78-467: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams . Originally a 1978 radio comedy , it was later adapted to other formats, including novels, stage shows, comic books, a 1981 TV series , a 1984 text adventure game , and 2005 feature film . The various versions follow the same basic plot but they are in many places mutually contradictory, as Adams rewrote
156-478: A 1981 TV series , a 1984 computer game , and 2005 feature film . A prominent series in British popular culture , The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has become an international multi-media phenomenon; the novels are the most widely distributed, having been translated into more than 30 languages by 2005. Terry Pratchett 's 1981 novel Strata also exemplifies the comic science fiction genre. Life,
234-453: A Chesterfield sofa , in the midst of a match at Lord's Cricket Ground. In due course, Agrajag harbors a fervent desire for vengeance against Arthur Dent, scheming to redirect his teleportation to a Cathedral of Hate. However, in the midst of articulating his animosity towards Arthur, Agrajag references an incident at "Stavromula Beta" where Arthur inadvertently evaded an assassin's bullet, causing Agrajag's demise. Perplexed by this mention of
312-624: A Tom Baker Doctor Who television six-part story, but was rejected by the BBC . It was later considered as a plotline for the second series of the Hitchhiker's TV series , which was never commissioned. A radio adaptation of Life, the Universe and Everything was recorded in 2003 under the guidance of Dirk Maggs , starring the surviving members of the cast of the original Hitchhiker's radio series. Adams himself, at his own suggestion, makes
390-569: A cameo appearance ; due to his death before production began on the series, this was achieved by sampling his character's dialogue from an audio book of the novel read by Adams that was published in the 1990s. The radio adaptation debuted on BBC Radio 4 in September 2004. After being stranded on pre-historic Earth after the events in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe , Arthur Dent
468-515: A paradox , but attempts to kill Arthur anyway. In his insanity, Agrajag brings the Cathedral down around them. Arthur manages to escape unharmed, partially due to learning how to fly after falling and missing the ground while catching sight of a bag he had lost at a Greek airport years before. After collecting the bag, Arthur inadvertently comes across the flying party and rejoins his friends. Inside, they find Trillian , but they are too late to stop
546-406: A subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that exploits the science fiction genre's conventions for comedic effect. Comic science fiction often mocks or satirizes standard science fiction conventions, concepts and tropes – such as alien invasion of Earth, interstellar travel , or futuristic technology. It can also satirize and criticize present-day society. An early example
624-564: A Lintilla, they both wink out of existence in a puff of unsmoke. Along with Poodoo and Varntvar the Priest, three Allitnils arrived on Brontitall to get the three Lintillas there to "agree to cease to be". Two of the clones eliminate their corresponding Lintillas, but Arthur shoots the third Allitnil, so that one Lintilla survives. Appearing only in Fit the Twelfth of the radio series, every one of
702-441: A colossal rockfall. Miraculously, Arthur emerges unscathed from the debris. For the next few years, Arthur travels the universe, secure in his knowledge that, no matter what happens, he cannot die at least until after he survives his assassination attempt at Stavromula Beta. In the novel Mostly Harmless Arthur's daughter Random Frequent Flyer Dent holds him hostage in a London club. When she fires her weapon Arthur dodges, causing
780-478: A cricket ball in his bag. However, during his run-up, Arthur suddenly realizes that the ball was created and placed in his bag by Hactar and is actually the working version of the cosmic-supernova-bomb, and that the defender of the wicket is one of the Krikkit robots, ready to detonate the bomb once thrown. Arthur trips, misses the ground, and flies over the pitch, allowing him to throw the bomb safely aside and behead
858-399: A dust cloud that surrounded its solar system, were surprised to find the wreckage of a spacecraft on their planet. Reverse engineering the vessel, they explored past the dust cloud and saw the rest of the Universe, immediately taking a disliking to it and deciding that it must be destroyed. They built a fleet of ships and robots to attack the rest of the Universe in a brutal onslaught known as
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#1732794181871936-479: A half million years of calculation, the answer finally turns out to be 42 , Deep Thought admonishes Loonquawl and Phouchg (the receivers of the Ultimate Answer) that "[they] checked it very thoroughly, and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question was." Deep Thought does not know the ultimate question to Life,
