The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Quintessential Phase

The last phase!  All our characters are scattered in the universe doing their own little thing and the Guide is glitching -  transitioning to an updated version. What's also interesting about this phase is how the Secondary phase which was previously negated now happened - though in a different dimension.  Multiple dimensions and the search for purpose and meaning is the focus of this last story.

Because Arthur Dent has had so many odd and wonderful experiences it is very understandable that all he wants is a normal life.  In a somewhat Earth-like planet that is more primitive than ours but he gets to do things like make sandwiches.  Because he's so ordinary and every-man.  I think playing on that aspect of Arthur makes this series so relatable because Arthur is the average human and is so human in his responses to things - he's very British of course but that elevates the humor when he's reacting to things that are impossible.   And when he has to deal with his daughter, who is very angry and emo, he is even more relatable.  Poor, well-meaning Arthur.

This story again features a focused storyline - one that revolves around why the Guide has been updated and what it is capable of.  Most of the characters are gradually brought to one place on Earth, and it is wonderful to have them together again.  If you have read the book though, there is a little issue about the end of "Mostly Harmless."  One that's pretty depressing.  But the good news is that this adaptation changed the ending!  And it's a little too perfect, but definitely preferable to the book's ending.

The series has some great moments - I love the explanation of the Perfectly Normal beasts, and Ford Prefect in every scene! Somehow he became the highlight of this phase for me - he's so matter-of-fact and never takes things too seriously.  As the final installment of Hitchhiker's this is great, and very importantly develops the characters believably.  Especially Trillian and Arthur.  There are some occurrences from the first parts of the series that becomes important in this and I love that continuity.  I'm so glad I revisited this for Sci-Fi Month and hopefully got a few people interested in listening to the radio versions of this series!

My posts on:
The Primary Phase   |  The Secondary Phase   |   The Tertiary Phase   |   The Quandary Phase   |   The Quintessential Phase

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Quandary Phase

The last two phases are shorter than the previous three - just four half-hour episodes where things start to get a little somber.  And where Douglas Adams introduces a little lovely romance.  Arthur Dent has had so much misfortune in his travels that it is nice for him to catch a break with his instant attraction to Fenchurch who is a little strange herself.  Of course in keeping with Arthur's life, things don't remain happy for too long.

This was such a different story to the previous phases because not only is there romance, but Zaphod and Trillian only tangentially appear, and Marvin has only one scene in the end (and believe me it's depressing).  Ford has more of a part to play, but this phase is really about Arthur and how he copes after his long sojourn into the universe.  He is more attuned to the oddities that go on around him - which means there are still things to poke fun at closer to home.  While there aren't as many conceptual comedy pieces in this phase, I do love how the absurdity of Arthur's unlikely life is the focus and there is still so much humor in that.

There is one idea in this that I found particularly eye opening - when we hear about Wonko the Sane, who's house is inside out - where framed photos and carpets and sofas are all on the outside, but the inside looks like a well-tended garden.  Because when you go outside the house you are now in the asylum where all the crazy people live.  Us.  And it started with a box of toothpicks.  Because the box of toothpicks had detailed instructions on it which explained how to use them, and if humanity needed instructions on how to use toothpicks then there is no hope for us.  Gosh, this phase really is quite depressing.

The way this phase ends sets up some great questions to be answered in the last phase (hence the "quandary" part I guess?), and then we will finally know what it was all for.  Or maybe we'll just get a few more laughs amid the tears...

My posts on:
The Primary Phase   |  The Secondary Phase   |   The Tertiary Phase   |   The Quandary Phase

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Tertiary Phase

Like I mentioned in my post on the Secondary Phase, this phase came 24 years later, after the author Douglas Adams passed away, so this phase is a very faithful adaptation of the third novel "Life, the Universe and Everything."  And because the rest of the phases will now follow the books, the Secondary Phase no longer makes sense, and is explained away as one of Zaphod's hallucinations.

