OK, radio then. Is this the audio CD I want?
Sorry, that is the third book in radio format. I can’t find the original Radio programmes on Amazon.
Here are details from Amazon.co.uk but not a chance to buy it. Try EBAY?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0563504196/qid=1127511924/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/202-3667816-3520658
Oh, you can buy it 
And I just did, yippeee.
- The jokes were almost, but not quite, entirely unlike humor.
What sucked is they kept putting in lines and jokes from the radio series/novels leaving in much of the superfluous padding and extraneous steup, presumably because they were judged as necessary, but omitting the punchlines, on the basis that they were not. As a result, you get a lot of subplots about Point Of View guns, bitter political rivalries, and a romantic/sadistic pursuit which, like the countless number of inexplicably but excitingly exposed plumbing on 23rd century starships, goes nowhere and does nothing (GNDN).
I also lament the loss of the Golgafrincham ‘B’ Space Ark and its useless third of the population (telephone sanitizers, television documentarians, marketing research executives) and that delightful chap, Number One.
On the other hand, the Vogons in the movie were fantasic. One could scarcely ask for a more hideous, vile, and replendantly repulsive presentation. But on the whole, I have to agree with NoClueBoy: as badly as the BBC did it, they produced a version far superior to the Disney movie. The Red Dwarf-grade special effects to add a certain perverse charm, and the Commadore 64-like computer graphics. I know they tried to make the film graphics more Machintosh-like (something Adams would have heartily approved of) but the result was just kind of…bland.
And in the film the Guide did not in fact actually appear to have the words “Don’t Panic” inscribed in large, friendly letters on the cover. (Never mind the trailer.) I can live with changes to the described appearance of Marvin The Paranoid Android (who was wonderfully voiced by Alan Rickman) and the Heart of Gold, but the Guide is inviolate.
I enjoyed immensely both the radio and text versions; the Infocom game is an alternating distraction and frustration; the BBC mini-series is charming in its cheap, shuddering-wall and foam-rubber monster glory. The film, on the other hand, is a large and well-polished blob of something very smelly, oozing slightly at the corners and generally making a mess of the living room.
Rent Brazil instead. “Don’t fight it son. Confess quickly! If you hold out too long you could jeopardize your credit rating.”
Stranger
Pay no attention to the anti-movie naysayers! It was indeed different from the TV series & the books & the radio series, which in turn had variations between them. While DA was not around to complete it, I have not heard any suggestions that the movie violated what he had intended. Anyway, I enjoyed the movie, saw it twice in the theatre & bought the DVD (there’s a TWO-DISK in the UK!??!)
Three things in its favor-
Zooey Deschanel
Yarn Doll Vomit (don’t ask, just be ready for it!)
The totally awesome Planet Factory
oh yeah, and I thought Sam Rockwell’s Zaphod was excellent. If I were to find fault with any movie version character, it would be the way Mos Def’s Ford Prefect was written (tho I thought Mos did a fine job with the script he was given).
I must admit this is the sole reason I bought the DVD today. Sadly, it won’t have a tenth the grandeur on TV that it did in the theater, but I can safely say there’s no other scene in any recent movie, including Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, that had me in such awe.
Are you referring to the 2005 film? There’s a pan over all sides of the guide: The front cover has a small symbol of a thumb, the spine has the title, the back cover has “don’t panic.” In one scene where Ford is holding the guide, we can see the “don’t panic” on the back cover. It also features in one of the animated Guide sequences the two reasons why the Guide is more popular than the Encyclopedia Galactica, which are the same as in the book:
- Cheaper
- Has “Don’t Panic” written on cover in large, friendly letters
- Here we go again… (just kidding Opal, you know I love you. I just love to play with cliches)
Okay, remember that book “Battlefield Earth”? The movie was just as bad as the book – err, worse still. I mean, wow, as far as movies go, I can ususally stomach quite a lot just for the sheer sake of entertainment, especially science fiction with lots of special effects. But man, if I ever catch a glimpse of “Battlefield Earth” again, I may be crazy.
Let’s contrast that experience with HHGG. I was a fan of the books growing up, the C=64 text based adventure game, the BBC series-cum-movie, and the radio series. HHGG was going to be the biggest movie for me in 2005 – hell, I took a weekend to go back home from Mexico so that I could see it. Bear in mind, I’d heard all the bad reviews and the bad fan-boy reviews, too, and so wasn’t expecting much. This was probably a good thing. If you are to see the movie with lowered expectations, you’ll see that in its own right, it’s not a bad film at all, and rather quite enjoyable. The effects are good, the acting is mostly good, the story takes same turns that are different, and all in all, it wasn’t a “Battlefield Earth” experience at all.
(Lest anyone forget, the same Douglas Adams wrote the script.)