105-554: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a comic science fiction series created by Douglas Adams that has become popular among fans of the genre and members of the scientific community . Phrases from it are widely recognised and often used in reference to, but outside the context of, the source material. Many writers on popular science , such as Fred Alan Wolf , Paul Davies , and Michio Kaku , have used quotations in their books to illustrate facts about cosmology or philosophy. In
210-435: A Jeopardy! match against IBM 's Watson , writes that Watson's avatar which appeared on-screen for those games showed 42 "threads of thought," shown as colourful lines spinning around Watson's logo, and that the number was chosen in reference to this meme . The Hitchhiker knitting pattern, designed by Martina Behm, is a scarf with 42 teeth. In The Flash , Season 4, Episode 1, Cisco in trying to decipher what Barry
315-481: A 1981 TV series , a 1984 text adventure game , and 2005 feature film . The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is an international multimedia phenomenon; the novels are the most widely distributed, having been translated into more than 30 languages by 2005. The first novel, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979), has been ranked fourth on the BBC 's The Big Read poll. The sixth novel, And Another Thing... ,
420-415: A Scrabble -playing caveman spells out "forty two". Arthur pulls random letters from a bag, but only gets the sentence "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?" "Six by nine. Forty two." "That's it. That's all there is." "I always thought something was fundamentally wrong with the universe." [This final line appears in some but not all editions of the work.] Six times nine is actually fifty-four;
525-399: A "trilogy in four parts" on the release of the fourth book. The US edition of the fifth book was originally released with the legend "The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy" on the cover. Subsequent re-releases of the other novels bore the legend "The [first, second, third, fourth] book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy". In addition,
630-469: A Christmas-related plotline, it was decided to be "in slightly poor taste" and the episode as transmitted served as a bridge between the two series. This episode was released as part of the second radio series and, later, The Secondary Phase on cassettes and CDs. The Primary and Secondary Phases were aired, in a slightly edited version, in the United States on NPR Playhouse . The first series
735-430: A TIFF reader should give up immediately. The number 42 was chosen for its deep philosophical significance." The later versions have eliminated the lengthy description, but kept the number fixed at 42 anyway. The random seed chosen to procedurally create the whole universe of the online multi-player computer game EVE Online was chosen as 42 by its lead game designer in 2002. In the 2001 computer game Gothic , "42"
840-458: A blend of Jones and Franklyn's voices at the end of the final episode, the first part of Maggs' alternative ending.) Sandra Dickinson, who played Trillian in the TV series, here played Tricia McMillan, an English-born, American-accented alternate-universe version of Trillian, while David Dixon, the television series' Ford Prefect, made a cameo appearance as the "Ecological Man". Jane Horrocks appeared in
945-602: A brief encounter with Fenchurch, and ends up exactly where he would want to be. And then the Vogons turn up again. In 2017 it was adapted for radio as the Hexagonal Phase of the radio series, with its premiere episode first transmitted on 8 March 2018 (exactly forty years, to the day, from the first episode of the first series, the Primary Phase ). Two omnibus editions were created by Douglas Adams to combine
1050-652: A change I would actually construct a puzzle and see how many people solved it. Of course, nobody paid it any attention. I think that's terribly significant. In the puzzle the question is unknown, but the answer is already known to be 42. This is similar to the book where the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" is known but not the question. The puzzle first appeared in The Illustrated Hitchhiker's Guide to
1155-502: A copy of the Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe book: while lying drunk in a field near Innsbruck with a copy of the book and looking up at the stars, he thought it would be a good idea for someone to write a hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy as well. However, he later claimed that he had forgotten the incident itself, and only knew of it because he'd told the story of it so many times. His friends are quoted as saying that Adams mentioned
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#17327809359971260-423: A crowded club, where an anguished Random becomes startled by a noise and inadvertently fires her gun at Arthur. The shot misses Arthur and kills a man (the ever-unfortunate Agrajag ). Immediately afterwards, The Guide Mark II causes the removal of all possible Earths from probability. All of the main characters, save Zaphod, were on Earth at the time and are apparently killed, bringing a good deal of satisfaction to
1365-550: A hidden purpose. After he declines this dangerously powerful machine's aid (which he receives anyway), he sends it to Arthur Dent for safety ("Oh yes, whose?"—Arthur). Trillian uses DNA that Arthur donated for travelling money to have a daughter, and when she goes to cover a war, she leaves her daughter Random Frequent Flyer Dent with Arthur. Random, a more than typically troubled teenager, steals The Guide Mark II and uses it to get to Earth. Arthur, Ford, Trillian, and Tricia McMillan (Trillian in this alternate universe) follow her to
