The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - a minor mystery solved

Cafe Society
1

A couple of years ago I asked this question, based on a dimly remembered name from THHGTTG, about whether the Guide had originally been invented by someone named Web. I thought it was a neat coincidence, if true.

Well, as I recently got hold of the DVD of the 1980s BBC TV series, I can report that I was almost right. In the graphics sequence in episode (I think) 5, relating facts about the universe (8 ningis = 1 Triganic pu, etc.), there’s a brief drawing of the editor of the Guide, who goes by the name Web Nixo.

That’s all.

2

Second cousin to Kit Fisto.

and Kam Fong as Chin Ho!

3

Hah! fiddly small change.

4

It really is amazing that the guide seemed like such a neat but unlikely device a quarter-century ago.

Now we can see it for what it is: A Wi-Fi enabled PDA.

5

But these days we can see that roving researchers such as Ford Prefect would hardly be necessary – surely the Guide would work better as a wiki? :wink:

6

It would fit perfectly with the guide’s inaccuracies and its policy of ‘when the guide disagrees with reality, it’s reality that has got it wrong.’ :smiley:

7

I remember at first reading being utterly flummoxed as to what an “electronic book” could possibly be. The idea of a viewscreen never occurred to me, as a book has to have pages, right? The best I could visualize was a few plastic sheets that print would scroll up like the Star Wars opening blurb, sandwiched in between two stiffer plastic sheets, with the whole shebang tucked into a case like the boxlike pressboard case my copy of Little Women came in. And I could never work out where the buttons came in.

In my defense, I was 10.

And I didn’t “get” Eccentria Gallumbits, either! :smiley:

8

This would be the precursor to Truthiness, wouldn’t it?

9

My PDA doesn’t speak in Stephen Fry’s voice /pout/.

10

You could get one that does, can’t you? Maybe not today, but surely in a few more years.

11

Everyone knows the real guide is voiced by Peter Jones. :cool:

12

That sounds an awful lot like electronic paper

13

In the meantime, the Jeeves clock! (Caution: Sound)

14

I was about 18 when I first read the books and listened to the radio series (1981?) and the visual image I formulated of the Guide was like an over-sized calculator with a large screen, so I suppose I wasn’t too far off.

15

Not really, you might need the reporters to cover the lesser known areas of space, like earth, that practicaly no one goes to.

16

I had one of those scientific calculators with the big screen and a plastic cover that slid over the top. Of course, I drew the DON’T PANIC logo on the cover in Biro.

17

Thank you for this. I admire Jeeves (and Stephen Fry’s interpretation of him) enormously. O for my own “gentleman’s gentleman”!

18

Actually the precursor of Wikiality.

19

Oh, my god. I want this so badly.

20

I’m waiting for the ‘madame’ version in May. I can’t imagine what it will cost to have it shipped to Canada but it will be worth it!