Sass The Hoopy BBC Who Really Have Made The Next Series of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy! [Archive]

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Jonathon Watkins

06-26-2004, 01:00 PM

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3827181.stm' target='_blank'>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertai...dio/3827181.stm</a> </div>"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life-forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea." But, occasionally they really have neat ideas, like finally dramatising Douglas Adams’s last three books, "Life, The Universe And Everything", "So Long And Thanks For All The Fish" and "Mostly Harmless". The BBC commissioned <a href="http://www.abovethetitle.com/content/programmes/hitchhikers/hitchhikers.html">Above the Title</a> Productions to make this series for the radio and they will: "…use new material written by Douglas especially for these radio sequels. They will feature not only the original cast, but also Douglas Adams himself, thanks to the wonders of digital technology. Douglas had always intended to play the part of Agrajag and in fact was recorded in the part a few years ago.The programmes - to be broadcast in September and October 2004 - will be made according to Douglas' instructions and notes, which he made in preparation for these productions" <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/cast_03.jpg" /> <!> You can see a 'making of' <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/radio4/hitchhikers/media/hitchhikers_trail?size=4x3&bgc=C0C0C0&nbram=1&bbram=1">video</a> and hear a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/media/hitchhikers_trail.ram">preview</a> of the show at the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/index_new.shtml">BBC Radio 4</a> website. There's other good news as well: "The original Hitchhiker’s radio cast returns: Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford Prefect, Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Stephen Moore as Marvin The Paranoid Android. The late Peter Jones’s great friend, William Franklyn, replaces him as The Voice Of The Book." As it’s going out on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/index_new.shtml">BBC Radio 4</a>, it means that everyone with an Internet connection can listen in through the BBCs free Internet streaming service. I just hope their servers are up to it! OK, so ten out of ten for style, but plus several million for good thinking, yeah? :mrgreen:

wocket

06-26-2004, 01:46 PM

Great news :D

Don't panic i'll restrain myself form quoting. :wink:

There is a film comming soon as well of the The Hitchhikers guide, great stuff.

GreenBoy2

06-26-2004, 01:47 PM

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

WOO HOOO and HOORAY!

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Now does any one know where I can get a realy good cup of tea?

Jonathon Watkins

06-26-2004, 01:51 PM

Great news :D

Don't panic i'll restrain myself form quoting. :wink: .

Heck, feel free. Everyone else will and it's on topic! :wink:

Great I think there is a film coming soon as well of the The Hitchhikers guide.

That's a saga all by itself and no mistake! :?

bjornkeizers

06-26-2004, 02:27 PM

Fantastic news! I'm a huge Douglas Adams fan, and I have the complete radio show on my MP3 player, and I even have all the original TV eps! 8O

Ryan Joseph

06-26-2004, 02:36 PM

Remember, through it all, make sure you know where your towel is.

And very few mattresses ever come back to life.

This is very cool! I'm glad they're streaming it as well as broadcasting. I'd be tempted to travel to the UK just to hear the braodcast, but now I can listen at home! And I love my digital watch, by the way. 8)

The yellow ships hung in the sky the same way bricks don't.

(okay, that's enough. I could go on for hours quoting.) Good times!

Dr Jekyll

06-26-2004, 03:14 PM

42

Just spoilt it for you all :lol:

Jonathon Watkins

06-26-2004, 03:26 PM

Now does any one know where I can get a realy good cup of tea?

Round at my place! I've just made a nice cuppa with freshly drawn water, a pre-warmed pot and first flush Darjeeling leaf tea. Fancy a nice biscuit (http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/media/teamachinebig.jpg) to go with it? :wink:

I'm really looking forward to the new series, which will be broadcast as follows:

LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING will be broadcast on 21st Sept (+23rd), 28th Sept (+30th), 5th Oct (+7th), 12th Oct (+14th), 19th Oct (+21st), 26th Oct (+28th). It will be broadcast on these days at 1830 and then repeated the following Thursday in each case at 2300hrs (in brackets).

You can catch each episode on the BBC website for up to a week after it is broadcast.

rob_ocelot

06-26-2004, 04:27 PM

I'm really excited by this, but the IMO radio series had lost it's steam and had sort of painted themsevles into a corner, storywise.

