S01E04 — The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
SPOILER ALERT: This episode and transcript below contains major spoilers for Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, including the original book, TV series, and 2005 film.
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Featuring hosts Timothy Haynes, Donna Haynes, Rebekah Edwards, and T. Josiah Haynes.
If you’ve ever seen the words DON’T PANIC printed on… well, anything in “nerd-dom,” you can thank The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The family talks book-to-film differences comparing the original book with the 2005 film — and boy, there are plenty!
We also chat about the other mediums this quirky sci-fi comedy has been adapted, from television to radio shows and beyond.
Final Verdicts
If you haven’t listened to the episode yet, we recommend waiting to read our verdicts. (But you’re probably grown, so do what you want!)
Here’s what we think: The book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy adds a sort of quirk and character that are quite different to reflect on-screen. It’s also an iconic piece of writing, whereas the film inspired by the original work wasn’t a particularly significant hit.
However, the film followed such a different plot and offers fantastic musical numbers that make it a great standalone watch.
Tim: The book and film are equally excellent
Donna: The book is better
Rebekah: The book and film are equally excellent
Josiah: The book is better
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Full Episode Transcript
Prefer reading? Check out the full episode transcript below. It’s AI-generated from our audio, and if we’re being honest… no one sat to read the entire thing for accuracy. (After all, we were there the whole time.) 😉 We’re sorry in advance for any typos or transcription errors.
[00:00:00] Tim: So long, and thanks for all the books. So long, and thanks for all the films. We try to warn you all, but oh dear!
[00:00:06] Josiah: We
[00:00:09] Tim: love
[00:00:09] Josiah: the detailed story arcs. The big screen gets the highest
[00:00:13] Tim: marks. How will we
[00:00:14] Josiah: ever hope to agree? So long, so long, so long, so long, so long, so long, so long, so long, So long, so long, so long.
And thanks for all the books. Each and every one of you. No, no, no. You’re scaring
[00:00:31] Donna: listeners. Stop it. Welcome
[00:00:52] Rebekah: to The Book is Better. We are a family of four who reviews book to film adaptations. This is a clean podcast, but we do tend to get into some more adult topics. About the books and films that we’re reviewing sometimes. So keep that in mind. Today we are actually going to be talking about the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
So, spoiler alert, there will be spoilers if you have not watched the 2005 movie or read the book that came out in 79, or the TV series in 81, or this Screenplay then run out and do it radio shows. You should probably go do it now. It is 2023, so you’re a little late, but I did want to at least give a spoiler alert that we will spoil the entire hitchhiker’s guide.
Well, I mean, it’s just really, I mean, it’s a franchise, but we’re just covering the first book and, but we may talk about spoilers from additional ones. So my name is, yeah, but it is all free now. It is. You’ve waited long enough. You can get it all free. It’s free. I did purchase the physical book. Hey, I will say family members.
I don’t know if I’ve said this to you, but I am doing my best to support creators, writers, et cetera, to purchase everything that we review. So if I can stream something, I will stream the movie. I think we did end up buying hitchhiker’s guide. And then I also streamed the 1981 TV show, but I’ve bought the books that we’re reviewing.
So that I have the physical copy, just, you know, support your bookstores and your authors. We have an author on the podcast. I hope he appreciates it at
[00:02:30] Josiah: least. I do. I do. It gets my hackles up in a good way.
[00:02:36] Rebekah: sO my name is Rebecca. I am the daughter of the group slash family and the oldest kid, which means the better kid obviously.
Just in case you were wondering, um, and today’s fun fact that we’re going to share about ourselves is. If you could have one piece of technology from the Hitchhiker’s Guide book or movie in real life, what would it be? So my answer to that question, and I hope I don’t steal anybody’s and I apologize profusely if I do, but I want that thing where you stick your face in and then it makes the food that you crave even without you knowing what it is.
I feel like that’s just an obvious win personally.
[00:03:15] Josiah: Very yummy. I’m Josiah. I am the son slash brother of the family group and I think that the piece of Technology if you would even call it that is the babble fish. That’s what I would want in real life I like the idea of all of us being able to talk to one another.
I love language and I wonder how much that would connect us or Make like linguistic differences obsolete, but I do like the idea of mass communication and Language I am my
[00:03:57] Tim: name’s Tim. I’m the dad of the family husband. Yes slash husband The bevel fish is actually the one that I would that I would choose most of the most of the rest of the tech is really Strange.
Yeah, I, I thought about the, the knife that toasts the bread as you slice it, but I already have sliced bread, so that doesn’t help me.
[00:04:21] Josiah: Okay. Here’s the spoiler,
[00:04:23] Tim: you know, is crazy.
[00:04:25] Rebekah: That’s freaky. Here’s a spoiler for reality. You can buy the thing that slices bread and toast it at the same time on Amazon.
That is, that is a thing that actually exists. You don’t even have to have to hope
[00:04:38] Donna: and wish. Well, as it turns out the last of the four would be the one that I put it in the right order. I’m the wife slash mom,
[00:04:50] Rebekah: Donna, and in this group. And
[00:04:54] Donna: I would say you all had very creative ish ones. The one I liked was the probability, improbability drive.
Because I really am fascinated, and I think I’ve said this before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again, I want to understand why people make decisions and choices like they do and why they make a path, you know, why they choose that path or why they wouldn’t, whatever. And so, to have a, to have a, a mechanism that would say, hey, they did that.
What is the likelihood that that was the, was, would be their choice? I think that would be amazing.
[00:05:35] Rebekah: What you’re saying is you crave chaos.
[00:05:39] Donna: Yeah. Well, not so much now that I’m older, let’s
[00:05:44] Rebekah: how about that? Josiah, do you want to walk us through what Hitchhiker’s Guide is about?
