Don't Panic: The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy, and its' creation
On Oct. 12, 1979 — 45 years ago Saturday, the first edition of Douglas Adams’ comic science fiction novel “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” was published in London.
The story was originally a six-episode series on BBC Radio 4 that began running in March 1978. That would be fleshed out into six radio series, five novels, a TV series, a feature film and other formats as well: stage productions, comic books and even a video game.
At First, The Hitchhiker's Guide Was A Radio Show
“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun,” wrote science fiction and comedy writer Douglas Adams to kick off the novel version of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” “Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.”
The story was originally written as a six-part weekly series on BBC Radio 4 — the first part of which was broadcast on March 8, 1978.
Adams’ original idea had been a series he called “The Ends of the Earth,” which was to be a self-contained set of stories. Each would end with Earth being destroyed in a different way.
That concept eventually evolved into the story of an English everyman, Arthur Dent, who discovers an alien construction crew is about to demolish the earth to make room for a hyperspace bypass. He’s rescued by an intergalactic hitchhiker and author of an electronic guidebook to traveling the universe. Along the way they meet the Galactic President, who’s stolen a spaceship with an Infinite Improbability Drive and a clinically depressed robot.
Adams had struggled with his writing career but was befriended by Graham Chapman of Monty Python and wrote a sketch for that comedy troupe. Not long after the radio show debuted, Adams was hired to write a script of the BBC science fiction TV series “Doctor Who” and served one season as that show‘s script editor.
Audiences loved Adams’ radio program, so the BBC commissioned a Christmas episode that winter and then another series of five episodes that were broadcast in 1980.
In the meantime, Adams wrote a novelization of this original story and then fleshed that out into a trilogy. He later wrote to more Hitchhiker books and called it a five-part trilogy. Along the way, he also wrote “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” in 1987 and a sequel novel the next year.
Before It Was Turned Into 'A Five-Part Trilogy' of Books
OCT. 12, 1979, Just as Earth is about to be demolished for a hyperspace bypass, Arthur Dent is whisked away by his friend, Ford Prefect who turns out to be an alien hitchhiker. They join the crew of the spaceship Heart of Gold and set off to explore the universe.
OCTOBER 1980
Dent, Prefect and their friends — a three-armed, two-headed man, a depressed robot and an Earth woman — visit the famous Restaurant at the End of the Universe. However, a crew of angry alien monsters are trying to track them all down.
AUGUST 1982
After surviving a number of catastrophes, Dent is surprised to find himself living in a cave on prehistoric Earth. He learns that most of the things that happen in the universe are unfair. But he is eventually rescued by his pal, Prefect.
NOV. 9, 1984
Dent meets the girl of his dreams and is dragged into a mission to figure out how the world can be made a happy place. Adams had fallen in love with his new Macintosh computer and his changed attitude about technology shows in the book.
OCTOBER 1992
Dent finds a nice new planet and aims to settle down. But that goes out the window when his daughter he didn’t even know existed suddenly appears. Prefect meets Elvis and buys the spacecraft in which Elvis had escaped Earth.
Two Filmed Versions of Adams' Stories
JAN. 5, 1981
A six-episode BBC TV series featured Simon Jones as Dent, David Dixon as Prefect, Mark Wing-Davey as Beeblebrox, Sandra Dickinson as Trillian and Steven Moore as the voice of Marvin. In late 1982, the series was aired by PBS stations in the U.S., but edited into seven 30-minute episodes.
The BBC
APRIL 28, 2005
Adams co-wrote a screenplay for a movie version but died before production began. The film starred Martin Freeman as Dent, Mos Def as Prefect, Sam Rockwell as Beeblebrox, Zooey Deschanel as Trillian and Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin. Stephen Fry was the narrator. Also, the voice of Helen Mirren was featured.
Touchstone Pictures
Douglas Adams' Quotes
In 2021, the BBC celebrated the 42nd anniversary of “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” with 42 amusing Douglas Adams quotes. Here are a few of them:
“A learning experience is one of those things that says, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.’”
“I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer.”
“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”
“Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
“Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.”
Towel Day
Adams suffered from undiagnosed coronary artery disease. He died of a heart attack on May 11, 2001. Two weeks after his death, fans organized Towel Day: An annual May 25 tribute to Adams, based on what he had written in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” about a towel being “about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.”
