105-572: Mostly Harmless is a 1992 novel by Douglas Adams and the fifth book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. It is described on the cover of the first edition as "The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhikers Trilogy". It was the last Hitchhiker's book written by Adams and his final book released in his lifetime. Arthur Dent plans to sightsee across the Galaxy with his girlfriend Fenchurch , but she disappears during
210-659: A heart attack due to undiagnosed coronary artery disease on 11 May 2001, aged 49, after resting from his regular workout at a private gym in Montecito, California . His funeral was held on 16 May in Santa Barbara. His ashes were placed in Highgate Cemetery in north London in June 2002. A memorial service was held on 17 September 2001 at St Martin-in-the-Fields church, Trafalgar Square , London. This became
315-467: A hyperspace expressway, and promptly destroy the planet. Ford and Arthur survive by hitching a ride on the spaceship, much to Arthur's amazement. Ford reveals to Arthur he is an alien researcher for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , from a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse who has been posing as an out-of-work actor from Guildford for 15 years, and this was why they were able to hitch
420-552: A 1978 BBC radio comedy , The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy developed into a " trilogy " of five books which sold more than 15 million copies in his lifetime. It was further developed into a television series , several stage plays, comics, a video game , and a 2005 feature film . Adams's contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academy 's Hall of Fame. Adams also wrote Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) and The Long Dark Tea-Time of
525-423: A broken engagement, they married on 25 November 1991. Adams and Belson had one daughter together, Polly Jane Rocket Adams, born on 22 June 1994, shortly after Adams turned 42. In 1999, the family moved from London to Santa Barbara, California , where they lived until his death. Following the funeral, Jane Belson and Polly Adams returned to London. Belson died on 7 September 2011 of cancer, aged 59. Adams died of
630-642: A character in The Hitchhiker's Guide . Adams also designed the cover of one issue of the Broadsheet , and had a letter and short story published in The Eagle , the boys' comic, in 1965. A poem entitled "A Dissertation on the task of writing a poem on a candle and an account of some of the difficulties thereto pertaining" written by Adams in January 1970 at the age of 17, was discovered in a cupboard at
735-480: A contributor to the Guide , assures him that the next edition will contain the article on Earth that Ford has spent the last 15 years researching—somewhat cut due to space restrictions, but still an improvement. The revised article, he eventually admits, will simply read " Mostly harmless". Ford had written an extensive entry covering life and recreation on Earth, but the Guide editors cut it back to "Harmless". Later in
840-555: A few minutes' walk away, in the late 1980s. In the early 1980s, Adams had an affair with novelist Sally Emerson , who was separated from her husband at that time. Adams later dedicated his book Life, the Universe and Everything to Emerson. In 1981, Emerson returned to her husband, Peter Stothard , a contemporary of Adams at Brentwood School , and later editor of The Times . Adams was soon introduced by friends to Jane Belson, with whom he later became romantically involved. Belson
945-696: A few months after his birth to the East End of London , where his sister, Susan, was born three years later. His parents divorced in 1957; Douglas, Susan and their mother moved then to an RSPCA animal shelter in Brentwood, Essex , run by his maternal grandparents. Each parent remarried, giving Adams four half-siblings. A great-grandfather was the playwright Benjamin Franklin Wedekind . Adams attended Primrose Hill Primary School in Brentwood. At
1050-411: A friend, literature has lost a luminary, the mountain gorilla and the black rhino have lost a gallant defender." Adams was also an environmental activist who campaigned on behalf of endangered species . This activism included the production of the non-fiction radio series Last Chance to See , in which he and naturalist Mark Carwardine visited rare species such as the kākāpō and baiji , and
1155-614: A group called "Adams-Smith-Adams". He became a member of the Footlights by 1973. Despite doing very little work – he recalled having completed three essays in three years – he graduated in 1974 with a 2:2 in English literature . After leaving university, Adams moved back to London, determined to break into TV and radio as a writer. An edited version of the Footlights Revue appeared on BBC2 television in 1974. A version of
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#17327872874231260-427: A hyperspace jump, a result of being from an unstable sector of the Galaxy. Depressed, Arthur continues to travel the galaxy using samples of his bodily tissues/fluids to fund his travels, assured of his safety until he visits Stavromula Beta, having killed an incarnation of Agrajag at some point in the future at said planet. During one trip, he ends up stranded on the homely planet Lamuella, and decides to stay to become
1365-481: A level with his skill at conjuring up non sequiturs, and the idea gets buried". In an interview reprinted in The Salmon of Doubt , Adams expressed dissatisfaction with the tone of this book, which he blamed on personal problems, saying "for all sorts of personal reasons that I don't want to go into, I just had a thoroughly miserable year, and I was trying to write a book against that background. And, guess what, it