1014-544: A large, vaguely humanoid computer, with a gigantic head supported, as if in bored repose, by two arms and has a female voice (provided by actress Helen Mirren ). This particular version of Deep Thought likes to watch television in her spare time and late in the film can also be seen to have the Apple Computer logo above her eye. This is a reference to Adams being a fan and advocate of the Apple Macintosh . It
1092-400: A lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now". The reason behind the bowl's lament is revealed in the novel Life, the Universe and Everything , when Agrajag identifies the bowl of petunias as one of his prior incarnations, and tells Arthur that he had seen his face in a spaceship window as he fell to his doom. In another incarnation, Agrajag was a rabbit on prehistoric Earth (during
1170-574: A much weaker level. Trillian and Arthur speak to Hactar in a virtual space that he creates for them to explain himself. Hactar reveals that he spent eons creating the spaceship that crashed on Krikkit to inspire their xenophobia and incite them to go to war, also influencing their thoughts. However, when the Slo-Time envelope was activated, his control on the population waned. As he struggles to remain functional, Hactar apologizes to Trillian and Arthur for his actions before they leave for their ship. With
1248-533: A party in Islington. She and Arthur next meet six months later on the spaceship Heart of Gold, shortly after the Earth has been destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Slartibartfast is a Magrathean, and a designer of planets. His favourite part of the job is creating coastlines, the most notable of which are the fjords found on the coast of Norway on planet Earth, for which he won an award. When Earth Mk. II
1326-412: A place he's never visited, Arthur remains oblivious to Agrajag's grievances, leading Agrajag to realize his premature timing in bringing Arthur to the cathedral. Despite this revelation, Agrajag still attempts to eliminate Arthur, only to meet his demise once again at Arthur's hands while the latter defends himself. In a final act of defiance, Agrajag sets off explosives meant to dispatch Arthur, but trigger
1404-403: A war-faring species, Hactar was tasked to build a supernova-bomb that would link the cores of every sun in the Universe together at the press of a button and cause the end of the Universe. Hactar purposely created a dud version of the weapon instead, causing his creators to pulverize him into dust, which thus became the dust cloud around Krikkit. However, Hactar was still able to function, though at
1482-493: Is a "semi-half-cousin" of Ford Prefect. He is hedonistic and irresponsible, narcissistic, and often extremely insensitive to the feelings of those around him. Zaphod invented the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. Zaphod wears unique clothing that contains a mixture of bright and contrasting colours to make him stand out and be the centre of attention wherever he goes. He was voted "Worst Dressed Sentient Being in
1560-426: Is able to memorize the location. Arthur ultimately settles on Krikkit, where he becomes a more skillful flier and learns bird language . He is briefly interrupted by the arrival of an immortal alien who has made it his goal to insult every living creature in the universe, but the alien realizes that he has already done so with Arthur on prehistoric Earth. The creation of Krikkit originally comes from Doctor Who and
1638-472: Is afflicted with severe depression and boredom, in part because he has a "brain the size of a planet" which he is seldom, if ever, given the chance to use. Indeed, the true horror of Marvin's existence is that no task he could be given would occupy even the tiniest fraction of his vast intellect. Marvin claims he is 50,000 times more intelligent than a human. Trillian (Tricia McMillan) is a mathematician and astrophysicist whom Arthur Dent attempted to talk to at
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#17327941818711716-453: Is also revealed that, in the intervening time, Deep Thought was commissioned by an intergalactic consortium of angry housewives to create the Point of View Gun, a weapon that causes any man it is used on to see things from the firer's point-of-view, regardless of the firer's gender (due to it being originally used by those housewives having got fed up with ending arguments with their husbands with
1794-426: Is being made, Slartibartfast is assigned to the continent of Africa. He is unhappy about this because he has begun "doing it with fjords again" (arguing that they give a continent a lovely baroque feel), but has been told by his superiors that they are "not equatorial enough". In relation to this, he expresses the view that he would "far rather be happy than right any day." Agrajag is a tragic and piteous creature who
