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The televised adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, broadcast in January and February of 1981 on BBC Two, became the fifth version. This adaptation follows the original radio series in 1978 and 1980, the first novel and double LP, in 1979, and the stage shows, in 1979 and 1980.

Development and production

After the success of the first seven episodes of the radio series, all broadcast in 1978, negotiations for a TV pilot programme began at the same time the final five episodes of the second radio series were commissioned, in May 1979. A fully-animated version was briefly discussed in the autumn of 1978 (according to M. J. Simpson's book Hitchhiker), but it was eventually decided to make most of the series feature "live action" and only animate The Guide's entries. The script for the pilot was delivered in December 1979, and terms for the five remaining scripts were agreed upon in January 1980. While there was some resistance to a project considered "unfilmable," Alan J.W. Bell was given the duties to produce and direct the TV adaptation. John Lloyd, a collaborator of Adams', was signed as Associate Producer.

In early 1980, production on the pilot episode began on several fronts. Rod Lord, of Pearce Animation Studios, directed a 50 second pilot, hand-animated, giving a 'computer graphic' feel to the Babel Fish speech of the first episode. Douglas Adams and Alan J.W. Bell were both pleased with the animation, and Lord was given the "go ahead" to do all of the animation for episode one (and subsequently the complete TV series). Narration for the first episode was recorded by Peter Jones in March 1980. The filming of two green-skinned aliens reacting to Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters was done on 8 May 1980. Further filming of crowd reactions to the Vogons, location filming of "Arthur's House" and a scene in a pub were done between 11 and 16 May 1980. Scenes aboard the Vogon ship were recorded on 7 June 1980, in the BBC's TC1 studio. The final edit of the pilot episode was completed on 2 July 1980, and it was premiered for a test audience three days later (5 July 1980). Further test screenings were held in August 1980. Based on successful test screenings, the cast were reassembled to complete the six episodes of the series in September 1980. Production continued through the fall, with filming and recording occurring "out of order." Recording and production on the final episode continued into January 1981.

One major change first appeared in the stage show and LP adaptations, and made its way into the novels and TV adaptation. Nearly all of the sequences from Fit the Fifth and Fit the Sixth in the first radio series that were originally co-written with John Lloyd were completely cut. Thus the Hotblack Desiato character and Disaster Area make appearances in TV episode five, and Ford, Arthur, Zaphod and Trillian are all randomly teleported off of Disaster Area's stunt ship in TV episode six. Lloyd does receive a co-writer's credit on episode five, for the material on the statistics about the universe.

The complexities of adapting the material for television meant that some episodes became as long as 35 minutes, and some would say that the best jokes from the radio series had to be cut. The programme is particularly notable for its mock computer animation sequences, actually produced by hand using traditional cel animation techniques. There have been several different edits of the series: Some, but not all, PBS stations recut the series into seven 30-minute episodes (when PBS member stations began transmitting the episodes nearly two years later, in December 1982). Other PBS stations did a re-edit into "TV movies" (broadcasting more than one episode at a time without interruption). The UK videotape release was on two tapes - both consisting of three episodes edited to run together, also adding some previously unseen material and remixed the soundtrack into stereo (the North American VHS tape release by CBS-Fox Home Video included this material on a single videocassette). The DVD edition claims to be the final and definitive version of the six TV episodes.

Another production problem was that, being a visual adaptation, a solution had to be found to display Zaphod's three arms and two heads (a joke originally written for radio). In a previous stage adaptation, a version of the "pantomime horse" was used, where two actors filled one costume, providing three arms and two heads between them. For this TV series, an animatronic head was designed and built, incorporating twelve servos and two radio-controlled receivers. However, the head was unreliable and in many scenes merely sits there, inanimate. For the third arm, most of the time it was "seen" tucked into Zaphod's jacket. But when called for, Mike Kelt, who had designed the extra head, would hide behind Mark Wing-Davey and slip a third arm into the appropriate sleeve.

