Dom Robinson reviews

Cert:

Cat.no: BBCDVD 1092

Running time: 199 minutes

Year: 1981

Pressing: 2002

Region(s): 2, 4 (UK PAL)

Chapters: 48

Sound: Stereo, Mono

Languages: English

Subtitles: English for the deaf and hard of hearing

Fullscreen: 4:3

16:9-enhanced: No

Macrovision: No

Disc Format: 2 * DVD 9

Price: £24.99

Extras: "The Making of HHGTTG", "Don't Panic": additional 'making of' material, An introduction to the first episode by Peter Jones, "Communicate!": behind-the-scenes of the radio series, BBC2 trailer, deleted scene, behind-the-scenes, Tomorrow's World clip, Pebble Mill clip, out-takes, photo gallery, on-screen production notes

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Director:

Alan J.W. Bell

Producer:

Alan J.W. Bell

Screenplay:

Douglas Adams

Music:

Roger Limb

Cast:

Arthur Dent: Simon Jones
Ford Prefect: David Dixon
Zaphod Beeblebrox: Mark Wing-Davey
Trillian: Sandra Dickinson
The Book: Peter Jones
Vogon Captain: Martin Benson
Marvin: David Learner
Voice of Marvin: Stephen Moore
Slartibartfast: Richard Vernon

Few things in life have seemed as memorable and influential as The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams' masterpiece which started life on the radio and was brought to the TV screen in 1981. I have to confess that I saw the TV series first so when listening to the first of the radio broadcasts upon its repeat shortly after he died last year, I just couldn't get into it in the same way as the TV series holds too many memories and the actor playing Ford Prefect was different and just didn't sound half as convincing. There was a series of books too which came inbetween the radio and TV series.

The basic story starts early one morning as Arthur Dent (Simon Jones) wakes up to find his house about to be knocked down by the local council, despite only just about being notified of this fact. His friend, of a few years, Ford Prefect (David Dixon), arrives, makes a startling revelation about his real origin and ushers Arthur off to the pub for a few drinks before they hitch a lift on a Vogon constructor fleet spacecraft, to avoid being on the Earth when it's destroyed, before being thrown out into space only to meet with certain death again...

They're rescued by a spaceship piloted by the eccentric Zaphod Beeblebrox (Mark Wing-Davey) and Trillian (Sandra Dickinson), a girl Arthur once met at a party before she was whisked away by the two-headed Zaphod, much to his annoyance.

Narrated by the late Peter Jones, every time Arthur and Ford dip into the electronic eponymous guide to the galaxy, there are so many classic one-liners and defining moments such as about how you should always know where your towel is, the need for a babel fish to translate any language, the dull existence of Marvin the Paranoid Android, the planet of Magrathea and its chief designer Slartibartfast (Richard Vernon) who is to design the new Earth, the mice who were really in control of the old one, the meal at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the Golgafrinchams who designed the old one and who are found again when events come full circle, the Deep Thought computer which takes 7½ million years to answer the question as to what is the meaning of life, the universe and everything and closing with the Louis Armstrong track, "What a Wonderful World", which always makes me think of this programme.

This is a show I could watch time and time again and this DVD has a few minutes of extra footage put back into it from time to time such as when Ford pretends to Arthur in the second episode that he's found a switch which will help them escape the airlock and being blasted out into space. There are plenty of extras to the DVD which I shall describe shortly.

The whole series was broadcast from January 5th to February 8th, 1981.

Dare to bulldoze HIS house!

The picture looks very good indeed, the only problems being the occasional print defects which only are really apparent early on in the series. Of course, it's presented in the original 4:3 ratio.

The sound is in two forms - the original mono soundtrack and a remixed stereo one, the latter of which sounds a bit too bassy for the voice of the book and there are other slight moments where I prefer the mono original, such as the reverb after the Vogon captain says "..demolition", but overall the stereo soundtrack is a definite improvement. If only we could've had it in Dolby Digital 5.1, but it's not essential if it had meant delaying this release.

Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.

The copious extras on the second disc are as follows :

• The Making of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (59 mins): Plenty of chat with all the cast and crew members including Douglas Adams in a programme that was broadcast in 1993 and shows behind-the-scenes footage. All of it's cleverly centred around a return to the house for Arthur.

• Don't Panic (26 mins): A further 'making of' featurette made last year with conversation from all the main actors and a few crew members, although the chat tends to come from 1992 interviews.

• Behind the scenes (7 mins): Raw work-in-progress footage of the end of episode two filming on the bridge of Zaphod's spaceship.

• Communicate! (10 mins): A work-in-progress piece showing the actors learning their lines for a scene in the radio series, voiced over by BBC's light entertainment guru and star of KYTV, Geoffrey Perkins.

• Introduction to the first episode by Peter Jones (8½ mins): Recorded for a one-off broadcast of the first episode at the National Film Theatre, this was the only time we saw him onscreen. The DVD case mentions that the laughter-track idea was dropped after this one episode experiment so I'm glad we didn't have to suffer that during the series. I know when to laugh, thank you BBC!

• Original Trailer: A 2½-minute BBC2 trailer for the first episode comprising of a proper trailer, two caption voiceovers and three of the BBC2 introductions just before the episodes began.

• Deleted Scene: 2 minutes cut from the second episode. Losing it wasn't a major deal after seeing it, but it's nice to have it for completion.

• Tomorrow's World: A 2½-minute piece about the animatronics in Zaphod's second head, broadcast on 12/02/81.

• Pebble Mill at One: A 6½-minute interview with the director on Pebble Mill, broadcast on 23/02/81, with Donny McLoud.

• Out-takes: 9 minutes of out-takes from the whole series.

• Photo Gallery: Almost 70 pictures taken during the programme's recording and production.

• On-screen production notes: Selectable during the programme itself in place of subtitles. These provide more information about what you're watching and serve as an alternative to an audio commentary. This feature has been successfully used on some of the BBC Doctor Who releases.

Note that some of the quality of the above isn't perfect but they're all perfectly welcome. What would be the icing on the cake would be an audio commentary from Douglas Adams, but sadly that won't be possible now since he died, aged 49, in May last year. Still, this DVD serves as a fine testament to his creation.

There are 48 chapters to the series, with eight to each episode, the menus are cleverly animated in keeping with the theme of the show and use the theme tune music. Subtitles are in English only.

The dolphins made a sharp exit.

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