1470-510: A man named Slartibartfast , who explains that the Magratheans have been in stasis to wait out an economic recession . They have temporarily reawakened to reconstruct a second version of Earth commissioned by mice, who were in fact the most intelligent species on Earth. Slartibartfast brings Arthur to Magrathea's planet construction facility, and shows Arthur that in the distant past, a race of "hyperintelligent, pan-dimensional beings" created
1575-754: A message forum on his own website to avoid the issue. In 1996, Adams was a keynote speaker at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) where he described the personal computer as being a modelling device. The video of his keynote speech is archived on Channel 9 . Adams was also a keynote speaker for the April 2001 Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco, one of the major technical conferences on embedded system engineering. Adams moved to Upper Street , Islington , in 1981 and to Duncan Terrace,
1680-454: A new cast of characters. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency was published in 1987, and was described by its author as "a kind of ghost-horror-detective-time-travel-romantic-comedy-epic, mainly concerned with mud, music and quantum mechanics". A sequel, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul , was published a year later. It was Adams's first original work since So Long, and Thanks for All
1785-474: A photo-illustrated edition, published in 1994. This latter edition featured a 42 Puzzle designed by Adams, which was later incorporated into paperback covers of the first four Hitchhiker's novels (the paperback for the fifth re-used the artwork from the hardback edition). In 1980, Adams began attempts to turn the first Hitchhiker's novel into a film, making several trips to Los Angeles, and working with Hollywood studios and potential producers. The next year,
1890-546: A potential film script, called Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen , which later became his novel Life, the Universe and Everything (which in turn became the third Hitchhiker's Guide radio series). Adams then went on to serve as script editor on the show for its 17th season in 1979. Altogether, he wrote three Doctor Who serials starring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor : The episodes authored by Adams are some of
1995-551: A recording of his reading of Life, the Universe and Everything and editing, Adams can be heard playing the part of Agrajag posthumously. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish and Mostly Harmless made up the fourth and fifth radio series, respectively (on radio they were titled The Quandary Phase and The Quintessential Phase ) and these were broadcast in May and June 2005, and also subsequently released on Audio CD. The last episode in
2100-794: A rhino suit; Adams wore the suit while travelling to the mountain before the climb began. About £100,000 was raised through that event, benefiting schools in Kenya and a black rhinoceros preservation programme in Tanzania . Adams was also an active supporter of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Since 2003, Save the Rhino has held an annual Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture around the time of his birthday to raise money for environmental campaigns. Adams bought his first word processor in 1982, having considered one as early as 1979. His first purchase
2205-642: A ride on the alien ship. They are quickly discovered by the Vogons, who torture them by forcing them to listen to their poetry and then toss them out of an airlock . Meanwhile, Zaphod Beeblebrox , Ford's "semi-cousin" and the President of the Galaxy, steals the spaceship Heart of Gold at its unveiling with his human companion, Trillian . The Heart of Gold is equipped with an "Infinite Improbability Drive" that allows it to travel instantaneously to any point in space by simultaneously passing through every point in
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#17327872874232310-433: A rock musician". Adams's official biography shares its name with the song "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd . The opening section of " Shine On You Crazy Diamond " was featured in a section of the third episode of the original 1978 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series (broadcast only, cut from commercial releases). Adams was friends with Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour and, on Adams's 42nd birthday, he
2415-568: A sandwich maker for the local population. Meanwhile, Ford Prefect has returned to the offices of the Hitchhiker's Guide, and is annoyed to find out the original publishing company, Megadodo Publications, has been taken over by InfiniDim Enterprises, which are run by the Vogons . Fearing for his life, he escapes the building, along the way stealing the yet-unpublished, seemingly sentient Hitchhiker's Guide Mk. II. He goes into hiding after sending
2520-491: A supercomputer named Deep Thought to determine the answer to the "Ultimate Question to Life, the Universe, and Everything." Deep Thought eventually found the answer to be 42, an answer that made no sense because the Ultimate Question itself was not known. Because determining the Ultimate Question was too difficult even for Deep Thought, an even more advanced supercomputer was constructed for this purpose. This computer
2625-463: A third radio series, based on the third novel in the Hitchhiker's series. They also discussed the possibilities of radio adaptations of the final two novels in the five-book "trilogy". As with the film, this project was realised only after Adams's death. The third series, The Tertiary Phase , was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2004 and was subsequently released on audio CD. With the aid of
2730-477: A week-long brainstorming session with the Lucasfilm Games team for the game Labyrinth . Later he was also involved in creating Bureaucracy as a parody of events in his own life. Adams was a founder-director and Chief Fantasist of The Digital Village , a digital media and Internet company with which he created Starship Titanic , a Codie award -winning and BAFTA-nominated adventure game , which