The radio series, the books, The audio records, the TV series and the Infocom interactive game all follow divergent paths once you get to a certain point in the 'story so far'. Douglas always made sure to change things when HHGTTG crossed over into other media. The best example I can think of is the Disaster Area Stunt Ship material -- it was never part of the radio series but was added in the audio records (which are *not* the same as the radio series) and then later incorporated into the TV series. The entire Frogstar sequence was added for the novel of Restaurant ATEOTU.

It looks as if these are going to straight adaptations of the books, and true to form Douglas (posthumously) changed things again. Anyone familiar with the radio series (which comprises HHGTTG and Restaurant ATEOFTU novels - mosty) will know that a lot of ideas introduced there were later reused in the novel of Life, The Universe and Everything.

Jonathon Watkins

06-26-2004, 04:36 PM

I'm really excited by this, but the IMO radio series had lost it's steam and had sort of painted themsevles into a corner, storywise.

It's going to be interesting to see how they manage to do it. It's true about the different stories in each set of media, but don't forget this quote :wink: :

The history of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is now so complicated that every time I tell it I contradict myself, and whenever I do get it right I'm misquoted. So the publication of this omnibus edition seemed like a good opportunity to set the record straight--or at least firmly crooked.

--Douglas Adams

JvanEkris

06-26-2004, 09:33 PM

One practical note,

Can non-britisch people listen to these shows as well (i.e. is it also streamed to the internet??).

Jaap

bbarker

06-26-2004, 11:23 PM

Deslock

06-26-2004, 11:51 PM

I didn't think it'd fly without Douglas Adams (or Peter Jones), but the preview clip sounds promising. More links for you h2g2 (HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy) fans:

http://www.h2g2.com
http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com/main.html (for the upcomgin movie)

Kati Compton

06-26-2004, 11:55 PM

Sass The Hoopy BBC Who Really Have Made The Next Series of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy!
Sass The Hoopy? Huh?

I have no idea what that title is trying to say. Of course, I've never read Hitchhiker and have no idea what it's about.
Yeah - reading HHGTTG is a prerequisite for understanding a lot of what's been said in this thread.

Well, I suppose it's not *impossible* to follow without having read or heard of the book. But really really improbable. ;)

bbarker

06-27-2004, 12:22 AM

Aside from understanding the thread, are there other reasons one would choose to read it?

ctmagnus

06-27-2004, 12:23 AM

'Cuz it's fun! 8)

Mark Kenepp

06-27-2004, 01:06 AM

Aside from understanding the thread, are there other reasons one would choose to read it?

And it could get you a lot of points on the Geek Test (http://www.innergeek.us/geek.html) :way to go:

Janak Parekh

06-27-2004, 03:02 AM

Yeah - reading HHGTTG is a prerequisite for understanding a lot of what's been said in this thread.
Scarily, I had to Google for the "Sass that Hoopy" reference -- and I've reread the books recently. 8O I remember the rest though. :)

Well, I suppose it's not *impossible* to follow without having read or heard of the book. But really really improbable. ;)
Ah, but is it finitely or infinitely improbable? :P

Aside from understanding the thread, are there other reasons one would choose to read it?
The 5 books that comprise the Hitchhiker's Trilogy (yes, Trilogy) are considered a classic set of works in science fiction (well, certainly the first three; the latter two are later works and are a bit more controversial, although I enjoyed them as well). As ctmagnus implies, they're also renowned for Douglas Adams' absolutely zany humor. You can read the Trilogy with your brain "off" or "on" and enjoy it either way.

Besides... you'll discover the answer to "Life, The Universe and Everything" as computed by one of the ultimate supercomputers in existence. Just be forewarned that you may find the answer... "shorter"... than you first thought it would be. :) Various other mysteries of life will also be answered, including why fjords, amongst all things, exist; who our real ancestors were; and much, much more. :lol:

Lastly, you can get the books in ebook form. I believe both eReader and Fictionwise sell them (DRMed, of course).