1872-403: Is continually reincarnated and subsequently killed, each time unknowingly, by Arthur Dent . Agrajag is first identified in the novel Life, the Universe and Everything , but it is revealed that several of Arthur's encounters in the first and second novels (and in previous chapters of the third) were with previous incarnations of Agrajag. The first occurs in the novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to
1950-428: Is essentially a dilettante when it comes to causes such as the search for the question to the ultimate answer of "life, the universe, and everything." Ford takes a more existential view of the universe, sometimes bordering on joyful nihilism . He is eccentric and broad-minded – no doubt due to his vast experience of roughing it around the galaxy – and has an off-key and often very dark sense of humour. Zaphod Beeblebrox
2028-515: Is met by his old friend Ford Prefect , who drags him into a space-time eddy , represented by an anachronistic sofa . The two end up at Lord's Cricket Ground two days before the Earth's destruction by the Vogons . Shortly after they arrive, a squad of robots land in a spaceship in the middle of the field and attack the assembled crowd, stealing the Ashes before departing. Another spaceship arrives,
2106-462: Is seen guarding the late Hotblack Desiato in the novel The Restaurant at the End of the Universe . His face, according to the book "had the texture of an orange and the colour of an apple, but there the resemblance to anything sweet ended." In episode 5 of the TV series he is portrayed by actor David Prowse , Star Wars ' Darth Vader , as a man of few words who can lift Ford Prefect clean off
2184-616: Is the only one in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series to have been censored in its US edition. The word "asshole" is replaced with the word "kneebiter", and the word "shit" is replaced with "swut". One example of censorship is in Chapter 21, in which the UK edition mentions that the "Rory" is an award for "The Most Gratuitous Use of the Word ' Fuck ' in a Serious Screenplay". In the US edition, this
2262-479: Is threatened by a disembodied hand and so offers a Guide write-up instead. This happens in the novel So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish . In the radio adaptation of this novel, the barman was played by Arthur Smith. Another barman takes a galactic sized tip for Elvis from Ford on his Hitchhiker's corporate Dine-O-Charge credit card in an attempt to bankrupt InfiniDim Enterprises in the novel Mostly Harmless and
2340-531: The Starship Bistromath , helmed by Slartibartfast , who discovers he is too late to stop the theft and requests Arthur and Ford's help. As they travel to their next destination, Slartibartfast explains that he is trying to stop the robots from collecting all the components of the Wikkit Gate. Long ago, the peaceful population of the planet of Krikkit, unaware of the rest of the Universe due to
2418-481: The Vogons , he supposedly does a few seconds later. In Fit the Fifteenth of the radio series, Douglas Adams plays Agrajag, having recorded the part for an audiobook version of the novel Life, the Universe and Everything . Producer Dirk Maggs added a suitable voice treatment, and Simon Jones as Arthur Dent recorded his lines opposite the pre-recorded Adams. Adams was thus able to "reincarnate" to participate in
List of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy characters - Misplaced Pages Continue
2496-511: The 'Heart of Gold' starship and sings Zaphod a cryptic song about the entrance to the planet Asgard . Zaphod does not understand the song. She vanishes after saying "oh for Zark's sake" and then turns into an ice sculpture of herself. The sculpture soon melts into water, the water droplets rise up into the ceiling and every drop disappears after making a 'oh' sound. Zaphod later comments "That girl always could sing". As Disaster Area's earnings require hypermathematics, their chief research accountant
2574-594: The Allitnils is voiced by David Tate . The Allitnils, like the Lintillas, do not appear in the novels or in the BBC television series. The Almighty Bob is a deity worshipped by the people of Lamuella . Old Thrashbarg is one of the priests who worships Almighty Bob; however, Thrashbarg is often ignored by the villagers of Lamuella . The Almighty Bob appears in the fifth book, the novel Mostly Harmless . Anjie
2652-474: The Galaxy , when a bowl of petunias is yanked into existence miles above the planet Magrathea in place of one of the missiles targeting the Heart of Gold after its Improbability Drive is used, and begins falling, having only time to think "Oh, no, not again" before crashing to the ground. The Guide states that "many had speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that, we should know
