Category: 1981 TV Series

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1981 TV Series Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Episode 1

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyArthur Dent’s having a more troublesome Thursday than usual. For one thing, the local council has decided to demolish his house and several others with as little warning as possible, all to make way for a new bypass. To protest this, Arthur lies in the mud in front of a bulldozer which would, without his presence, destroy his home completely. And while that’s stressful enough, Arthur’s somewhat odd friend Ford Prefect chooses this very moment to come along and insist that Arhur must come to the pub with him and imbibe heavily, and somehow – according to Ford – the end of the world figures into the proceedings. Arthur reluctantly agrees, but regrets it soon afterward when he hears, from the cozy confines of the pub, the destruction of his house. But before Arthur can exact his revenge on the bureaucrats who made this all possible, he becomes one of the only witnesses to the destruction of the entire Earth – and the slightly bewildered recipient of a babel fish, courtesy of Ford. As it happens, Ford isn’t from Earth at all, and is a roving researcher for an encyclopedic electronic book known as the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The spaceship which Ford has managed to use to escape from Earth, with Arthur in tow, has a crew which isn’t from Earth either…and they’re none too pleased to discover that they have hitchhikers aboard.

Order now!written by Douglas Adams
directed by Alan J.W. Bell
music by Paddy Kingsland

Cast: Peter Jones (The Voice of the Book), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Joe Melia (Mr. Prosser), Martin Benson (Vogon Captain), Steve Conway (Barman), Cleo Rocos (Alien), Andrew Mussell (Alien)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1981 TV Series Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Episode 2

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyUnable to escape the Vogon guards, Ford and Arthur are similarly unable to escape a mind-wrenching reading of the Vogon captain’s poetry. Despite Arthur’s attempt to bluff his way past the Vogons by telling their captain that he liked their poetry, the two survivors are sentenced to be thrown out of an airlock. Again, Ford and Arthur and unable to escape the Vogon guard assigned to haul them down to the airlock, and their recurring inability to escape reaches its apex as the airlock is opened and they’re sucked out into the void. Within half a minute, they’re rescued by the Heart Of Gold, a prototype spacecraft powered by the infinite improbability drive. But Arthur and Ford aren’t quite safe yet: the Heart Of Gold has been stolen by none other than Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford’s two-headed, three-armed, former-galactic-president cousin, and another survivor from Earth, a woman named Trillian.

Order now!written by Douglas Adams
directed by Alan J.W. Bell
music by Paddy Kingsland

Cast: Peter Jones (The Voice of the Book), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Sandra Dickinson (Trillian), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Martin Benson (Vogon Captain), Michael Cule (Vogon Guard), Rayner Bourton (Newscaster), Gil Morris (Gag Halfrunt), David Learner (Marvin), Stephen Moore (voice of Marvin), David Tate (voice of Eddie)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1981 TV Series Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Episode 3

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyConvinced that he’s found Magrathea, a well-hidden planet that once ruled the galaxy’s economy with its fantastically expensive custom-made planet-building services, Zaphod wants to explore (and plunder) the dormant world as soon as possible. A persistent auto-defense computer on Magrathea itself seems to have other ideas, however, and launches nuclear missiles at the descending Heart Of Gold. With death seemingly certain, and nothing left to lose, Arthur activates the Heart Of Gold’s improbability drive, which doesn’t do much of anything to the ship’s speed or direction, but does yield the unforseen benefit of turning the two nukes into, respectively, a bowl of petunias and a whale, both of which have very short life spans. Landing on Magrathea, Zaphod leads Ford and Trillian into the bowels of the planet, leaving Arthur and Marvin to mind the ship. A native of the planet soon appears to Arthur, beckoning the earthman to accompany him into the bowels of the planet – or, more precisely, to a hyperspace workshop where Magrathean custom planets are built. Arthur is alarmed to discover that a new planet is under construction due to the premature demise of its immediate predecessor: the Earth.

Order now!written by Douglas Adams
directed by Alan J.W. Bell
music by Paddy Kingsland

Cast: Peter Jones (The Voice of the Book), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Sandra Dickinson (Trillian), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Richard Vernon (Slartibartfast), David Learner (Marvin), Stephen Moore (voice of Marvin), David Tate (voice of Eddie), John Austen-Gregg (Real Man), Zoe Hendry (Real Woman), Jim Francis (Real Small Furry Creature from Alpha Centauri), John Dair (Merchant)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1981 TV Series Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Episode 4

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxySlartibartfast, the Magrathean planet-builder who has formed a curious rapport with Arthur, fills his human visitor in on the history of Earth that Arthur never knew. Commissioned by a race of pan-dimensional beings whose bodies portrude only slightly into our dimension in a form most humans recognize as mice, Earth was in fact an organic supercomputer hardwired to calculate the precise wording of the great question of life, the universe and everything. (Earth’s predecessor, a supercomputer known as Deep Thought, had already calculated the answer: 42.) Now, having lost the Earth mere minutes before the matrix of organic life on its surface generated the question, the mice wish to take a shortcut by buying Arthur’s brain. When he comes to the firm understanding that it won’t be returned to him, Arthur turns down the offer and runs for it, with Ford, Trillian and Zaphod right behind him. But before they can reach the Heart Of Gold, galactic police who are hot on Zaphod’s trail for stealing the ship corner the travelers under heavy laser fire.

