Don't be sorry It was already rejected by broader scientific community as true answer Don't be sad , works are in progress as to establish the only true answer whitch might be even the the most recent factual quantity measured of likes under that video at the time of the inquary being answered As improbable as it is
@zimriel It's true Unless you happen to eat at a nice restaurant/bistro Then the answer is a simple quantum multiplication of this superposition, whatever you expect from the answer and whatever is on the bill given by the waiter at the end of the end of the evening Of course whenever it could be considered an "evening well spent " , "dull excuse for something that can be shared and enjoyed " or "waste of time, space, life , intelligence , taste ,smell , touch, hearing, food , drinks , garlic bread , fortune cookies, little croutons, and or any other type of appetizer that could be served or be waiting to be served you and your closest friends (depending in which sector, of which galaxy, in whatever dimension you're convinced yourself to be living in )" must be also taken into account together with whatever is considered an leading example in field of physical constants , in terms of being constant , at the time.
It should be noted that John Lloyd co-wrote episodes five and six of the original radio series. (He also narrated the Hexagonal Phase.) Douglas later decided to remove and rewrite that material for the novels and other adaptations, but considering that the radio series was the original version and that was the version the great Dirk Maggs expanded upon, it feels like John Lloyd's contributions should still be recognized. Personally, I would rather hear a continuation of the Dirk Gently radio series that Dirk Maggs was working on before he was unceremoniously removed from the project. The thing about fictional work like H2G2 is that it isn't so much a matter of should an adaptation or continuation happen, it's when. Someday the work will enter the public domain, and they won't even need permission from anyone to do what they want with the story. How good they are and how well they're remembered will be up to the audience. I think a Hulu adaptation that follows the revisions made by Dirk Maggs could work. I don't hate the 2005 film, but I think H2G2 is at its best when things are able to play out at a slower, more episodic pace. A Hulu series could mimic elements of the other versions in ways the film couldn't, simply because the narrative doesn't need to be wrapped up in one sit for a period under two hours. I think that Arthur's Earth should probably remain in the late 70s or early 80s period. I don't think a version of Arthur that lives in the present would be nearly as impressed by Ford's electronic book.
The only way The Guide could work with modern technology is for it to be an app. Ford would have to download it into Arthur's phone and "Don't Panic" would be on the thumbnail. I think keeping the 70s setting is probably a better idea.
I think John Lloyd gets a larger-than-usual shoutout in Restaurant At The End Of The Universe’s acknowledgments because of that, IIRC. Most of episode 5 of the radio show is still in the second book - I don’t know if there was a strict dividing line between whose material was whose in the Milliways scenes.
In regards to the story changing from telling to telling, I've never seen something brought up. Back in the 90s when I went to meet Douglas Adams at a book store promotional tour for "Starship Titanic", someone asked him why it was different form telling to telling. His answer was basically "How boring would that be? You've already heard that story." It seemed that he liked changing it up each time so that there was always something new to learn about the story and the characters. While I am finding out that people didn't take well to the movie because it was not exactly the book, I never had a problem with the changes Adams made in the movie because it just seemed to be part of the way HHGTTG is. I did think you missed some things in the movie however if you never read the book. Likewise, I may have missed something because at the time I saw it I had never listened to the radio show. I may have to watch it again soon.
Thank you very much. I did not know about the additional radio work and will now have to go find them. I was a huge fan of Douglas and his humor made this something very unique and I absolutely cannot see a Modern writer taking up the pen and creating. I'm much happier sticking with what Douglas Created. I am though a special fan of so long and loved the romance. Fenchurch holds a very special place in my heart and I hated how she was "lost". I'm going to look forward to her radio resuscitation.
There were two video games developed by Douglas Adams in the 80s, one obviously riffing off the existing material (Hitchhikers text adventure) and one that was completely original called "Bureaucracy"'. If you played either you would never have guessed that Adams barely wrote a word of them, and that they were mostly written by Steve Meretzky. I would argue that unlike Eoin, he may have done a reasonable job of emulating Adams's style.
Had no I idea that Adams didn't write it. They should have had Meretzky write the last book, he even could have had the time then (I have no idea what he's done since the game days of yore).
I feel as though I'm in the minority when I find the ending of Mostly Harmless the best way to have tied things up. Of course I miss Douglas Adams, and of course, had he been around to continue the story himself, I would have been thrilled to have it, but there's part of me, even so, which wonders whether even in his hands, it might have felt forced. There IS a certain peace in everything finally coming full circle for Arthur. I was introduced to the world of HHGTTG when visiting cousins in England in, I guess it would have been 1978 or 1979 - the TV series had just come out, and even though I only got to see the first couple of episodes at the time, I was entranced, and bought the book(s) (I believe there were two of them at the time, though it might only have been the original) right away, accumulating the sequels as they were released. I was completely smitten and obsessed with them to the point that pretty much everything in my life somehow found a way to connect with some quote, plot twist, or other aspect of the books. I never read And Another Thing, as the whole concept just felt wrong, so I appreciate the spoiler - I tend to have a very visceral reaction to things which are set up to be something other than what they turn out to be, so it would have devastated me. Anyway, point being that while I can't say that I didn't find the ending of Mostly Harmless a bit depressing (as was a lot of the entire book, in all honesty), it really grew on me in multiple reads. I can't resist re-reading most things a number of times, and Douglas Adams' use of language makes it as much of a joy to revisit his books as it is to listen to a beloved piece of music time and time again. And while it is undeniably much darker in tone than the previous books, that doesn't necessarily detract from its value. Music written in a minor key may have even more impact than something upbeat. The ending just feel right to me.
I agree! I read the books when I was around 12 and when I finished them I was desperate to find some alternate ending to Mostly Harmless (eventually I found the radio show) so I was pretty excited about And Another Thing, even if I objected to its existence. But before I read it I caught myself thinking that the best way for Arthur's story to wrap up in AAT would be for him to just die and be at peace. It took me a minute to realize I was actively asking for the ending that had already happened, which I hated. That's when I realized that Mostly Harmless wasn't such a bad ending after all. I still think it's a pretty logical way to end Arthur's story, but I'm glad we also have the radio show for a shot of pure satisfying sappiness
I haven't read And Another Thing, but I'm not against the "it was all a simulation" angle. I remember it bothering me that in book two that Zaphod entered a virtual universe by leaving an office through a window instead of the door but I'm pretty sure he never actually climbed back through that window again to exit it. He also had the rest of the crew in a miniturised heart of gold in his pocket so noone but Zaphod was aware they all entered a virtual universe.
The Quintessential phase ending is what I consider to be the “canon” one lol. I don’t think the 6th book fit very much with the rest of the books and the characterizations were off (especially of Zaphod and Ford), but it was still fun to listen to most of the original cast play it in the Hexagonal phase haha. It felt like fanfiction and when I read it that’s what I considered it to be, but hey a novel length fanfiction is pretty good. For the question at the end- My main issue with adaptations is the possibility that they would overshadow the original like the movie did. Most people who are familiar with thhgttg have only watched the movie and the story and themes just don’t fit into the Hollywood format no matter what you do honestly. (Though when I meet someone who only knows the movie I always take the opportunity to introduce them to the radio series and books lol) Though I kind of like that not many people know about it and it makes it more meaningful when you do find other fans. I’m kind of hoping the series was cancelled but at the same time I don’t want the hitchhikers guide to be lost to new generations. I guess the question is are we willing to sacrifice it for new adaptations that likely won’t capture what Adams did, or are we willing to let it die away as the the story falls more into obscurity. Part of me does want people to write more books in the series because I’m so sad it’s over. Its one of my autistic special interests and I love anything related to it even if it isn’t the same. Maybe we should leave that to actual fanfiction writers though because they don’t claim theirs to be part of the actual series.
The Quintessential Phase ending was absolutely perfect, and best of all, it was mapped out by Adams himself. I do hope Hulu never makes their show and it's sad that fewer people know about Hitchhiker's as the years go on, but it doesn't have to compete with major pop culture franchises. We can just let it be a classic book series (and radio show, for those who know) and I think (hope) future generations will find and enjoy it just like any other older series.
I think something about the idea that Mostly Harmless isn't really the true ending and was planned to be expanded upon lends itself to fanfiction pretty well. It is really sad that that expansion was never made but at least it still has life
I just finished mostly harmless after greedily consuming the whole series after I started hitchhikers on a whim. Thank you for the super well done video that helped give me some kind of closure and perspective on the ending. I think personally, I will skip and another thing. It just doesn't feel right. And frankly, as bleak and sad as it is, I thoroughly enjoy the vision of Ford laughing hysterically during the surrounding chaos before they are gone forever. I think I can live with that. Even if he lost it, Arthur had adventure, he had love, he had friends (maybe), he had purpose even if it was just making exquisite sandwiches, and at the end of one hell of a ride, he is at peace.
I discovered Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy through the TV series all the way back in 1982. I was in the Air Force on a base in Mississippi. It lead me to the books and I became one of those rabid fans waiting for the next installment. I read about the radio show in some kind of science fiction fanzine whose name I can't remember, but never got a hold of it until a comic convention in 1998. And I didn't know about "And Another Thing" until I discovered this video which came across my feed today. Here's the thing. I don't really care if other writers took on these characters. If it's good great. If it isn't, well the writer isn't Douglas Adams. Oh, and I'm not a fan of the movie. While it deviated from the books and radio show, the problem for me was it didn't present itself in a way for the non-fans to get it. I saw it with my best friend who is not a science fiction reader nor barely heard of Hitchhiker's Guide, and I could tell some of the references in the movie confused him. Because Hitchhikers is a very specific thing. My feeling for any future projects is this - The books will always exist. The TV show is available and will always exist. The radio series will always exist. Nothing can change that. Nothing can take away from that. They are a very singular experience that Douglas Adams fans will understand, and still available for future Douglas Fans. So let any writer who thinks they can make future stories based on these characters do what they will. Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy will always live exactly as they are, and that my friends, is AWESOME to the MAX. By the way, no one has written fan fiction based on Hitchhiker's? That pretty weird. I thought there was a sort of rule 34 about these sort of things when it comes of fan fiction. Or in the case of Hitchhiker's, a rule 42.
Doug did have a very particular view of the world. Incredibly intellectual, and slightly depressed. Almost Shakespearian in the bending of words and their root meanings. or inverse meanings. No one else could really see that flying is really just throwing oneself at the ground and missing. It takes a deep understanding of physics and gravity and matter density to see how true that really is.
Appreciate using movies as time milestones :) I think I enjoyed the radio version I heard the most, the television version had the best arc in my view, if much shorter than many others, with the visual Encyclopedia entries being stand out features. I did see the movie. The books were my first exposure I think, and there was some nice detail in them, but I remember the continuity sometimes bugging me a bit, and as I read the later books it felt like he was running out of energy, I guess the behind the scene story seems to back this up. He collaborated with others throughout a lot of these, too
It was said that Eron Culfer and another thing... Used materials Adams had been working on so I'd put it next to the movie as far as closeness to the original material.
Eoin has specifically said that while he knew there were notes Adams left behind, he didn't use them. AAT is completely an Eoin creation. He didn't want people to think the good bits were Douglas' and bad bits were his, or that he'd ruined Douglas' notes.
As a long time fan of THHGTTG (over 40 years), having been introduced to it by a good friend who's birthday was March 11, 1954 (Douglas Adams 2nd birthday), I have read over again the five original novels, plus "And Another Thing." I have also watched several times over the BBC TV series, plus listened to the record (or was it the recorded radio version) with my afore mentioned friend. I've never seen the movie version, though. When I read "And Another Thing" one thing I kept in mind was that wasn't written by Adams. I gave the author the opportunity to build the story his way, which I think was better than if he tried to copy Adams style. As a result, I was able to enjoy the novel despite it not being in the style of Adams. Do I want to see further adaptations of the series, I don't know. Sometimes it's best to let things end where they are. Look at the attempts to restart the Pink Panther movies without Peter Sellers. He was Inspector Clouseau, and seeing another actor trying to portray that character just reminds me that it isn't him. The same thing can be said about future attempts with THHGTTG. It'll never be the same without having Douglas Adams behind it, no matter how well meaning the author wants to be.
Well said. I like the 2005 movie but even written by Adams it didn't have the same heart to it. Very American and very streamlined. I would love a faithful film series but it would have to be perfect. A bit issue is you can't do better than Simon Jones for Arthur, since Arthur was literally based on him.
@@ricotalksI personally think any film adaptation is doomed to fail. I say this because THHGTG doesn’t really fit into a conventional three act structure. It’s more a series of more or less connected adventures. It has a concrete beginning and end, but no one narrative throughline filling in the middle. And I think that’s what helps make it so special and engaging, but it does not translate as an 90-minute adaptation at all. At this point, the series really should be left to rest on its own. I think people forget there’s already SO many hitchhiker adaptations. The books, the radio show, the tv series, the movie, the comic book, and the video game. Remaking any of those things would be essentially redundant.
I haven't and probably won't listen to the 6th series. I shed tears at the end of the 5th, having had THHGTTG as a part of my life since I was a kid 40 years ago. The 1st series was for me one of those things that kids watch or listen to on repeat. I think the mistake that was made was to take the last story out of the Hitchhiker's family. It isn't strictly true to say that Adams was the only writer. Simon Jones said that they got through the firstt series without a finished script, scribbling lines on bits of paper and John Lloyd is credited as a writer on some episodes. It seems to me that a more fitting end would have been to get Jones, Lloyd, and his other Cambridge mates to finish repurposing Adams' last book, as he'd intended.
definitely would've been better than letting a whole new author take the reins for sure. Personally I would've preferred no sixth book at all after Adams died. The sixth series is better than the sixth book because it does a better job of respecting the originals but it does totally bulldoze the perfect ending of the fifth.
I used to read the 5 book series every winter break during my highschool and college years in the 90s. I never had any interest in the sixth book. I also heard the original radio series from Napster. I had no idea about the new BBC Radio series. I'll continue to ignore the new book, and will check out the new radio shows.
I feel as though the origional ending while it was regrettable, did a good job of telling not the story itsself but the story of Douglas Adams. Re-reading it and being dissatisfied is what pushed me to delve deeper and learn more about a series I loved for years but just never thought to look deeper into. If more is made, and it is respectfully and well made by someone like Hulu whoever then I feel that it is a fulfillment of that wish Adam's had to give it a better ending and I'm sure if he were still around he would be happy knowing that his fans are getting what they want and are happy without his treasured work being a burden on him. I loved the 2005 movie and the Radio play production and so if Hulu does right I'll be happy too and will still always have those origional stories that evoked so many questions that gave my brain something to chew on.
I think so much of the radio show and novels were influenced by Adams's particular strain of clinical depression that it would be hard to recreate the same general vibe in the modern day with modern creators, but if this Hulu thing is really happening all we can do is hope that they're true to his original feelings
A well thought through piece.👍 Having only really read the books, after the number of other occasions Arthur and Company were in danger and the Babel fish did nothing to save them (how inconsiderate!), even the new ending to the Fifth instalment seemed a leap too far, but could explain how they survived the exploding computer on Magrathea in the first Radio series, again by landing up at Milliways?🤔 Haven't read or heard the Sixth installment, not yet anyway (I'd read a plot synposis already, you didn't give away anything I didn't already know!), but I don't rellish the idea of it either.😕
if you need more Hitchhiker's in your life, you might give And Another Thing a try. Eoin Colfer at least has some shade of the original Adams humor. I just can't get over the audacity of its existence. And good point, did they ever mention why an exploding computer sent them forward in time?
I enjoyed 'And Another Thing...' but the idea that HHG is only genuine HHG if it's written by DNA himself is exactly the kind of fetishisation that drove DNA away from the series in the first place. There were 18 episodes of 'Dirk Gently' and I don't see many people moaning about whether 16 of them shouldn't exist because they weren't written by DNA himself.
Everybody can write new Sherlock Holmes stuff--- just wait 50 more years until the copyrights run out, then who knows how much new Hitchhiker tales with proliferate.
I don’t know that I would want to read And Another Thing; I don’t remember knowing it even existed. I stretched out my reading of the series from about 1980/81 when I joined the Science Fiction Book Club until 1998 several years after it was finished with no spoilers from anyone. I’ve read how reading Immanuel Kant derailed the mental world of the author Heinrich von Kleist and though Mostly Harmless didn’t hit me quite that hard, it was a brutal punch to the chest. All along I had thought that Arthur and Earth were going to survive but I was mistaken. I felt the impact strongly for months.
Starship Titanic itself denies the canonicity link, with a specific-as-it-gets purpose-built rejection when you make an inquiry to the chat bot about the other universe’s builder of the ship. It’s absolutely tongue in cheek, but it’s also absolutely unequivocal. You could still try to draw the parallels, due to the vague fun similarities of Douglas Adams’s creations. And that’s fine. But in-universe, the name is the same and that’s all. It has about the same level of link as the Kylie Minogue episode of Doctor Who with the Titantic spaceship. Same vibes, but that’s all.
I'm not sure i'm a fan of the movie adaptation route. i do think i like the movie as it's own thing though. I think i liked Hitchiker's more as a TV series mode with more time to breath. Like 1 season per book or saga or whatever you want to call it. i haven't seen anything about that Hulu series in...quite sometime. I think I'm cautiously curious while hiding behind a very large rock as far as a US adaptation. But I still want to see it. the show was kind of a big part of my sense of self at a young age. i think i have roller coaster feelings about the radio series as I came across them. But I'm glad they radio program exists as it does with all the cynical insanity i guess u would call it. But I'm glad Arthur found a happy ending with Fenchurch in that house on the beach. I know you said that this was like a bittersweet ending and all that. But I think i choose that as one of he happier endings as a bit where they still did stuff later on together after the credits rolled and stuff. And had one of those My Neighbors The Yamadas kind of outcomes in a cosmic sense. crazy and bad stuff, but overall happy. or something like that. i think to me Arthur Dent hits me so much is becasue to me, he's like the space version of Charlie Chaplin. little cynical, looking for that sense of stability and happiness. looses it, but having all kinds of ups, downs, and diagonal 4th dimensional slides out of nowhere. also i think as far as those endings and stuff, I think i turn them on and off in my mind depending on my mood and what i want to go through. and for the OOOFIER, parts, I think i always try to keep the later happier ones in mind when the more sadder endings get me and stuff.
Dude you have no idea how And Another Thing felt to me 😭 I was in the middle of a depressive episode and H2G2 was a comfort to me, but then I finished Mostly Harmless. I was very put off by the indication that Arthur was better off dead than going through life in an uncaring universe and it lowkey felt like i was being told that I was better off dead myself, and that everyone is. So I was hopeful for And Another Thing. Didn't care much for most of it but I was just happy that they were all alive and sorta happy at the end... but I couldn't even have that in my novel length fanfiction bro 😭🙏 bawled my eyes out at the audacity, because even though Mostly Harmless is bleak, at least it was written by DA. It was still a good book and now that I'm past my depression over it, I can appreciate how well it was weaved together. It really was well crafted even if it ended badly. But And Another Thing doesn't have that. The ending wasn't carefully woven into the story, it was literally just the author saying "AND ANOTHER THING... fuck you! you wanted Arthur to be happy? 🤣 nah"
Oh my god I knowwwww, like wasn't the point of AAT to change the tragic ending of MH? Not that anyone else should have tried to overwrite Adams but the least he could have done was fulfilled the purpose of a sixth book and given them a satisfying conclusion. the sixth season of the radio show had a slightly nicer ending than the book, Arthur did end up back on the beach but Fenchurch and Marvin were there.
...I read Mostly Dreadful (harmless) when it came out and it was the most harmful thing to my creative life outside my mother keeping me from art school. I didn't know an author could be so disrespectful to a character that he and everyone seemed to love. These modern developments are somehow even worse. Every dead horse I see is wearing pretty thin from all the whacking. 😢
I hated And Another Thing, as it just didn't feel like Douglas. I loved the bitter ending of Mostly Harmless that ties into the Agrajag story line, and found that it was the only satisfying way to really end it (although i do personally like endings where everyone dies). As for the radio series, i never did listen to the hexagonal phase, but found the new ending in the previous phase to be a little sickly sweet for my tastes. I wish they'd all put this energy into an accurate for-screen translation of Dirk Gently instead. Those two (and a bit) novels are packed with otherwise unadapted Adamsness, and the ending to Long Dark Teatime could really use some expanded fleshing out. Considering that the first novel is a reworked unused Doctor Who script, i don't know why adaptations shy away from directly showing the entire story, Electric Monks and ghosts and all. Thanks for the video.
Agreed, they've never done Dirk Gently quite right. And sickly sweet is a good way to describe the ending of phase five, but man did I love it when I first heard it. I also love ending where everyone dies but man it was rough reading Mostly Harmless at age twelve. Either way, at least the Quintessential Phase had Adams's posthumous approval, unlike And Another Thing
As for Dirk Gently - I think its a better foundation for third party continuations than HHGTTG - both novels resolved their stories and left the field open for further episodic adventures that didn't spoil the books. Consequently, the parts of the adaptations I liked least were the first episode of the BBC4 version that *was* kinda-sorta based on the first novel, and Netflix trying to create a new secret lab backstory for Dirk. I can see studio bosses not trusting audiences to follow the plots of the novels (inc. doing their homework on Coleridge) too. Also... the "unused" Doctor Who scripts aren't really so unused - "Shada" has been patched together and released on various media, and another significant plot element was lifted directly from "City of Death" which was very much "used". It's also pretty obvious that one character is supposed to be a retired Time Lord and the time machine is his TARDIS - so the rights issues might be hairy.
I don't agree with you about Colfer's contribution and I don't think your reasoning is valid (i.e. Nobody can write H2G2 except Adams because nobody can write H2G2 except Adams because nobody etc etc) . I think he did a fantastic job. Salmon of doubt is one of the few books I've ever thrown across a room. As someone who once could quote the whole first four books 'off the page,' - It was crap and Adams thought so, too. The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul/Thor/Gently loop was clever and why not expand on a minor character? I'm entirely happy for more Colfer or even other writers having a go.
Great video. I am very confused. (I've only watched part of the TV show and i havent read the books, only listened and not rlly paying attention and I now need more information... This is going to be a BIG rabbit hole, isn't it
I was disappointed by a fair bit of his later work. I'm just fine sticking with the early stuff and listening/watching/reading that over and over again.
What about Star Trek? Gene Roddenberry died in 1991. So he died before they made Deep Space 9, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, Kelvin timeline movies, Strange new worlds...Some of those shouldn't have been made. But if no one continued the work that Gene Roddenberry started, then we wouldn't have gotten so much awesome stuff. Some one once said: After an artist releases their art to the word, its no longer theirs. I do kinda like your idea, don't touch some one elses stuff. But then we wouldn't have gotten Loony tunes, or Scooby doo, No mickey either. Since their original creators haven't worked on those shows for years if not decades. I feel like thats why we got the Comic movies, no more original ideas. Then the reboots after they realized we were tired of super heroes too.
I see your point, but I wouldn't consider Roddenberry the same thing. I know Adams had the whole BBC behind him but he wrote the radio show mostly on his own, and he went on to write the novels himself. I think a better comparison would be if GRRM left instructions on how to finish A Song of Ice and Fire, but after another writer finished the books for him, someone else came in and started writing new spin offs.
I want a TH-cam video (preferably from you - you’re good) that follows the long bow of canon between Dirk Gently and Class (Doctor Who), via Oolon Coluphid and The Timeless Child. They are opposite corners of a fictional universe that nevertheless exists in a “primary” timeline or canon that is defined as on-screen or on TV. (I could never make it through the newer American version of Dirk Gently and wouldn’t mind having you spoil that for me so I can go back and watch it maybe) (I suppose the same holds true for the Australian K-9 series but I tried, I really tried) “Douglian spin” haha
This is the true canon ending: th-cam.com/video/tUlHepevCEI/w-d-xo.html Just as you can ignore every episode of the Skywalker Saga after _Episode VI,_ because they were not the product of their visionary creator, the same applies to these works which were not the product of Douglas Nathan Adams. The writing just lacks his inimitable DNA.
I'm not sure I agree with the idea that "And Another Thing" shouldn't exist without Adams even if he wrote an identical story. I did find "And Another Thing" to be heavier on the plot, but I also struggled through some of the later Hitchikers books with the extra focus on romance and the loss of characters: it felt like it all got quite 'muddy' and of course had a downbeat ending. The Radio series are much more enjoyable for me, and hearing more of their adventures will always be a positive. The question about more stories for me is: can it still continue and be funny? I struggled with the film as I felt Arthur wasn't sarcastic enough, and it skipped a lot of what I enjoyed from the radio series and early books. It was quite disappointing for me to learn that it was closely based on Adam's screenplay. The combination of Adams and Dirk Maggs seems to be the sweet spot, tempering the many convoluted events into a more solid plot while keeping the comedic feel, meaning my favourite interpretation is based on a story by the author but heavily filtered through the adapter!
In this current craze of making live action versions of aninated properties, I actually think the best way to make a current adaptation of HHGTTG would be an animated show, definitely without the awful pseudo Family Guy style they love to force on American animated sitcoms. If anything, I think the studio that made the recent Dead Cells show here on YT would be perfect for it. And each book would fit well in the current formar of 10 episode seasons.
"Should Hitchhiker's Guide be franchised out into a larger universe of overlapping stories written by multiple authors?" Nope, it wasn't written that way, and the original author is no longer with us. Anything written in said universe after Douglas' demise is nothing more than fanfiction to me. However, there's a series of books where a somewhat similar approach is something I'd really love to see: Stephen King's "The Dark Tower". Stop reading here if you haven't finished the series yet, as I'm going to SPOIL THE END, and by extension, the entire series. You've been warned. Still here? OK, here goes: at the end of the series, we learn that this isn't the first time Roland makes the trip. In Groundhog Day fashion, his progress gets reset after finishing his quest "incorrectly", and some alterations are made to aid him in the next cycle. E.g. after this loop, everything is the same as before, except he still has the Horn of Eld. The story ends where it began. And this is a perfect opportunity to hand it over to a new writer who King trusts to, first and foremost, do the story and the themes justice. And second, to appoint another writer to take over after he's finished with the story, who he trusts to also do these same two things. The Dark Tower could be a series passed on from writer to writer, each adding their own personal style and insights, and each linking it to the rest of their own works perhaps.
I would LOVE to see a TV adaptation of the dark tower, possibly set in the next loop (as the movie claimed to be). Idk if you'd be interested in this but I'm planning on doing a series on my other channel where I plot out TV shows I wish would be made, and the dark tower is one of the ones I plan on doing soon
@@ricotalks Yeah, if they're going to film it, it would make more sense as a series. Possibly an animated one, since filming would take so long that your actors (especially Jake's actor) would visibly age. And if they must go with a movie instead, treat it like the new Dune movies: commit to telling the whole story, spread over multiple movies. I'm not fond of the idea of doing different loops in movie/series format before that becomes an established thing with the books though. There's no good way to convey the idea that it's a different loop, and it would just look like any other book adaptation that fails to follow the source material. In a book, this can be addressed in the foreword, and you can safely assume your readers will have read the original books. In a movie, you could have the narration (either narrator or on-screen text) explain it at the beginning, but most of your audience will be unfamiliar with the source material and feel like you just spoiled their ending. At least, that's how I feel about it. I'll check out your other channel. Thanks.
Love hitch hikers guide to the galaxy? Looking for something that is just as crazy, surreal, off the wall & SF comedy? I highly recommend the german TV show: “ Ijon Tichy: Raumpilot” which is based on Star dairies and other books by Stanislaw Lem! I Can’t express how brilliant it is, it’s more hitch hikers than hitch hikers itself ! Stanislaw Lem is a genius with these crazy SF comedy tall stories, I’d argue Ijon Tichy is better, And should be more known in the west. 😎😎😎👍👍👍👍
Honestly, I don't think Adams could write as well as Adams. Starting with the second book, the constant cycle of "oh here's the real truth behind everything that turns out to be nothing" wears quite thin. Besides that, it's a lot of messy and dangling loose ends, and incoherent themes. I still adore those books, but it does feel in the sequels that Adams was chasing the high of the first story but failing to grasp it.
Yeahhhh I definitely see what you're saying. I have to read them again to refresh but there was definitely an element of listlessness. I liked how the third one was just a standalone adventure (since it was based on a Doctor Who story). I love series with overarching stories but there didn't seem to be much of one in Hitchhiker's. The radio show pulled that off better with Zarniwoop/Van Harl and the vogons.
I disagree with this take, TBH. I don't think the only person who could write a Hitch-Hiker's property is Adams. But I do think that And Another Thing was definitely not it, and Colfer was probably not the person for the job. The thing is that a lot of people - Colfer included, it seems - think of Hitch-Hiker's a wacky adventure with lots of zany jokes. But what it actually was, for the most part, was satire. It was *about* things. Politics, philosophy, mathematics, physics, ecology, computing...all kinds of things. And it could be serious and angry and sad. And Another Thing isn't. It's a greatest hits package trying to shoehorn in every minor character to ever have been in the series. It's not about anything. It's got no depth whatsoever. It's everything from the surface without anything else. So you don't just need *a* author, you need the *right* author. I'm thinking someone like Stephen Fry or Richard Osmand. I can't say for sure, because I've not read any of their books, but both are funny people who are broadly knowledgeable and who could take the things that Adams was interested in and cared about and actually have something to say about them. *That's* what's needed. You don't need to bring Marvin back or Zaphod. Adams did perfectly well without them. What you need to do is to have something interesting to say and push that to its absurdist limit and see where that takes you. Also, The Salmon Of Doubt has a small snippet that Adams wrote with Zaphod. I've always wondered why that wasn't used as a jumping-off point.
My opinion: art stops belonging to the artist as soon as it leaves their head and enters the physical world. In fact, art shouldn't belong to anyone, not the creator's family, not the rights holders, not even the fans, it should be free, monetarily AND spiritually. In an age of internet, there is no reason to pay for digitally reproducible media like novels or radio plays. The creators should get money, sure, but that should come from donations not a paywall. In similar sense, no work should ever be the creator's work. Everyone should be able to make sequels and retellings for anything. What people truly love or hate isn't the creator's vision for their world, it's often different from what actually makes it to the page, but the reader's own interpretation of the incomplete version of that vision, which is why the original creator doesn't matter; we ourselves are the co-creators of any media we consume by us interpreting the events and filling in the blanks, which is why you can't watch the same movie twice: it will be a slightly different movie each time you watch it.
A bad take. Authorial voice is significant because the care of craft is unique and provides a direct connection between the author and the reader. To devalue that connection is to devalue both the intimacy of the author/reader relationship and the worth of craft, the actual shaping of narrative which makes it meaningful. If you blow out an IP to its characters and setting, you're refusing to see the forest because it's full of all these neato trees.
Hard fact, Americans *cannot* make media out of true British comedy! Many countless examples of this, like the American version of red dwarf! An American version will always be a disappointing disaster!! 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤯🤯🤯🤯🤡🤡🤡🤡🌍🌍🌍🌍
Which is a bit ironic given that Red Dwarf could be so easily be mistaken for a British version of John Carpenter's "Dark Star"... Apparently, the US tried to remake "Spaced" as well, with predictable results... Oh, and now we can add "Time Bandits" to the hall of shame!
@@hanniffydinn6019 It's different, but hardly a "disappointing disaster". Same goes for "House of Cards" (Kev1n Sp@cey is a disappointing disaster but the show wasn't).
I'm sorry you were at 42 likes and I didn't notice it until I also clicked like. I'm a dick.
lmaooo
Don't be sorry
It was already rejected by broader scientific community as true answer
Don't be sad , works are in progress as to establish the only true answer whitch might be even the the most recent factual quantity measured of likes under that video at the time of the inquary being answered
As improbable as it is
@@kwartylion8134 The answer is pi and e.
They're in superposition, like a quantum state.
@zimriel
It's true
Unless you happen to eat at a nice restaurant/bistro
Then the answer is a simple quantum multiplication of this superposition, whatever you expect from the answer and whatever is on the bill given by the waiter at the end of the end of the evening
Of course whenever it could be considered an "evening well spent " , "dull excuse for something that can be shared and enjoyed " or "waste of time, space, life , intelligence , taste ,smell , touch, hearing, food , drinks , garlic bread , fortune cookies, little croutons, and or any other type of appetizer that could be served or be waiting to be served you and your closest friends (depending in which sector, of which galaxy, in whatever dimension you're convinced yourself to be living in )" must be also taken into account together with whatever is considered an leading example in field of physical constants , in terms of being constant , at the time.
AM, you are hereby officially banned from the Douglas Adams fandom forever
I just finished mostly harmless and just knew that wasn’t how he meant for it to end. thank you
It should be noted that John Lloyd co-wrote episodes five and six of the original radio series. (He also narrated the Hexagonal Phase.) Douglas later decided to remove and rewrite that material for the novels and other adaptations, but considering that the radio series was the original version and that was the version the great Dirk Maggs expanded upon, it feels like John Lloyd's contributions should still be recognized. Personally, I would rather hear a continuation of the Dirk Gently radio series that Dirk Maggs was working on before he was unceremoniously removed from the project. The thing about fictional work like H2G2 is that it isn't so much a matter of should an adaptation or continuation happen, it's when. Someday the work will enter the public domain, and they won't even need permission from anyone to do what they want with the story. How good they are and how well they're remembered will be up to the audience. I think a Hulu adaptation that follows the revisions made by Dirk Maggs could work. I don't hate the 2005 film, but I think H2G2 is at its best when things are able to play out at a slower, more episodic pace. A Hulu series could mimic elements of the other versions in ways the film couldn't, simply because the narrative doesn't need to be wrapped up in one sit for a period under two hours. I think that Arthur's Earth should probably remain in the late 70s or early 80s period. I don't think a version of Arthur that lives in the present would be nearly as impressed by Ford's electronic book.
The only way The Guide could work with modern technology is for it to be an app. Ford would have to download it into Arthur's phone and "Don't Panic" would be on the thumbnail.
I think keeping the 70s setting is probably a better idea.
I think John Lloyd gets a larger-than-usual shoutout in Restaurant At The End Of The Universe’s acknowledgments because of that, IIRC. Most of episode 5 of the radio show is still in the second book - I don’t know if there was a strict dividing line between whose material was whose in the Milliways scenes.
In regards to the story changing from telling to telling, I've never seen something brought up. Back in the 90s when I went to meet Douglas Adams at a book store promotional tour for "Starship Titanic", someone asked him why it was different form telling to telling. His answer was basically "How boring would that be? You've already heard that story." It seemed that he liked changing it up each time so that there was always something new to learn about the story and the characters. While I am finding out that people didn't take well to the movie because it was not exactly the book, I never had a problem with the changes Adams made in the movie because it just seemed to be part of the way HHGTTG is. I did think you missed some things in the movie however if you never read the book. Likewise, I may have missed something because at the time I saw it I had never listened to the radio show. I may have to watch it again soon.
Thank you very much. I did not know about the additional radio work and will now have to go find them. I was a huge fan of Douglas and his humor made this something very unique and I absolutely cannot see a Modern writer taking up the pen and creating. I'm much happier sticking with what Douglas Created. I am though a special fan of so long and loved the romance. Fenchurch holds a very special place in my heart and I hated how she was "lost". I'm going to look forward to her radio resuscitation.
There were two video games developed by Douglas Adams in the 80s, one obviously riffing off the existing material (Hitchhikers text adventure) and one that was completely original called "Bureaucracy"'. If you played either you would never have guessed that Adams barely wrote a word of them, and that they were mostly written by Steve Meretzky. I would argue that unlike Eoin, he may have done a reasonable job of emulating Adams's style.
Had no I idea that Adams didn't write it. They should have had Meretzky write the last book, he even could have had the time then (I have no idea what he's done since the game days of yore).
I think... I think, I feel good about it.
Never made it off the damn plane.
I feel as though I'm in the minority when I find the ending of Mostly Harmless the best way to have tied things up. Of course I miss Douglas Adams, and of course, had he been around to continue the story himself, I would have been thrilled to have it, but there's part of me, even so, which wonders whether even in his hands, it might have felt forced. There IS a certain peace in everything finally coming full circle for Arthur.
I was introduced to the world of HHGTTG when visiting cousins in England in, I guess it would have been 1978 or 1979 - the TV series had just come out, and even though I only got to see the first couple of episodes at the time, I was entranced, and bought the book(s) (I believe there were two of them at the time, though it might only have been the original) right away, accumulating the sequels as they were released. I was completely smitten and obsessed with them to the point that pretty much everything in my life somehow found a way to connect with some quote, plot twist, or other aspect of the books.
I never read And Another Thing, as the whole concept just felt wrong, so I appreciate the spoiler - I tend to have a very visceral reaction to things which are set up to be something other than what they turn out to be, so it would have devastated me.
Anyway, point being that while I can't say that I didn't find the ending of Mostly Harmless a bit depressing (as was a lot of the entire book, in all honesty), it really grew on me in multiple reads. I can't resist re-reading most things a number of times, and Douglas Adams' use of language makes it as much of a joy to revisit his books as it is to listen to a beloved piece of music time and time again. And while it is undeniably much darker in tone than the previous books, that doesn't necessarily detract from its value. Music written in a minor key may have even more impact than something upbeat. The ending just feel right to me.
I agree! I read the books when I was around 12 and when I finished them I was desperate to find some alternate ending to Mostly Harmless (eventually I found the radio show) so I was pretty excited about And Another Thing, even if I objected to its existence. But before I read it I caught myself thinking that the best way for Arthur's story to wrap up in AAT would be for him to just die and be at peace. It took me a minute to realize I was actively asking for the ending that had already happened, which I hated. That's when I realized that Mostly Harmless wasn't such a bad ending after all. I still think it's a pretty logical way to end Arthur's story, but I'm glad we also have the radio show for a shot of pure satisfying sappiness
I haven't read And Another Thing, but I'm not against the "it was all a simulation" angle. I remember it bothering me that in book two that Zaphod entered a virtual universe by leaving an office through a window instead of the door but I'm pretty sure he never actually climbed back through that window again to exit it. He also had the rest of the crew in a miniturised heart of gold in his pocket so noone but Zaphod was aware they all entered a virtual universe.
the book seems to try far too hard... they did a lot better on radio 4
Love your style! 🤗 Some real funny parts and great video in general.
I'll wait for the DouglasAdamsAI 😄
The Quintessential phase ending is what I consider to be the “canon” one lol. I don’t think the 6th book fit very much with the rest of the books and the characterizations were off (especially of Zaphod and Ford), but it was still fun to listen to most of the original cast play it in the Hexagonal phase haha. It felt like fanfiction and when I read it that’s what I considered it to be, but hey a novel length fanfiction is pretty good.
For the question at the end- My main issue with adaptations is the possibility that they would overshadow the original like the movie did. Most people who are familiar with thhgttg have only watched the movie and the story and themes just don’t fit into the Hollywood format no matter what you do honestly. (Though when I meet someone who only knows the movie I always take the opportunity to introduce them to the radio series and books lol)
Though I kind of like that not many people know about it and it makes it more meaningful when you do find other fans. I’m kind of hoping the series was cancelled but at the same time I don’t want the hitchhikers guide to be lost to new generations. I guess the question is are we willing to sacrifice it for new adaptations that likely won’t capture what Adams did, or are we willing to let it die away as the the story falls more into obscurity.
Part of me does want people to write more books in the series because I’m so sad it’s over. Its one of my autistic special interests and I love anything related to it even if it isn’t the same. Maybe we should leave that to actual fanfiction writers though because they don’t claim theirs to be part of the actual series.
The Quintessential Phase ending was absolutely perfect, and best of all, it was mapped out by Adams himself. I do hope Hulu never makes their show and it's sad that fewer people know about Hitchhiker's as the years go on, but it doesn't have to compete with major pop culture franchises. We can just let it be a classic book series (and radio show, for those who know) and I think (hope) future generations will find and enjoy it just like any other older series.
I think something about the idea that Mostly Harmless isn't really the true ending and was planned to be expanded upon lends itself to fanfiction pretty well. It is really sad that that expansion was never made but at least it still has life
I love them all even Eion Colfers take. May the hitchhiking go on.😁👍
I just finished mostly harmless after greedily consuming the whole series after I started hitchhikers on a whim. Thank you for the super well done video that helped give me some kind of closure and perspective on the ending.
I think personally, I will skip and another thing. It just doesn't feel right. And frankly, as bleak and sad as it is, I thoroughly enjoy the vision of Ford laughing hysterically during the surrounding chaos before they are gone forever.
I think I can live with that. Even if he lost it, Arthur had adventure, he had love, he had friends (maybe), he had purpose even if it was just making exquisite sandwiches, and at the end of one hell of a ride, he is at peace.
100%.
What a captivating video! Loved this.
8:58 ooh I enjoyed that very low-key allusion to the two authors’ names being similar - well done, sir
Dude this video is amazing I’m so sorry you don’t have more likes but I know it’ll be even better
Thank you so much! That's really encouraging.
