Don't Panic! A review of the 1980s BBC TV production of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
In the late 1970s, prompted by the success of Douglas Adams' original sci-fi/comedy radio series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the British Broadcasting Corporation's television department commissioned him and John Lloyd to adapt it into a six-episode miniseries.
Adams, who had also worked for a while on the venerable Dr. Who TV series, had already adapted part of the radio series into a couple of novels (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe) was notorious for being a procrastinator, so the project took a while in getting started.
At first, the TV version of Hitchiker's Guide was going to be an animated series, but this idea was nixed in favor of giving viewers a live-action version featuring some of the original radio series' actors, particularly Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Stephen Moore (Marvin the Paranoid Android) and Peter Jones (voice of The Book).
Other roles from the radio series, however, were recast; Susan Sheridan, who had played Tricia McMillian/Trillian in the BBC 4 Radio original, was busy with other projects, so she was replaced by Sarah Dickinson.
And because the actor who had played Ford Prefect in the radio series didn't physically match the desired look for his character, the producer, Alan J.W. Bell, brought in David Dixon as a replacement.
What the Miniseries is About:
As in the other incarnations of Adams' cosmic comedy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy follows the misadventures of Arthur Dent (Simon Jones), a hapless young Englishman who, after the Earth is destroyed by aliens in order to create a hyperspace bypass, accompanies his extraterrestrial friend, Ford Prefect (David Dixon), in a mind-boggling journey across the galaxy.
Along the way, Arthur and Ford encounter mean-tempered Vogons, Zaphod Beeblebrox (the hippie-like President of the Galaxy with two heads and three arms) and his companion Trillian, a cute Earth woman who decided to go off into space because she did not want to be an astrophysicist on the dole and various other bizarre characters, including the droll Marvin the Paranoid Android (voice of Stephen Moore).
Arthur's main source of information about his new environment (or is it environments?) is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, an electronic reference book (voice of Peter Jones) which is "better selling than The Celestial Home Care Guide....and more controversial than Oolan Columphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters: Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes and Who Is This God Person, Anyway?"
The show itself is a mélange of elements; it spoofs all sorts of sci-fi plots and conventions (Earth attacked by aliens, the origins of man, the search for THE TRUTH, and faster-than-light travel), satirical observations about modern folkways, silly visual gags, and - above all, lots of humor based on word play.
Ford: How do you feel?
Arthur: Like a military academy; bits of me keep passing out.
My Take:
If you have watched at least one "Britcom" (British situation comedy) on either BBC America or your local PBS station, you probably know that English humor tends to be a mix of low-key dryness and sometimes over-the-top silliness.
That is precisely what viewers get in the DVD version released by BBC Video (and distributed in the U.S. by Warner Home Video) in 2002: Adams' very hilarious characters and off-the-wall situations in a definitive, restored version of the 1981 TV series.
Because the series was not given a big budget, viewers also get a visually uneven product. The on-location exterior shots look decent enough, sure, but the various interior sets look incredibly stage-like, which is one of the reasons I could never "get into" the old Dr. Who series. The special effects look pretty cheesy; even the 1960s incarnation of Star Trek sometimes managed better ones.
Disc One, naturally, contains the fully restored six episodes as they were originally aired in Britain in 1981, although the DVD version has a remastered audio track as well as the original audio track.
Disc Two contains the bulk of the related extra features, which include:
The Making of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Don't Panic!
Douglas Adams Omnibus (tribute program)
Recording of the radio series
Deleted scene from episode 2
Photo gallery
Peter Jones introduction
Pebble Mill at One
Tomorrow's World sequence
Recommended: Yes
Adams, who had also worked for a while on the venerable Dr. Who TV series, had already adapted part of the radio series into a couple of novels (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe) was notorious for being a procrastinator, so the project took a while in getting started.
At first, the TV version of Hitchiker's Guide was going to be an animated series, but this idea was nixed in favor of giving viewers a live-action version featuring some of the original radio series' actors, particularly Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Stephen Moore (Marvin the Paranoid Android) and Peter Jones (voice of The Book).
Other roles from the radio series, however, were recast; Susan Sheridan, who had played Tricia McMillian/Trillian in the BBC 4 Radio original, was busy with other projects, so she was replaced by Sarah Dickinson.
And because the actor who had played Ford Prefect in the radio series didn't physically match the desired look for his character, the producer, Alan J.W. Bell, brought in David Dixon as a replacement.
What the Miniseries is About:
As in the other incarnations of Adams' cosmic comedy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy follows the misadventures of Arthur Dent (Simon Jones), a hapless young Englishman who, after the Earth is destroyed by aliens in order to create a hyperspace bypass, accompanies his extraterrestrial friend, Ford Prefect (David Dixon), in a mind-boggling journey across the galaxy.
Along the way, Arthur and Ford encounter mean-tempered Vogons, Zaphod Beeblebrox (the hippie-like President of the Galaxy with two heads and three arms) and his companion Trillian, a cute Earth woman who decided to go off into space because she did not want to be an astrophysicist on the dole and various other bizarre characters, including the droll Marvin the Paranoid Android (voice of Stephen Moore).
Arthur's main source of information about his new environment (or is it environments?) is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, an electronic reference book (voice of Peter Jones) which is "better selling than The Celestial Home Care Guide....and more controversial than Oolan Columphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters: Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes and Who Is This God Person, Anyway?"
The show itself is a mélange of elements; it spoofs all sorts of sci-fi plots and conventions (Earth attacked by aliens, the origins of man, the search for THE TRUTH, and faster-than-light travel), satirical observations about modern folkways, silly visual gags, and - above all, lots of humor based on word play.
Ford: How do you feel?
Arthur: Like a military academy; bits of me keep passing out.
My Take:
If you have watched at least one "Britcom" (British situation comedy) on either BBC America or your local PBS station, you probably know that English humor tends to be a mix of low-key dryness and sometimes over-the-top silliness.
That is precisely what viewers get in the DVD version released by BBC Video (and distributed in the U.S. by Warner Home Video) in 2002: Adams' very hilarious characters and off-the-wall situations in a definitive, restored version of the 1981 TV series.
Because the series was not given a big budget, viewers also get a visually uneven product. The on-location exterior shots look decent enough, sure, but the various interior sets look incredibly stage-like, which is one of the reasons I could never "get into" the old Dr. Who series. The special effects look pretty cheesy; even the 1960s incarnation of Star Trek sometimes managed better ones.
Disc One, naturally, contains the fully restored six episodes as they were originally aired in Britain in 1981, although the DVD version has a remastered audio track as well as the original audio track.
Disc Two contains the bulk of the related extra features, which include:
The Making of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Don't Panic!
Douglas Adams Omnibus (tribute program)
Recording of the radio series
Deleted scene from episode 2
Photo gallery
Peter Jones introduction
Pebble Mill at One
Tomorrow's World sequence
Recommended: Yes
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