2730-584: The Guide's new security force, the Vogons , fire at him with a rocket launcher after Ford feels the need to jump out of the window. Colin was last seen being sent (at the risk of possible incineration) to look after the delivery of the Guide Mark II to Arthur Dent in the Vogon postal system. Colin was named after a dog which belonged to a girl, Emily Saunders, of whom Ford had fond memories. Colin appears in
2808-857: The Known Universe" seven consecutive times. He's been described as "the best Bang since the Big One" by Eccentrica Gallumbits, and as "one hoopy frood" by others. He was briefly the President of the Galaxy and is the only man to have survived the Total Perspective Vortex (In the artificial galaxy created by Zarniwoop). Marvin the Paranoid Android is the ship's robot aboard the starship Heart of Gold. Built as one of many failed prototypes of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation's GPP (Genuine People Personalities) technology, Marvin
2886-463: The Krikkit Wars, but were eventually defeated. Realizing that the Krikkit population would not be satisfied alongside the existence of the rest of the Universe, it was decided to lock the planet in a Slo-Time envelope, to be opened only after the Universe has ended so that the planet can exist alone. The Wikkit Gate, shaped exactly like a wicket used in the sport of cricket , is needed to unlock
2964-553: The Krikkitmen , a film treatment of the Doctor Who series. The treatment did not get far and was eventually scrapped. Elements of Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen were put into Life, the Universe and Everything . According to Nick Webb, the writer of Adams's official biography, he claimed that "Douglas's view of the Krikkitmen would be similar to his view of people who resolutely decline to learn what science can tell us about
3042-468: The Seventh of the radio series, where the captain is played by David Tate , and his number one by Bill Paterson . However, some of their dialogue was given to other characters in the novel The Restaurant at the End of the Universe . Leader of the cheese-worshipping Tyromancers on the planet Nano . Appears in the novel And Another Thing... . Three different barmen appear during the series. In
3120-494: The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. They are disappointed to find that Prak has told all the truth in existence, but has forgotten it and kept no record. The only information he can provide is that the Ultimate Question and its answer can never both be known about in the same universe. He then attempts to tell Arthur where God's last message to His creation is, though he dies seemingly before Arthur
3198-465: The Universe and Everything Life, the Universe and Everything (1982, ISBN 0-345-39182-9 ) is the third book in the six-volume Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy science fiction "trilogy of six books" by British writer Douglas Adams . The title refers to the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything . The story was originally outlined by Adams as Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen to be
List of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy characters - Misplaced Pages Continue
3276-454: The Universe and Everything, but offers to design an even more powerful computer, Earth , to calculate it. After ten million years of calculation, the Earth is destroyed by Vogons five minutes before the computation is complete. Appears in: On radio, Deep Thought was voiced by Geoffrey McGivern . On television and in the LP re-recording of the radio series, it was voiced by Valentine Dyall . In
3354-500: The benefit of Arthur Dent. Agrajag makes a brief appearance in his bowl of petunias form in the 2005 film, the moment he and the sperm whale were called into existence being portrayed exactly as it was in the first book. In the 2017 second season of the television adaptation of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency a dog is named Agrajag with expected consequences. Alice Beeblebrox is Zaphod's favourite mother, lives at 10 Astral Crescent, Zoovroozlechester, Betelgeuse V, and guards
3432-414: The bolt to pass over his head and hit the man standing behind him. Earlier the victim (Agrajag) had dropped a book of matches which revealed the owner of the nightclub to be Stavro Mueller, and the name of the club to be Beta. Thus, what Arthur believed to be the name of a planet was the name of the nightclub, and Agrajag has died once again. Because of this, Arthur is now able to die as well, which, thanks to
3510-577: The dialogue (Adams himself can be seen in the background of this scene); Steve Conway played the character on TV. This barman was played by David Gooderson in the original radio series and Stephen Moore in the LP recording. In the 2005 motion picture, Albie Woodington portrayed the barman. Ford visits the Old Pink Dog Bar in Han Dold City, orders a round for everyone and then tries to use an American Express card to pay for it, fails,