[00:05:49] Josiah: Yeah, the book and the film, it’s an interesting case for us comparing the book and movie because As you’ll see, the book is shorter it’s only, it’s less than six hours long, the audiobook.
And the film actually doesn’t cut much, it changes some and it adds quite a bit, so. In both of the, in both the book and film, the story begins with Arthur Dent, our main character, sort of. Arthur Dent’s house is about to be bulldozed to make way for a bypass. He lives… And just as Arthur is protesting, Ford Prefect hustles him off to a pub.
He is Arthur’s recent friend of the past few years. And it turns out that Ford Prefect is an alien. And that no one knows that, but he’s been stranded on Earth for many years. And his name is Ford Prefect because in his research, he wrongfully assumed that cars were the dominant species on the planet.
Ford warns Arthur that the Earth is about to be destroyed, and he is absolutely correct. A Vogon constructor fleet soon arrives to demolish the Earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass. In a turn. Why are they building a
[00:07:19] Rebekah: bypass? That’s just one of my I’m interrupting you, but that is like one of my favorite, like quotes from the book that they do in the movie and in the show and stuff is like, he’s like, well, why are you building it here?
It’s a bypass. You got to build bypasses. Like as if it was like obvious. Yeah. Anyway,
[00:07:35] Josiah: continue. Well, luckily Ford does have a plan. They managed to hitch a ride. to the Vogon ship just before Earth is obliterated and it turns out Ford was a researcher for the titular Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so he knows how to Galactically hitchhike.
After being discovered and subsequently ejected into space by the Vogons, and that’s a very brief description of it, They are picked up by the starship Heart of Gold. The ship is commanded by Zay Fahd Beeblebrox the eccentric two headed president of the galaxy who stole the ship. What a freakin name. I love that name.
He stole the heart of gold on its maiden voyage. On board they also meet Trillian, Zaphod’s human companion and the only other earth survivor, as well as Marvin the paranoid android voiced by our love Alan Rickman Yes. Always.
[00:08:33] Donna: Always.
[00:08:35] Rebekah: Sorry. We’re all gonna, we love Alan Rickman, I miss him so
[00:08:39] Josiah: much. tHis is where the book and film start to diverge, but I’ll try and describe it concisely.
The group then embarks on a series of misadventures across the universe, among the many absurdities they encounter, they discover the truth about the Earth’s creation. It was a giant computer designed to find the meaning of life. They meet a super intelligent race of beings who look like mice. They learn that the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything is 42.
Though no one knows what the actual question is. The story ends. The book ends with the group setting off to the restaurant at the end of the universe, setting the stage for the next book in the series. And it is a short book. The plot is very streamlined, very random, and there’s not a whole lot of conclusions.
But in the movie, Zaphod is on a quest to find the legendary planet Magrath. Believed to be the home to the most brilliant and wealthy life forms in the universe. Meanwhile, they’re pursued by the Vogons under the order of the bureaucratic vice president, Questular Rontok, who is somewhat infatuated with Zaphod and also Zaphod’s deputy.
On Magrathia, Arthur and Ford are separated from Zaphod and Trillian. Arthur encounters Slartibartfast, a Magrathian planet designer who reveals that Earth was actually a supercomputer created by hyper intelligent beings disguised as mice, designed to find the question to the ultimate answer of life, the universe, and everything, which is 42.
Meanwhile, Zaphod and Trillian are captured by Vogons also have a new leader, the religious zealot, Hama Kavula, a character who’s only briefly mentioned in the books. Hama Kavula was Zaphod’s political rival. Arthur Ford and Marvin the Paranoid Robot rescue Zaphod and Trillian from the Vogons. And with the mice’s request to extract Arthur’s brain, as they believe he may subconsciously know the ultimate question, since he was a creature of Earth, the supercomputer designed to formulate the ultimate question.
Arthur convinces them that the question and answer cannot both be known in the same universe, as they will cancel each other out, and the universe will be replaced by something even more bizarre. The group escapes just as the Vogons are about to destroy Magrathia and the mice and they set a course to the restaurant at the end of the universe with the film ending on a bit of a cliffhanger.
The romantic subplot between Arthur and Trillian is more pronounced in the movie than in the book, with Arthur finally managing to express his feelings for Trillian, also known as Trisha McMillan. So that is a still very brief description of the random plot throughout the movie but There you
[00:11:42] Rebekah: go. Can I just say I?
So we watch this movie as a family like obviously multiple times. I think Josiah, are you the only one that’s read more than the first book?
[00:11:53] Josiah: Yeah, probably. I haven’t, I haven’t
[00:11:55] Tim: read any beyond the first
[00:11:56] Josiah: book. Yeah.
[00:11:57] Rebekah: Same. It was years ago. Yeah, so I had never read the book. We had just watched the movie as a family, and so when we were preparing to do this for the podcast, I was like, oh man, I love that movie, I might as well read the book and then watch the movie again, even though it had been so long.
I was so wrong footed. I had to like rewind part of the movie because after they left the Vogon ship and got onto the heart of gold, I was so, I mean, I was thrown off at the beginning because so much was different anyway, but I, it just like completely like bamboozled me that so much. It was different from the book to the movie.
Like once I had time to sit with it, I was like, okay, I get why. But I would say this is like, It was like a surprising amount of change that had happened. I’m not saying any of it’s necessarily bad, but let’s talk. Yeah, it was very surprising. Let’s talk through what were some of the major stuff. Adams
[00:12:50] Tim: wanted to change things.
He started, this was a radio show, right?
[00:12:54] Josiah: Yeah. Originally. It began as a radio show. Radio show. Book. Then it became a book. Then it was a
[00:13:01] Tim: TV serial. And then it was a movie. So it’s gone.
[00:13:04] Rebekah: I think, and they did a stage play before the movie was created as well.
