Thanks to a friend, I've now become a fan of the Hitchhiker's Guide. For what it's all worth- and it is all about Life, the Unvierse, and Everything, isn't it- Douglas Adams's creation is consistently clever and silly, a work of imagination where the levels of human idiosyncrasies that can always be reached by levels of ego, self-pity, paranoia, greed, super-intelligence, self-deprecation, awkwardness, et all, can make for some great, succinctly dry-British wit.
Sometimes Adams can go for the laugh out loud (anything with the dolphins, the answer to Life, the Unvierse, and Everything, the mice, Marvin, or the pig at the restaurant who asks to be eaten, all parts over), or the more subtle (the many bits taken away from the 'Book' as narration covers all sorts of topics, not least of which the usefulness of towels, the power of one throwaway phrase that can ignite a war between two alien systems, and of course, Blartfast). But always, the Hitchhiker's Guide series is about the knowing eye for the cruelness, humanity, joy, and just plain stupidity of human beings, and how it can be conceivably out there in the rest of the universe- just look at the Vogons with their poetry (actually don't)!
The series produced for BBC is, typical of the network, not of the high-caliber of budget. At a time when Star Wars expanded the proximity of what could be done, unfortunately Alan Bell, Adams and the producers had only limited resources (like, erm, plain old models and locations in Africa for some of Magrathea, oddly enough where A New Hope shot as well), and even the entries shown from the book with characters 'drawn' in green outline or the globes were all hand-drawn.
But despite the limitations, the comic strengths of the actors pull the material very well enough, especially Mark Wing Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, David Learner as the voice of Marvin (albeit the way he talks he should be voiced by a Woody Allen type of neurotic), and Richard Vernon as Blartfast (not to mention bit players like the guys who play the cops in episode 4 or Clockwork Orange alumni Aubrey Morris as the bathtub captain). And sometimes it the production design itself is in on the joke; the restaurant at the end of the universe is funny just to look at, with its main little dark area for the 'announcer', and various creatures all abound at tables introduced like it's Las Vegas.
It's a minor triumph for all involved that these episodes were this much fun and occasionally brilliant, and they'll likely impress fans of the book moreover than the 2005 movie did.
Sometimes Adams can go for the laugh out loud (anything with the dolphins, the answer to Life, the Unvierse, and Everything, the mice, Marvin, or the pig at the restaurant who asks to be eaten, all parts over), or the more subtle (the many bits taken away from the 'Book' as narration covers all sorts of topics, not least of which the usefulness of towels, the power of one throwaway phrase that can ignite a war between two alien systems, and of course, Blartfast). But always, the Hitchhiker's Guide series is about the knowing eye for the cruelness, humanity, joy, and just plain stupidity of human beings, and how it can be conceivably out there in the rest of the universe- just look at the Vogons with their poetry (actually don't)!
The series produced for BBC is, typical of the network, not of the high-caliber of budget. At a time when Star Wars expanded the proximity of what could be done, unfortunately Alan Bell, Adams and the producers had only limited resources (like, erm, plain old models and locations in Africa for some of Magrathea, oddly enough where A New Hope shot as well), and even the entries shown from the book with characters 'drawn' in green outline or the globes were all hand-drawn.
But despite the limitations, the comic strengths of the actors pull the material very well enough, especially Mark Wing Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, David Learner as the voice of Marvin (albeit the way he talks he should be voiced by a Woody Allen type of neurotic), and Richard Vernon as Blartfast (not to mention bit players like the guys who play the cops in episode 4 or Clockwork Orange alumni Aubrey Morris as the bathtub captain). And sometimes it the production design itself is in on the joke; the restaurant at the end of the universe is funny just to look at, with its main little dark area for the 'announcer', and various creatures all abound at tables introduced like it's Las Vegas.
It's a minor triumph for all involved that these episodes were this much fun and occasionally brilliant, and they'll likely impress fans of the book moreover than the 2005 movie did.