and get it all wrong.
Unfortunately -not- the original Marin (Score:2)
Re: All the original cast? (Score:2)
The Series 3 ep 1 "update" of The Guide's voice (necessary, since Peter Jones was permanently offline) was done about as well as it can be. Really first rate. No Darren Stevens action there.
The transition to Hawking wasn't as Smith, but I appreciate hearing him in the role.
Re: All the original cast? (Score:2)
"Smith"? "Smooth", damnable spellfsck!
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I’m not sure what the “point” of having Hawking in the role is other than it’s fun. He uses an outdated synthesis chip to read out the things he types. Are we to believe that he types out his lines and hits “play”? Or that they are simply fed into his (or a similar) device from a pre-typed script?
Stephen’s “voice” is distinctive only in that it uses antiquated technology. I assume he has come to enjoy it (it is distinctive in that few other people with s
Unexpectedly? That is a lie and you know it! (Score:4, Funny)
Unexpectedly destroyed? Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz makes it quite clear that all the planning charts and demolition orders were on display for fifty Earth years.
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Arthur Dent a BBC radio editor? Since when?
Jones and Franklin (Score:3)
the rest of the cast doesn't matter - the only one who does is Peter Jones, the book itself. Unfortunately he died in 2000 but was taken over by William Franklin who sounds just like him.
When I play Startopia, it's always a fuzzy feeling because of the voice over, done by Franklin.
Unfortunately he died in 2006 so they've got Hawking to be the book, but he doesn't sound anything like rural Shropshire.