[00:13:08] Josiah: Yeah. And they said that
[00:13:09] Tim: each time Adams wanted things to change.
He, he, he embraced that they change and he was involved in the initial writing of the script
[00:13:21] Josiah: for the movie. Yeah, according to the makers of the movie, the version that Douglas Adams wrote of the screenplay Before he died in 2001, four years before the movie released, they claim that he made all of the big changes And all they did was make small micro changes, but he was the one who added like the point of view gun that’s not in the book I think he sent the group towards Hamakavula,
[00:13:51] Rebekah: ooh. Well, let’s talk about that, because that’s one of the major changes. Obviously there’s a lot, but the movie and book are pretty similar up to the point where they… Get onto the heart of gold with the exception that like you see him meeting Trillian early on and emphasize the dolphin thing, but the whole the whole thing on Votal 6 and going to Hamakavula.
What do, like, well, let me just kind of explain it, if, for those of you who haven’t read the book. So, Hama Kavula is just briefly mentioned as the person that Bebo Brox beat out to become president of the, is it Galaxy? I think So in the movie, he lives on the planet Votal 6. He is the leader of a handkerchief religion.
He has, A box with coordinates that Bebo Brox needs for them to reach Magathia. And he is a creepy, he’s like a head with like a, in the movie, like these weird, I don’t even know, like, like mechanical feet. It was so disturbing. And then he took off his glasses and his face looks like it has two black holes on it.
It’s very weird. And so that was like one of the first major changes that you realize. So what did we think about Humma? Like, what do we think about that change?
[00:15:08] Josiah: John Malkovich is fun. Oh,
[00:15:11] Tim: he does a great job acting. The actor is great. That plot line just seemed to me to require a diversion. In the, in the movie, in the plot.
[00:15:23] Josiah: Well,
[00:15:24] Donna: I think the, the casting for this, again, casting, casting, casting is super important. And I love the fact that I know this wouldn’t always work, but I love the fact that they use Stephen Fry for voiceovers. I felt, I felt like John Malkovich, I mean, John Malkovich was just. Very cool there. And then, like, I made several notes where Martin Freeman, even though this is a very goofy movie.
That’s supposed to be that way. He shows, I mean, you still see his depth of talent as an actor. And I’m, I just, I thought so much of their portrayals. I just thought they were so good.
[00:16:12] Rebekah: Interesting. Yeah, I would say that’s fair, and I think the, like, one of the things in the film that was so different was around that time when they went to Ville Vaudel, I started to realize like, oh, this is a thing.
The Vogons, in the book, you don’t really hear mention of them after they’re gone.
In terms of like, they’re the ones chasing the people the whole time, but I thought it was a good call because that way you didn’t have to introduce as many like extra races because you were already going to new planets and seeing new races there. It didn’t become quite as confusing as it probably could have been if you tried to stick to the book.
Like too closely, you know, it’s also
[00:16:55] Josiah: less expensive. I think it’s also less expensive. I think it comes across purely creative to me that they would say, okay, we have a human audience and the Vogons destroy earth in this silly bureaucratic move. They make great villains for the human audience to hate for the entire movie.
I think that that works. I think that’s better than the book that adding the Vogons as the antagonists throughout. I think. Interesting. I mean, I, I think that that would have worked in the book too. I don’t know why he didn’t do that. Yeah. But I guess it
[00:17:32] Rebekah: is. Well, cause in the book, they’re, they’re being chased by the cops of the galaxy because of, of Beeblebrox stealing the, the heart of gold.
But yeah, I think you’re right. Honestly, that change in the book made or that change in the movie made more sense. I also loved Well, I loved the point of view gun and I I say that because I also wanted to mention like the romance thing Obviously Arthur and Trillian are like interested in each other in the book a little bit But it’s not like it’s not this huge deal and in the movie it was, you know a driving plot point but I think You know, in the movie, it made sense visually, the point of view gun where they see what’s going on in, you know, in Trillian’s head was just so brilliant, and I don’t know, I really, that was another thing that, at first I thought, oh man, they changed it so much from the book, and then the more I thought about it, the more I was like, oh, that was a good call.
[00:18:28] Josiah: Yeah, I, I, I really, I
[00:18:30] Tim: liked the beginning of the book where it talks a little bit more about Beeble Brock’s and being the president of the galaxy is not because you’re popular or you’re wonderful, but it’s completely to divert everyone’s attention.
[00:18:46] Rebekah: Can I, can I read that? I love the way he writes this in the book.
I have the book with me. This is the second half of this. So they describe that. The hereditary emperor is dead. He has no heirs, et cetera. And so there’s like he’s the president in particular. Yeah, he’s sorry. He’s dying. He’s in a stasis field, which keeps him in a state of perpetual unchangingness.
So here’s the second paragraph of that footnote. The president in particular is very much a figurehead. He wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership, but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason, the president is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character.
His job is not to wield power, but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria, Zephod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful presidents the galaxy has ever had. He’s already spent two of his ten presidential years in prison for fraud. Very, very few people realize that the president and the government have virtually no power at all.
And of these, Transcripts provided by Transcription Outsourcing, LLC. Inconsequential piece of world building in some ways in the book, but it does speak to like the quirky humor that Adams used when he wrote. It does translate to the movie. There is just a brief mention by a Ford at near the end of the movie that like the president holds no real power.
He’s only meant to distract from it, but they don’t go into the rest of that. He’s
[00:20:19] Donna: probably never said it out loud, but I could see where Adams just considered this whole book on his judgment of how mankind handles things. Like it’s, it is, it’s preachy. It’s not, but it, it’s not overt. It’s not preachy where you would look at it and go, Oh, this is a statement, but about mankind and dolphins are much more intelligent and wittier.