Other elements to the production were done by a variety of BBC designers. The Heart of Gold and "B Ark" models were built by Perry Brahan. The "small, furry creature from Alpha Centauri" in episode three was a puppet designed and controlled by Jim Francis. Jim Francis also built the Magrathean bubble car, also seen in episode three (and was the stunt double for Richard Vernon for the scene in which the bubble car was seen to fly). Matte Paintings throughout the series were created by Jean Peyre. Music and sound effects were by Paddy Kingsland, with the exception of the theme music. The familiar Journey of the Sorcerer theme, by Bernie Leadon, was used again, in the arrangement by Tim Souster that had previously been used for the Hitchhiker's LP. Video effects using the Quantel system were done by Dave Jervis. Other puppets, including "insects" seen in Episode Five, were designed by Susan Moore. Some of the actual puppeteering was done by Stuart Murdoch, including operating parts of the "Dish of the Day" animal.

Two important cast changes were made for the TV version. David Dixon replaced Geoffrey McGivern as Ford, and Sandra Dickinson replaced Susan Sheridan as Trillian. The changes were made because McGivern did not suit the role visually, and Susan Sheridan was unavailable at the time. Another new cast member was Michael Cule, who appears as the Vogon Guard in episode two. Michael had first appeared in one of the Hitchhiker's stage adaptations, performing no less than twelve roles, reprised the Vogon Guard part in the 1992 Making of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy TV documentary (and voiced the Babel Fish), appeared in the 1994 photo illustrated edition of the book (as Prosser), and returned a third time as a Vogon Guard for the BBC Radio 4 Quandary Phase.

Other trivia

  1. Because of the sheer number of models used in episodes 2-6, a single day of filming just the model sequences was set aside at the BBC's Television Centre on 28 October 1980. This has been described as "a luxury few other shows could afford."
  2. In order to provide proper timing of spoken lines on-set, Douglas Adams himself spoke the lines of Eddie the Computer and Deep Thought, until they were redubbed by David Tate and Valentine Dyall respectively.
  3. The spaceman, suspended from a wire, in the titles sequence was Alan Harris.
  4. Douglas Adams has several cameo appearances in the TV series. These include being the man who walks naked into the ocean in episode 2, as an image in a guide entry on stress (along with animator Rod Lord, who provided a self-portrait), and one of the drinkers in the background of the pub in episode 1. The Guide entry on "The Worst Poetry" also used Adams's likeness as the basis for the illustration of Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings.
  5. Locations for filming included a clay pit and a former railway tunnel in Cornwall, the Edmonds Farm and Red Lion pub in Sussex, the Budgemoor Golf & Country Club near Henley-on-Thames, and the Peak District National Park.
  6. Episode Three was originally scripted to have a "pre-credits sequence" where Trillian announces their arrival at "the most improbable planet that ever existed" (i.e. Magrathea) to Zaphod. This was never filmed.
  7. The arrangement of "Journey of the Sorcerer" by Tim Souster, used in the titles, was released as a single in the UK in January of 1981. The "B Side" featured Douglas Adams playing rhythm guitar.
  8. Many of the costumes seen in Episodes One-Four can be seen again during sequences at Milliway's in Episode Five.
  9. The hand animated "computer graphics" of The Hitchhiker's Guide itself won a BAFTA award, a Design and Art Direction (D&AD) silver award, and a London Film Fest award.

Episode summaries

Episode One

Cast (in order of appearance):

Episode One begins with a pre-credits sequence, the only one of the TV episodes to have one. A countdown to the end of the world is displayed through animation, and the narrator begins telling the story of the Guide and Arthur Dent's connection to it as the sun rises over the English countryside for the final time. Arthur wakes, discovers the threat to his house from a yellow bulldozer by looking out the window, and the camera pulls back to the credits. This episode closely follows the plot and dialog of the first episode of the radio series, cutting the speech by Lady Cynthia Fitzmelton. It ends at a slightly earlier point than the radio episode, after Ford's line "he might want to read us some of his poetry first", and on a cliffhanger that Arthur and Ford are about to be discovered in a Vogon storeroom, but before the Vogon poetry is actually read.