@@ricotalks no problem you’re videos are great 👍
@@ricotalks no problem good luck 👍
I discovered Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy through the TV series all the way back in 1982. I was in the Air Force on a base in Mississippi. It lead me to the books and I became one of those rabid fans waiting for the next installment. I read about the radio show in some kind of science fiction fanzine whose name I can't remember, but never got a hold of it until a comic convention in 1998. And I didn't know about "And Another Thing" until I discovered this video which came across my feed today. Here's the thing. I don't really care if other writers took on these characters. If it's good great. If it isn't, well the writer isn't Douglas Adams. Oh, and I'm not a fan of the movie. While it deviated from the books and radio show, the problem for me was it didn't present itself in a way for the non-fans to get it. I saw it with my best friend who is not a science fiction reader nor barely heard of Hitchhiker's Guide, and I could tell some of the references in the movie confused him. Because Hitchhikers is a very specific thing. My feeling for any future projects is this - The books will always exist. The TV show is available and will always exist. The radio series will always exist. Nothing can change that. Nothing can take away from that. They are a very singular experience that Douglas Adams fans will understand, and still available for future Douglas Fans. So let any writer who thinks they can make future stories based on these characters do what they will. Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy will always live exactly as they are, and that my friends, is AWESOME to the MAX. By the way, no one has written fan fiction based on Hitchhiker's? That pretty weird. I thought there was a sort of rule 34 about these sort of things when it comes of fan fiction. Or in the case of Hitchhiker's, a rule 42.
Doug did have a very particular view of the world.
Incredibly intellectual, and slightly depressed.
Almost Shakespearian in the bending of words and their root meanings. or inverse meanings.
No one else could really see that flying is really just throwing oneself at the ground and missing. It takes a deep understanding of physics and gravity and matter density to see how true that really is.
Appreciate using movies as time milestones :)
I think I enjoyed the radio version I heard the most, the television version had the best arc in my view, if much shorter than many others, with the visual Encyclopedia entries being stand out features. I did see the movie. The books were my first exposure I think, and there was some nice detail in them, but I remember the continuity sometimes bugging me a bit, and as I read the later books it felt like he was running out of energy, I guess the behind the scene story seems to back this up. He collaborated with others throughout a lot of these, too
It was said that Eron Culfer and another thing... Used materials Adams had been working on so I'd put it next to the movie as far as closeness to the original material.
Eoin has specifically said that while he knew there were notes Adams left behind, he didn't use them.
AAT is completely an Eoin creation. He didn't want people to think the good bits were Douglas' and bad bits were his, or that he'd ruined Douglas' notes.
Haha, that smirk when you said: kept it to one franchise this time, _kind of._ 😂
As a long time fan of THHGTTG (over 40 years), having been introduced to it by a good friend who's birthday was March 11, 1954 (Douglas Adams 2nd birthday), I have read over again the five original novels, plus "And Another Thing." I have also watched several times over the BBC TV series, plus listened to the record (or was it the recorded radio version) with my afore mentioned friend. I've never seen the movie version, though.
When I read "And Another Thing" one thing I kept in mind was that wasn't written by Adams. I gave the author the opportunity to build the story his way, which I think was better than if he tried to copy Adams style. As a result, I was able to enjoy the novel despite it not being in the style of Adams.
Do I want to see further adaptations of the series, I don't know. Sometimes it's best to let things end where they are. Look at the attempts to restart the Pink Panther movies without Peter Sellers. He was Inspector Clouseau, and seeing another actor trying to portray that character just reminds me that it isn't him. The same thing can be said about future attempts with THHGTTG. It'll never be the same without having Douglas Adams behind it, no matter how well meaning the author wants to be.
Well said. I like the 2005 movie but even written by Adams it didn't have the same heart to it. Very American and very streamlined. I would love a faithful film series but it would have to be perfect. A bit issue is you can't do better than Simon Jones for Arthur, since Arthur was literally based on him.
@@ricotalksI personally think any film adaptation is doomed to fail. I say this because THHGTG doesn’t really fit into a conventional three act structure. It’s more a series of more or less connected adventures. It has a concrete beginning and end, but no one narrative throughline filling in the middle. And I think that’s what helps make it so special and engaging, but it does not translate as an 90-minute adaptation at all. At this point, the series really should be left to rest on its own. I think people forget there’s already SO many hitchhiker adaptations. The books, the radio show, the tv series, the movie, the comic book, and the video game. Remaking any of those things would be essentially redundant.
I haven't and probably won't listen to the 6th series. I shed tears at the end of the 5th, having had THHGTTG as a part of my life since I was a kid 40 years ago. The 1st series was for me one of those things that kids watch or listen to on repeat.
I think the mistake that was made was to take the last story out of the Hitchhiker's family. It isn't strictly true to say that Adams was the only writer. Simon Jones said that they got through the firstt series without a finished script, scribbling lines on bits of paper and John Lloyd is credited as a writer on some episodes. It seems to me that a more fitting end would have been to get Jones, Lloyd, and his other Cambridge mates to finish repurposing Adams' last book, as he'd intended.
definitely would've been better than letting a whole new author take the reins for sure. Personally I would've preferred no sixth book at all after Adams died. The sixth series is better than the sixth book because it does a better job of respecting the originals but it does totally bulldoze the perfect ending of the fifth.
I used to read the 5 book series every winter break during my highschool and college years in the 90s. I never had any interest in the sixth book. I also heard the original radio series from Napster. I had no idea about the new BBC Radio series. I'll continue to ignore the new book, and will check out the new radio shows.
I feel as though the origional ending while it was regrettable, did a good job of telling not the story itsself but the story of Douglas Adams. Re-reading it and being dissatisfied is what pushed me to delve deeper and learn more about a series I loved for years but just never thought to look deeper into. If more is made, and it is respectfully and well made by someone like Hulu whoever then I feel that it is a fulfillment of that wish Adam's had to give it a better ending and I'm sure if he were still around he would be happy knowing that his fans are getting what they want and are happy without his treasured work being a burden on him. I loved the 2005 movie and the Radio play production and so if Hulu does right I'll be happy too and will still always have those origional stories that evoked so many questions that gave my brain something to chew on.
I think so much of the radio show and novels were influenced by Adams's particular strain of clinical depression that it would be hard to recreate the same general vibe in the modern day with modern creators, but if this Hulu thing is really happening all we can do is hope that they're true to his original feelings
A well thought through piece.👍 Having only really read the books, after the number of other occasions Arthur and Company were in danger and the Babel fish did nothing to save them (how inconsiderate!), even the new ending to the Fifth instalment seemed a leap too far, but could explain how they survived the exploding computer on Magrathea in the first Radio series, again by landing up at Milliways?🤔
Haven't read or heard the Sixth installment, not yet anyway (I'd read a plot synposis already, you didn't give away anything I didn't already know!), but I don't rellish the idea of it either.😕
if you need more Hitchhiker's in your life, you might give And Another Thing a try. Eoin Colfer at least has some shade of the original Adams humor. I just can't get over the audacity of its existence.
And good point, did they ever mention why an exploding computer sent them forward in time?
I enjoyed 'And Another Thing...' but the idea that HHG is only genuine HHG if it's written by DNA himself is exactly the kind of fetishisation that drove DNA away from the series in the first place. There were 18 episodes of 'Dirk Gently' and I don't see many people moaning about whether 16 of them shouldn't exist because they weren't written by DNA himself.
Everybody can write new Sherlock Holmes stuff--- just wait 50 more years until the copyrights run out, then who knows how much new Hitchhiker tales with proliferate.
I can only imagine...
I don’t know that I would want to read And Another Thing; I don’t remember knowing it even existed. I stretched out my reading of the series from about 1980/81 when I joined the Science Fiction Book Club until 1998 several years after it was finished with no spoilers from anyone. I’ve read how reading Immanuel Kant derailed the mental world of the author Heinrich von Kleist and though Mostly Harmless didn’t hit me quite that hard, it was a brutal punch to the chest. All along I had thought that Arthur and Earth were going to survive but I was mistaken. I felt the impact strongly for months.
I read all the five books on my podcast TortyTalks - so I thought knew the story. I'm now utterly confused !
The hitchhiking never ends for me🤔 May you circle the stars forever Douglas.
Starship Titanic itself denies the canonicity link, with a specific-as-it-gets purpose-built rejection when you make an inquiry to the chat bot about the other universe’s builder of the ship. It’s absolutely tongue in cheek, but it’s also absolutely unequivocal.