And they were trying to jump up and down out of the water to convince us. That we, we needed to get it because the world was ending because we’re so stupid. I mean, you know, there’s like, and there’s a lot of questions about like existence of God. And there’s not a God and I didn’t expect that when I got into the beginning of the book and there were a lot of
[00:21:08] Rebekah: things in there.
Speaking of that, there was a quote at near the beginning. And then one Thursday, nearly 2000 years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change. A girl sitting on her own, blah, blah, blah. I thought that was so
[00:21:22] Donna: funny. It was, it was like, you couldn’t tell.
He did great at, at not revealing. His personal thoughts, but revealing a lot of personal thoughts. So I thought it was, I kind of felt like he, he had a an interesting balance effect there.
[00:21:41] Josiah: Mhm. One thing I liked in the movie that a movie change was most deaths. Ford prefect. Oh, he was amazing It was so weird and I loved it.
I thought it was a lot better than the book ford which to me reads as a groovy drunkard and It kind of feels very 70s to me, you know, this groovy, baby I’m just drinking all the time and everything’s cool Whereas like most deaf plays Ford like a big alien like a big weird alien And I thought that that was very quirky.
[00:22:24] Rebekah: Yeah. Speaking of their series or season, it was just a single season where they cover the book. They kind of used the book as a screenplay, so the television show doesn’t have a lot of changes, which I thought was really interesting. I know we’re talking more about the movie, but it was really interesting to watch.
Now, the. The show was in 1981. So technology wise, it was really interesting just to see the difference between that and the 2005 one and, and just where things diverged. But it was really interesting to see the book be used almost as a direct screenplay. Anyway. Well, the running time
[00:23:04] Donna: for the movie was only 109 minutes with the detail of stuff that was in the book.
It just seems like that’s interesting that they went short, you know, thinking on a, on a shorter, and movies don’t have to be long to be good. I totally believe that.
[00:23:21] Josiah: Another change from book to movie, a relatively small one, was that Beeblebrox signed the order for the destruction of Earth, which I thought Was a great little addition to add some conflict and Between especially between people Brocks and the two human characters, and it was perfectly in character For Zaphon.
Yeah, we’ve signed
[00:23:51] Tim: an order that he didn’t look at that He knew nothing about because he didn’t really have the power except. It’s
[00:23:57] Josiah: his signature And was and did it specifically say that he and Trillian were already a thing when he signed this order? There’s an indication
[00:24:08] Tim: that it, that it might have been,
[00:24:12] Josiah: I
[00:24:12] Tim: think she questions
[00:24:13] Rebekah: it.
Okay, yeah, because she was with him, she was with him on the planet with the, like where they were building the heart of gold, I think. I want to say that she might have been there, but I think the whole point, and not the whole point, but I think one of the reasons that that was such a good addition. Was also that they were leaning into the romantic plot between Arthur and Trillian.
And so instead of Trillian just looking like indecisive or like, oh, well, she kind of like Zaphod and left with him after ditching Arthur. But then now she’s back with Arthur because he’s more interesting. It led to, oh, obviously, like she would not stay with someone who destroyed her planet, even if he wasn’t a total doofus, you know?
[00:24:53] Josiah: Yeah. I think that the added romance was a very nice thought and I think that that’s the worst part of the movie by the end, like the movie, the book to movie changing, but I think that it works in theory, but I think it strips the third act of the movie of quirky humor and then it turns into a like, right?
Overly earnest, saccharine romance story.
[00:25:25] Tim: I thought it missed it. I thought, I thought the romance just kind of missed. It never became important. It was never an important part of it.
[00:25:36] Rebekah: I think it was made, I think it was there to make the movie accessible to like, Your typical audience, honestly.
[00:25:44] Josiah: I think that’s true, and I think that it works in theory.
I think plot, character wise, all of it makes sense. I just think it made it more boring at the end. I think that this movie, I mean, I think that Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 2005 was the reason that I had a childhood crush on Zooey Deschanel. Oh yeah.
[00:26:06] Rebekah: I mean, didn’t we all?
[00:26:08] Josiah: She was so pretty. I saw myself as that everyman Arthur Dent, uh, and Trisha Trillian was this earth lady who, oh, it just barely didn’t work out we hit it off really quickly, but then something random happened and, but now you’re getting a second chance and, I don’t know, that spoke to something, some hopeless romantic in me that.
You get another chance at this random encounter that you thought could have really led to something interesting, but randomly, it didn’t. You get that second chance, and then it kind of works out. But I’m just imagining, you know, where in my head it falls apart, the movie, is that scene at the dinner table with the mice about to take out Arthur’s brain, and he…
It’s just so earnest and saccharine. Cloyingly sweet as they would say on the great british baking show He says oh how many paths must a man walk down? The only question that I ever wanted answered is is she the one? To which the answer is most certainly yes And the mice, you know, and it’s just so earn and the mice make a little joke and like wow We don’t care about that.
We just want fame and fortune take his brain And so it’s a little joke, but I just think it It turns into something that isn’t funny, and it’s not weird. I think the movie should have been weirder. It loses it because it’s
[00:27:41] Tim: not funny and it’s not weird. It’s a different thing than the
[00:27:45] Josiah: book or movie. Yeah.
Because the book is weird.
[00:27:48] Tim: It’s supposed to be. It’s supposed to be weird. It’s supposed to be quirky, supposed to be funny. That just added, okay, here’s the normal thing that a movie should talk about. Yeah, and I think it kind of missed that
[00:28:02] Rebekah: way as you were talking about that scene with the mice That was also when I went back to the book and I’m pretty sure I’m not gonna say a hundred percent But I went back to the book and I’m pretty sure the movie Shows that the mice are Magrath Ian’s And like that, they all like, they are the pan dimensional, hyper intelligent race that created the supercomputer deep thought.