Probably my very favorite concept in the whole Hitchhiker world is in this phase - that one Being is constantly reincarnated only to be killed by Arthur Dent every time.  That Being goes by the name Agrajag and because it has happened so many times, Agrajag remembers Arthur and decides he's going to kill him.  But first he brings him to a Cathedral of Hate where all of his incarnations are memorialized so he can explain to Arthur why he's going to kill him.  Arthur's bewilderment and Agrajag's unreasonable anger (well he has a reason, but like Arthur says it's just a humongous coincidence) makes for the funniest scenes, even while I'm sympathizing with both characters.  There's a twist to it near the end of course which for Agrajag means it's impossible to kill Arthur and this will have a pay off down the line in the Quintessential Phase.  The other reason why this scene is so awesome, is that the producers of this audio took Douglas Adams' voice from the audiobook he read, to play Agrajag.  And Douglas does a great job, I really need to listen to the audiobooks!

This phase feels more cohesive as a story than the previous two phases - because the previous phases were more about the group being tossed into different adventures, the group has a purpose in this phase - to prevent the xenophobic Krikkiters from destroying the whole universe.  With a tongue-in-cheek connection between Krikkit and Cricket, the English sport, these mass murderers are somehow whimsical even though they are deadly.  With the Krikkiters, the story takes a look at the kind of narrow-minded, intolerance you see all the time in humanity, and it's scary how there is really no difference in types of unreasoning intolerance.

Even with the focused storyline, there are plenty of asides and fun ideas thrown into this phase - including the Somebody Else's Problem field (or SEP) which builds on the idea that if someone is not expecting to see something than they are more likely to not see it, and makes it a scientific device to prevent people from seeing spaceships for example.  As usual, this series is the height of cleverness and wit, and the characters are just so fun and quirky - I think this phase does a great job in continuing Douglas Adams' legacy.

My posts on:
The Primary Phase   |  The Secondary Phase   |   The Tertiary Phase   |   The Quandary Phase

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Secondary Phase

The Secondary Phase continues some time after the events of the Primary Phase.  Arthur and Ford are still stuck on prehistoric Earth but they are trying to make the best of it.  If best of it includes drinking moonshine and trying to forget their troubles.  Zaphod has an entirely unbelievable experience escaping from the Haggunenons who have impatient chromosomes and constantly evolve into anything.  Including escape capsules.  And Marvin, the Paranoid Android.  My goodness, I love him so much!  Everything he says is hilarious!  Literally when he was screaming as he was falling, I was cracking up.  He still sounds depressed as he falls.

This phase also introduced the idea of the towel being the most important equipment a hitchhiker can carry with them, which is such a big part of the mythology of this series.  It's interesting to think that Douglas Adams only just thought of it (or maybe he thought of it and couldn't include it in the Primary Phase).  But I am proud to say that I do know where my towel is.

Douglas Adams enjoys lampooning bureaucracy, because it features memorably in the absurd, hilarious moments in this series.  You still can't get away from it - it exists in all of space.  But it makes it easy to relate to all the problems the characters go through!

I have one favorite scene in this where Arthur Dent is trying to get a cup of tea from the Nutrimatic Drinks Dispenser which analyzes your taste buds and neuropathways to come up with a drink that you would like.  And it comes up with a disgusting version of tea for Arthur.  And his refusal to give up, and his pointless attempts to get the machines to understand him goes from trying to tell them what tea is, to trying to explain why he likes dried leaves in boiling water.  The point is, machines can't do everything and they can also be a pain in the butt, which is a universal concept but made hilarious.  And maybe wasn't such a prevalent idea in the 1970s?  I wonder if people were more in awe of cutting-edge technology at that time, which is why Douglas makes a point of including it in this series.  And that scene also features an awesome song that is the company song for Sirius Cybernetics:

Share and Enjoy
Share and Enjoy
Journey through life
With a plastic boy
Or Girl by your side
Let your pal be your guide
And when it breaks down
Or starts to annoy
Or grinds when it moves
And gives you no joy
Cos it's eaten your hat
Or had sex with your cat
Bled oil on your floor
Or ripped off your door
You get to the point
You can't stand any more
Bring it to us, we won't give a fig
We'll tell you, 'Go stick your head in a pig'.

Robots aren't looking that great now.  By the way, I love singing this song randomly to myself.