2835-565: Is a comedy sci-fi work bleaker than Mostly Harmless ". The Independent concluded " Mostly Harmless has all the wit and inventiveness of vintage Douglas Adams, though its loose ends are not tied together as comprehensively as in previous Hitch-Hiker books". David Edelman in the Baltimore Evening Sun wrote: "Somewhere buried in the mess is a moral about learning how to feel at home in a chaotic universe. Unfortunately, Adams' skills at conveying serious messages are nowhere near on
2940-402: Is called away from editing the footage to report on a spaceship landing in the middle of London. As Tricia arrives at the scene, Random steps off the ship and begins to yell at her, mistaking Tricia for her mother. Arthur, Ford, and Trillian arrive and help Tricia to calm Random. They remove her from the chaos surrounding the spacecraft and take her to a bar. Trillian tries to warn the group that
3045-530: Is celebrated every year on 25 May as a tribute to Douglas Adams by his fans. On this day, fans openly carry a towel with them to demonstrate their appreciation for Adams and the book series. The commemoration was first held 25 May 2001, two weeks after Adams' death on 11 May. When Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster was launched into space on the maiden flight of the Falcon Heavy rocket in February 2018, it had
3150-494: Is frustrated with Arthur and life on Lamuella; when Ford's package to Arthur arrives, she takes it and discovers the Guide. The Guide helps her to escape the planet on Ford's ship after Ford arrives on the planet looking for Arthur. Discovering Random, the Guide, and Ford's ship missing, the two manage to find a way to leave Lamuella and head for Earth, where they suspect Random is also heading to find Trillian. Ford expresses concern at
3255-529: Is the scene of Agrajag's final death. He sees Ford laughing wildly at this turn of events and experiences a "tremendous feeling of peace". The Grebulons destroy the Earth, believing that their horoscopes will improve if it is removed from their astrological charts. It is revealed that the Vogons designed the Guide Mk. II to achieve their desired outcome by manipulating temporal events. As a result, every version of
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3360-522: The 42 Puzzle , designed by Adams himself, a photograph of Adams and his literary agent Ed Victor as the two space cops, and many other designs by Kevin Davies, who has participated in many Hitchhiker's related projects since the stage productions in the late 1970s. Davies himself appears as Prosser. This edition is out of print – Adams bought up many remainder copies and sold them, autographed, on his website. There have been three audiobook recordings of
3465-613: The Doctor Who 2012 Christmas episode " The Snowmen ", writer Steven Moffat was inspired by a storyline that Adams pitched called The Doctor Retires . The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a concept for a science-fiction comedy radio series pitched by Adams and radio producer Simon Brett to BBC Radio 4 in 1977. Adams came up with an outline for a pilot episode, as well as a few other stories (reprinted in Neil Gaiman 's book Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to
3570-657: The Edinburgh Fringe festival. By Christmas, work had dried up again, and a depressed Adams moved to live with his mother. The lack of writing work hit him hard, and low confidence became a feature of Adams's life: "I have terrible periods of lack of confidence [...] I briefly did therapy, but after a while I realised it was like a farmer complaining about the weather. You can't fix the weather – you just have to get on with it." Some of Adams's early radio work included sketches for The Burkiss Way in 1977 and The News Huddlines . He also wrote, again with Chapman,
3675-527: The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped released a version of the book, narrated by George Guidall-Shapiro , on 4-track cassette tape in 1993. Douglas Adams Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, humourist , and screenwriter, best known as the creator of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ( HHGTTG ) . Originally
3780-470: The bulldozer to stop it. His friend Ford Prefect convinces the lead bureaucrat to lie down in Arthur's stead so that he can take Arthur to the local pub. The construction crew begin demolishing the house anyway, but are interrupted by the sudden arrival of a fleet of spaceships. The Vogons , the callous race of civil servants running the fleet, announce that they have come to demolish Earth to make way for
3885-444: The fine-tuned universe argument for God. He remained fascinated by religion because of its effect on human affairs. "I love to keep poking and prodding at it. I've thought about it so much over the years that that fascination is bound to spill over into my writing." The evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins invited Adams to participate in his 1991 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures , where Dawkins calls Adams from
3990-478: The human race as a primitive and deeply unhappy species, while also introducing an electronic encyclopedia called the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which provides information on every planet in the galaxy. Earthman and Englishman Arthur Dent awakens in his home in the West Country to discover that the local planning council is trying to demolish his house to build a bypass , and lies down in front of
4095-753: The 20 February 1977 episode of Doctor on the Go , a sequel to the Doctor in the House television comedy series. After the first radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide became successful, Adams was made a BBC radio producer, working on Week Ending and a pantomime called Black Cinderella Two Goes East . He left after six months to become the script editor for Doctor Who . In 1979, Adams and John Lloyd wrote scripts for two half-hour episodes of Doctor Snuggles : "The Remarkable Fidgety River" and "The Great Disappearing Mystery" (episodes eight and twelve). John Lloyd