--janak

rocky_raher

06-27-2004, 03:03 AM

One day I was mentally listing all of the examples I could recall of science fiction comedy in movies and television. I came to this generalization: British, good; American, terrible. The examples I can recall now:
1. HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy (British and funny)
2. Red Dwarf (British and funny)
3. Slapstick (American and non-funny)
4. Spaceship (American and non-funny)
5. Quark (American and non-funny)
6. Numerous other American TV series, comedy with a sci-fi premise, low-budget, that lasted less than a season and I only vaguely recall.

I later found one exception, Spaceballs (American and funny, unless you are immune to Mel Brooks's style of humor).

Slapstick (aka "Slapstick (of Another Kind)") was based on a Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., novel. It came out in 1982, and starred Jerry Lewis, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Jim Backus, Merv Griffin, Pat Morita, and the voice of Orsen Wells, all of whom would probably prefer to forget this one.
Spaceship (aka The Creature Wasn't Nice) came out in 1981, and starred Cindy Williams, Leslie Nielsen, Patrick Macnee, Gerrit Graham, and Bruce Kimmel.
Quark was a 1978 television series in which Richard Benjamin played an interplanetary garbage collector. It was largely a spoof of Star Trek.

Thanks to www.imdb.com.

bbarker

06-27-2004, 04:51 AM

I heard of the ''Guide" many years ago but I didn't know until now whether it was fiction or that it was a series. Maybe I will have to read it. Or get the tapes from the library.

T-Will

06-27-2004, 05:52 AM

Either you are all a bunch of super-nerds, or this is something that came before my time? ;) What's all the big hoopla about?

Ryan Joseph

06-27-2004, 12:42 PM

I don't think there's a time or age with the Guide. It was written before my time, but I love it. And I know a lot of teens who enjoy the books, too.

And all the hype is because they're really good books! Very well written, in-depth story line, incredibly funny...what else could you want?

Everyone should read them. It's a requirement for being a geek...which we all are, don't try to hide it. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Kati Compton

06-27-2004, 01:26 PM

06-27-2004, 01:58 PM

One day I was mentally listing all of the examples I could recall of science fiction comedy in movies and television. I came to this generalization: British, good; American, terrible. com.
This is true of everything, not just sc/fi. Britsh comedy is usually funny and American attempts are just unwatchable.

The worst ones are American versions of UK show which tend to be totally unwatchable. A good recent example is Trigger Happy TV. The UK version was great - US version awful.

Just imagine how bad a US version of The Office would be.

I must agree, Spaceballs is an exception though. Beam me up Snotty.

Steven Cedrone

06-27-2004, 02:46 PM

5. Quark (American and non-funny)

OMG, I remember that show! It was horrible, I was embarrassed for anyone involved with the creation of that one!

Steve

DavidHorn

06-27-2004, 03:34 PM

Oi! My license fee paid for this new series, and no American is to listen to it without my approval. Tickets can be bought for £9.99 (paid directly to me, I'll pass it on to the BBC) before you can listen.

Also, the London bridge is up for sale again.... :P

Ryan Joseph

06-27-2004, 03:39 PM

Mystery Science Theater 3000 is great!

Oh, man...don't get me started on MST3K. My brother and I quote it daily. And, Kati, I have to say, you're the first female I've known of who likes it. I've been trying to get my mom and sister to like it for years, but no luck. :wink:

It's great to see that so many others in this community like the same things I do...like MST and the Guide. :mrgreen:

bjornkeizers

06-27-2004, 04:11 PM

Aside from understanding the thread, are there other reasons one would choose to read it?

You haven't lived until you've read it! I think it should be required reading in schools.

06-27-2004, 04:25 PM

Jonathon Watkins

06-27-2004, 09:16 PM

Aside from understanding the thread, are there other reasons one would choose to read it?

You haven't lived until you've read it! I think it should be required reading in schools.

Correct, it should be required reading. My daughter is eleven and reading the dot Lit version of HHGG for the first time at this very moment. Among the best books ever.

Well, we agree, it should be required reading! :lol:

How could you live without a selection of the following?

The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

Arthur: If I asked you where the hell we were, would I regret it?
Ford: We're safe.
Arthur: Oh good.
Ford: We're in a small galley cabin in one of the spaceships of the Vogon Constructor Fleet.
Arthur: Ah, this is obviously some strange use of the word safe that I wasn't previously aware of.

Arthur: You know, it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space, that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young.
Ford: Why, what did she tell you?
Arthur: I don't know, I didn't listen.