3588-521: The envelope. However, one ship carrying a troop of robots from Krikkit avoided being sealed in, and these robots began to search for the pieces of the Gate after they were dispersed about space and time. Slartibartfast, Arthur, and Ford transport to an airborne party that has lasted numerous generations where another Gate component, the Silver Bail, is to be found, but Arthur finds himself separated from
3666-502: The facilities. Trillian deduces that the Krikkiters have been manipulated, reasoning that the people of Krikkit could not simultaneously be smart enough to develop their ultimate weapon—a bomb that could destroy every star in the universe—and also stupid enough not to realize that this weapon would also destroy them. The characters discover that the true force behind the war has been the supercomputer Hactar . Previously built to serve
3744-431: The far reaches of the galaxy. In time, he learns how to fly and carves a niche for himself as a sandwich maker. He is also worried about "everything." Ford Prefect is Arthur Dent's friend. He rescued Dent when the Earth is unexpectedly demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass at the start of the story. Although his heart is in the right place and he is shown to be highly intelligent, resourceful, and even brave, Ford
3822-423: The feature film, Deep Thought's voice was provided by actress Helen Mirren . In the television series, Deep Thought was shaped like a massive black metal trapezoid with a yellow rectangular display that blinked on and off in time with the computer's speaking. The timing of the light's flashing was done on set by author Douglas Adams . Valentine Dyall's voice was dubbed in later. In the feature film, it appears as
3900-416: The final radio series. This bartender was played by Roger Gregg . When Arthur returns to Earth in the novel So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish , he calls his department head to explain why he was absent from work the last six months: "I've gone mad." His superior is very relaxed about it and asks when Arthur will return to work, and is quite satisfied by the reply "When do hedgehogs stop hibernating?" In
3978-416: The floor. In the LP adaptation of the radio series, the character was voiced by David Tate . Arthur attempts to play Scrabble with a caveman, who is not even able to spell "Grunt" and "Agh", and "he's probably spelt library with one R again". However, he does spell " forty-two ", giving Arthur the idea to pull out letters from the letters bag at random to attempt to find the ultimate question; this results in
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#17327941818714056-472: The fourth radio series, the part was played by Geoffrey Perkins , who had produced the first two radio series and who had been the BBC TV head of comedy from 1995 to 2001. In the epilogue of the novel So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish , Blart Versenwald III was a top genetic engineer, and a man who could never keep his mind on the job at hand. When his homeworld was under threat from an invading army, he
4134-487: The late 1940s. In the 1950s, comedy became more common in science fiction. Some of the authors contributing to the sub-genre included: Alfred Bester , Harry Harrison , C. M. Kornbluth , Frederik Pohl , and Robert Sheckley . The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a comic science-fiction series written by Douglas Adams . Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it later morphed into other formats, including stage shows, novels, comic books,
4212-663: The most popular early writers of comic science fiction: the Gallegher series (about a drunken inventor and his narcissistic robot ) and the Hogben series (about a family of mutant hillbillies). The former appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in 1943 and 1948 and was collected in hardcover as Robots Have No Tails (Gnome, 1952), and the latter appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories in
4290-431: The new series. At the end of the novel And Another Thing... , Arthur Dent's extreme bad luck in life coupled with cosmic balance mean that as he materialises on a planet shortly before Vogons are due to destroy it, Agrajag wakes up from a coma after six months having won the lottery and been recognised by a long lost love whilst on "Celebrity Coma". This event presumably leads to cosmic balance ruining his other lives for
4368-521: The newly re-organized Guide offices in the novel Mostly Harmless . "Its motion sensors are the usual Sirius Cybernetics garbage." Ford captures Colin by trapping the robot with his towel and re-wiring the robot's pleasure circuits, inducing a cyber-ecstasy trip. Ford uses Colin's cheerfulness to break into the Guide's corporate accounting software in order to plant a Trojan Horse module that will automatically pay anything billed to his InfiniDim Enterprises credit card. Colin also saves Ford's life when