Episode Two

Cast (in order of appearance):

The episode opens with a recap of the story, with Ford and Arthur about to be captured. After being read Vogon poetry, they are thrown out of an airlock and improbably rescued by the Starship Heart of Gold, which has been stolen by Ford's semi-cousin Zaphod Beeblebrox, accompanied by Trillian, a young woman who Arthur once met at a party. Ford and Arthur are escorted to the bridge by Marvin the Paranoid Android and meet Zaphod and Trillian. The episode ends after they are introduced, with no cliffhanger.

Episode Three

Cast (in order of appearance):
  • The Book: Peter Jones
  • Spaceman (uncredited): John Austen-Gregg
  • Spacewoman (uncredited): Zoe Hendry
  • Handmaiden One (uncredited): Nicola Critcher
  • Handmaiden Two (uncredited): Jacoba
  • Handmaiden Three (uncredited): Lorraine Paul
  • Handmaiden Four (uncredited): Susie Silvey
  • Rich Merchant (uncredited): John Dair
  • Ford Prefect: David Dixon
  • Zaphod Beeblebrox: Mark Wing-Davey
  • Trillian: Sandra Dickinson
  • Arthur Dent: Simon Jones
  • Eddie the Computer: David Tate
  • Holographic Magrathean and Slartibartfast: Richard Vernon
  • Marvin the Paranoid Android: David Learner
  • Voices of the Whale and Marvin: Stephen Moore

The episode opens with a guide entry explaining the legendary planet of Magrathea, which manufactured planets millions of years ago, until the Galactic economy collapsed. Zaphod has been explaining to Ford that he has found the legendary planet of Magrathea, whilst Trillian tends to a pair of white mice. Zaphod orders the computer to land on the planet surface.

Before long, they receive a transmission from the Commercial Council of Magrathea, informing them that the planet is closed for business and asking them to leave. They ignore this and later receive another message, noting that nuclear missiles have been sent at the ship. Attempts to evade the missiles fail, and Arthur uses the ship's Infinite Improbability Drive, which ends up turning the missiles into a very surprised looking whale and a bowl of petunias. Trillian discovers that during the chaos, her mice escaped.

The five characters go onto the surface, where they find it desolate. Zaphod suggests they lived inside the surface. They split into two groups - Trillian, Zaphod and Ford explore a tunnel, whilst Arthur and Marvin remain on the surface. Trillian, Zaphod and Ford's thread ends on a cliff-hanger, with them seeing something alarming at the end of the corridor.

Meanwhile, Arthur and Marvin watch the sunset. Eventually, Slartibartfast arrives, and asks Arthur to come with him. He explains that the Magratheans were in hibernation for the last five million years. They get into his air-car, and descend deep into a tunnel.

A guide narrative intervenes, explaining that whilst humanity had always assumed that it was the most intelligent species on Earth, in fact the dolphins were more intelligent, and had left the planet some time before. However, both the dolphins and humans were less intelligent than the mice.

Meanwhile, Slartibartfast shows Arthur the vast tract of hyperspace that acts as the Magrathean's "factory floor", and that they have been brought out for a special commission — "the Earth Mk 2, we're making a copy from our original blueprints". The Earth was originally made by Magrathea for mice; and it was destroyed five minutes too early. The episode ends here.

Episode Four

Cast (in order of appearance):

Note: The part of "Loon-Quall," one of the two computer programmers who hears Deep Thought announce "The Answer," is stated by the DVD production notes as being played by David Leland. However, the idea of the role was for that character to have been descended from the earlier programmer, Lunkwill, played by Antony Carrick.