But like the Magrathians, those are two different while they created. Yeah, they’re two different races. Like the Magrathians created Earth. I believe the behest of the pan dimensional race, because that was how the computer, like the supercomputer. To find the ultimate question that would be the question to the answer 42, whatever.
So I think it was interesting that the movie made those one singular race. I think it totally makes sense as a, you know, book to film change.
[00:28:54] Tim: The thing that I was going to say about Donna’s thing while ago about what you do when you’re making a book into a movie and keeping the things for the fans and different things like that.
The jeweled scuttling crabs. Are not explained in the movie, but they, that was probably one of the things that the screenwriters said, Hey, we can, we can put this in here. The fans will know what this is. But it’s necessary to the plot. So we’re not going to make a big deal about it. We’re gonna, it’ll be there and the fans will say, Oh yeah, I know where those come from.
Because in the book, they’re important because the, the Vogons basically destroyed, destroyed their planet, the wonderful things on the planet because they thought they were tasty, basically. Yeah. And then it’s just kind of a nod to that while not while not trying to put it in the plot. Does that
[00:29:54] Rebekah: make sense?
Yeah. There were definitely a few, I think, nods to different things in the book. Like that. They don’t explain like that, which is always a kind of a nice thing about if you’ve read the book before you see the movie, it’s, it’s nice to feel like you’re kind of, it’s like an inside joke or like an inside thing.
And so it makes you feel a little more connected. Exactly. Yeah.
[00:30:15] Donna: Well, they also did the opposite of that. I think with the opening song, which everything I’ve been, any of the research I did on the movie, just thoughts about the movie comments. Differences, blah, blah. Everybody that I read agreed. The music, that opening song was amazing.
Could
[00:30:35] Rebekah: not get the song out of my head for like a week. Yeah, and it, but the
[00:30:39] Donna: lyrics, I read the lyrics again this morning, and it just tells you. So much about what you’re getting ready to see
[00:30:46] Rebekah: how did we feel about the fact that the movie? Ends with the magrathian like builders asking arthur if he wants to be back on like earth mark
[00:30:56] Josiah: two I think that works with the whole feel they were going for in the third act.
It’s like oh the earth is destroyed But don’t worry. There’s another one and you can live there happy ever after I felt like
[00:31:09] Tim: it was A good enough way to end it for those who, who weren’t familiar with the books, you know, it was just, Hey, it’s a catchy title. Let’s go see this movie. It was a good way to wrap it up for those, those parts of the audience.
But I think for those who would have followed it, it would have seemed very strange. Although now I haven’t read all the books, but isn’t earth recreated
[00:31:35] Josiah: by the ending of the series. Oh, goodness. You had to ask. I
[00:31:41] Tim: thought I read something that said that happens much later, but I also read something that said Adams.
Wrote the last two books and basically apologized to fans for writing them He said he shouldn’t have written the last two because his heart wasn’t in it and he didn’t do a good
[00:31:59] Josiah: job
[00:32:00] Rebekah: I believe the fifth book was technically Published after Adam’s death and it was like completed Based on like draft work by another author.
I think it was either that or a
[00:32:13] Josiah: six book It’s the sixth book. It’s the sixth one of them. One of the books was very short The
[00:32:19] Rebekah: sixth book is called, and another thing, and it was technically written by Ian, I think that’s how you say his first name, Ian Colfer, the arter of the Artemis Fowl series, which I know dad is a big fan of.
The other change I was just going to mention, I don’t even know if we need to discuss it, but I thought it was interesting that, and I think I understand why you would do this for the movie, but in the book, Magrathia was like and it was just like. This mysterious like people didn’t think it was true.
It was like a legend that people just knew wasn’t really real, and it was very mythical and like whatever. And so in the movie, it was just kind of accepted that they knew the Magrathia existed. And so. People rocks like introduces the video, and he’s like, Here’s what we’re trying to go do, and I thought it was an interesting change that it wasn’t really mythical.
It was just like this is a place.
[00:33:05] Josiah: the book,
[00:33:06] Tim: People, Brock’s is on Because someone has told him some information that he had to excise from his brain. So he’s not sure why he’s on this quest. But it’s supposed to be something noble something bigger. But for the movie, they basically made it, you know, it’s, it’s wealth.
It’s about wealth, you know.
[00:33:31] Josiah: Yeah.
[00:33:33] Rebekah: Okay, now I want to talk about, I found so much interesting stuff about like the whole franchise for Hitchhiker’s Guide, just kind of trivia things. So I just want to share a couple of things I found. I know some of you guys probably looked some up as well. So one of my favorites was when I read the term resistance is useless.
I remember thinking as a kid watching the movie, like, Oh, they got that from Star Trek. Like resistance is futile by the Borgs. So I looked this up, but in fact, resistance is useless and resistance is futile. Please tell me you guys didn’t read all of my notes. Does anybody know where both of those originated?
Like both of those phrases were heard the first time. I’ve already read it. Yeah, I
[00:34:18] Josiah: read. Okay,
[00:34:20] Rebekah: so both of those. Yeah, both of those were first used on episodes of Doctor Who, which as we’ve mentioned, Adams was a writer for and script editor earlier on, so he actually didn’t come up with Resistance is Useless.
But Resistance is Futile was brought up in 1987 on Star Trek. Futile was used in Doctor Who in 1976, so they actually both got theirs from which
[00:34:44] Tim: is an indication that people that watch. Watch and read science fiction. Watch and read all types of science fiction.
[00:34:53] Rebekah: True. It’s very true. I also loved that the original way that Adams came up with the book was lying drunk in a field holding a copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Europe as he stared up at the night sky.
I thought that was really funny.
[00:35:10] Josiah: Wondering
[00:35:10] Tim: how in the world he was going to get where he needed to
[00:35:13] Josiah: go. Is it okay if I spoil Mostly Harmless, the, I guess that’s the fifth, fifth book, and final one written by Douglas Adams it is revealed that, oh gosh I forget if it’s Trillian or like some sort of alternate version of Trillian uh, wanted a kid, and so she used the closest human male DNA she could find.
