Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy...

[Connavar]

I've haven't read the book or seen the tv series, nor have I heard the radio play before I watched the movie, but when I saw the film, I became an instant fan. Today, I have seen the tv series and heard the radio play, now I have to read the book.

Its a shame you didnt start with the novel series, thats what Adams is most loved for. Not film,tv series.

Radio i know was earliest.

The books are enough for me and maybe the radio. Film,tv are not Douglas Adams so no interest for me.

 

[Starbeast]

Personally, i love the book and the radio drama. I didn't care much for the film, but that's not to say that it was a bad movie.

I knew they would all be a little different from each other, so I didn't want to compare any of the versions. It wouldn't be fair, because the novel is always better. Like the Lord of the Rings novels, I knew the cartoon, the radio drama and live-action would all be slightly different from one another, but I still like all the versions.

Its a shame you didnt start with the novel series, thats what Adams is most loved for. The books are enough for me and maybe the radio. Film,tv are not Douglas Adams so no interest for me.

It's ok, currently I have been avoiding the all other versions, so I can have a fresh look at the novel. Sometimes it's good to save the best for last.

 

[paranoid marvin]

For once , the novel isn't the best version , it's definately the tv series for me. Brilliant and utterly British - in much the same way that the film wasn't.

I've owned the radio series on CD for several years , but still havent got round to listening to it yet.

Tv series best

Novel great

Film awful

Radio TBC

 

[natalienoo]

The Hitchhiker's film did what Spielberg's War of the Worlds did to me.
I'm sad, angry & depressed with Hollywood's constant need to churn out terrible remakes and adaptations.
Please stop it now.

 

[Rodders]

For once , the novel isn't the best version , it's definately the tv series for me. Brilliant and utterly British - in much the same way that the film wasn't.

I've owned the radio series on CD for several years , but still havent got round to listening to it yet.

Tv series best

Novel great

Film awful

Radio TBC

Make the time, it's well worth it.

 

[blacknorth]

I never liked Hitchhikers, probably because I'd read much of Robert Sheckley's output before discovering it; consequently it all seemed like old hat. I even seem to remember a Sheckley story that featured a suicidally depressed robot...

Having said that, I sat down to watch the film with as much of an open mind as possible. But I didn't even last 20 minutes. It was just horrible, deeply unfunny, poorly acted, loud as hell.

 

[Ursa major]

The radio series will all be the definitive version for me, if only because the special effects are better than those on the TV version.


Having said that, I quite enjoyed the film. I'm usually tolerant about changes between media (although remakes, being directly comparable, have to work hard to gain my approval). That Adams produced different versions for radio, TV and books (and weren't the records not quite the same as the radio version?), makes it all easier to swallow.

 

[MartinJH]

This is a real feel good film for me; it always makes me grin and leaves me in a good mood. It seems to have been made with affection and respect for Douglas and the subject matter. The cast are on the whole great, although while I don’t think Mos Def as Ford Prefect is actually bad, the way he plays Ford there just doesn’t seem to be much there. The makers decided that they couldn’t do Zaphod’s two heads side by side and make it look good, so opted for the double-decker approach instead – which I think works well.

I even enjoy the song! Neil Hannon’s version over the end credits anyway.

I have no problem with it not sticking to a previous version of H2G2. I had to get over that expectation when the books started coming out in the late 1970s and I realised as I read them that they were diverging from the radio series. Since then I have enjoyed all the different versions, and from what I understand the new elements introduced in the film were mostly Douglas’s ideas anyway.

I would still have loved to know what happened next after the end of the second radio series though… It finished with Arthur and Lintilla stealing the Heart of Gold and leaving Ford and Zaphod stranded with the man in the shack. Arthur was finally taking control of his life – and got the girl – then that version of the story just stopped dead. The more recent follow-on series managed to wrestle that plot into something closer to the books by way of a Bobbie-Ewing-shower-scene type plot device for Zaphod, and some talk of parallel universes. But that’s H2G2 for you; you just have to Don’t Panic, go with the flow, and enjoy the ride wherever it takes you.

But if I was to rank the different versions then first is the radio (all 5 series), then books, film, and way way behind the rest is the TV series. I was always disappointed with this, mostly due to the creaky low budget feel. As they say the effects are always better on the radio and I really couldn’t see the point of transferring it to TV unless you could make it look as good as the radio sounded (which was groundbreaking for its time).

Martin