Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Episode 6
Trapped 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.
written by Douglas Adams
directed by Alan J.W. Bell
music by Paddy KingslandCast: 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
written by Robert Holmes
A struggling comedian, who owes money to the owner of a nightclub, dies in a suspicious car crash, and Frank Drebin is there. But this was no ordinary comedian – he was also a police informant who infiltrated a drug ring which is believed to operate from that very same nightclub. Frank takes the place of the deceased at the nightclub, and he’s no ordinary comedian either. But will Frank succumb to the lure of the limelight, or will he crack the case?
Cast: Christopher Godwin (Mattocks), Carmen Du Sautoy (Foster), Barrie Rutter (Ackroyd), Bruce Boa (Beadle), Mary Healey (Valerie), and Bimbo (himself)
Notes: The Leader’s ability to communicate to and through Elizabeth may be the inspiration for the “bliss” effect used by Visitor leader Anna in ABC’s 21st century remake of V – a slight irony, since this was the final episode of the original V. This episode was written with a cliffhanger that has never been resolved on television or in other media.
Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred, Anthony Ainley (The Master), Julian Holloway (Sergeant Paterson), Lisa Bowerman (Karra), Will Barton (Midge), Sakuntala Ramanee (Shreela), David John (Derek), Sean Oliver (Stuart), Gareth Hale (Harvey), Norman Pace (Len), Kate Eaton (Ange), Adele Silva (Squeak), Michelle Martin (Neighbor), Kathleen Bidmead (Woman)
teleplay by Pen Densham & M. Jay Roach
With the help of the Ewoks, the Rebels overrun the shield generator, but they’re too late to help their own fleet – the Millennium Falcon and its fighter wings emerge from hyperspace into the waiting arms of the Imperial Fleet, as part of an elaborate plan by Palpatine. But the Empire hasn’t counted on the presence of the Ewoks, and the shield generator is destroyed by Solo and his commando group. Lando makes some desperate alterations to the battle plan, and still manages to lead the Rebels into the heart of the Death Star – but aboard that station, Luke Skywalker is fighting his own battle against the power of the dark side of the Force. He may destroy the Empire, save the Rebellion, free the galaxy and become the last of the Jedi – but Luke still may not be able to save his father in the process. 