Order now!written by Douglas Adams
directed by Alan J.W. Bell
music by Paddy Kingsland

Cast: Peter Jones (The Voice of the Book), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Sandra Dickinson (Trillian), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Richard Vernon (Slartibartfast), Antony Carrick (Lunkwill), Timothy Davies (Fook), David Leland (Majikthise), Charles McKeown (Vroomfondel), Matt Zimmerman (Shooty), Marc Smith (Bang Bang), Valentine Dyall (voice of Deep Thought)

Notes: Valentine Dyall played the part of Gagravarr in the original radio series. For those wishing to sing the old Betelgeuse death anthem, the lyrics are as follows: Zaglabor astragard! Hootrimansion Bambriar!

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1981 TV Series Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Episode 5

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyDue to the violence of the attack by interstellar police hell-bent on arresting Zaphod, a huge computer bank behind which Arthur and the others are hiding explodes with enough force to tear a hole in space-time and shove them through it. The travelers awaken in Milliway’s, the famed Restaurant at the End of the universe, built on the ruins of ancient Magrathea. Milliway’s travels forward in time, giving its patrons a glimpse of the death of the universe while they dine. In the meantime, Marvin – the depressed robot from the Heart of Gold – took the scenic route through time, waiting millions of years as Magrathea crumbled around him and was then turned into Milliway’s. He’s now parking spaceships in the garage at Milliway’s, and one of his latest charges catches the eyes of both Zaphod and Ford, and they decide to steal it. There’s only one problem…their newly-procured ship is locked onto an automated course taking it straight into the heart of a nearby sun.

Order now!written by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd
directed by Alan J.W. Bell
music by Paddy Kingsland

Cast: Peter Jones (The Voice of the Book), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Sandra Dickinson (Trillian), Jack May (Garkbit, the Head Waiter), Colin Jeavons (Max Quordlepleen), Barry Frank Warren (Hotblack Desiato), Dave Prowse (Bodyguard), Colin Bennett (Zarquon), David Learner (Marvin), Stephen Moore (voice of Marvin) and Peter Davison (Dish of the Day)

Notes: Though already famous from his All Creatures Great And Small stint and his upcoming reign as the fifth Doctor Who, Peter Davison was persuaded to play a well-disguised cameo by his then-wife, Sandra Dickinson. Look for another cameo in this episode by an actor who was taking time off from his most famous acting gig as a certain Dark Lord of the Sith.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1981 TV Series Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Episode 6

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyTrapped aboard a stunt ship belonging to the rock group Disaster Area, locked into a collision course with a nearby sun, Zaphod and the others are ready to accept any escape route. And Arthur finds one – perhaps: a teleportation system with no automatic controls. Zaphod quickly sweet-talks Marvin into staying behind to help the others escape. Apparently, however, the teleport has no guidance control either – Ford and Arthur find themselves aboard another spacecraft a safe distance away, while Zaphod and Trillian are nowhere to be found. The two hitchhikers hide as they hear approaching footsteps, which turn out to belong to joggers who are just finishing up a few laps on their way back to a room honeycombed with cryogenic suspension capsules. Bewildered, Arthur and Ford make their way to the bridge of the ship, where the Captain – enjoying a bath – explains that they’ve arrived on the “B” Ark from Golgafrincham, currently evacuating one third of the planet’s population to escape a somewhat suspiciously unspecified disaster. As it happens, the “B” Ark is actually carrying the most useless third of the planet’s people – telephone sanitizers, marketing executives, middle management, hairdressers and the like – to their doom.

A time warp carries the “B” Ark into the prehistoric dawn of a small blue-green planet, where, to Arthur’s horror, he discovers that the Golgafrinchans are his ancestors…not the cavemen whose extinction from the face of the primitive Earth is assured by the arrival of a more advanced race.

Order now!written by Douglas Adams
directed by Alan J.W. Bell
music by Paddy Kingsland

Cast: Peter Jones (The Voice of the Book), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Sandra Dickinson (Trillian), Rayner Bourton (Newscaster), Aubrey Morris (Captain), Matthew Scurfield (Number One), David Neville (Number Two), Geoffrey Beevers (Number Three), Beth Porter (Marketing Girl), David Rowlands (Hairdresser), Jon Glover (Management Consultant), David Learner (Marvin), Stephen Moore (voice of Marvin)

Notes: Though a second season of the Hitchhiker’s Guide TV series was planned, Douglas Adams’ insistance on finding another producer for the show led the BBC To cancel the series, despite the fact that more money was budgeted for a further six episodes and the regular actors were booked to appear. Plans for a U.S. version of the series, to be aired on ABC, were cut short by Adams himself when he became disenchanted with the network’s insistence on turning the Hitchhiker’s Guide into “Star Wars with jokes.”

LogBook entry by Earl Green