Don’t Panic!! - possibly the best single piece of advice ever given to anyone at any time. At any rate, anyone who hasn’t seen this wonderful mini-series at any time should do so. Anyone accusing me of overusing the word any is quite right, but that won’t stop me.

A Little About The Plot

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is best-selling book that is extremely popular because a/ it is quite accurate, b/ it is cheaper than The Encyclopaedia Galactica, and c/ it has the words Don’t Panic!! in large friendly on the cover, which gives everyone seeing it a huge sense of well-being. Considering the situation a lot of its readers seem to get themselves in, that’s a good thing…

The mini-series chronicles the adventures of two humans, two humanoid aliens, and on vaguely anthropoid robot, as they try to unravel the secrets of the universe, the Ultimate Question (the answer to which is, of course, 42...), and the End of the Universe. Technically all they are trying to do is stay alive, but they find out these other things as they go along.

The series starts with Arthur Dent’s house about to be demolished. His friend, Ford Prefect, then takes him to the pub and explains that it really doesn’t matter as the earth is about to be destroyed. They manage to escape by hitching a lift of the Vogon ship that’s about to destroy the planet (this all happens very quickly, I’m not giving away a lot of the overall plot here), and when they get thrown out of an airlock and picked up by The Heart of Gold, a ship equipped with the Infinite Improbability Drive. On this ship they meet up with Ford’s Cousin Zaphod Beeblebrox and his female companion Trillian, who Arthur incidentally once met at a party in a flat in Islington. And then, the fun really starts…


The Characters

Arthur Dent – Simon Jones

The last human alive (well okay there is another, but he thinks he’s the last for quite a while), Arthur is very down to earth and … well… a pretty boring kind of guy. As a last generation product of earth’s population, does his brain hold, somewhere deep inside, the utlimate question? Considering that Arthur is in a permanent state of perplexity and bewilderment, this seems unlikely… Despite spending the entire series in his dressing gown, Jones manages to never appear relaxed, in keeping with his character’s perplexing situation…

Ford Prefect – David Dixon

After a less than exhaustive stint of research, Ford came up with a name and persona that he thought would blend seamlessly into human society while he was researching Earth’s entry in the new edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide ot the Galaxy. Ended up staying on earth rather longer than anticipated, but managed to escape with Arthur just before Earth explodes. The logic he uses to prevent Arthur’s house being demolished (at least for a while) is brilliant. Occasionally Dixon seems in danger of enjoying himself too much to pull off the parts where he has to be serious!

Zaphod Beeblebrox – Mark Wing-Davey

Ford’s cousin, he sports several additional appendages including an extra head, and has the largest ego in the known universe. (Yes, even larger than Carl’s…) His intelligence doesn’t match his ego however. (That sounds about the same as Carl…)

Trillian – Sandra Dickenson

With a degree in astrophysics, it was either join space pirate Zaphod or go back on the dole (unemployment register) on Monday… so she chose the first option. Well, what’s an intelligent girl to do?!?

Marvin – Stephen Moore

A perpetually depressed android, he thinks that giving robots “Real People Personalities” was the worst idea in all history. Everyone who meets him ends up thinking the same thing… Marvin gets a lot of the best lines in the series, including: “The first five million years were the worst. And the second five million. The third five million years I didn’t enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline…” and “Here I am, brain the size of a planet, nad you ask me to pick up a piece of paper… would you like me to stick my head in a bucket of water now?”

Eddie – voiced by David Tate

The Heart of Gold’s computer, also has a personality – completely opposite to Marvin’s, he’s infuriatingly happy under even the most perilous of circumstances. Doesn’t have a huge amount of screen-time here, but all of it is memorable.

Benjy and Franky – Trillian’s mice, the importance of which becomes apparent later on – don’t expect me to tell you!

Slartibartfast – Richard Vernon

Apart from having an odd name, he’s rather good at designing… you might be able to find his signature somewhere in the Scandinavian peninsular…

Voice of the book – Peter Jones

The book has to have a voice, of course… and Peter Jones’ voice is just perfect for the part.


There are many other memorable characters… but you’ll just have to find out about those yourself

None of the cast seem to have enjoyed significant success in TV or films, which is a real shame.

Special Effects

The effects are… special… This was made on an extremely low budget, but like many of the best science fiction series over the years, this doesn’t matter in the least – in fact it lends the proceedings a certain charm that modern shows completely lack. (One of the secret pieces of high-tech equipment used was a small piece of cardboard painted black!) It still looks pretty good though and actually doesn’t look cheesy… well, not too cheesy! :-D


Style

Like the brilliant book by Douglas Adams that the mini-series is based on, the humour is very dry and delivered in a dead-pan, take it or leave it fashion – it’ll either appeal to you immediately or not, I suspect. Nothing much escapes being laughed at here – along with various other things, philosophy, religion, and science are attacked in equal measure– but the attacks are not in any way vicious, just pointing out certain ironies in a way that no-one but the chronically hypersensitive would be offended by. As with cult classic Dark Star, the fact that preposterous things are going on but the actor’s play it dead straight makes it much funnier. Also some of it is downright surreal, so it helps if you that sort of thing (if you like Gary Larson’s Fa r Side, you’ll be right at home here).

Frequently the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy pops up (it’s an electronic book, you see) to describe, in its own inimitable style, who / how / what is happening, and is often hilarious. Interestingly my favourite parts of the book (as in, the novel) are completely different to my favourite parts of the mini-series – although the series sticks very closely to the book, some things that are hilarious in print just don’t translate to the screen, while parts of the series that had me crying with laughter are only so-so in the book.

It definitely does help if you like science fiction, but really there’s plenty here for anyone to enjoy. The humour is derived as much from the characters as the plot, and the book particularly displays a keen sense of irony. Though they wouldn’t get as many of the jokes as adults, I think this is something that children would also enjoy – I loved it when I first saw it – I think I was about 8! It’s also nice that there’s no bad language, only the tiniest amount of innuendo, and very little to give offence. (There are two very brief sections I can think of that may be unpalatable to some – you’ll soon forget the first and will barely notice the second.)

Overall

Do I need to tell you after all this? If you like sci-fi and like to laugh, this is something you really need to see. (I’ve must have seen it at least ten times by now, and each time I laughed till my stomach hurt…) Er… so if you don’t mind your stomach hurting because you’ve laughed so much, this is for you!

And whatever happens… Don’t Panic!!

(This was an entry to dbcint’s “Quotes” WO - CLICK HERE for more details.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is one of my Top Ten Films / Mini-Series of All Time.


My own humble attempts at comedy science fiction are mainly based around the Captain Disaster Series, which owe a lot to Hitchhikers (and Red Dwarf).

Episode 1 - "The Planet-Eater of Acturus"
Episode 2 - "A Beta Burger"
Episode 3 - "Wormhole"
Episode 4 - "Mecenaries"
Episode 5 - "A Newish Hope"
Episode 6 - "Timedrive"
Episode 7 - "Correctness, Politically Speaking"
Episode 8 - "Virgin on the Ridiculous"
Episode 9 - "Lighter Than Fast"
Episode 10 - "Do Androids Dream Of Electronic Beeps?"
Episode 11 - "How to cook an omlette in only 12 seconds"


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS