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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (view source)

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There have been many adaptations over the years, each one starting from this point and then branching off in a different direction. Adams himself has been part of most of these, and thus, they all have some level of "officialness"; it's less a single "original" with an [[Expanded Universe]], and more a string of multi-media [[Alternate Continuity|Alternate Continuities]].
 
The first version was the radio series, ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Radioradio series)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]''. The first series was broadcast on [[The BBC|BBC Radio]] in 1978, with another series coming not long after, and a Christmas episode linking them. This material went on to become the foundation of the first two books. However, it has several bits not seen in any later version, including the full-length "Shoe Event Horizon" story. After Adams's death, three more series were broadcast, adapting the plots of the last three books.
 
Next came the book series, ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (Literaturenovel)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'', probably the best-known version. Originally, it adapted the plots from the radio series, but took off afterwards, becoming five novels in all. The novels vary widely in tone and subject matter, and the fifth book in particular didn't seem to please anyone, [[Creator Backlash|even its own author]]. Adams said near the end of his life that he wanted to do a sixth which might round things out more nicely, but this was [[Author Existence Failure|cut short by his sudden death]]. Specifically, he was believed to have been [[Retool|retooling]] an in-progress [[Dirk Gently]] novel into a new Hitchhiker's story; a few reconstructed chapters were published as part of the ''Salmon Of Doubt'' anthology book. A sixth book by [[Eoin Colfer]], entitled ''And Another Thing'' (not to be confused by [[And Another Thing|a character dispensing important info just as they're about to leave]]) was published on October 12, 2009.
 
The books, in order, are:
 
* ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]''
* ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/The Restaurant At The End of The Universe|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]''
* ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/Life, The Universe And Everything|Life The Universe And Everything]]''
* ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/So Long And Thanks For All The Fish|So Long And Thanks For All The Fish]]''
* ''[[Young Zaphod Plays It Safe]]'' (short story)
* ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/Mostly Harmless|Mostly Harmless]]''
* ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/And Another Thing|And Another Thing]]''
 
 
A six-episode TV series version was shown on [[The BBC]], ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (TV series)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]''. This, too, was based on the first radio series, and used much of its cast. It was innovative, particularly in its use of pen-and-ink animation to simulate the "electronic" entries of the titular Guide, but suffered from low budgets.
 
There was an [[Interactive Fiction]] game, ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Videovideo Gamegame)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'', that was also largely written by Adams. It's known for being [[Unwinnable|fiendishly difficult]], yet a classic of the genre. A fully playable Java version of the original exists on Adams' own website, and can be found [http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html here], while the BBC website has two different illustrated 20th Anniversary Editions available on their website, [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game.shtml here]. The games have less plot than any of the other tellings, ending when you first set foot on Magrathea. A sequel was planned but never made.
 
In 2005, a big-budget Hollywood movie version, ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (Filmfilm)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'', came out. The script was based on a previous Adams-written script, and contained several new ideas by him, including the POV Ray and the Vogon homeworld. Reviews were mixed, with some appreciating the wit and ideas, while others grumbled at the lack of a real narrative backbone and slightly lethargic pacing.
 
The series has also been adapted into stage shows, albums, comic books, and even a version printed on [[In Joke|a towel]]. There is also a website, created by Adams himself and originally run by the BBC, called [http://www.h2g2.com H2G2].
 
It now has [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/Characters|a character sheet]]
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=== This whole bunch of stuff provides examples of: ===
* [[Absolute Xenophobe]]: The Krikkiters, who on becoming aware that there was a universe outside their dust cloud decided that it all had to go.
* [[The Ace]]: Zaphod, [[Zig -Zagging Trope]].
* [[Achievements in Ignorance]]: Invoked. To fly, one must aim at the ground and miss. To miss you have to distract yourself at the last moment. Then once you've achieved flight, you have to avoid thinking about how this is impossible or gravity will notice you, hard.
* [[Added Alliterative Appeal]]: Big Bang Burger Bar
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* [[Batman Gambit]]: In ''Life, The Universe and Everything {{spoiler|Hactar takes advantage of his apparent failure to trick the people of Krikkit into destroying the universe to instead plant the real supernova bomb on Arthur and manipulate him into nearly doing so.}}
* [[Big Little Man]]: The G'Gugvuntt and Vl'hurg, who spend thousands of years sending their fleet across space to attack Earth, only to be swallowed by a small dog.
* [[Blessed Withwith Suck]]/[[Cursed Withwith Awesome]]: Marvin the Paranoid Android embodies both. He's a robot who exists entirely in a state of near suicidal depression, so being [[Nigh Invulnerable]] must be a horrible burden. It's just one more example of the myriad ways the universe keeps kicking him in the plums. If robots have plums of course.
** Give him the POV Gun and he can make a small army of Vogons collapse from depression, unable to fight. Of course, that will not make Marvin himself feel any more significant.
** He does the same thing to the Krikkit robots in ''Life, The Universe, and Everything'' when the Masters of Krikkit salvage him and put his massive intellect to work coordinating their military strategy. The result was war robots who would go off and sulk and start doing quadratic equations instead of their job.
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*** The TV series partially averts it by showing a list of names Ford considered using, most of the rest being much more recognizable, at least getting across the impression that he's named after something real. The movie lampshades it by Ford referring to Arthur meeting him by saving him from being run over when he tried to shake hands with a car (which he now explains, having revealed himself to be an alien, he had mistaken for the dominant life form on Earth).
<!-- %% All Crowning Moments go on their respective subpages. -->
* [[Divide Byby Zero]]: The second book states a theory which basically says that if anyone finds out the meaning of life, then the universe will end and reboot as something even harder to explain. (Another theory says that this may have happened.) ''Life, The Universe, And Everything'' later [[Hand Wave|handwaves]] away The Ultimate Question and Answer Of Life, The Universe, And Everything as causing such an event if anyone found out both.
* [[Does Not Understand Sarcasm]]: Ford, occasionally.
* [[The Dog Was the Mastermind]] / [[The Dog Is an Alien]]: The {{spoiler|white lab mice}} were the real masters of Earth.
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** On one occasion the argument is put forth that Disaster Area is actually good for the environment, on the basis that a show in a desert causes the entire desert to fly into the air and flip over like a mile-thick pancake, and the resulting exposure of fertile soil causes a field of vibrant flowers to sprout in short order.
** Also Disaster Area is the only noise in the universe loud enough to drown out the unwanted telepathy of the above-mentioned Belcerebons - this is why the Disaster Area concert takes place on Kakrafoon. The Belcerebons are quite lucky - since Disaster Area is established as the loudest noise in the universe, it not being loud enough would mean there is no cure at all.
* [[Dropped a Bridge Onon Him]]: {{spoiler|Poor Fenchurch.}}
* [[Earn Your Happy Ending|Earn Your Happy Entire Book]]: Arthur was due the huge break life gave him in ''So Long''. Too bad it didn't stick. (Though it does in the radio version.)
* [[Earth Is the Center of Thethe Universe]]: Averted at the beginning of the first book, then played straight for the rest of the series.
** An odd example of this trope. While the Earth is important to the mices' plans, what ''are'' those plans? To go on the talk show circuit and get rich. The only version of the Ultimate Question we learn is nonsense. When another character learned universal Truth by another method, it [[Go Mad From the Revelation|drives some people mad]], but has more to do with frogs than universal epiphanies and isn't mentioned again in any of the following books. There is a Ruler of the Universe, and he doesn't live on Earth. All things considered, Earth is more important to the universe in this series than it seems in [[Real Life]], but it's still an absurd, farcical, nearly [[Crapsack World|crapsack]] universe full of [[Shaggy Dog Story|Shaggy Dog Stories]], so nothing is all that important.
* [[The Eeyore]]: Marvin.
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* [[Empty Shell]]: Arthur visits a planet like Earth, but without any motivation or hope. They die of thirst when their plumbing breaks.
* [[Encyclopedia Exposita]]: Not only are there lengthy excerpts from Guide articles, the radio series, television series, and [[The Movie]] make it plain that the story is being told by the Guide itself.
* [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]]: Subversion: The series ''starts'' by blowing up the planet.
** Lampshaded in advance by the barkeep at the pub from which Ford and Arthur have just left.
{{quote| '''Barkeep:''' Last orders, please.}}
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{{quote| There was a terrible ghastly silence. There was a terrible ghastly noise. There was a terrible ghastly silence.}}
* [[Evil Minions]]: "Resistance is useless!"
* [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]]: The Point of View Gun.
* [[Extra Parent Conception]]: Zaphod has a bit of this, mixed with [[Grandfather Paradox]].
* [[Eye Lights Out]]
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* [[Fictional Colour]]: Hooloovoo is a supersmart shade of blue. And by "supersmart", we mean "sentient and intelligent."
* [[Fish Out of Water]]
* [[Foreshadowing]]: In the first book, Arthur says, "I wish I had {{spoiler|a daughter so I could forbid her to marry [a Vogon].}}" As of ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/Mostly Harmless|Mostly Harmless]]'', he has one.
** The other half of the spoilered text turns out to be a subversion in ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/And Another Thing|And Another Thing]]''. {{spoiler|Early in the book, we see Random's questionable choice of husbands, and later, we meet a Vogon character [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much|who is actually a fairly decent guy]]. [[Ships That Pass in Thethe Night|The two never meet.]]}}
** The part on Bartledan literature is foreshadowing on the use of foreshadowing in ''Mostly Harmless''. In the book Arthur reads, the main character dies of thirst just before the last chapter, because of some problem with the plumbing that is only referenced once at the beginning of the book. Arthur finds this exasperating. Of course, {{spoiler|the few clues that explain the [[Bolivian Army Ending]] are hidden the same way in Mostly Harmless. The reader finds this exasperating.}}
** The demolition of Arthur's house due to a huge bureaucratic cockup foreshadows Earth's fate.
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** The footnotes of the original radio scripts notes that a letter in The New Scientist points out that 42 is the atomic number for Molybdenum, a chemical thought to have been instrumental in the creation of organic life.
* [[Good Guy Bar]]: Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. It's also implied that the Big Bang Burger Bar at the other "end" of the universe is one as well.
* [[Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress]]: The art of flying lies in the ability to abuse [[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|W.E. Coyote's Rule of Cartoon Inertia]].
** It involves throwing yourself at the ground and missing. This can only be accomplished by distracting yourself from the fact that you're about to hit the ground, thus inverting [[Dilbert|Dogbert's]] approach on [[Gravity Is Only a Theory]].
* [[Great Big Book of Everything]]: The titular Guide.
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* [[The Infinite]]: As a speed you can move at it is played for all the absurdity it is worth with the Infinite Improbability Drive. Where you can move at infinite speeds but only if the destination is really improbable.
* [[Informed Obscenity]]: The word Belgium, while on Earth the name of a [[Useful Notes/Belgium|country]], is elsewhere a very foul expletive. See [[Pardon My Klingon]] below.
* [[Insignificant Little Blue Planet]]: Probably the most famous example, but Earth actually doesn't stay that way for long. See [[Earth Is the Center of Thethe Universe]] for more details.
* [[It Runs Onon Nonsensoleum]]: The Heart of Gold and the Bistromathics drive, among other things.
** For instance, a giant cup made out of solid marble being held up fifteen miles in the air by art.
** The Bistromathic Drive is far more efficient than all that mucking about in hyperspace or Improbability Factors because it runs off a form of mathematics based off ''the calculation of restaurant bills''.
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** Adams seemed to regret this somewhat, at least to the extent that this one joke overshadowed all the others. "I just looked out the window and thought '42 will do'. I may be a pretty sad case but even I don't make jokes in base 13."
* [[Memory Gambit]]: Zaphod setting up a scheme to learn who the ruler of the universe is, which involved [[Manchurian Agent|giving himself self-imposed amnesia]] so that he could become president, allowing him to steal a ship equipped with the Infinite Improbability Drive so that he could find the hidden planet used to hide the aforementioned Ruler of the Universe.
* [[Message in Aa Bottle]]: A fossilized towel, in the original radio version.
* [[Mile-High Club]]: Arthur and Fenchurch, sans plane.
* [[A Mind Is a Terrible Thing Toto Read]]: The Belcerebons of the planet Kakrafoon, cursed with the social disease of telepathy by the Galactic Tribunal.
* [[Monkeys Onon a Typewriter]]: As a result of the Infinite Improbability Drive, Ford and Arthur get approached by "an infinite number of monkeys who want to talk to us about this script for Hamlet they've worked out."
* [[Morning Routine]]: The opening, with Arthur Dent waking up as normal to discover his house is about to be bulldozed... and his planet destroyed.
* [[Mr. Exposition]]: The Book, and to a less literal degree, Ford and Slartibartfast.
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* [[Omnicidal Maniac]]: {{spoiler|Hactar. And because of him, also}} the people of Krikkit.
* [[Once For Yes, Twice For No]]: Zaphod makes Eddie do this after gagging him.
* [[Only Known Byby Their Nickname]]: The name Ford Prefect was born with is long since lost in the mists of time. Apparently he couldn't pronounce his own given name, causing his father to die of shame. Before he adopted the Ford Prefect moniker, he was known by the nickname Ix.
** Which means [[Translation: "Yes"|"boy who cannot sufficiently explain what a Hrung is, nor why it should choose to collapse on Betelgeuse Seven."]]
* [[Only Sane Man]]: After being convinced the entire universe is insane, Wonko the Sane built an inside-out house and named it "Outside the Asylum". If the outside of the house is on the "inside", then everything on the outside is also on the "inside" and thus safely contained. (If you know topology, this makes absolutely perfect sense -- see, he told you he was sane.)
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* [[Promoted to Love Interest]]: Trillian in the movie. In the novels, the relationship between Trillian and Arthur is somewhat schizoid -- Arthur had a chance with her at one point before she became involved with Zaphod, but they get [[Ship Tease|Ship Teased]] in ''Life, the Universe, and Everything'', get [[Ship Sinking|sunk]] in ''So Long and Thanks For All the Fish'' when Arthur hooks up with Fenchurch, and actually have a daughter together (via sperm bank) in ''Mostly Harmless''.
* [[Puff of Logic]]: The [[Trope Namer]].
* [[Put Onon a Bus]]: Fenchurch after ''So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish''
* [[Relatively Flimsy Excuse]]: The radio series has a subversion of the 'this autograph isn't for me' variant: "It's not for my daughter, you understand, it's for me." (It turns out to be a ruse to get Zaphod's signature on a contract he'd never have signed voluntarily.)
* [[Riddle for Thethe Ages]]: The Ultimate Question to Life, the Universe and Everything, although there's a hint in ''Life, the Universe and Everything'' that it may be {{spoiler|"Think of a number, any number."}}
* [[Ridiculously-Human Robots]]
* [[Robot Buddy]]: Subverted with Marvin the Paranoid Android, and just about everything made by the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.
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* [[Saw Star Wars 27 Times]]: At one point, [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|Wowbadger the Infinitely Prolonged]] asks his ship computer if there's any movie he '''hasn't''' already seen "over thirty-thousand times."
* [[Science Is Wrong]]
* [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can]]: Krikkit
* [[Second Law, My Ass]]: Marvin is a low-grade version of this trope.
* [[Security Blanket]]: Always know where your towel is.
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* [[Sound Effect Bleep]]: In the radio version of ''Life, The Universe And Everything'', "Most Gratuitous Use of the Word * engine roar* in a Serious Screenplay".
* [[Sound to Screen Adaptation]]
* [[Spanner in Thethe Works]]: The aforementioned Gambit fails because {{spoiler|Arthur is absolutely the ''worst'' cricket bowler ever.}}
* {{spoiler|[[Spared Byby the Adaptation]]: Pretty much all the main characters (yes, that includes Marvin) in the Radio adaptation of ''Mostly Harmless''.}}
* [[Spoiler]]: In-universe example, at the beginning of the missile attack, although this is done ostensibly in order to reduce suspense-induced stress (the narrator says so). It does preserve a minor piece of suspense, however, by not telling us exactly who's arm is bruised.
** See also: Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses.
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* [[Take That]]: Ever wondered why the worst poet in the universe was changed from Paul Neil Milne Johnstone in the radio series to Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings in all other versons? It's because Johnstone was a real poet who was at university with Adams and he complained. The snippet of Paula's poetry seen in the TV series ("The dead swans lay in the stagnant pool...") is a genuine poem that Johnstone wrote.
** He was just "amused" at being called the worst poet in the universe, but he objected to his address being broadcast. So instead of "Beehive Court, Redbridge", Paula lived in "Wasp Villas, Greenbridge". He went on to be quite a successful poet, but he admitted that [[Old Shame|the stuff he wrote as a teenager sucked]].
* [[Talking the Monster Toto Death]]: Marvin does this by accident, by plugging himself into a ships computer and telling it how depressed he is. This also kills two soldiers whose life support is connected to the computer.
** He also talks a tank and a ''bridge'' to death.
*** Although the tank is a subversion, since he actually tricks it into sending itself plunging to its' doom, rather than making it suicidally depressed. The bridge, however, appears to have been intentional.
* [[Tannhauser Gate]]: Mentioned by Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged in [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/And Another Thing|And Another Thing]].
* [[Ted Baxter]]: Zaphod.
* [[Terrain Sculpting]]: Slartibartfast once won an award for his work on the fjords in Norway.
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* [[Widget Series]]: A Western example.
* [[The Wonka]]: Ford Prefect.
* [[Write Back to Thethe Future]]: The towel in the lava flow on prehistoric Earth.
* [[You Can't Go Home Again]]: Because, as has been mentioned, it exploded.
** Doesn't stop them from doing so. Twice.
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[[Category:index]]
[[Category:The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy]]
[[Category:Franchise]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
[[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
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