The absurdity and wonder of this world that Douglas Adams created continues to grow in this phase.  There are many more interesting concepts in this (like the total perspective vortex - where if you can actually see your place in relation to the whole universe, you would go mad and elevators that can seen into the future so you don't have to press the button and make awkward small talk with the people who are also waiting for it).  This phase ends on another thought-provoking concept - who should rule if anyone who wants to rule isn't fit for it.  And apparently the ruler of the universe is a very frustrating person with ADHD.  It's sort of an open ending for this phase, which is surprising as the Tertiary phase comes 24 years after this!

My posts on:
The Primary Phase   |  The Secondary Phase   |   The Tertiary Phase   |   The Quandary Phase

Sci-Fi Month: Introduction & The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Hosted by Rinn Reads

I'm not sure if I can trace back my enthusiasm for Science Fiction to a particular book or movie.  I think maybe required reading in school opened me up to Science Fiction as a genre - where I wasn't too enamored with Brave New World or 1984, I absolutely loved A Wrinkle in Time, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and Flowers for Algernon, so luckily I kept wanting to read in the genre.  And SciFi movies like Back to the Future (OMG I LOVE THAT MOVIE) and E.T. (I missed all the Star Wars when I was younger - I know unacceptable) made me love the way Science Fiction can seem so realistic because it's building on the technology we already have.  It doesn't take too much of a leap to imagine the things we might one day have.  And it's also fun to see what we don't have now, that the stories in the past seem to think we would. (Flying cars right?)

I think it's fun to read about tantalizing worlds that seem within our reach and Science Fiction gives us that.  It can also give us a glimpse into human darkness and it can show us what we are capable of, good or bad.  Since it can hold a mirror up to humanity and show us what might happen it's interesting to try to strive for the ideals and avoid the pitfalls.  Or at least interesting to think it's possible we can.

Some of my favorite Science Fiction stories now include Doctor Who, Firefly, and what I'm going to talk about as a feature every Friday this month - all the radio phases of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy".

I can't remember which I did first - if I read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or listened to this radio version, but the radio version is the original version, and in my opinion, the best version of the story.  Even though I really enjoyed the books, TV series and film that came after.  But with the radio version it's so much easier to imagine the wondrous things Douglas Adams details because the voice actors are so wonderful and the editing of the show is so sharp.

There are 5 "phases" of 6 episodes each, so for today's post I'm talking about the Primary Phase - the very first six episodes first broadcast in 1978.  What I love so much about the stories is the irreverent humor.  This show is just so funny!! All the Science Fiction in the story seems to highlight the absurdity - that we might think belongs to humanity, but in this show we realize it is common everywhere.  Everyone is susceptible to their foibles, although the main character - Arthur Dent - is probably the least absurd, though he is made to deal with the nonsense and inconsistency of the universe.  And his level-headed voice is just the perfect way for the listener to explore this universe.

There are so many funny concepts in this first phase - the improbability drive that runs on knowing how improbable an event is, and makes for a great device to get out of a couple sticky situations.  Marvin the Paranoid Android, who is an unfortunate byproduct of Sirius Cybernetics Corp's idea to create robots with Genuine People Personalities, and Marvin was given a personality with depression.  And you feel bad for him, but he's so funny!

I just love that this series starts off with some building constructors eager to raze his house to the ground to make way for a new bypass, but Arthur is not having it.  Even though he should make way for progress.  However, when the alien Vogons come to destroy the planet Earth for the exact same reason - it doesn't seem like progress is that important after all.  The story moves on with more clever twists and turns until a rather bleak ending where Arthur and his friend Ford is stuck on prehistoric Earth with some very idiotic people.  It's a sly dig at the real reason why people can be so exasperatingly idiotic today, but fortunately it is not the end of the story and there are many more adventures Arthur will be forced to go on!

Thank you for reading, and thanks to Rinn Reads for hosting this wonderful, month-long celebration of Science Fiction!  Visit her website to learn more about the event and visit other participants' posts!

My posts on:
The Primary Phase   |  The Secondary Phase   |   The Tertiary Phase   |   The Quandary Phase