4446-410: The novel And Another Thing... . Author of Time Traveller's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations which is handy for those travelling through time, and especially to Milliways . His guide is more complete than The Guide itself, which ignores the time travel tense topic – other than pointing out that the term 'future perfect' has been abandoned since it was discovered not to be. He is also mentioned in
4524-454: The novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , in episode 1 of the TV series , and the film, Ford and Arthur quickly down three pints each – at lunchtime – to calm their muscles before using the teleport to escape on the Vogon ship. Being told the world is about to end he calls "last orders, please." The Red Lion Inn at Chelwood Gate , East Sussex, was used during the TV series, and referenced in
4602-515: The novel Mostly Harmless , and in the radio series he was played by Andrew Secombe . Crew member on the Vogon ship commanded by Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz , and Jeltz's son. Notable for his very un-Vogon-like emotions, ethics and agility, all of which he attempts to keep hidden (with varying degrees of success) from his father and crewmates, lest he be demoted to more unpleasant (even for a Vogon) duties or killed outright for aberrant behavior. Appears in
4680-553: The only crew of an Arcturan Megafreighter carrying a larger number of copies of Playbeing magazine than the mind can comfortably conceive. They brought Zaphod Beeblebrox to Ursa Minor Beta, after he had escaped from the Haggunenon flagship. Zaphod was let on board by the Number One, who was cynical about the Guide's editors becoming soft. He admired the fact that Zaphod was "hitching the hard way" . They only appear in Fit
4758-469: The others and ends up at a Cathedral of Hate created by a being called Agrajag . Agrajag reveals that he has been reincarnated countless times in a wide variety of forms, only to be killed by Arthur in each life; he now plans to kill Arthur in revenge. However, upon learning that Arthur has yet to cause his death at a place called Stavromula Beta, Agrajag realizes that he has pulled Arthur out of his relative timeline too soon and that killing him now would cause
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#17327941818714836-603: The phrase "You just don't get it, do you?"). IBM 's chess -playing computer Deep Thought was named in honour of this fictional computer. Deep Thought can be seen inscribed on a computer in the NORAD VI area of the 1992 computer game The Journeyman Project . Dionah appears in And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer . Dionah is one of Zaphod Beeblebrox 's favorite singer/prostitutes. She appears out of nowhere in
4914-418: The process. The Bistromath arrives too late to stop the robots from opening the Gate, so its occupants transport to the planet to attempt to negotiate with the Krikkit people. To their surprise, they find that the people seem to lack any desire to continue the war, and are directed to the robot and spaceship facilities in orbit about the planet. With help from Zaphod and Marvin, the group is able to infiltrate
4992-481: The robot with its own bat. Afterward, the group are taking Arthur to a 'quiet and idyllic planet' when they come across a half-mad journalist. Some time earlier, he had been reporting on a court case in which a witness named Prak was inadvertently given an overdose of a truth drug. Prak began to tell all truth, horrifying the involved parties so badly that they abandoned the courtroom and sealed it up with him inside. The group find him still there, hoping to learn from him
5070-548: The robots from stealing the Silver Bail. Arthur, Ford, Trillian, and Slartibartfast return to the Bistromath and try to head off the robots activating the Wikkit Gate. Meanwhile, the Krikkit robots steal the last two pieces, the Infinite Improbability Drive core from the spaceship Heart of Gold and a peg leg used by Marvin the Paranoid Android . They capture both Marvin and Zaphod Beeblebrox in
5148-598: The story substantially for each new adaptation. Throughout all versions, the series follows the adventures of Arthur Dent and his interactions with Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Marvin the Paranoid Android, and Trillian. Arthur Philip Dent , accompanied by Ford Prefect, barely escapes the Earth's destruction when it is demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Arthur spends the next several years, still wearing his dressing gown, helplessly launched from crisis to crisis while trying to straighten out his lifestyle. He rather enjoys tea, but seems to have trouble obtaining it in
