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THE HITCH-HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY :guide
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PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Executive Producer      John Loyd
Creator                 Douglas Adams

REGULAR CAST:

Voice Of The Book                       Peter Jones
Ford Prefect                            David Dixon
Arthur Dent                             Simon Jones
Trillian                                        Sandra Dickinson
Zaphod Beeblebrox                       Mark Wing-Davey
Marvin (the paranoid android)   David Learner
Voice Of Marvin                 Stephen Moore

NUMBER OF EPISODES:             6*

*note:when Hitch-Hiker's Guide first appeared in the U.S.,
it was run in seven episodes.  Later it was re-edited to six 
episodes, apparently the way it originally aired in England.

PREMISE:A television adaption of the Douglas Adams' best
seller series of novels.  This series tells the story of the hapless
Arthur Dent, who is rescued from the Earth just seconds before 
its destruction.  This rather convenient act is performed by 
Arthur's friend Ford Prefect, who just happens to be an alien,
and is a researcher for the wholly remarkable book "The Hitch-
Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy."  Together, they discover what a 
really groovy place the Universe is, and seek the answers to many
burning questions of the day ("Why are people born?""Why do
they die?""Why do they want to spend so much of the intervening time 
wearing digital watches?" ) ...and so forth.  They even discover the 
answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe and Everything 
(although discovering what the actual question  becomes a more 
perplexing task).  The television show only covers events in the first 
two books of the series, "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy" and 
"The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe."  To find out what happens 
after the final episode, keep your ears open for the 12-part BBC radio 
adaption, which occasionally turns up on National Public Radio stations 
nation-wide.  Or better yet, look for the aforementioned two books, as 
well as the follow-up novels, "Life, The Universe, And Everything", 
"So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish", and "Mostly Harmless."  

FIT THE FIRST (airdate:Jan. 5, 1981)
Arthur Dent, your average, run-of-the-mill, six foot tall ape descendant, 
wakes up one morning to find a bulldozer poised to demolish his house in 
order to build a new bypass.  The plans for the bypass have apparently 
been on display at the planning office for some nine months, but no one 
bothered to tell Arthur, of course!  As he lies defiantly in the mud in 
front of the bulldozer, his friend Ford Prefect comes along and urges 
him to go to the local pub.  He agrees, in return for a vain promise from 
the demolition crew not to knock down the house while he's gone.  At the 
pub, Ford tells Arthur three things:
1. He is not from Guildford, but from a small planet somewhere in the 
   vicinity of Betelguse.
2. He is a researcher for the best-selling intergalactic reference book 
   "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy."
3. The World is about to end!
At this point, the demolition crew begins its dirty work, and as Arthur 
spews out verbal retribution, the Earth is suddenly invaded by a Vogon 
Constructor Fleet flagship.  The Vogon Captain tells humanity that the 
planet is to be demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass.  The 
plans for the bypass have apparently been on display at the Alpha 
Centauri planning office for the past fifty years-but no one bothered 
to tell humanity, of course!  
GUEST CAST:Joe Melia as Mr. Prosser, martin Benson as the Vogon Captain, 
Steve Conway as the barman and Cleo Rocos and Andrew Mussell as the aliens.


FIT THE SECOND (airdate:Jan. 12, 1981)
Arthur and Ford are found hiding within the bowels of the Vogon Constructor 
Fleet flagship.  They are subsequently brought before the Captain, who 
exposes our heroes to one of the most heinous forms of torture this side 
of the Bernard's Star Roundabout-the reading of some of his poetry!  The 
Captain then offers an ultimatum: be ejected into the vacuum of space, or 
tell him how much they liked his poetry.   This becomes somewhat redundant 
when he elects to throw Arthur and Ford off the ship anyway!  After 
unsuccessfully trying to talk a guard into letting them go free, Arthur 
and Ford are placed into the airlock and ejected.  However, at an 
improbability factor of 2 to the power of 267,709 to one against, they are 
once again rescued from death at the very last second.  When they come to, 
they find themselves in an environment where unusual things occur.  Most 
notably, Ford starts turning into a penguin and Arthur begins losing his 
limbs.  The intrepid pair soon discover that they are on a spaceship 
equipped with an Infinite Improbability Drive.  It also transpires that 
Arthur and Ford have encountered the ship's "captain" before on seperate 
occasions...
GUEST CAST:Martin Benson as the Vogon Captain, Michael Cule as the Vogon 
guard, Rayner Bourton as the newscaster, Gil Morris as Gag Halfrunt and 
David Tate as the voice of Eddie (the ship's computer).