1470-661: A hyperspace bypass. Dent's adventures intersect with several other characters: Ford Prefect (an alien and researcher for the eponymous guidebook who rescues Dent from Earth's destruction), Zaphod Beeblebrox (Ford's eccentric semi-cousin and the Galactic President who has stolen the Heart of Gold, a spacecraft equipped with Infinite Improbability Drive), the depressed robot Marvin the Paranoid Android , and Trillian (formerly known as Tricia McMillan) who
1575-606: A man walk down?", a lyric from Bob Dylan 's song " Blowin' in the Wind ". At the end of the radio series, the television series and the novel The Restaurant at the End of the Universe , Arthur Dent , having escaped the Earth's destruction, potentially has some of the computational matrix in his brain. He attempts to discover The Ultimate Question by extracting it from his brainwave patterns, as abusively suggested by Ford Prefect , when
1680-404: A mix of Latin and Greek , in some cases including roots from both languages within a single name. There have been some proposals for standardisation. Some email spam filters tag messages with a number of asterisks in an e-mail header such as X-Spam-Bar or X-SPAM-LEVEL . The larger the number, the more likely the email is considered spam. All known numeral systems developed before
1785-580: A radio telescope used by SETI , has 42 dishes in homage to the Answer. In the American TV show Lost , 42 is the last of the mysterious numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42 . In an interview with Lostpedia , producer David Fury confirmed this was a reference to Hitchhiker's . The British TV show The Kumars at No. 42 is so named because show creator Sanjeev Bhaskar is a Hitchhiker's fan. The band Coldplay 's 2008 album Viva la Vida includes
1890-679: A slightly more upbeat note". Adams also remarked that if he were to write a sixth instalment, he would at least start with all the characters in the same place. Eoin Colfer, who wrote the sixth book in the Hitchhiker's series in 2008–09, used this latter concept but none of the plot ideas from The Salmon of Doubt . The first book was adapted from the first four radio episodes (the Primary Phase), with Arthur being rescued from Earth's destruction by Ford, meeting Zaphod and Trillian, coming to
1995-501: A song called " 42 ". When asked by Q if the song's title was Hitchhiker's -related, Chris Martin said, "It is and it isn't." The band Level 42 chose its name in reference to the book. The 2007 episode " 42 " of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who was named in reference to the Answer. Writer Chris Chibnall acknowledged that "it's a playful title". Ken Jennings , defeated along with Brad Rutter in
2100-414: A third Dirk Gently novel, under the working title The Salmon of Doubt , but felt that the book was not working and abandoned it. In an interview, he said some of the ideas in the book might fit better in the Hitchhiker's series, and suggested he might rework those ideas into a sixth book in that series. He described Mostly Harmless as "a very bleak book" and said he "would love to finish Hitchhiker on
2205-474: Is a code that deactivates all activated cheats. After typing "42" in a right place, the text " What was the question? " appears. The OpenSUSE team decided the next version will be based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and named " Leap 42 ". The number 42 was chosen as a reference to the answer to life, the universe and everything. The Google 1st generation Chromecast has the model number H2G2-42 referencing Douglas Adams' book. The Allen Telescope Array ,
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#17327809359972310-449: Is a natural number B whose powers (B multiplied by itself some number of times) are specially designated within a numerical system." The term is not equivalent to radix , as it applies to all numerical notation systems (not just positional ones with a radix) and most systems of spoken numbers. Some systems have two bases, a smaller (subbase) and a larger (base); an example is Roman numerals, which are organized by fives (V=5, L=50, D=500,
2415-513: Is a woman Arthur once met at a party in Islington and who—thanks to Beeblebrox's intervention—is the only other human survivor of Earth's destruction. In their travels, Arthur comes to learn that the Earth was actually a giant supercomputer, created by another supercomputer, Deep Thought. Deep Thought had been built by its creators to give the answer to the "Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything", which, after eons of calculations,
2520-477: Is the average number of lines on an average page of an average paperback. Another common guess is that 42 refers to the number of laws in cricket, a recurring theme of the books. Yet another possible reason relates to Adam's background in the ASCII character encoding, where the number 42 can be represented by an asterisk (*). The asterisk, in turn, essentially represents "input whatever the user would like". This leaves
2625-423: Is the table number at which Arthur and his friends sit when they arrive at Milliways at the end of the radio series. Likewise, Mostly Harmless ends when Arthur stops at a street address identified by his cry of, "There, number 42!" and enters the club Beta, owned by Stavro Mueller (Stavromula Beta). Shortly after, the Earth is destroyed in all existing incarnations. Douglas Adams was asked many times why he chose
2730-400: Is true," confirms that 42 is indeed The Answer, and that it is impossible for both The Answer and The Question to be known in the same universe, as they will cancel each other out and take the Universe with them—to be replaced by something even more bizarre (as described in the first theory) and that it may have already happened (as described in the second). Though the question is never found, 42