4200-401: The Earth in all realities is obliterated, fulfilling the demolition order that was issued in the first novel . Its mission complete, the Guide collapses into nothingness. The title derives from a joke early in the series, when Arthur Dent discovers that the entry for Earth in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy consists, in its entirety, of the word "Harmless". His friend Ford Prefect ,
4305-624: The End of the Universe . The Illustrated Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a specially designed book made in 1994. It was first printed in the United Kingdom by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and in the United States by Harmony Books (who sold it for $ 42.00). It is an oversized book, and came in silver-foil "holographic" covers in both the UK and US markets. It features the first appearance of
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4410-587: The Fish. After the book tour, Adams set off on his round-the-world excursion, which supplied him with the material for Last Chance to See . The Salmon of Doubt was incomplete when published posthumously. Adams played the guitar left-handed and had a collection of 24 left-handed guitars when he died (having received his first guitar in 1964). He also studied piano in the 1960s. Pink Floyd and Procol Harum had important influence on Adams's work. During his segment on music discussion programme Private Passions , Adams remarked that he "would have loved to have been
4515-461: The Galaxy is the first book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction "trilogy of five books" by Douglas Adams , with a sixth book written by Eoin Colfer . The novel is an adaptation of the first four parts of Adams's radio series of the same name, centering on the adventures of the only man to survive the destruction of Earth; while roaming outer space, he comes to learn
4620-591: The Galaxy Companion ) that could be used in the series. According to Adams, the idea for the title occurred to him while he lay drunk in a field in Innsbruck , Austria, gazing at the stars. He was carrying a copy of the Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe , and it occurred to him that "somebody ought to write a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ". Despite the original outline, Adams was said to make up
4725-508: The Grebulons, having become bored with their mission, are about to destroy the Earth. Random disrupts the discussion by producing a laser gun she took from her ship. Arthur, still believing he cannot die, tries to calm Random, but a distraction causes her to fire the weapon, sending the bar into a panic. Arthur tends to a man hit by the blast, who drops a matchbook with the name of the bar - "Stavro Mueller – Beta" - and Arthur realizes that this
4830-402: The Guide to himself, care of Arthur, for safekeeping. On Lamuella, Arthur is surprised by the appearance of Trillian with a teenage daughter, Random Dent . Trillian explains that she wanted a child, and used the only human DNA she could find, thus claiming that Arthur is Random's father. She leaves Random with Arthur to allow her to better pursue her career as an intergalactic reporter. Random
4935-429: The Guide's manipulation of events, noting its "Unfiltered Perception" and fearing its potence and ultimate objective. Reporter Tricia McMillan is a version of Trillian living on an alternate Earth who never took Zaphod Beeblebrox 's offer to travel in space. She is approached by an extraterrestrial species, the Grebulons, who have created a base of operations on the planet Rupert, a recently discovered tenth planet in
5040-466: The Krikkitmen project (instead of simply making a TV version of the second radio series). However, Adams got into disputes with the BBC (accounts differ: problems with budget, scripts, and having Alan Bell involved are all offered as causes), and the second series was never made. Elements of Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen were instead used in the third novel, Life, the Universe and Everything . The main cast
5145-599: The Revue performed live in London's West End led to Adams being discovered by Monty Python 's Graham Chapman . The two formed a brief writing partnership, earning Adams a writing credit in episode 45 of Monty Python for a sketch called " Patient Abuse ". The pair also co-wrote the "Marilyn Monroe" sketch that appeared on the soundtrack album of Monty Python and the Holy Grail . Adams is one of only two people other than
5250-550: The Solar System. However, due to damage to their ship in arriving, they have lost most of their computer core and their memories, with the only salvageable instructions being to observe something interesting with Earth. They ask Tricia's help to adapt astrology charts for Rupert in exchange for allowing her to interview them. She fulfills their request and conducts the interview, but the resulting footage looks so fake that she fears it will destroy her reputation if broadcast. She
5355-489: The Soul (1988), and co-wrote The Meaning of Liff (1983), The Deeper Meaning of Liff (1990) and Last Chance to See (1990). He wrote two stories for the television series Doctor Who , including the unaired serial Shada , co-wrote City of Death (1979), and served as script editor for its seventeenth season . He co-wrote the sketch " Patient Abuse " for the final episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus . A posthumous collection of his selected works, including
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#17327872874235460-447: The UK edition), Christopher Cerf (in the US edition), and Terry Jones (in the US paperback edition). It also includes eleven chapters of his unfinished novel, The Salmon of Doubt , which was originally intended to become a new Dirk Gently novel, but might have later become the sixth Hitchhiker novel. The Hitchhiker%27s Guide to the Galaxy (novel) The Hitchhiker's Guide to