You could still try to draw the parallels, due to the vague fun similarities of Douglas Adams’s creations. And that’s fine. But in-universe, the name is the same and that’s all. It has about the same level of link as the Kylie Minogue episode of Doctor Who with the Titantic spaceship. Same vibes, but that’s all.
Totally. I mean on the most basic level, Earth wasn't destroyed in Starship Titanic
I'm not sure i'm a fan of the movie adaptation route.
i do think i like the movie as it's own thing though.
I think i liked Hitchiker's more as a TV series mode with more time to breath. Like 1 season per book or saga or whatever you want to call it.
i haven't seen anything about that Hulu series in...quite sometime. I think I'm cautiously curious while hiding behind a very large rock as far as a US adaptation. But I still want to see it. the show was kind of a big part of my sense of self at a young age.
i think i have roller coaster feelings about the radio series as I came across them. But I'm glad they radio program exists as it does with all the cynical insanity i guess u would call it. But I'm glad Arthur found a happy ending with Fenchurch in that house on the beach. I know you said that this was like a bittersweet ending and all that. But I think i choose that as one of he happier endings as a bit where they still did stuff later on together after the credits rolled and stuff. And had one of those My Neighbors The Yamadas kind of outcomes in a cosmic sense. crazy and bad stuff, but overall happy. or something like that.
i think to me Arthur Dent hits me so much is becasue to me, he's like the space version of Charlie Chaplin. little cynical, looking for that sense of stability and happiness. looses it, but having all kinds of ups, downs, and diagonal 4th dimensional slides out of nowhere.
also i think as far as those endings and stuff, I think i turn them on and off in my mind depending on my mood and what i want to go through. and for the OOOFIER, parts, I think i always try to keep the later happier ones in mind when the more sadder endings get me and stuff.
let me just,…
insert,…
a liiiiitle more…
engagement.
Riiight here, I think.
Thanks!!
Dude you have no idea how And Another Thing felt to me 😭 I was in the middle of a depressive episode and H2G2 was a comfort to me, but then I finished Mostly Harmless. I was very put off by the indication that Arthur was better off dead than going through life in an uncaring universe and it lowkey felt like i was being told that I was better off dead myself, and that everyone is. So I was hopeful for And Another Thing. Didn't care much for most of it but I was just happy that they were all alive and sorta happy at the end... but I couldn't even have that in my novel length fanfiction bro 😭🙏 bawled my eyes out at the audacity, because even though Mostly Harmless is bleak, at least it was written by DA. It was still a good book and now that I'm past my depression over it, I can appreciate how well it was weaved together. It really was well crafted even if it ended badly. But And Another Thing doesn't have that. The ending wasn't carefully woven into the story, it was literally just the author saying "AND ANOTHER THING... fuck you! you wanted Arthur to be happy? 🤣 nah"
Oh my god I knowwwww, like wasn't the point of AAT to change the tragic ending of MH? Not that anyone else should have tried to overwrite Adams but the least he could have done was fulfilled the purpose of a sixth book and given them a satisfying conclusion.
the sixth season of the radio show had a slightly nicer ending than the book, Arthur did end up back on the beach but Fenchurch and Marvin were there.
...I read Mostly Dreadful (harmless) when it came out and it was the most harmful thing to my creative life outside my mother keeping me from art school. I didn't know an author could be so disrespectful to a character that he and everyone seemed to love. These modern developments are somehow even worse. Every dead horse I see is wearing pretty thin from all the whacking. 😢
I would see "And And" as a eulagy
Zaphod was blond in the first two books.
I'd like a sequel to the Infocom game.
Meretzky ain't dead you know. He's 67.
I hated And Another Thing, as it just didn't feel like Douglas. I loved the bitter ending of Mostly Harmless that ties into the Agrajag story line, and found that it was the only satisfying way to really end it (although i do personally like endings where everyone dies).
As for the radio series, i never did listen to the hexagonal phase, but found the new ending in the previous phase to be a little sickly sweet for my tastes.
I wish they'd all put this energy into an accurate for-screen translation of Dirk Gently instead. Those two (and a bit) novels are packed with otherwise unadapted Adamsness, and the ending to Long Dark Teatime could really use some expanded fleshing out. Considering that the first novel is a reworked unused Doctor Who script, i don't know why adaptations shy away from directly showing the entire story, Electric Monks and ghosts and all.
Thanks for the video.
Agreed, they've never done Dirk Gently quite right. And sickly sweet is a good way to describe the ending of phase five, but man did I love it when I first heard it. I also love ending where everyone dies but man it was rough reading Mostly Harmless at age twelve. Either way, at least the Quintessential Phase had Adams's posthumous approval, unlike And Another Thing
As for Dirk Gently - I think its a better foundation for third party continuations than HHGTTG - both novels resolved their stories and left the field open for further episodic adventures that didn't spoil the books. Consequently, the parts of the adaptations I liked least were the first episode of the BBC4 version that *was* kinda-sorta based on the first novel, and Netflix trying to create a new secret lab backstory for Dirk. I can see studio bosses not trusting audiences to follow the plots of the novels (inc. doing their homework on Coleridge) too. Also... the "unused" Doctor Who scripts aren't really so unused - "Shada" has been patched together and released on various media, and another significant plot element was lifted directly from "City of Death" which was very much "used". It's also pretty obvious that one character is supposed to be a retired Time Lord and the time machine is his TARDIS - so the rights issues might be hairy.
I always found those who struggled to resist the ending we got in Mostly Harmless to just be stupid
I like toast.
A truly non controversial comment.
I don't agree with you about Colfer's contribution and I don't think your reasoning is valid (i.e. Nobody can write H2G2 except Adams because nobody can write H2G2 except Adams because nobody etc etc) . I think he did a fantastic job. Salmon of doubt is one of the few books I've ever thrown across a room. As someone who once could quote the whole first four books 'off the page,' - It was crap and Adams thought so, too. The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul/Thor/Gently loop was clever and why not expand on a minor character? I'm entirely happy for more Colfer or even other writers having a go.
Great video. I am very confused. (I've only watched part of the TV show and i havent read the books, only listened and not rlly paying attention and I now need more information... This is going to be a BIG rabbit hole, isn't it
I never knew there was a hexagonal phase.
My, you THINK!
I was disappointed by a fair bit of his later work. I'm just fine sticking with the early stuff and listening/watching/reading that over and over again.
What about Star Trek? Gene Roddenberry died in 1991. So he died before they made Deep Space 9, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, Kelvin timeline movies, Strange new worlds...Some of those shouldn't have been made. But if no one continued the work that Gene Roddenberry started, then we wouldn't have gotten so much awesome stuff.
Some one once said: After an artist releases their art to the word, its no longer theirs. I do kinda like your idea, don't touch some one elses stuff. But then we wouldn't have gotten Loony tunes, or Scooby doo, No mickey either. Since their original creators haven't worked on those shows for years if not decades.
I feel like thats why we got the Comic movies, no more original ideas. Then the reboots after they realized we were tired of super heroes too.
I see your point, but I wouldn't consider Roddenberry the same thing. I know Adams had the whole BBC behind him but he wrote the radio show mostly on his own, and he went on to write the novels himself. I think a better comparison would be if GRRM left instructions on how to finish A Song of Ice and Fire, but after another writer finished the books for him, someone else came in and started writing new spin offs.
I want a TH-cam video (preferably from you - you’re good) that follows the long bow of canon between Dirk Gently and Class (Doctor Who), via Oolon Coluphid and The Timeless Child. They are opposite corners of a fictional universe that nevertheless exists in a “primary” timeline or canon that is defined as on-screen or on TV.
(I could never make it through the newer American version of Dirk Gently and wouldn’t mind having you spoil that for me so I can go back and watch it maybe)
(I suppose the same holds true for the Australian K-9 series but I tried, I really tried)
“Douglian spin” haha
I've never seen Class, is there really a Hitchhiker's nod? That's awesome
Personally, I stopped avidly following Hitchhiker's at Mostly Harmless. It seemed a nice place to stop.
The shorts stories could be worked into episodes.
…but what about ‘The meaning of Liff’?
This is the true canon ending:
th-cam.com/video/tUlHepevCEI/w-d-xo.html
Just as you can ignore every episode of the Skywalker Saga after _Episode VI,_ because they were not the product of their visionary creator, the same applies to these works which were not the product of Douglas Nathan Adams. The writing just lacks his inimitable DNA.