2835-515: Is writing explicitly says that what Barry says might solve answer to the Life, the Universe and Everything, which Caitlin suggests is 42. In The X-Files , Fox Mulder lives in apartment 42. This has been acknowledged by the show's creator, Chris Carter , as a reference to Hitchhikers . The number 47 appears often throughout the Star Trek franchise. When producer Rick Berman was asked about
2940-526: The Hexagonal Phase , was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 8 March 2018 and featured Professor Stephen Hawking introducing himself as the voice of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Mk II by saying: "I have been quite popular in my time. Some even read my books." The novels are described as "a trilogy in five parts", having been described as a trilogy on the release of the third book, and then
3045-717: The Bird), and Roy Hudd as Milliways compere Max Quordlepleen, as well as the original radio series' announcer, John Marsh. The series also featured guest appearances by such noted personalities as Joanna Lumley as the Sydney Opera House Woman, Jackie Mason as the East River Creature, Miriam Margolyes as the Smelly Photocopier Woman, BBC Radio cricket legends Henry Blofeld and Fred Trueman as themselves, June Whitfield as
3150-455: The Earth by a Vogon constructor fleet to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Dent is rescued from Earth's destruction by Ford Prefect —a human-like alien writer for the eccentric, electronic travel guide The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy —by hitchhiking onto a passing Vogon spacecraft. Following his rescue, Dent explores the galaxy with Prefect and encounters Trillian , another human who had been taken from Earth (before its destruction) by
3255-407: The Earth's programming so that when Ford and Arthur manage to extract the final readout from Arthur's subconscious mind by pulling lettered tiles from a Scrabble set, it is "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?" The book was adapted from the remaining material in the radio series—covering from the fifth episode to the twelfth episode, although the ordering was greatly changed (in particular,
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3360-443: The End of the Universe , this reason is revealed to have been a ruse: the Vogons had been hired to destroy the Earth by a consortium of psychiatrists , led by Gag Halfrunt , who feared for the loss of their careers when the Ultimate Question became known. Lacking a real question, the mice (pan-dimensional beings) decide not to go through the whole process again and instead settle for the out-of-thin-air suggestion "How many roads must
3465-448: The End of the Universe, before embarking on further adventures. The original, first radio series comes from a proposal called "The Ends of the Earth": six self-contained episodes, all ending with Earth being destroyed in a different way. While writing the first episode, Adams realised that he needed someone on the planet who was an alien to provide some context, and that this alien needed a reason to be there. Adams finally settled on making
3570-470: The Galaxy . It was later incorporated into the covers of all five reprinted "Hitchhiker's" novels in the United States. Adams has described the puzzle as depicting the number 42 in ten different ways. Six possible questions are: The number 42 and its associated phrase, "Life, the universe, and everything", have attained cult status on the Internet. "Life, the universe, and everything" is a common name for
3675-452: The Galaxy has sold over 14 million copies. A photo-illustrated edition of the first novel appeared in 1994. In The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (published in 1980), Zaphod is separated from the others and finds he is part of a conspiracy to uncover who really runs the Universe. Zaphod meets Zarniwoop , a conspirator and editor for The Guide , who knows where to find the secret ruler. Zaphod becomes briefly reunited with
3780-661: The Hitchhiker series novels and to "set the record straight". The stories came in so many different formats that Adams stated that every time he told it he would contradict himself. Therefore, he stated in the introduction of The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide that "anything I put down wrong here is, as far as I'm concerned, wrong for good." The two omnibus editions were The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide, Complete and Unabridged (published in 1987) and The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide, Complete and Unabridged (published in 1997). Published in 1987, this 624-page leatherbound omnibus edition contains "wrong for good" versions of
3885-525: 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
3990-503: The LP and TV series, another arrangement by Joby Talbot was used for the 2005 film, and still another arrangement, this time by Philip Pope , was recorded to be released with the CDs of the last three radio series. Apparently, Adams chose this song for its futuristic-sounding nature, but also for the fact that it had a banjo in it, which, as Geoffrey Perkins recalls, Adams said would give an "on
4095-611: The Raffle Woman, Leslie Phillips as Hactar, Saeed Jaffrey as the Man on the Pole, Sir Patrick Moore as himself, and Christian Slater as Wonko the Sane. Finally, Adams himself played the role of Agrajag, a performance adapted from his book-on-tape reading of the third novel, and edited into the series created some time after the author's death. The first of six episodes in a sixth series,
4200-469: The Seventh of the radio series, on Christmas Eve, 1978: Narrator: There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory mentioned, which states that this has already happened. Some readers who were trying to find a deeper meaning in