5565-402: The United States and available from BBC Audiobooks in the United Kingdom. Also by arrangement with Dove, ISIS Publishing Ltd produced a numbered exclusive edition signed by Douglas Adams ( ISBN 1-85695-028-X ) in 1994. To tie-in with the 2005 film, actor Stephen Fry , the film's voice of the Guide, recorded a second unabridged edition ( ISBN 0-7393-2220-6 ). The popularity of
5670-456: The age of nine, he passed the entrance exam for Brentwood School . He attended the prep school from 1959 to 1964, then the main school until December 1970. Adams was 6 feet (1.8 m) tall by the age of 12, and stopped growing at 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m). His form master, Frank Halford, said that Adams's height had made him stand out and that he had been self-conscious about it. His ability to write stories made him well known in
5775-492: The audience to read a passage from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe which satirises the absurdity of the thought that any one species would exist on Earth merely to serve as a meal to another species, such as humans. Dawkins also uses Adams's influence to exemplify arguments for non-belief in his 2006 book The God Delusion . Dawkins dedicated the book to Adams, whom he jokingly called "possibly [my] only convert" to atheism and wrote on his death that "Science has lost
5880-516: The beginning of episode 44, "Mr. Neutron", Adams is dressed in a pepper-pot outfit and loads a missile onto a cart driven by Terry Jones , who is calling for scrap metal ("Any old iron..."). The two episodes were broadcast in November 1974. Adams and Chapman also attempted non-Python projects, including Out of the Trees . At this point, Adams's career stalled; his writing style was unsuited to
5985-512: The character of Professor Chronotis . Big Finish Productions eventually remade Shada as an audio play starring Paul McGann as the Doctor. Accompanied by partially animated illustrations, it was webcast on the BBC website in 2003, and subsequently released as a two-CD set later that year. An omnibus edition of this version was broadcast on the digital radio station BBC7 on 10 December 2005. In
6090-616: The dolphins' ability to travel through possibility space (first mentioned in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and elaborated on in So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish ) is shared by the Babel fish as well. During the ending, Ford explains that the dolphins got taught this skill from the Babel fish in exchange for knowing a good place to have parties. All the major characters are carrying Babel fish in their ears, which rescue them at
6195-463: The early 1980s, during their collaboration on Infocom's version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy . While living in New Mexico in 1993 he set up another e-mail address and began posting to his own USENET newsgroup, alt.fan.douglas-adams, and occasionally, when his computer was acting up, to the comp.sys.mac hierarchy. Challenges to the authenticity of his messages later led Adams to set up
6300-606: The extension of moral equality to include all great apes, human and non-human. In 1994, Adams participated in a climb of Mount Kilimanjaro while wearing a rhino suit for the British charity organisation Save the Rhino International . Puppeteer William Todd-Jones , who had originally worn the suit in the London Marathon to raise money and bring awareness to the group, also participated in the climb wearing
6405-510: The few that were not originally novelised, as Adams would not allow anyone else to write them and asked for a higher price than the publishers were willing to pay. Shada was later adapted as a novel by Gareth Roberts in 2012 and City of Death and The Pirate Planet by James Goss in 2015 and 2017 respectively. Elements of Shada and City of Death were reused in Adams's later novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency , in particular,
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#17327872874236510-488: The final destination of the dolphins. The series ends with Arthur asking Fenchurch, "Will you come flying with me?", and her reply, "Always." The version released on CD contains an even longer set of alternate endings, including one set after the events of the twelfth radio episode (with Arthur Dent and Lintilla), and on an alternate Earth where Arthur Dent and Fenchurch engage together in a stand-off against Mr. Prosser. There have been four unabridged audiobook recordings of
6615-554: The first church service broadcast live on the web by the BBC. Two days before Adams died, the Minor Planet Center announced the naming of asteroid 18610 Arthurdent , named after The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy protagonist. In 2005, the asteroid 25924 Douglasadams was named in his memory. In May 2002, The Salmon of Doubt was published, containing many short stories, essays, and letters, as well as eulogies from Richard Dawkins , Stephen Fry (in
6720-697: The first publication of his final (unfinished) novel, was published as The Salmon of Doubt in 2002. Adams was a self-proclaimed "radical atheist", an advocate for environmentalism and conservation , and a lover of fast cars, technological innovation, and the Apple Macintosh . Adams was born in Cambridge , England, on 11 March 1952 to Christopher Douglas Adams (1927–1985), a management consultant and computer salesman, former probation officer and lecturer on probationary group therapy techniques, and nurse Janet (1927–2016), née Donovan. The family moved
6825-488: The first radio series weekly in the UK starting 8 March 1978, lasting until April. The series was distributed in the United States by National Public Radio . Following the success of the first series, another episode was recorded and broadcast, which was commonly known as the Christmas Episode. A second series of five episodes was broadcast one per night, during the week of 21–25 January 1980. While working on