I'm not sure I agree with the idea that "And Another Thing" shouldn't exist without Adams even if he wrote an identical story. I did find "And Another Thing" to be heavier on the plot, but I also struggled through some of the later Hitchikers books with the extra focus on romance and the loss of characters: it felt like it all got quite 'muddy' and of course had a downbeat ending. The Radio series are much more enjoyable for me, and hearing more of their adventures will always be a positive. The question about more stories for me is: can it still continue and be funny? I struggled with the film as I felt Arthur wasn't sarcastic enough, and it skipped a lot of what I enjoyed from the radio series and early books. It was quite disappointing for me to learn that it was closely based on Adam's screenplay. The combination of Adams and Dirk Maggs seems to be the sweet spot, tempering the many convoluted events into a more solid plot while keeping the comedic feel, meaning my favourite interpretation is based on a story by the author but heavily filtered through the adapter!
The… Arthurverse? :)
I intensely dislike the use of "closure" in this context.
In this current craze of making live action versions of aninated properties, I actually think the best way to make a current adaptation of HHGTTG would be an animated show, definitely without the awful pseudo Family Guy style they love to force on American animated sitcoms. If anything, I think the studio that made the recent Dead Cells show here on YT would be perfect for it. And each book would fit well in the current formar of 10 episode seasons.
"Should Hitchhiker's Guide be franchised out into a larger universe of overlapping stories written by multiple authors?" Nope, it wasn't written that way, and the original author is no longer with us. Anything written in said universe after Douglas' demise is nothing more than fanfiction to me.
However, there's a series of books where a somewhat similar approach is something I'd really love to see: Stephen King's "The Dark Tower". Stop reading here if you haven't finished the series yet, as I'm going to SPOIL THE END, and by extension, the entire series. You've been warned.
Still here? OK, here goes: at the end of the series, we learn that this isn't the first time Roland makes the trip. In Groundhog Day fashion, his progress gets reset after finishing his quest "incorrectly", and some alterations are made to aid him in the next cycle. E.g. after this loop, everything is the same as before, except he still has the Horn of Eld. The story ends where it began. And this is a perfect opportunity to hand it over to a new writer who King trusts to, first and foremost, do the story and the themes justice. And second, to appoint another writer to take over after he's finished with the story, who he trusts to also do these same two things. The Dark Tower could be a series passed on from writer to writer, each adding their own personal style and insights, and each linking it to the rest of their own works perhaps.
I would LOVE to see a TV adaptation of the dark tower, possibly set in the next loop (as the movie claimed to be). Idk if you'd be interested in this but I'm planning on doing a series on my other channel where I plot out TV shows I wish would be made, and the dark tower is one of the ones I plan on doing soon
@@ricotalks Yeah, if they're going to film it, it would make more sense as a series. Possibly an animated one, since filming would take so long that your actors (especially Jake's actor) would visibly age. And if they must go with a movie instead, treat it like the new Dune movies: commit to telling the whole story, spread over multiple movies.
I'm not fond of the idea of doing different loops in movie/series format before that becomes an established thing with the books though. There's no good way to convey the idea that it's a different loop, and it would just look like any other book adaptation that fails to follow the source material. In a book, this can be addressed in the foreword, and you can safely assume your readers will have read the original books. In a movie, you could have the narration (either narrator or on-screen text) explain it at the beginning, but most of your audience will be unfamiliar with the source material and feel like you just spoiled their ending. At least, that's how I feel about it.
I'll check out your other channel. Thanks.
But no spoilers for the TV series, LP version, the movie or the two stage versions? Well that's OK then :-P
Love hitch hikers guide to the galaxy? Looking for something that is just as crazy, surreal, off the wall & SF comedy? I highly recommend the german TV show: “ Ijon Tichy: Raumpilot” which is based on Star dairies and other books by Stanislaw Lem!
I Can’t express how brilliant it is, it’s more hitch hikers than hitch hikers itself ! Stanislaw Lem is a genius with these crazy SF comedy tall stories, I’d argue Ijon Tichy is better, And should be more known in the west. 😎😎😎👍👍👍👍
Honestly, I don't think Adams could write as well as Adams. Starting with the second book, the constant cycle of "oh here's the real truth behind everything that turns out to be nothing" wears quite thin. Besides that, it's a lot of messy and dangling loose ends, and incoherent themes.
I still adore those books, but it does feel in the sequels that Adams was chasing the high of the first story but failing to grasp it.
Yeahhhh I definitely see what you're saying. I have to read them again to refresh but there was definitely an element of listlessness. I liked how the third one was just a standalone adventure (since it was based on a Doctor Who story). I love series with overarching stories but there didn't seem to be much of one in Hitchhiker's. The radio show pulled that off better with Zarniwoop/Van Harl and the vogons.
for me this story ended with the Milways finish have not and will never read book 6
I disagree with this take, TBH. I don't think the only person who could write a Hitch-Hiker's property is Adams. But I do think that And Another Thing was definitely not it, and Colfer was probably not the person for the job.
The thing is that a lot of people - Colfer included, it seems - think of Hitch-Hiker's a wacky adventure with lots of zany jokes. But what it actually was, for the most part, was satire. It was *about* things. Politics, philosophy, mathematics, physics, ecology, computing...all kinds of things. And it could be serious and angry and sad.
And Another Thing isn't. It's a greatest hits package trying to shoehorn in every minor character to ever have been in the series. It's not about anything. It's got no depth whatsoever. It's everything from the surface without anything else.
So you don't just need *a* author, you need the *right* author. I'm thinking someone like Stephen Fry or Richard Osmand. I can't say for sure, because I've not read any of their books, but both are funny people who are broadly knowledgeable and who could take the things that Adams was interested in and cared about and actually have something to say about them. *That's* what's needed. You don't need to bring Marvin back or Zaphod. Adams did perfectly well without them. What you need to do is to have something interesting to say and push that to its absurdist limit and see where that takes you.
Also, The Salmon Of Doubt has a small snippet that Adams wrote with Zaphod. I've always wondered why that wasn't used as a jumping-off point.
Terry Jones mimicked Adams' writing style pretty well, but still not as clever and funny.
I liked that book, but it didn't feel quite the same. I think Jones tried to write in his own voice which I prefer to Colfer directly mimicking Adams
the and another thing book annoyed me as thry seemed to try too hard. the radio 4 adaptation is far better and really does the rest justace.
My opinion: art stops belonging to the artist as soon as it leaves their head and enters the physical world. In fact, art shouldn't belong to anyone, not the creator's family, not the rights holders, not even the fans, it should be free, monetarily AND spiritually.
In an age of internet, there is no reason to pay for digitally reproducible media like novels or radio plays. The creators should get money, sure, but that should come from donations not a paywall. In similar sense, no work should ever be the creator's work. Everyone should be able to make sequels and retellings for anything.
What people truly love or hate isn't the creator's vision for their world, it's often different from what actually makes it to the page, but the reader's own interpretation of the incomplete version of that vision, which is why the original creator doesn't matter; we ourselves are the co-creators of any media we consume by us interpreting the events and filling in the blanks, which is why you can't watch the same movie twice: it will be a slightly different movie each time you watch it.
According to Pew research, print books still outsell digital by 4-1.
A bad take. Authorial voice is significant because the care of craft is unique and provides a direct connection between the author and the reader. To devalue that connection is to devalue both the intimacy of the author/reader relationship and the worth of craft, the actual shaping of narrative which makes it meaningful. If you blow out an IP to its characters and setting, you're refusing to see the forest because it's full of all these neato trees.
Hard fact, Americans *cannot* make media out of true British comedy! Many countless examples of this, like the American version of red dwarf! An American version will always be a disappointing disaster!! 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤯🤯🤯🤯🤡🤡🤡🤡🌍🌍🌍🌍
The Office?
@@dontpickonme the American office is nothing like the British version! 🤯🤯🤯
Which is a bit ironic given that Red Dwarf could be so easily be mistaken for a British version of John Carpenter's "Dark Star"...
Apparently, the US tried to remake "Spaced" as well, with predictable results... Oh, and now we can add "Time Bandits" to the hall of shame!
@@hanniffydinn6019 It's different, but hardly a "disappointing disaster". Same goes for "House of Cards" (Kev1n Sp@cey is a disappointing disaster but the show wasn't).