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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was first and foremost a 1978 radio comedy series written by Douglas Adams. This was followed by a series of novels, a television series and a computer game. A film version is due in theaters in 2005. Although the various versions followed the same basic plot, they are in many places mutually contradictory, as Adams heavily rewrote the story for each "adaptation".
The books are described as "a trilogy in five parts", after having been described as a trilogy on the release of the third book, and then a "trilogy in four parts" on the release of the fourth book. They have a wide following around the world, thanks to their outlandish situations and characters ( Babel fish, Vogon poetry, Slartibartfast, The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything), their anarchic, ironic humour, and their subtle social commentary.
The title The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is often abbreviated as "HHG", "HHGG", "HHGTTG" or "H2G2". In addition to the several incarnations of the story, of which the books are the most popular, this can also refer to:
Note on spelling: Unfortunately, the different editions of the Hitchhiker's Guide spell it differently -- thus "Hitch-Hiker's Guide", "Hitch Hiker's Guide" and "Hitchhiker's Guide" are used in different editions (US or UK), versions (audio or text) and compilations of the book. For the sake of coherence, Wikipedia spells it Hitchhiker's Guide, which is reportedly the way Adams himself preferred it. [1]
The series follows the adventures of Arthur DentArthur Philip Dent is a fictional character, the hapless protagonist in the comic science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. According to some reviewers, Dent resembles a Vonnegut hero. Along with Ford Prefect, Dent bare, a hapless EnglishmanEngland is the largest, the most populous, and the most densely populated of the four " Home Nations" which make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). Occupying the south-eastern portion of the island of Great Britain, England who escapes the destruction of Earth (by the Vogons) with his friend Ford PrefectFord Prefect is a fictional character in the radio series (and subsequent books, television series, and so on) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by the British author Douglas Adams. Ford is a good friend of the main character, an ordinary Earthman name, an alienFor the 1979 movie, see Alien (movie). For live organisms which are not from Earth, see Extraterrestrial life Aliens are foreigners to their surroundings. The word is commonly used in law to denote non- citizens of the country of their whereabouts, and in from Betelgeuse and researcher for the eponymous guide. Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford's semi-cousin and sometime Galactic President, saves the pair from death in his (stolen) spaceship, the Heart of Gold, whose crew rounds out the main cast of characters: Marvin the Paranoid Android, a terminally depressed robot, and Trillian, a woman known by Arthur and the only other surviving human being.
Note: The plots of the television and radio series are more or less the same as that of the first two novels, though some of the events occur in a different order and many of the details are changed. Much of fits five and six of the radio series were written by John Lloyd, but his material did not make it into the other versions of the story and is not included here. Most consider the books' version of events to be definitive.
In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the characters visit the legendary planet Magrathea, home of the now-collapsed planet building industry, and meet Slartibartfast, a planetary architect. He relates the story of a race of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings who built a computer named Deep Thought to calculate the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. When the answer was revealed as 42, they were forced to build a more powerful computer to work out what the Ultimate Question actually was, but their plans never come to fruition.
The computer, disguised as a planet, was the Earth, and was destroyed five minutes before the conclusion of its 10-million-year program. The creatures, who turn out to be mice, want to dissect Arthur's brain to help reconstruct the question, but our protagonists escape.
In The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Zaphod is separated from the others and finds he is part of a conspiracy to uncover whoever really runs the Universe. Zaphod meets Zarniwoop, a co-conspirator and editor for the guide, who knows where to find the secret ruler. Briefly reunited with the others for a trip to Milliways, the restaurant of the title, Zaphod and Trillian discover that the Universe is in the safe hands of a simple man living on a remote planet in a wooden shack with his cat.
Ford and Arthur, meanwhile, fall backwards through time and end up on a spacecraft full of the outcasts of the Golgafrincham civilization. The ship crashes on prehistoric Earth, disrupting the program to find the Ultimate Question and stranding Ford and Arthur. (The TV series ends at this point.)
In Life, the Universe, and Everything Ford and Arthur are saved by Slartibartfast, when he enlists their aid in preventing galactic war. Long ago, the people of Krikkit attempted to wipe out all life in the Universe, but they were stopped and imprisoned on their home planet; now, they are poised to escape. With the help of Marvin, Zaphod and Trillian, our heroes prevent the destruction of life in the Universe and go their separate ways.
In So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, Arthur returns home to Earth, rather surprisingly since it was destroyed when he left. He meets and falls in love with a girl named Fenchurch, and discovers this Earth is a replacement provided by the dolphins in their Save the Humans campaign. Eventually he rejoins Ford, who claims to have saved the Universe in the meantime, to hitch-hike one last time and see God's Final Message to His Creation.
Finally, in Mostly Harmless, Vogons take over the Hitchhiker's Guide (under the name of Infinidim Enterprises), to finish, once and for all, the task of obliterating the Earth. Arthur's spaceship crashes on the planet Lamuella, where he settles as a sandwich-maker. Meanwhile, Ford Prefect breaks into the guide's offices, gets himself an infinite expense account from the computer system, then meets the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Mark II. After he declines this dangerously powerful machine's aid (which he receives anyway), he sends it to Arthur Dent.
Trillian uses DNA that Arthur donated for money to have a daughter, and when she goes to cover a war, she leaves her daughter Random Dent with Arthur. Random steals the Guide Mark II, and uses it to get to Earth. Arthur, Ford, and later Trillian all end up on earth trying to catch Random. While Arthur, Ford, Trillian, Random, and Tricia McMillan (Trillian in this alternate universe), find themselves together in Stavro Mueller's Beta club, the Guide Mark II removes all the Earths from probability, also removing all the characters involved, and itself.
It wasn't truly clear that the series was over (since it was already a trilogy with five books) until Adams died of a heart attack at age 49 in 2001. Indeed, Adams said that the new novel he was working on, The Salmon of Doubt, was not working as a Dirk Gently story, and suggested it might instead become a sixth book in the Hitchhiker's series. He described Mostly Harmless as "a very bleak book" and said he "would love to finish Hitchhiker on a slightly more upbeat note". Adams also remarked that if he were to write a sixth instalment, he would at least start with all the characters in the same place.