4305-405: The Seventh to Twelfth as "The Secondary Phase" instead of just "the first series" and "the second series". It was at about this time that a "Tertiary Phase" was first discussed with Dirk Maggs, adapting Life, the Universe and Everything , but this series would not be recorded for another ten years. On 21 June 2004, the BBC announced in a press release that a new series of Hitchhiker's based on
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4410-628: The UK and Hyperion in the US in October 2009. The story begins as death rays bear down on Earth, and the characters awaken from a virtual reality. Zaphod picks them up shortly before they are killed, but completely fails to escape the death beams. They are then saved by Bowerick Wowbagger , the Infinitely Prolonged, whom they agree to help kill. Zaphod travels to Asgard to get Thor 's help. In
4515-414: The Universe in the meantime, to hitch-hike one last time and see God's Final Message to His Creation. Along the way, they are joined by Marvin, the Paranoid Android, who, although 37 times older than the universe itself (what with time travel and all), has just enough power left in his failing body to read the message and feel better about it all before expiring. This was the first Hitchhiker's novel which
4620-504: The Universe is in the safe hands of a simple man living on a remote planet in a wooden shack with his cat. Ford and Arthur, meanwhile, end up on a spacecraft full of the outcasts of the Golgafrinchan civilisation. The ship crashes on prehistoric Earth; Ford and Arthur are stranded, and it becomes clear that the inept Golgafrinchans are the ancestors of modern humans, having displaced the Earth's indigenous hominids. This has disrupted
4725-599: The Vogons. In 2005 it was adapted for radio as the Quintessential Phase of the radio series, with the final episode first transmitted on 21 June 2005. It was announced in September 2008 that Eoin Colfer , author of Artemis Fowl , had been commissioned to write the sixth instalment entitled And Another Thing... with the support of Jane Belson, Adams's widow. The book was published by Penguin Books in
4830-465: The alien a roving researcher for a "wholly remarkable book" named The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy . As the first radio episode's writing progressed, the Guide became the centre of his story, and he decided to focus the series on it, with the destruction of Earth being the only hold-over. Adams claimed that the title came from a 1971 incident while he was hitchhiking around Europe as a young man with
4935-542: The answer is deliberately wrong for that question because the question was miscomputed. The program on the "Earth computer" should have run correctly, but the unexpected arrival of the Golgafrinchans on prehistoric Earth caused input errors into the system—computing the wrong question (because of the garbage in, garbage out rule). Therefore, the question in Arthur's subconscious was invalid all along. Quoting Fit
5040-405: The answer seems meaningless because the beings who instructed it never knew what the question was. When asked to produce the Ultimate Question, Deep Thought says that it cannot; however, it can help to design an even more powerful computer that can. This new computer will incorporate living beings into the " computational matrix " and will run for ten million years. The computer is revealed as being
5145-617: The beginning of Hitchhiker's . The popularity of 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 to 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
5250-421: The blurb on the fifth book describes it as "the book that gives a whole new meaning to the word 'trilogy ' ". The plots of the television and radio series are more or less the same as that of the first two novels, though some of the events occur in a different order and many of the details are changed. Much of parts five and six of the radio series were written by John Lloyd , but his material did not make it into
5355-468: The book, with some omitting the apostrophe. Some editions use different spellings on the spine and title page. The h2g2 's English Usage in Approved Entries claims that Hitchhiker's Guide is the spelling that Adams preferred. At least two reference works make note of the inconsistency in the titles. Both, however, repeat the statement that Adams decided in 2000 that "everyone should spell it
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#17327809359975460-642: The books were adapted as part of the BBC 's The Big Read survey and programme, broadcast in late 2003. The film, directed by Deep Sehgal , starred Sanjeev Bhaskar as Arthur Dent, alongside Spencer Brown as Ford Prefect, Nigel Planer as the voice of Marvin, Stephen Hawking as the voice of Deep Thought, Patrick Moore as the voice of the Guide, Roger Lloyd-Pack as Slartibartfast, and Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish as Loonquawl and Phouchg. Base-13 There are many different numeral systems , that is, writing systems for expressing numbers . "A base
5565-466: The cast one last time. The core cast for the third to fifth radio series remained the same, except for the replacement of Peter Jones by William Franklyn as the Book, and Richard Vernon by Richard Griffiths as Slartibartfast, since both had died. (Homage to Jones' iconic portrayal of the Book was paid twice: the gradual shift of voices to a "new" version in episode 13, launching the new productions, and
5670-513: The cover." Arthur C. Clarke said Douglas Adams' use of "don't panic" was perhaps the best advice that could be given to humanity. The Hitchhiker%27s Guide to the Galaxy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams . Originally a 1978 radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 , it was later adapted to other formats, including novels, stage shows, comic books,