THE UNIVERSE:
4. Population

It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.

In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen.

"What was the self-sacrifice? "
"I jettisoned half of a much loved and I think irreplaceable pair of shoes. "
"Why was that self-sacrifice? "
"Because they were mine! " said Ford crossly.
"I think we have different value systems. "
"Well mine's better. "
"That's according to your... oh never mind.

Now it is such a bizarrely impossible coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the nonexistence of God. The arguement goes something like this:

"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."

"But," say Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."

"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't though of that" and promply vanishes in a puff of logic.

"Oh! That was easy!", says Man, and for an encore he proves that black is white, and gets killed at the next Zebra Crossing."

The HHGTTG is one of those books that you really should read! Honestly. 8)

Janak Parekh

06-27-2004, 10:33 PM

The HHGTTG is one of those books that you really should read! Honestly. 8)
Well, the series, to be precise! You even quoted Mostly Harmless. :) Remember that Ford lost his shoe when "InfiniDim" employees were shooting rockets at him... :lol:

--janak

Jonathon Watkins

06-27-2004, 11:22 PM

The HHGTTG is one of those books that you really should read! Honestly. 8)
Well, the series, to be precise! You even quoted Mostly Harmless. :)

Yes, very true. Impressive for someone who couldn't remember the "Sass that Hoopy" reference and who reread the books recently. :wink: :wink:

Sass
know, be aware of, meet

Hoopy
really together guy

Frood
really amazingly together guy

Hence a phrase which has passed into hitch hiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is."

Janak Parekh

06-27-2004, 11:27 PM

Yes, very true. Impressive for someone who couldn't remember the "Sass that Hoopy" reference and who reread the books recently. :wink: :wink:
That's why my eyes were bugged. I had to Google it. :(

Anyway, I put one DNA's quotes from Mostly Harmless for my college yearbook, because it's so true:

"One of the problems [of the Universe] has to do with the speed of light and the difficulties involved in trying to exceed it. You can't. Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws."
As you can guess, I'm one of the 5 people on the planet that mostly liked Mostly Harmless. I just wish he was around for a 6th. :(

--janak

Jonathon Watkins

06-28-2004, 12:05 AM

As you can guess, I'm one of the 5 people on the planet that mostly liked Mostly Harmless. I just wish he was around for a 6th. :(

Well, I'm one of them too. I thought "Mostly Harmless" cleverly finished off the series.

I met Douglas Adams briefly at the Edinburgh book festival in the early 90's. He signed a towel I brought along for such an eventuality. :mrgreen:

We all miss him. :cry:

For all you HHGTTG fans out there - make sure you also read "Last Chance to See" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345371984/103-9249207-4788658?v=glance). It's an account (http://www.tdv.com/lastchance/) of his travels in search of endangered animals. It's very good indeed.

Some years ago Douglas Adams wrote The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy , a story about the world being unexpectedly demolished by hideous creatures from another planet. It was meant as a joke... Now, animal by animal, tree by tree, the world is being demolished around us; not by Vogons, on other planets, Douglas decided it was time to think about the absurdities of life on Earth, and what we are doing to it. He teams up with zoologist and photographer Mark Carwardine, and together they set off around the world - to China in search of one of the rarest and most endangered animals on Earth.

bbarker

06-28-2004, 12:23 AM

Steven Cedrone

06-28-2004, 01:11 AM

Sass
know, be aware of, meet

Hmmm, I thought there was a different definition for Sass...

Maybe it's just me... :lol:

Steve

Jonathon Watkins

06-28-2004, 10:32 AM

Many of the humorous quotes are great. But this conversation has become so esoteric I don't know whether I want to read the books and join this elite club. I survive not watching TV and missing many of the jokes related to pop culture. In all my years I've never felt deprived from not having read the Guide.

Esoteric:

1. restricted to or intended for an enlightened or initiated minority, especially because of abstruseness (i.e. not easy to understand) or obscurity.

Bbarker, I'm sorry you feel that this discussion is esoteric. It's just that many of here are big fans of Douglas Adams works and enjoy quoting it. Discussion of the plot of HHGTTG is really no more esoteric than the discussion of any other series of books. It's not an elite club - a very large % of the folks I know in the UK have read at least the first book.

