n 1981, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy—the universe's most wholly remarkable book—was transformed into a television series by the British Broadcasting Company.
Unavailable for years, the series has been released on DVD by the BBC as a two-disk set. The first of the two DVDs contains the series' six episodes as well as two soundtracks: the original mono television track and a digitally remastered stereo one. The series encompasses the majority of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, from the awful Thursday when Arthur Dent finds his home—and his planet—about to be destroyed to make way for a cosmic bypass, right up to the point where Dent and friends are about to escape from the not-quite-dead world of Magrathea. The series then jumps into the second novel in the five-book "Hitchhiker's Trilogy," The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, as the characters are catapulted forward in time to Milliways, and eventually
end up trapped on prehistoric Earth.
The second disc is filled with 13 extras, including BBC features about Adams and the Guide phenomenon, a deleted scene from Episode 2, numerous outtakes, amateur interviews with the cast and crew, shorts taken from the radio series and even theatrical trailers.
A fitting tribute for a science fiction master
Any attempt to translate a well-known book to a film or miniseries runs the risk of alienating fans by corrupting their vision of the source material. With the Hitchhiker's Guide, this risk is doubly dangerous—not only is the book a cult favorite, but its science fiction elements are difficult to replicate on any screen, be it small or big. Fortunately, the BBC pulls it off.
Its miniseries is slavishly devoted to its source material, quoting dialogue from the book word for word. Entire scenes—such as Arthur's argument with a civic-minded, bulldozer-wielding public servant or his encounter with a poetry-reading Vogon—are recreated exactly as they were in the book. In almost every case, the series chooses to drop non-essential bits of the book rather than modify them for the small screen. The sole exception is the jump from Hitchhikers to Restaurant, but the transition is handled well.
From a technical standpoint, the series is about as good as fans would expect from a lower-budget television series from 1981. Its special effects are nominally more sophisticated than the original Star Trek series, but it is able to recreate Adams' imagination adequately. The Vogons are even more repulsive and disgusting than Adams described them, and everyone's favorite paranoid android, Marvin, is perfectly pathetic. Ex-galactic president Zaphod Beeblebrox is less successful. His signature second head is a puppet head that doesn't say or do much, and his third arm spends most of its time tucked Napoleon-like into his jacket. Still, actor Mark Wing-Davey is able to capture Zaphod's personality, and that makes the rest of it work.
The six episodes are enjoyable, but the real value of the DVD lies in its second disc. The best of its dozen-odd features is the BBC's "Douglas Adams Omnibus," which interviews Adams' agents, friends and colleagues to compile an enjoyable—if somewhat sad—look at the late author's life. Fans will gain insights into Adams' life, from early comedic efforts to his infamous struggles with writer's block. Also worth checking out are "Don't Panic"—a collection of amateur and
professional interviews with the cast and crew of the series—and the "making of" featurette, which provides a behind-the-scenes look at the series through the unique perspective of Arthur Dent's return to Earth. The good stuff doesn't end there—there's easily enough content to keep fans busy for hours.
The entire DVD provides a fitting electronic requiem for Adams, offering a visual counterpart to his just-released, posthumously edited book Salmon of a Doubt.