5775-755: The events of Fit the Sixth , with Ford and Arthur being stranded on pre-historic Earth, end the book, and their rescue in Fit the Seventh is deleted), and most of the Brontitall incident was omitted, instead of the Haggunenon sequence, co-written by John Loyd, the Disaster Area stunt ship was substituted—this having first been introduced in the LP version . Adams himself considered Restaurant to be his best novel of
5880-433: The first Vogon attack and apparently dies. Meanwhile, Constant Mown, son of Prostetnic Jeltz, convinces his father that the people on the planet are not citizens of Earth, but are, in fact, citizens of Nano, which means that it would be illegal to kill them. As the book draws to a close, Arthur is on his way to check out a possible university for Random, when, during a hyperspace jump, he is flung across alternate universes, has
5985-427: The first radio broadcast's 20th anniversary. Having decided it should be a number, he tried to think what an "ordinary number" should be. He ruled out non-integers, then he remembered having worked as a "prop-borrower" for John Cleese on his Video Arts training videos. Cleese needed a funny number for the punchline to a sketch involving a bank teller (himself) and a customer ( Tim Brooke-Taylor ). Adams believed that
6090-463: The first two radio series and TV versions, later William Franklyn in the third, fourth and fifth radio series, and Stephen Fry in the movie version), also provides general narration. The first radio series of six episodes (called "Fits" after the names of the sections of Lewis Carroll 's nonsense poem " The Hunting of the Snark ") was broadcast in 1978 on BBC Radio 4 . Despite a low-key launch of
6195-440: The five. In Life, the Universe and Everything (published in 1982), Ford and Arthur travel through the space-time continuum from prehistoric Earth to Lord's Cricket Ground . There they run into Slartibartfast, who enlists their aid in preventing galactic war. Long ago, the people of Krikkit attempted to wipe out all life in the Universe, but they were stopped and imprisoned on their home planet; now they are poised to escape. With
6300-576: The four Hitchhiker series novels at the time, and also includes one short story: Published in 1997, this 832-page leatherbound final omnibus edition contains five Hitchhiker series novels and one short story: Also appearing in The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide , at the end of Adams's introduction, is a list of instructions on "How to Leave the Planet", providing a humorous explanation of how one might replicate Arthur and Ford's feat at
6405-460: The fourth and fifth novels. The third series was broadcast in September and October 2004. The fourth and fifth were broadcast in May and June 2005, with the fifth series following immediately after the fourth. CD releases accompanied the transmission of the final episode in each series. The adaptation of the third novel followed the book very closely, which caused major structural issues in meshing with
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#17327809359976510-445: The galaxy despondently, Arthur's spaceship crashes on the planet Lamuella, where he settles in happily as the official sandwich-maker for a small village of simple, peaceful people. Meanwhile, Ford Prefect breaks into The Guide's offices, gets himself an infinite expense account from the computer system, and then meets The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Mark II , an artificially intelligent, multi-dimensional guide with vast power and
6615-524: The garden and thought '42 will do' I typed it out. End of story. Adams described his choice as "a completely ordinary number, a number not just divisible by two but also six and seven. In fact it's the sort of number that you could without any fear introduce to your parents." While 42 was a number with no hidden meaning, Adams explained in more detail in an interview with Iain Johnstone of BBC Radio 4 (recorded in 1998 though never broadcast) to celebrate
6720-490: The help of Marvin, Zaphod, and Trillian, our heroes prevent the destruction of life in the Universe and go their separate ways. This was the first Hitchhiker's book originally written as a book and not adapted from radio. Its story was based on a treatment Adams had written for a Doctor Who theatrical release, with the Doctor role being split between Slartibartfast (to begin with), and later Trillian and Arthur. In 2004, it
6825-474: The idea of "hitch-hiking around the galaxy" to them while on holiday in Greece in 1973. Adams's fictional Guide is an electronic guidebook to the entire universe, originally published by Megadodo Publications, one of the great publishing houses of Ursa Minor Beta. The narrative of the various versions of the story is frequently punctuated with excerpts from the Guide . The voice of the Guide ( Peter Jones in
6930-403: The latter would equal "42" if calculated in base 13. They find further evidence of Carroll's influence in the fact that Adams entitled the episodes of the original radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "fits", the word Carroll used to name the chapters of The Hunting of the Snark . There is the persistent tale that 42 is Adams' tribute to the indefatigable paperback book, and
7035-527: The meantime, the Vogons are heading to destroy a colony of people who also escaped Earth's destruction, on the planet Nano. Arthur, Wowbagger, Trillian and Random head to Nano to try to stop the Vogons, and on the journey, Wowbagger and Trillian fall in love, making Wowbagger question whether or not he wants to be killed. Zaphod arrives with Thor, who then signs up to be the planet's God. With Random's help, Thor almost kills Wowbagger. Wowbagger, who merely loses his immortality, then marries Trillian. Thor then stops