And Arthur suddenly figures out that he has a teenage daughter named Random, and she’s just a main character. Wow, that’s so fun! Yes, and it is very, it’s very interesting. I think it works in the cynical, in a very cynical way. There’s this new main character that it would, you know, in a normal movie, a normal book, it would be this, it would be so sweet and cuddly, but it’s like, no, I don’t really have a relationship with you.
You’re, you’re my biological father, I guess. One scene I appreciated was one that was essentially, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a, More unchanged scene from book to movie as the whale scene. So good. It was pointless, completely purposeless, exactly as the book was written. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I can’t think of an example of less change to a scene.
[00:36:46] Rebekah: You guys, I honestly, like, this is a review thing and then I want to do a lightning round of trivia stuff. But like, I loved the… What feels in a way it doesn’t drive the plot forward, but all the world building in the book, I found myself laughing so many times, but you’re also right. I think Josiah said this.
I didn’t really care what happened. Like the plot itself in the first book was not that interesting to me. I think the film adaptation actually made me care more about what was happening to the characters, but the world building is so good. I literally just would crack up reading every random little thing.
The description of the jeweled scuttling crabs and you. The, just, oh, the thing about Ford Prefect’s name, do you remember that?
[00:37:28] Josiah: Oh, it was a very, it was a rather long and complicated thing. I think you might have gone to the restroom. I think I mentioned that it was because he thought the dominant species on the planet was cars.
[00:37:38] Rebekah: Right. Yeah. This one, I loved the thing about his. I love the thing about his dad. Okay, I’m just going to read this one, too. I don’t care. It’s very funny. Ford Prefect’s original name is only pronounceable in an obscure Betelgeuse ian dialect, now virtually extinct since the Great Collapsing Hrung Disaster of year 03758, which wiped out all the Praxibetal communities on Betelgeuse.
seven. Ford’s father was the only man on the entire planet to survive the great collapsing Hrung disaster by an extraordinary coincidence that he was never able to satisfactorily explain. The whole episode is shrouded in deep mystery. In fact, no one ever knew what a Hrung was, nor why it had chosen to collapse on Beetlejuice seven.
Particularly Ford’s father, magnanimously waving aside the clouds of suspicion that it inevitably surrounded him, came to live on Beetlejuice five where he both fathered and unclad Ford. In memory of his now dead race, he christened him in the ancient Praxibetal tongue. Because Ford never learned to say his original name, his father eventually died of shame, which is still a terminal disease in some part of the galaxy.
The other kids at school nicknamed him Ix, which in the language of Beetlejuice 5 translates as boy who is not able satisfactorily to explain what a rung is, nor why it should choose to collapse on Beetlejuice 7. I just, that was so funny. That kind of stuff just cracks me up. Yeah, so you
[00:38:58] Donna: read the physical book right
[00:39:01] Rebekah: this time around.
I have the physical book. Yeah, I did not do the audiobook at all. Yeah, I love Stephen
[00:39:07] Donna: Fry. I love Stephen Fry, so I was really glad to listen to the
[00:39:11] Josiah: audiobook
[00:39:12] Rebekah: was also uncle. Uncled. Sorry, uncled. I was
[00:39:17] Donna: like, what the crap
[00:39:19] Rebekah: is this word? I literally had no idea what it meant. Uncled. Well, I mean, you can’t uncle someone.
That’s not like a normal
[00:39:26] Josiah: thing. He uses words. I don’t fully understand what
[00:39:29] Rebekah: it means. But here we go! Okay,
[00:39:32] Josiah: I also like that Marvin the Paranoid Android was originally written for the radio show as a one time joke But he became an instant fan favorite and so Douglas Adams turned Marvin into a main character of the entire series.
Yeah I think it’s great. It’s
[00:39:49] Tim: amazing He’s the most memorable part I think even with, even with Bebo Brox’s two heads and three arms Marvin is so important, I think. And, and, and
[00:40:02] Donna: realizing that, realizing he’s not, he’s not even a main character, he’s just an added character, but that’s like any. anY sleeper role like the fawns and happy days that was supposed to be said, yeah, anything like that.
It’s always kind of fun to
[00:40:22] Josiah: see those happen. Another good thing about the screenplay, if you’re trying to like give set up and pay off. Yeah. Maybe Marvin didn’t have a lot to do in the book. And so what does he do in the movie? He point of view guns. All of the Vogons and that that kind of wins them the day or like that solves one of the conflicts and so Marvin Actually did contribute to the plot.
He wasn’t just a funny man in the back
[00:40:47] Rebekah: a couple of other there were two funny cameos. I wanted to mention Simon Jones, who portrays the ghostly head, warning visitors to Maggar Theatre to turn back. So he’s like the hologram that comes up when they’re in the ship. He played Arthur Dent in both the original radio show and the 1981 TV show in the UK.
That was funny. DoUglas Adams made a cameo in the TV show, which I mentioned only because it’s hilarious, and I went and like rewatched it. He cameos as a man despite having who have despite having many pieces of small green paper decides that even the trees were a bad idea, and it’s best to return to the ocean naked.
He is shown butt naked from the rear like you see his whole tushy. It was so, and that’s the author of the book. I just thought that was so funny. So he’s all in.
[00:41:38] Donna: Yeah. Or all out. Yeah. He was, I mean, committed. Oh funny. . Good one pastor.
[00:41:42] Rebekah: Wow. I like that. But anyway, the other trivia stuff is just that like 42 and the Hitchhiker’s Guide lore has just become such a permeating part of like pop culture that huge.