6930-523: The fourth one. The first five books of the series were written by Adams: On 16 September 2008 it was announced that Irish author Eoin Colfer would continue the series with a sixth novel. This book, entitled And Another Thing... , was published in October 2009, on the 30th anniversary of the publication of the original novel. The "Babel fish", a creature used in the novel that feeds on brainwaves and can instantly translate alien languages , inspired
7035-408: The idea of building a new Earth to start the process over, deciding that Arthur's brain likely contains the Ultimate Question. They offer to buy Arthur's brain, leading to a fight when he declines. The group manages to escape when the planet's security system goes off unexpectedly, but immediately run into the culprits: police in pursuit of Zaphod. The police corner Zaphod, Arthur, Ford and Trillian, and
7140-455: The internet community. It was hosted by BBC Online from 2001 to 2011. In 1990, Adams wrote and presented a television documentary programme Hyperland which featured Tom Baker as a "software agent" (similar to the assistant pictured in Apple's Knowledge Navigator video of future concepts from 1987), and interviews with Ted Nelson , the co-inventor of hypertext and the person who coined
7245-408: The jokes keep coming fast and furiously, and its enormous cultural influence ("Don’t Panic," etc.) proves to be well-earned." The deliberately misnamed Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy " Trilogy " consists of six books (a hexalogy ). Although the series was called a trilogy by readers, the word "trilogy" does not appear on the cover of the first three books and was not used until the publication of
7350-421: The last series (with a new, "more upbeat" ending) concluded with, "The very final episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is affectionately dedicated to its author." Between Adams's first trip to Madagascar with Mark Carwardine in 1985, and their series of travels that formed the basis for the radio series and non-fiction book Last Chance to See , Adams wrote two other novels with
7455-470: The moment of Earth's destruction by transporting them to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. It's also revealed that Fenchurch was transported here when she vanished and has been patiently waiting for Arthur to show up. The characters are reunited with Marvin , and it is revealed that beyond the Restaurant (and beyond the car park in which Marvin works) lies an endless series of blue lagoons —
7560-453: The name of Babel Fish , the first free online language translator, which launched in 1997. Radiohead 's song " Paranoid Android " (1997) was named after Marvin's nickname, and the album it appears on, OK Computer , is part of a line spoken by Zaphod to Eddie, the Heart of Gold's computer. The Trillian instant messaging app (2000–) was named after a character of the series. Towel Day
7665-483: The novel. In 1992, Adams himself recorded an edition, later re-released by New Millennium Audio in the United States and available from BBC Audiobooks in the United Kingdom. In 2006, actor Martin Freeman , who had played Arthur Dent in the 2005 movie, recorded a new edition of the audiobook. This is the only book in the five novel series not to have also had a prior, abridged edition read by Stephen Moore . In addition,
7770-549: The novel. The first was an abridged edition ( ISBN 0-671-62964-6 ), recorded in the mid-1980s by Stephen Moore , best known for playing the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android in the radio series, LP adaptations and in the TV series. In 1990, Adams himself recorded an unabridged edition for Dove Audiobooks ( ISBN 1-55800-273-1 ), later re-released by New Millennium Audio ( ISBN 1-59007-257-X ) in
7875-452: The original Python members to get a writing credit (the other being Neil Innes ). Adams had two brief appearances in the fourth series of Monty Python's Flying Circus . At the beginning of episode 42, "The Light Entertainment War", Adams is in a surgeon's mask (as Dr. Emile Koning, according to on-screen captions), pulling on gloves, while Michael Palin narrates a sketch that introduces one person after another but never gets started. At
7980-406: The planet's interior while leaving Arthur and Marvin outside. In the tunnels, Zaphod reveals that his actions are not a result of his own decisions, but instead motivated by neural programming that he was seemingly involved in but has no memory of. As Zaphod explains how he discovered this, the trio are trapped and knocked out with sleeping gas. On the surface, Arthur is met by a resident of Magrathea,
8085-402: The publication of a tie-in book of the same name. In 1992, this was made into a CD-ROM combination of audiobook , e-book and picture slide show. Adams and Mark Carwardine contributed the 'Meeting a Gorilla' passage from Last Chance to See to the book The Great Ape Project . This book, edited by Paola Cavalieri and Peter Singer , launched a wider-scale project in 1993, which calls for
8190-415: The radio series (and with simultaneous projects such as The Pirate Planet ) Adams developed problems keeping to writing deadlines that got worse as he published novels. Adams was never a prolific writer and usually had to be forced by others to do any writing. This included being locked in a hotel suite with his editor for three weeks to ensure that So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish was completed. He
8295-532: The radio series became the basis for a BBC television mini-series broadcast in six parts. When he died in 2001 in California, he had been trying again to get the film project started with Disney , which had bought the rights in 1998. The screenplay was rewritten by Karey Kirkpatrick and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film was released in 2005. Radio producer Dirk Maggs had consulted with Adams, first in 1993, and later in 1997 and 2000 about creating
