You know, I don’t know if you read today’s Teaser, but one thing I found out, in researching it, was simply this.
It is — in addition to being the anniversary of the original release of “Star Wars” — Towel Day.
Started by a small group of fans, and not long after his death, as a way of commemorating the life and work of the late Douglas Adams; something I can only approve of.
Although I do have reservations.
Now, my teenage years were during the 80’s, and that was one heck of a time to be a science fiction fan; for starters, there wasn’t the almost respectable air that fandom has, today.
“Doctor Who” was having the ups and down’s any long tern series will. And there was — until “The X Files”, and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” turned up — little beyond “V” coming from out of the US.
But the BBC did have a little sci-fi, multi-media oddity tucked up its sleeve, courtesy of Radio 4.
Which was odd, because it literally was multi-media.
Radio 4, for those of you who don’t know is one of four — obviously — national radio stations run by the BBC, and it’s the talk station of the four.
Well, I say talk.
It really does cover lots of territory; from the serious intensive, and forensic, way that politicians of every stripe are interviewed on the early morning “Today” programme, to the unmissable comedy, like “I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue” and “Just A Minute”. Going via the eternal soap opera that is “The Archers”, the afternoon plays and the much missed John Peel series, “Home Truths”; and the assorted documentaries that have covered the moral implications of feminism’s place in modern organic farming, to a potted history of 2000AD.
And the National Anthem; Radio 4 is possibly still the only UK station, on radio or TV, to do that!
But it also has serial’s.
“The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy” was first broadcast as just such a serial, back in 1978. And was a bit of a huge hit; to the point where, like “Ladies of Letters”, “Dead Ringers”, and “The Mary Whitehouse Experience”, after it, got transferred to TV, in 1981.
Which is where I first came across it; don’t forget, the late 70’s and early 80’s didn’t have that much in the way of science fiction.
“Star Wars”, and its sequels were doing well, as was “Star Trek”.
But there wasn’t much on TV, which meant “The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy” created a lot of buzz.
And that first episode caught me …
With that quite simple idea, that the title summed up, quite well.
You could hitch hike … on a spaceship.
Although, admittedly, the story’s hero, Arthur, was a very unwilling hiker.
The opening episode tells us one little guaranteed thing about Arthur; his life is getting seriously screwed up. By a cock up.
That meant he only finds out his house is going to knocked down the day before the bulldozers turn up. And to compound things, it turns out that those large alien space ships that have just turned up want to do the same thing to the planet Earth*. What makes things worse is his best friend, Ford, is from a planet somewhere near Betelgeuse — rather than Guildford, as he’d hither-to claimed — and has a plan to get himself and Arthur off world.
And keeps insisting Arthur a) read this book, it explains thing a bit better, b), doesn’t panic, and c) stick a fish in his ear.
Not something you want, if you’re still in your dressing gown …
I fell in love with that series.
And yes, some 28 years after its original production, the effects — Zaphod’s head in particular — do look iffy, but for the time, they were pretty good.
But script-wise?
It was pretty fantastic.
Now the novels, on the other hand.
I had no problem, with the first two (pictured) entries in the series of novels Adams did, but the latter three came with increasingly large gaps between publication. Impatient as I can get, that was something that I found seriously irritating.
And the background universe never struck me as being as developed as it could be. That’s part of the reason that Terry Pratchett’s Discworld’s has been such a joy for me, other the years; I’ve watch PTerry develop the Disc itself as much of any of the character’s who inhabit it. And J. R. R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy were just as developed. Indeed, “Lord of the Rings” set the standard, I think.
But that lack of output from Douglas Adams was frustrating. Enjoyable when it turned up, but hanging around for it?
Like I say …
At any rate, I still treasure the TV and radio series, and — more recently — the movie version.
That’s where I think “The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy” works best.
On screen.
That’s why I’ve — metaphorically — kept my towel with me, today.
* To make way for a hyperspace bypass.