5226-412: The third radio series, which gives many examples of his tense forms. Deep Thought is a computer that was created by a pan-dimensional, hyper-intelligent species of beings (whose three-dimensional protrusions into our universe are ordinary white mice) to come up with the Answer to The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything . Deep Thought is the size of a small city. When, after seven and
5304-446: The time period recounted in the novel The Restaurant at the End of the Universe ) who was killed by Arthur for breakfast and whose skin was fashioned into the pouch Arthur is still carrying, which is then used to swat a fly who also happened to be Agrajag. In yet another, near the beginning of the novel Life, the Universe and Everything , Agrajag is an old man who dies of a heart attack after seeing Arthur and Ford materialise, seated on
5382-547: The true story of Zaphod's visit to the Frogstar, waiting for "the right price." She is referenced in Fit the Eighth of the radio series. As their names were written to suggest, every Allitnil is an anti-clone of a Lintilla . They were created by the cloning company to eliminate the billions of cloned Lintillas flooding out of a malfunctioning cloning machine. Being anti-clones, when an Allitnil comes into physical contact with
5460-489: The unhelpful "What do you get when you multiply six by nine?" which does not match the answer (except in base-13). The caveman appears in Fit the Sixth of the radio series played by David Jason , the novel The Restaurant at the End of the Universe , and episode 6 of the TV series . Colin (a.k.a. part #223219B) is a small, round, melon-sized, flying security robot which Ford Prefect enslaves to aid in his escape from
5538-401: The universe we inhabit." Several of the names and items in the story are references to (or puns on) terms associated with the sport of cricket , with the effect that the sport is jokingly portrayed as having cosmic antiquity and significance. These include the name of the sport itself ("Krikkit"), the wicket with its three pillars and two bails , the ball , and the Ashes . This book
5616-627: 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, 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 unabridged edition of the audiobook. Stephen Moore and Douglas Adams used
5694-450: The war over, the group collects the core of the Heart of Gold and the Ashes, the only two components of the Wikkit Gate not destroyed by the robots, and returns Zaphod and Marvin to the Heart of Gold . Returning to Lord's Cricket Ground only moments after the robots' attack, Arthur attempts to return the Ashes, but is suddenly inspired to bowl one shot at a wicket that is being defended using
5772-498: Was a woman, on the brink of retirement, on whose behalf a raffle was being held in order to buy her a kidney machine. An unnamed woman (played by June Whitfield on the radio) convinces Arthur Dent to buy raffle tickets while he and Fenchurch are in a railway pub, attempting to have lunch. Arthur won an album of bagpipe music. She is referred to in the novel So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish The captain and first officer were
5850-445: Was changed to "Belgium" and padded with a digression about the alleged cathartic utilization of off-color words (thereby allowing Adams to poke fun at the concept of censorship itself); and the text from the original radio series described "Belgium" as the most offensive word used in the galaxy. There have been three audiobook recordings of the novel. The first was an abridged edition, recorded in 1984 by Stephen Moore , who played
5928-458: Was named Professor of Neomathematics at the University of Maximegalon and in his Special Theories of Tax Returns he proves that space-time is "not merely curved, it is, in fact, totally bent." The Guide shows a graphic indicating that most of the earnings ends up with the accountant. Comic science fiction Science fiction comedy ( sci-fi comedy ) or comic science fiction is
6006-497: Was tasked with creating an army of super-soldiers to fight them. Instead, he created (among other things) a remarkable new breed of superfly that could distinguish between solid glass and an open window, and also an off-switch for children. Fortunately, because the invaders were only invading because they couldn't cope with things back home, they too were impressed with Blart's creations, and a flurry of economic treaties rapidly secured peace. The strong silent type, an unnamed bodyguard
6084-590: Was the Pete Manx series by Henry Kuttner and Arthur K. Barnes (sometimes writing together and sometimes separately, under the house pen-name of Kelvin Kent). Published in Thrilling Wonder Stories in the late 1930s and early 1940s, the series featured a time-traveling carnival barker who uses his con-man abilities to get out of trouble. Two later series cemented Kuttner's reputation as one of
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