8400-509: The radio series gave rise to a six-episode television series, directed and produced by Alan J. W. Bell , which first aired on BBC 2 in January and February 1981. It employed many of the actors from the radio series and was based mainly on the radio versions of Fits the First through Sixth. A second series was at one point planned, with a storyline, according to Alan Bell and Mark Wing-Davey that would have come from Adams's abandoned Doctor Who and
8505-606: The rest of the galaxy became poor. Although Ford initially doubts that the planet is Magrathea, the planet's computers send them warning messages to leave before firing two nuclear missiles at the Heart of Gold . Arthur inadvertently saves them by activating the Infinite Improbability Drive improperly, which also opens an underground passage. As the ship lands, Trillian's pet mice Frankie and Benjy escape. On Magrathea, Zaphod, Ford, and Trillian venture down to
8610-489: The rock band Disaster Area who appear in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe , who planned to crash a space ship into a nearby star as a stunt during a concert. Gilmour also performed at Adams's memorial service in 2001, and what would have been Adams's 60th birthday party in 2012. Adams created an interactive fiction version of HHGG with Steve Meretzky from Infocom in 1984. In 1986 he participated in
8715-765: The school in early 2014. On the strength of an essay on religious poetry that discussed the Beatles and William Blake , Adams was awarded an Exhibition in English at St John's College, Cambridge (where his father had likewise been a student), going up in 1971. He wanted to join the Footlights , an invitation-only student comedy club that has acted as a hothouse for comic talent. He was not elected immediately as he had hoped, and started to write and perform in revues with Will Adams (no relation) and Martin Smith; they formed
8820-514: The school. Adams became the only student ever to be awarded a ten out of ten by Halford for creative writing – something he remembered for the rest of his life, particularly when facing writer's block . Some of his earliest writing was published at the school, such as a report on its photography club in The Brentwoodian in 1962, or spoof reviews in the school magazine Broadsheet , edited by Paul Neil Milne Johnstone , who later became
8925-533: The series, Ford is surprised to find that the entry on Earth has been updated to include all of his original material, prompting him to hitchhike across the galaxy and reunite with Arthur on the alternate Earth in So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish . Unlike the previous books in the series, Mostly Harmless received mixed reviews noting its darker tone. Nicholas Lezard in The Guardian wrote: "I doubt there
9030-456: The situation seems desperate as they are trapped behind a computer bank that is about to explode from the officers' weapons firing. However, the police officers suddenly die when their life-support systems short-circuit. Suspicious, Ford discovers on the surface that Marvin became bored and explained his view of the universe to the police officers' spaceship, causing it to commit suicide. The five leave Magrathea and decide to go to The Restaurant at
9135-462: The stories as he wrote. He turned to John Lloyd for help with the final two episodes of the first series . Lloyd contributed bits from an unpublished science fiction book of his own, called GiGax . Very little of Lloyd's material survived in later adaptations of Hitchhiker's , such as the novels and the TV series. The TV series was based on the first six radio episodes, and sections contributed by Lloyd were largely re-written. BBC Radio 4 broadcast
9240-613: The subject of technology, including reprints of articles that originally ran in MacUser , and in The Independent on Sunday . In these, Adams claims that one of the first computers he ever saw was a Commodore PET , and that he had "adored" his Apple Macintosh ("or rather my family of however many Macintoshes it is that I've recklessly accumulated over the years") since he first saw one at Infocom's offices in Boston in 1984. Adams
9345-570: The term. Adams was an early adopter and advocate of hypertext. Adams described himself as a "radical atheist ", adding "radical" for emphasis so he would not be asked if he meant agnostic. He told American Atheists that this conveyed the fact that he really meant it. He imagined a sentient puddle who wakes up one morning and thinks, "This is an interesting world I find myself in – an interesting hole I find myself in – fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!" to express his disbelief in
9450-459: The then-current style of radio and TV comedy. To make ends meet, he took a series of odd jobs, including as a hospital porter, barn builder, and chicken shed cleaner. He was employed as a bodyguard by a Qatari family, who had made their fortune in oil. During this time, Adams continued to write and submit sketches, though few were accepted. In 1976, his career had a brief improvement when he wrote and performed Unpleasantness at Brodie's Close at
9555-408: The truth behind Earth's existence. The novel was first published in London on 12 October 1979. It sold 250,000 copies in the first three months. The namesake of the novel is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , a fictional guide book for hitchhikers (inspired by the Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe ) written in the form of an encyclopaedia . The novel opens with an introduction describing
9660-564: The universe at once. However, the Infinite Improbability Drive has a side effect of causing impossible coincidences to occur in the physical universe. One of these improbable events occurs when Arthur and Ford are rescued by the Heart of Gold as it travels using the Infinite Improbability Drive. Zaphod takes his passengers — Arthur, Ford, a depressed robot named Marvin , and Trillian — to a legendary planet named Magrathea. Its inhabitants were said to have specialized in custom-building planets for others and to have vanished after becoming so rich that