7140-452: The new semi-regular role of Fenchurch, Arthur's girlfriend, and Samantha Béart joined in the final series as Arthur and Trillian's daughter, Random Dent. Also reprising their roles from the original radio series were Jonathan Pryce as Zarniwoop (here blended with a character from the final novel to become Zarniwoop Vann Harl ), Rula Lenska as Lintilla and her clones (and also as the Voice of
7245-568: The number 42. Many theories were proposed, including that 42 is 101010 in base 2 , that light refracts through a water surface by 42 degrees to create a rainbow, or that light requires 10 seconds to cross the diameter of a proton. Adams rejected them all. On 3 November 1993, he gave this answer on alt.fan.douglas-adams : The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen , Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into
7350-456: The number that Cleese came up with was 42 and he decided to use it. Adams had also written a sketch for The Burkiss Way called "42 Logical Positivism Avenue", broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 12 January 1977 – 14 months before The Hitchhiker's Guide first broadcast "42" in Fit the Fourth , 29 March 1978. In January 2000, in response to a panellist's "Where does the number 42 come from?" on
7455-494: The off-topic section of an Internet forum , and the phrase is invoked in similar ways to mean "anything at all". Many chatbots , when asked about the meaning of life, will answer "42". Several online calculators are also programmed with the Question. Google Calculator will give the result to "the answer to life the universe and everything" as 42, as will Wolfram's Computational Knowledge Engine . Similarly, DuckDuckGo also gives
7560-413: The other versions of the story and is not included here. Many consider the books' version of events to be definitive because they are the most readily accessible and widely distributed version of the story. However, they are not the final version that Adams produced. Before his death from a heart attack on 11 May 2001, Adams was considering writing a sixth novel in the Hitchhiker's series. He was working on
7665-500: The others for a trip to Milliways, the restaurant of the title. Zaphod and Ford decide to steal a ship from there, which turns out to be a stunt ship pre-programmed to plunge into a star as a special effect in a stage show. Unable to change course, the main characters get Marvin to run the teleporter they find in the ship, which is working other than having no automatic control (someone must remain behind to operate it), and Marvin seemingly sacrifices himself. Zaphod and Trillian discover that
7770-438: The passage soon noticed a certain veracity when using base-13 ; 6 10 × 9 10 = 54 10 , which can be expressed as 42 13 (i.e. the decimal expression 54 is encoded as 42 in base-13 ). When confronted with this, the author claimed that it was a mere coincidence, stating that "I may be a sorry case, but I don't write jokes in base 13." In Life, the Universe and Everything , a character named " Prak ", who "knows all that
7875-464: The planet Earth , with its pan-dimensional creators assuming the form of white lab mice to observe its running. The process is hindered after eight million years by the unexpected arrival on Earth of the Golgafrinchans , and is then ruined completely, five minutes prior to completion, when the Earth is destroyed by the Vogons to supposedly make way for a new hyperspace bypass . In The Restaurant at
7980-556: The planet of Magrathea and discovering the true purpose of Earth, and ending with the group preparing to go to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. It was first published in 1979, initially in paperback, by Pan Books , after BBC Publishing had turned down the offer of publishing a novelisation, an action they would later regret. The book reached number one on the book charts in only its second week, and sold over 250,000 copies within three months of its release. A hardback edition
8085-541: The preceding radio series in comparison to the second novel. Because many events from the radio series were omitted from the second novel, and those that did occur happened in a different order, the two series split in completely different directions. The last two adaptations vary somewhat—some events in Mostly Harmless are now foreshadowed in the adaptation of So Long and Thanks For All The Fish , while both include some additional material that builds on incidents in
8190-455: The radio series and the first novel, a group of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings demand to learn the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything from the supercomputer Deep Thought , specially built for this purpose. It takes Deep Thought 7 + 1 ⁄ 2 million years to compute and check the answer, which turns out to be 42 . Deep Thought points out that
8295-454: The radio show Book Club , Adams explained that he was "on his way to work one morning, whilst still writing the scene, and was thinking about what the actual answer should be. He eventually decided that it should be something that made no sense whatsoever – a number, and a mundane one at that. And that is how he arrived at the number 42, completely at random." Stephen Fry , a friend of Adams, claims that Adams told him "exactly why 42", and that
8400-618: The reason is "fascinating, extraordinary and, when you think hard about it, completely obvious." However, Fry says that he has vowed not to tell anyone the secret, and that it must go with him to the grave. In an interview at the Sydney Opera House in 2010, two minutes before the end of the show, Fry appears to be ready to reveal the answer, but remains inaudible due to an apparent failure of the microphone. John Lloyd , Adams' collaborator on The Meaning of Liff and two Hitchhiker's fits, said that Adams has called 42 "the funniest of