This episode ends on the cliff-hanger of Ford, Arthur, Trillian and Zaphod being confronted by the galactic police, and the computer bank that they are hiding behind being shot and then exploding.

Episode Five

Cast (in order of appearance):

A visit to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. The episode ends on the cliff-hanger of the black ship about to start a dive into the sun of Kakrafoon.

Episode Six

Cast (in order of appearance):
  • The Book: Peter Jones
  • Arthur Dent: Simon Jones
  • Ford Prefect: David Dixon
  • Trillian: Sandra Dickinson
  • Zaphod Beeblebrox: Mark Wing-Davey
  • Marvin (costume): David Learner
  • Marvin (voice) and Radio voices (latter uncredited): Stephen Moore
  • Newscaster: Rayner Bourton
  • Number One: Matthew Scurfield
  • Number Three: Geoffrey Beevers

The episode ends with Arthur and Ford being stuck on pre-historic Earth, lamenting the eventual destruction of it. The regular theme music follows the song "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong.

Possibility of second series

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' abandoned Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen project (instead of 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 and/or Geoffrey Perkins involved are all offered as causes), and the second series was never made. The elements of the Doctor Who and the Krikketmen project instead became the third novel, Life, the Universe and Everything.

Documentary

In 1992, Kevin Davies wrote and directed a "making of" documentary entitled The Making of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Davies had previously worked on the stage show at the Rainbow Theatre, and, while working for Pierce Animation Studios in 1980, had introduced Alan Bell to Rod Lord, leading to the animation for the TV series. For the documentary, Davies used many photographs and home movies he shot during the 1980 production of the series and recorded new interviews in October of 1992 with the cast and crew. New footage of Simon Jones, David Dixon and Michael Cule, in character, were shot at the farm used for Arthur Dent's house in Sussex, and incorporated into the documentary. BBC video released the sixty minute documentary on VHS in 1993. Footage not included in the original documentary was included in the 2002 DVD release of the series. Interestingly, M. J. Simpson reports in Pocket Companion: Hitchhiker's Guide that the documentary itself had never (as of 2005) been actually transmitted on TV.

Video and DVD releases

Neil Gaiman reveals in the first edition of his biography of Douglas Adams, Don't Panic, that the BBC was preparing a laserdisc release of the Hitchhiker's TV series in the mid-1980s, but had to cancel the project due to a legal tangle with the movie rights. BBC Video eventually was able to do an initial VHS release in 1992. This was a dual cassette edition, with "never before broadcast material" (that had been cut to shorten the episodes). CBS/Fox Home Video made the six episodes available on a single tape in North America starting in 1993. They were joined by "The Making of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," also on VHS, that same year, as well as a laserdisc release. The complete series on one tape and the "Making of" on the second tape could also be purchased in a box set edition. Restoration of the six episodes and the "Making of" documentary were begun in 2001, with a Region 2+4 DVD release in the United Kingdom by BBC Video (Catalog Number BBCDVD 1092) in January 2002. A Region 1 edition, released by Warner Home Video, followed in April 2002. Both DVD editions are two-disc sets, with the six episodes on disc 1, and bonus materials on disc 2. The North American DVD edition also has a copy of the Omnibus tribute to Douglas Adams, from BBC 2, that aired on 4 August 2001, which the UK DVD edition does not.

External links

References

  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, VHS, R1 and R2 DVD releases of the TV series. DVD "Onscreen Production Notes" by Kevin Davies.
  • Gaiman, Neil. Additional material by David K. Dickson. Don't Panic, 2nd revised edition. Titan Books, London, UK, 1993.
  • Simpson, M. J. Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams, 1st American edition. Justin Charles & Co., Boston, MA, USA, 2003.
  • Webb, Nick. Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography of Douglas Adams, 1st American edition. Ballantine Books, New York, NY, USA, 2005.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | BBC television programmes | Science fiction television series

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (TV series)".

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