9765-472: The words DON'T PANIC on the dashboard display and carried amongst other items a copy of the novel and a towel. In 2022, the novel was included on the " Big Jubilee Read " list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II . The novel's popularity (or the entire Hitchhikers franchise) has contributed to many homages and references involving
9870-522: Was a Macintosh user from the time they first came out in 1984 until his death in 2001. He was the first person to buy a Mac in Europe, the second being Stephen Fry . Adams was also an " Apple Master ", celebrities whom Apple made into spokespeople for its products (others included John Cleese and Gregory Hines ). Adams's contributions included a rock video that he created using the first version of iMovie with footage featuring his daughter Polly. The video
9975-435: Was a Nexu. In 1983, when he and Jane Belson went to Los Angeles, he bought a DEC Rainbow . Upon their return to England, Adams bought an Apricot , then a BBC Micro and a Tandy 1000 . In Last Chance to See , Adams mentions his Cambridge Z88 , which he had taken to Zaire on a quest to find the northern white rhinoceros . Adams's posthumously published work, The Salmon of Doubt , features several articles by him on
10080-455: Was a rather bleak book!" Dirk Maggs adapted the book as the " Quintessential Phase " of the radio series, and it was broadcast in June 2005. The radio version has an entirely new, upbeat ending, appended to the existing story. In the alternate ending, after the destruction of Earth, the description of the Babel fish from the earlier series is replayed with an additional section, which states that dolphins and Babel fish are acquainted, and that
10185-594: Was also co-author of two episodes from the original Hitchhiker radio series ("Fit the Fifth" and "Fit the Sixth", also known as "Episode Five" and "Episode Six"), as well as The Meaning of Liff and The Deeper Meaning of Liff . Adams sent the script for the HHGG pilot radio programme to the Doctor Who production office in 1978, and was commissioned to write The Pirate Planet . He had also previously attempted to submit
10290-401: Was available on Adams's .Mac homepage. Adams installed and started using the first release of Mac OS X in the weeks leading up to his death. His last post to his own forum was in praise of Mac OS X and the possibilities of its Cocoa programming framework. He said it was "awesome...", which was also the last word he wrote on his site. Adams used email to correspond with Steve Meretzky in
10395-587: Was invited to make a guest appearance at Pink Floyd's concert of 28 October 1994 at Earls Court in London, playing guitar on the songs "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse" . Adams chose the name for Pink Floyd's 1994 album, The Division Bell , by picking the words from the lyrics to one of its tracks, " High Hopes ". Pink Floyd and the song " Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun " in particular, inspired Adams to create
10500-405: Was published in 1998 by Simon & Schuster . Terry Jones wrote the accompanying book, entitled Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic , since Adams was too busy with the computer game to do both. In April 1999, Adams initiated the h2g2 collaborative writing project, an experimental attempt at making The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy a reality, and at harnessing the collective brainpower of
10605-399: Was quoted as saying, "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by." Despite the difficulty with deadlines, Adams wrote five novels in the series, published in 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, and 1992. The books formed the basis for other adaptations, such as three-part comic book adaptations for each of the first three books, an interactive text-adventure computer game , and
10710-492: Was rolled out to cinemas worldwide during May, June, July, August and September. Greg Costikyan reviewed The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in Ares Magazine #6 and commented that " The Hitchhiker's Guide is written with superb English wit, far more humorous than any American sitcom." The Pequod rated the book a 9.5 (out of 10.0) and called it "an ingeniously silly sci-fi satire... It may not add up to much, but
10815-576: Was the "lady barrister" mentioned in the jacket-flap biography printed in his books during the mid-1980s ("He [Adams] lives in Islington with a lady barrister and an Apple Macintosh"). The two lived in Los Angeles together during 1983, while Adams worked on an early screenplay adaptation of Hitchhiker's . When the deal fell through, they moved back to London, and after several separations ("He is currently not certain where he lives, or with whom") and
10920-458: Was the planet Earth, which was constructed by the Magratheans, and was five minutes away from finishing its task and figuring out the Ultimate Question when the Vogons destroyed it. The hyperintelligent superbeings participated in the program as mice, performing experiments on humans while pretending to be experimented on . Slartibartfast takes Arthur to see his friends, who are at a feast hosted by Trillian's pet mice. The mice reject as unnecessary
11025-408: Was the same as the original radio series , except for David Dixon as Ford Prefect instead of McGivern, and Sandra Dickinson as Trillian instead of Sheridan. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was adapted into a science fiction comedy film directed by Garth Jennings and released on 28 April 2005 in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and on the following day in the United States and Canada. It
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