8505-476: The result of "the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything" as 42. In the online community Second Life , there is a section on a sim called "42nd Life". It is devoted to this concept in the book series, and several attempts at recreating Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, were made. In OpenOffice.org software (prior to version 3.4) if "=ANTWORT("Das Leben, das Universum und der ganze Rest") (German for =ANSWER("life,
8610-567: The road, hitch-hiking feel" to it. The twelve episodes were released (in a slightly edited form, removing the Pink Floyd music and two other tunes "hummed" by Marvin when the team land on Magrathea) on CD and cassette in 1988, becoming the first CD release in the BBC Radio Collection . They were re-released in 1992, and at this time Adams suggested that they could retitle Fits the First to Sixth as "The Primary Phase" and Fits
8715-437: The same way [one word, no hyphen] from then on." The various versions follow the same basic plot but they are in many places mutually contradictory, as Adams rewrote the story substantially for each new adaptation. Throughout all versions, the series follows the adventures of Arthur Dent , a hapless Englishman, following the destruction of the Earth by the Vogons (a race of unpleasant and bureaucratic aliens) to make way for
8820-490: The self-centred President of the Galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox and the depressed Marvin the Paranoid Android . Certain narrative details were changed among the various adaptations. The different versions of the series spell the title differently — thus Hitch-Hiker's Guide , Hitch Hiker's Guide , and Hitchhiker's Guide are used in different editions (UK or US), formats (audio or print), and compilations of
8925-426: The series (the first episode was broadcast at 10:30 pm on Wednesday, 8 March 1978), it received generally good reviews and a tremendous audience reaction for radio. A one-off episode (a "Christmas special") was broadcast later in the year. The BBC had a practice at the time of commissioning "Christmas Special" episodes for popular radio series, and while an early draft of this episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide had
9030-739: The subbase) and tens (X=10, C=100, M=1,000, the base). 零一二三四五六七八九十百千萬億 (Default, Traditional Chinese ) 〇一二三四五六七八九十百千万亿 (Default, Simplified Chinese ) Bengali ০ ১ ২ ৩ ৪ ৫ ৬ ৭ ৮ ৯ Devanagari ० १ २ ३ ४ ५ ६ ७ ८ ९ Gujarati ૦ ૧ ૨ ૩ ૪ ૫ ૬ ૭ ૮ ૯ Kannada ೦ ೧ ೨ ೩ ೪ ೫ ೬ ೭ ೮ ೯ Malayalam ൦ ൧ ൨ ൩ ൪ ൫ ൬ ൭ ൮ ൯ Odia ୦ ୧ ୨ ୩ ୪ ୫ ୬ ୭ ୮ ୯ Punjabi ੦ ੧ ੨ ੩ ੪ ੫ ੬ ੭ ੮ ੯ Tamil ௦ ௧ ௨ ௩ ௪ ௫ ௬ ௭ ௮ ௯ Telugu ౦ ౧ ౨ ౩ ౪ ౫ ౬ ౭ ౮ ౯ Tibetan ༠ ༡ ༢ ༣ ༤ ༥ ༦ ༧ ༨ ༩ Urdu ۰ ۱ ۲ ۳ ۴ ۵ ۶ ۷ ۸ ۹ Numeral systems are classified here as to whether they use positional notation (also known as place-value notation), and further categorized by radix or base. The common names are derived somewhat arbitrarily from
9135-568: The symbolic meaning that the answer to life, the universe, and everything is anything you, the user, would like it to be. The 42 Puzzle is a game devised by Douglas Adams in 1994 for the United States series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books. The puzzle is an illustration consisting of 42 multi-coloured balls, in 7 columns and 6 rows. Douglas Adams has said, Everybody was looking for hidden meanings and puzzles and significances in what I had written (like 'is it significant that 6×9 = 42 in base 13?' As if.) So I thought that just for
9240-476: The third novel would be broadcast as part of its autumn schedule, produced by Above the Title Productions Ltd. The episodes were recorded in late 2003, but actual transmission was delayed while an agreement was reached with The Walt Disney Company over Internet re-broadcasts, as Disney had begun pre-production on the film. This was followed by news that further series would be produced based on
9345-495: The third series to tie all five (and their divergent plotlines) together, most especially including the character Zaphod more prominently in the final chapters and addressing his altered reality to include the events of the Secondary Phase. While Mostly Harmless originally contained a rather bleak ending, Dirk Maggs created a different ending for the transmitted radio version, ending it on a much more upbeat note, reuniting
9450-515: The two-digit numbers." The number 42 appears frequently in the work of Lewis Carroll , and some critics have suggested that this was an influence. They note, in particular, that Alice's attempt at her times tables (chapter two of the 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ) breaks down at 4 × 13 answered in base 42, which virtually reverses the failure of 'the Question' ("What do you get if you multiply six by nine?"), in that
9555-426: The universe and everything")) is typed into any cell of a spreadsheet , the result is 42. ISO/IEC 14519-2001/ IEEE Std 1003.5-1999, IEEE Standard for Information Technology – POSIX (R) Ada Language Interfaces – Part 1: Binding for System Application Program Interface (API) , uses the number 42 as the required return value from a process that terminates due to an unhandled exception. The Rationale says "the choice of
9660-425: The unusual frequency of the number, he stated, "47 is 42, corrected for inflation." In season 2, episode 4 of A Discovery of Witches , an auction lot bearing drawings of the series' two main leads is numbered 42 and the number's connection to Douglas Adams is recognized in a conversation. In the series, Don't Panic is a phrase on the cover of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy . The novel explains that this