Oh, yeah, don’t panic. It’s been so I made a I had one list. So South Park has tally who mentions don’t forget to bring a towel Which I love the towel lore they don’t explain in the movie, but they carry towels with them everywhere, but it was really interesting neo pets had the pan galactic gargle slushy, which was a child’s version of the gargle blaster golden eye seven I did too.
Goldeneye 007. Did I say seven? Oh my gosh. They had a, they had a mostly harmless award for the player who earned the least kills in a match, which refers to the book Josiah mentioned.
[00:42:29] Josiah: Humans
[00:42:29] Tim: are listed as mostly harmless. That’s their entry in the
[00:42:33] Rebekah: attackers guide. Nice. And a PBS series between the lions has a rugby jersey sporting 42.
That’s not the only ones like I know don’t panic is like a thing. And I just think it’s interesting that It was so even though the movie in 2005 doesn’t seem like as successful as some other films It is like a permeating thing in tech or not tech in Sci fi culture. Oh,
[00:43:00] Josiah: yeah, I would say outside sci fi culture, too Yeah, just into culture in general.
Do you remember the? 2019 original musical greener pastures
[00:43:11] Rebekah: Oh, I remember that. It was by, it was by T. Josiah Haynes. I went and saw the, the worldwide premiere in person. The world premiere
[00:43:18] Josiah: of Burned Ashley, yeah. And so, and there was a character in that musical who could only say the word 42.
[00:43:27] Rebekah: Oh my gosh.
Was that I did not make that connection, . I didn’t.
[00:43:30] Josiah: Oh my goodness.
[00:43:32] Donna: Oh, wow. I’m so sorry that I did not realize that. That’s amazing.
[00:43:37] Josiah: She knew she knew the meaning of life, but no one could ask her the question. She could say was the answer. Me too. Oh, wow.
[00:43:44] Tim: Oh goodness. I did not pick.
[00:43:46] Josiah: Pick that up. Okay.
[00:43:48] Rebekah: So, I had, I will, I had one little thing that I wanted to just, like, pose to you as a fun little minigame, and then we can give our final reviews, if that’s okay.
And if it sucks, you know, we’ll let somebody cut it. whAt? What?
[00:44:03] Donna: Don’t tell him that. He’ll catch them. I’m just saying.
[00:44:07] Josiah: He hates when we talk about editing. I’m so sorry,
[00:44:10] Rebekah: Josh. What would it have been like if Hitcher’s Guide, Hitcher’s Guide?
[00:44:16] Donna: I can’t talk. I can’t.
[00:44:23] Rebekah: Okay, what would it have been like if Hitchhiker’s Guide was written as a horror story?
I was thinking about this because you’ve got the destruction of earth there. You know, they’re attacked by the Vogon’s with the poetry They nearly die at the hand of the Magruthians and in the movie like Hamakavula like he does like literally cut off one of people rocks his heads And he’s a creepy creature like how much of a genre switch would that even have been?
[00:44:56] Josiah: You would lose a lot of the humor which I think made the story What it was, and it was so entertaining, but as a plot, I think that a lot of it can be translated into sci fi horror. It’s, you know, it’s the cynical view of, well, we all think that the Earth is this secure place, but, you know, an alien race could just come and destroy it all of a sudden and make you feel very helpless and Yeah, I mean a lot of the There’s a lot of dark
[00:45:27] Tim: science fiction that it would feed right into that kind of thing.
[00:45:32] Josiah: Yeah, the characters feel very helpless throughout, so you would have to completely change the prose, but the plot could pretty, pretty well work as a, as a horror plot. I don’t think it would be as successful, because I mean, the best thing I think we’ve been mentioning about Hitchhiker’s Guide is the world building, the random prose, especially read by Stephen Fry.
[00:45:54] Rebekah: Love it. Well, I’ll go first with my verdict and then you can all give yours. I think that while it took me by surprise because it had been so long since I’d watched the movie, I think that the change from book to movie was done really, really well. I think that the the additions, I mean, I actually didn’t hate the love story.
I’m more of a basic white girl in that, so like it, I don’t mind the saccharine nature of it as much as you did, I think, Josiah, but I, I liked the introduction of the love story. I thought it felt very quirky. I know there were some criticisms that it wasn’t quite as British or quirky as the book was.
Like that was one of the big things that critics didn’t like, but I thought it was nice. Thank you. Just the right amount to make it accessible to a really wide audience. I like that It’s a movie you can watch with kids like, you know, all of those things. I really enjoy the movie Like I said, I did enjoy the book I’m not going to go as far as to say that the book is worse than the movie But in this case, I actually I’m gonna put them right next to each other because the book had world building that I loved and it Was super like engaging in that respect that you don’t get in the movie But because I didn’t care that much about the plot by the end of it I would put the movie on the same level because it’s incredibly enjoyable.
It changes the plot in a way that makes me care about it. And I thought it delivered really well. And like, I think a lot of that comes down to the casting being just so excellent. I
[00:47:24] Donna: had not seen the movie for a long time. So I didn’t, I had not locked a lot of stuff in my head. So I went ahead and listened to the audio book.
Then I watched the movie. For that reason, I would nod to the book a little bit. Had I read the, had I watched the movie first and gone back and read the book, I might have flipped that. But I think I had that, I had that fresh sense of detail and Quirkiness, and I think we mentioned, like we mentioned earlier, the movie, maybe the, and maybe the, maybe the makers of the movie were a little concerned that that British quirkiness, maybe they were concerned it wouldn’t translate to an American stage.
I don’t know how much that has a bearing in it, but British comedy is, has its own brand of weird. And. So I think maybe if they were trying to, I don’t know, calm that down, but still make it funny, you know, so I’m, I’m going to say
[00:48:38] Josiah: the book because
[00:48:40] Tim: you, you mentioned something that brings up an interesting point to me.