In the end - if you like the look of the quotes and think that the books may be interesting - then give them a go. If you don't, well there's plenty of other good books out there. Just please don't be put off by a few fan's exuberance. :wink: :silly:

I for one am very happy about this news of a new series and thought it would appeal to the readership of PPCT - especially those overseas who would not otherwise have heard of this and who can listen in via the interenet.

Ryan Joseph

06-28-2004, 12:17 PM

I think my favorite quote from the entire series is (and I can't remember which book it's it) where it says "the only thing that changed with the discovery of time travel is that the term 'future perfect' was removed from grammar books because it was discovered that it wasn't."

And most of the people I know have read it, too. I originally heard about it from my aunt in Iowa.

I can't wait to tell everyone about this series. Most of my friends don't read PPCT, so they'll have no way of knowing.

Jonathon Watkins

06-28-2004, 12:44 PM

I can't wait to tell everyone about this series. Most of my friends don't read PPCT, so they'll have no way of knowing.

Just point them to this thread. It's what I am doing with friends that don't know yet. :wink:

I'll put up a brief reminder on the front page in September when the show actually goes out. :)

bbarker

06-28-2004, 11:36 PM

Bbarker, I'm sorry you feel that this discussion is esoteric. It's just that many of here are big fans of Douglas Adams works and enjoy quoting it. Discussion of the plot of HHGTTG is really no more esoteric than the discussion of any other series of books. It's not an elite club - a very large % of the folks I know in the UK have read at least the first book.

In the end - if you like the look of the quotes and think that the books may be interesting - then give them a go. If you don't, well there's plenty of other good books out there. Just please don't be put off by a few fan's exuberance. :wink: :silly:

I for one am very happy about this news of a new series and thought it would appeal to the readership of PPCT - especially those overseas who would not otherwise have heard of this and who can listen in via the interenet.
I should have used emoticons. My comment was intended to be lighthearted and somewhat tongue in cheek. I have not been put off by any of this. I loved the quotes from the books earlier in the thread. I'm planning to take a look at the first book.

I just checked and the original Guide came out the year I finished college, so I guess I missed it because I was deep into professional pursuits.

Pat Logsdon

06-29-2004, 01:00 AM

I met Douglas Adams briefly at the Edinburgh book festival in the early 90's. He signed a towel I brought along for such an eventuality. :mrgreen:
I saw him speak about 10 years ago at a local college and got him to sign something for me, too. Very nice guy. He mentioned that he basically wrote the Infocom game Bureaucracy, (http://www.infocom-if.org/games/bureaucracy/bureaucracy.html) which I have yet to play. :(

For all you HHGTTG fans out there - make sure you also read "Last Chance to See" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345371984/103-9249207-4788658?v=glance). It's an account (http://www.tdv.com/lastchance/) of his travels in search of endangered animals. It's very good indeed.
Don't forget the Dirk Gently series (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0434009199/ref=pd_sbs_b_2/102-0296097-1949719?v=glance&s=books) and Don't Panic, (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1840237422/qid=1088466691/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-0296097-1949719?v=glance&s=books) a biography of Douglas Adams penned by none other than Neil Gaiman. (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author=Gaiman%2C%20Neil/102-0296097-1949719)

T-Will

07-01-2004, 07:22 AM

Inspired by this thread, I picked up the HHGTTG eBook and hopefully will have a little time to read it during my vacation the next two weeks.

Jonathon Watkins

07-01-2004, 10:46 AM

Inspired by this thread, I picked up the HHGTTG eBook and hopefully will have a little time to read it during my vacation the next two weeks.

Nice. 8) Let us know what you think of it.

Janak Parekh

07-01-2004, 04:56 PM

He mentioned that he basically wrote the Infocom game Bureaucracy, (http://www.infocom-if.org/games/bureaucracy/bureaucracy.html) which I have yet to play. :(
A friend of mine and I played it for about a half-hour. It is very hard -- one of the more difficult Infocom games. I still have quite a few that I want to get through...

Don't forget the Dirk Gently series (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0434009199/ref=pd_sbs_b_2/102-0296097-1949719?v=glance&s=books)
You know, I need to reread these. Thanks for the reminder. 8)

--janak