9765-639: The value 42 is arbitrary" and cites the Adams book as the source of the value. The standard for Tagged Image File Format TIFF defines in its Image File Header bytes 2 and 3 to denominate a 'version number' 42. In revision 5.0 the specification explained the choice with "This number, 42 (2A in hex), is not to be equated with the current Revision of the TIFF specification. In fact, the TIFF version number (42) has never changed, and probably never will. If it ever does, it means that TIFF has changed in some way so radical that
9870-519: The work of Paddy Kingsland (for the pilot episode and the complete second series) at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Dick Mills and Harry Parker (for the remaining episodes (2–6) of the first series). The fact that they were at the forefront of modern radio production in 1978 and 1980 was reflected when the three new series of Hitchhiker's became some of the first radio shows to be mixed into four-channel Dolby Surround . This mix
9975-599: Was adapted for radio as the Tertiary Phase of the radio series. In So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (published in 1984), Arthur returns home to Earth, rather surprisingly since it was destroyed when he left. He meets and falls in love with a girl named Fenchurch , and discovers this Earth is a replacement provided by the dolphins in their Save the Humans campaign. Eventually, he rejoins Ford, who claims to have saved
10080-511: Was also featured on DVD releases of the third radio series. The theme tune used for the radio, television, LP, and film versions is " Journey of the Sorcerer ", an instrumental piece composed by Bernie Leadon and recorded by the Eagles on their 1975 album One of These Nights . Only the transmitted radio series used the original recording; a sound-alike cover by Tim Souster was used for
10185-421: Was cast after a three-month-long casting search and after at least three actors (including Michael Palin ) turning down the role. The series was also notable for its use of sound, being the first comedy series to be produced in stereo. Adams said that he wanted the programme's production to be comparable to that of a modern rock album. Much of the programme's budget was spent on sound effects, which were largely
10290-510: Was given simply as " 42 ". Deep Thought was then instructed to design the Earth supercomputer to determine what the Question actually is. The Earth was subsequently destroyed by the Vogons moments before its calculations were completed, and Arthur becomes the target of the descendants of the Deep Thought creators, believing his mind must hold the Question. With his friends' help, Arthur escapes and they decide to have lunch at The Restaurant at
10395-462: Was not an adaptation of any previously written story or script. In 2005 it was adapted for radio as the Quandary Phase of the radio series. Finally, in Mostly Harmless (published in 1992), Vogons take over The Hitchhiker's Guide (under the name of InfiniDim Enterprises), to finish, once and for all, the task of obliterating the Earth. After abruptly losing Fenchurch and travelling around
10500-536: Was partly because the device "looked insanely complicated" to operate, and partly to keep interstellar travellers from panicking. "It is said that despite its many glaring (and occasionally fatal) inaccuracies, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy itself has outsold the Encyclopedia Galactica because it is slightly cheaper, and because it has the words 'DON'T PANIC' in large, friendly letters on
10605-408: Was published by Harmony Books, a division of Random House in the United States in October 1980, and the 1981 US paperback edition was promoted by the give-away of 3,000 free copies in the magazine Rolling Stone to build word of mouth. In 2005, Del Rey Books re-released the Hitchhiker series with new covers for the release of the 2005 movie. As of 2005, the book version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to
10710-453: Was repeated twice in 1978 alone and many more times in the next few years. This led to an LP re-recording , produced independently of the BBC for sale, and a further adaptation of the series as a book. A second radio series, which consisted of a further five episodes, and bringing the total number of episodes to 12, was broadcast in 1980. The radio series (and the LP and TV versions) were narrated by comedy actor Peter Jones as The Book. Jones
10815-522: Was set to premiere in 2021. Production was slated to begin in the summer of 2020 and air on Fox in international markets. The series has reportedly been renewed for a second season. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , production on the series has most likely been delayed. However, a production outlet claimed that the series began production in May 2021. Hulu receives no updates since then, and Cuse and Fuchs appeared to have moved on. Segments of several of
10920-461: 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. A new television series for Hulu was announced in July 2019. Carlton Cuse was named as the showrunner alongside Jason Fuchs , who would also be writing for the show. The show would be produced by ABC Signature and Genre Arts. The series
11025-405: Was written by Eoin Colfer with additional unpublished material by Douglas Adams. In 2017, BBC Radio 4 announced a 40th-anniversary celebration with Dirk Maggs , one of the original producers, in charge. The first of six new episodes was broadcast on 8 March 2018. The broad narrative of Hitchhiker follows the misadventures of the last surviving man, Arthur Dent , following the demolition of
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