Does it matter which one we, we see or read first that colors our opinion? If we watch a movie and say, I love that movie, Oh, it was based on a book. I want to go read the book. Are we more disappointed with the book because it wasn’t like the movie. So does it matter which, which we’re familiar with first?
[00:49:10] Rebekah: I don’t know how
[00:49:11] Donna: this will go into the future. I don’t know how all that will play out in my head. Cause I, I understand what you’re
[00:49:19] Josiah: saying. I think you should always watch
[00:49:20] Donna: the movie first. Watch the movie first, then read the book?
[00:49:23] Josiah: Cause it’s the shorter
[00:49:24] Tim: part.
[00:49:26] Josiah: Well, I would say because it’s, it’s less detailed.
And so, I think you’re setting yourself up for failure when you read the book first. Hoping it will be watch the movie first Usually you can enjoy the movie and then you can enjoy the book thereafter It’s like oh the you know Because usually the book is a lot more detailed and you get in these people’s heads a little more you get more backstory So it’s almost like
[00:49:48] Tim: special features on a On a
[00:49:50] Josiah: movie or something.
Yeah. So for me, I’m just looking at it to say, How can I enjoy the most of my life? And by, in, by watching a movie or TV show first, I’m gonna enjoy that. And then reading the book, then I can enjoy that. Instead of going the other way and then you only enjoy the book and you don’t enjoy the movie and stuff as much this time
[00:50:14] Tim: Despite the fact that it came out the book came out the year the fall that I went to college So it was a big topic Among students.
[00:50:24] Josiah: Yes. It, you know, I
[00:50:26] Tim: went to college in the fall of 79, 1979. Despite that I had never read the book, despite the fact that apparently I gave it to our son. I had never read the book myself. So I watched the movie first and then for this we listened to the book. I was very surprised at how short the book was.
I did like the extra detail in the book, but when I read the book, it had been a number of years since I’d seen the movie. And so I, I’m probably going to cop out in, in this direction and say they are two different things. They’re two different versions of Adam’s universe and they both stand. By themselves, you know, one is not a copy of the other.
One is not superior to the other.
[00:51:19] Josiah: It’s just different So my review would be that the book is landmark iconic hilarious and That style of writing, I don’t think that really existed. I think Douglas Adams should get credit for at least popularizing it, if not inventing that style of writing, a parody of the travel guide.
And I think that because as a child, a little child, I often tried to replicate that when I was, you know, writing my early stuff. I don’t know how many of you read my Forever Friends content. Yeah. Yep. Absolutely insane. Yeah, that was, I mean, it was just Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
[00:52:01] Rebekah: in retrospect. I think that was during my era of Dear God, what is my brother doing again, I don’t want to read this.
Yeah. Now I just love your content.
[00:52:10] Josiah: LOL. Maybe I should read the Forever Friends content and just post it on YouTube for fun. That actually is not a bad idea. But it’s essentially a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy style of random things happen and you go off on random tangents that are more hilarious than following the main characters.
Sure. And one thing I found that whenever I tried to insert a plot into this absurdist story… It didn’t work. It was like, well, let me get back to the funny stuff, which is usually the reaction. And so I think that it was very noble and it was kind of a good thought to try to steer the movie towards more of a plot.
Mainly with the romance subplot, but also giving them a main antagonist with the Vogons and Giving Trillian and Xaphod strife so that she kind of goes towards Arthur in that way All of those different plot points the Hummikavula Versus Xaphod feud all of those story elements. I think were good thoughts But some of them worked and some of them didn’t work so much for me.
I think that you, with this style of writing and storytelling, the plot has to be a backdrop for a funny thing. And if it’s not, If it is not purely a backdrop, you think of, you have to think of the joke, or you have to think of kind of what you’re going for, and then work the plot around it. Because the funniness is the main point of this style of writing, and I think the movie did a pretty good job of translating it to a Hollywood screenplay, but the book was revolutionary and the movie was not.
And I think the movie was definitely a great movie. I wish that we would have had a different director. I think that sometimes it was played too safe. Sometimes… Nothing against Garth Jennings, I think, was the director. And you know, there’s great moments like, you remember those orchestral hits as we zoom out from Arthur up the Vogon ship?
Oh,
[00:54:24] Rebekah: so funny. Such. That was
[00:54:26] Josiah: excellent. That was amazing. Those, those amazing moments. But then there were the moments like the, the, the, what, how many paths must a man go down and, and Slarty Bartfast taking Arthur over Earthmark, Earthmark II and Arthur just looking out in astonishment. And it’s so genuine and lovely.
And I’m like, this isn’t funny. It, this is, and it’s like, nothing, everything doesn’t have to be funny, but when you make the first hour of Hitchhiker’s Guide in the way that you do, you set up, you set a tone, and I think it was tonally dissonant by the end, so, I think the book was definitely better in a few ways.
And overall,
[00:55:06] Rebekah: nice. Well, I think there you have it. We all kind of agree. We enjoyed both pieces, but for different reasons, the book, I mean, come on, the book is always
[00:55:17] Donna: better.
[00:55:19] Josiah: I’m always the one that thinks that. You kind of flip flopped on this one. This was
[00:55:23] Rebekah: closer for me. I’m going to tell you right now, the amount of times I want to go to sleep so far.
I’m two hours into the Oppenheimer audiobook. It’s 26 hours long. I’ve turned it off like three
[00:55:34] Josiah: times. Nonfiction. It’s funny. Well,
[00:55:37] Rebekah: if you are still with us, I just want to say thanks for listening to The Book is Better. We’ll have another episode out in two weeks. If you have any thoughts. Or feedback. Feel free to email us.
Our email address is bookisbetterpod@gmail.com. And you can find us on social media pretty much everywhere @bookisbetterpod. So ta ta for now. Thanks everybody. Thanks.
[00:56:01] Donna: Bye.