FIT THE THIRD (airdate:Jan 19, 1981)
The Heart Of Gold, under the command of Ford's semi-cousin and part-time 
Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox, has moved into orbit around the 
legendary planet of Magrathea.  The legend in question is that the 
Magratheans used to manufacture planets.  No one seriously believes in 
this world...no one, that is, until the ship picks up a five million year 
old tape recording stating that no one is home and that they should call 
back later.  Undaunted, Zaphod elects to go down to the surface and 
explore.  Unfortunately, the ancient, automated defense systems on 
Magrathea are activated and two guided nuclear missiles are launched upon 
the Heart Of Gold.  All attempts at evasion by manual control prove 
fruitless and it seems quite probably that our heroes will bite the big 
one!  However, in another one of those convenient, last-second rescues, 
Arthur activates the Improbability Drive Switch.  Not only are the lives 
of our heroes spared, but the two nuclear missiles are suddenly 
transformed into a sperm whale and a bowl of petunias, both of which hit 
the surface of Magrathea with a tremendous splat!  Zaphod, Arthur and 
company emerge onto the surface of Magrathea and find a cave leading 
down into the interior of the planet.  Zaphod, Ford and Trillian decide 
to explore the cave, leaving Arthur behind with the terminally depressed 
android Marvin.  As night falls, Arthur is startled by the appearance of 
a strange and unusually-named individual...
GUEST CAST:Richard Vernon as Slartibartfast, David Tate as the voice of 
Eddie.


FIT THE FOURTH (airdate:Jan. 26, 1981)
Now deep within the bowels of the planet Magrathea, Slartibartfast tells 
Arthur the astonishing news that, contrary to what he may have been told, 
the planet Earth was, in fact, completely run by mice!  Even more 
astonishing is the news that the whole planet itself was a sort of giant, 
organic computer, with Arthur and the rest of the inhabitants forming part 
of its operational matrix.  It was designed to perform a specific ten-
million year program, but the planet was destroyed by the Vogon Constructor 
Fleet five minutes before the program was completed.  For Arthur to 
understand the nature of the Earth's computer program, Slartibartfast plays 
a series of recordings of events that led up to the construction of Earth.  
Many years ago, a race of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings 
constructed an awesome computer called Deep Thought, specifically designed 
to calculate the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe and 
Everything.  In spite of protests from the Amalgamated Union of 
Philosophers, Sages, Luminaries and Other Professional Thinking Persons, 
Deep Thought quite clearly states that this program will take seven and a 
half million years to run.  Slartibartfast then plays a recording for 
Arthur of the fateful day when Deep Thought finally revealed the Answer, 
although the computer is initially hesitant: "You're really not going to 
like it..."
GUEST CAST:Richard Vernon as Slartibartfast, Antony Carrick as Lunkwill, 
Timothy Davies as Fook, David Leland as Majikthise, Charles McKeown as 
Vroomfondel, Matt Zimmerman as Shooty, Marc Smith as Bang Bang, Valentine 
Dyall as the voice of Deep Thought.


FIT THE FIFTH (airdate:Feb. 2, 1981)
Arthur, Ford, Zaphod and Trillian are initially convinced that events at 
the end of the previous episode have landed them in the Afterlife.  But 
when a Head waiter named Garkbit shows up and offers them drinks, they 
realize that yet another one of those last-second escapes from certain 
death has been engineered in thier favor.  They discover that they have 
travelled forward in time to a well-known 4-star restaurant called 
Milliways, otherwise known as the Restaurant At The End Of The Universe.  
Milliways' highlight of the evening's entertainment is watching the entire 
Universe reach its natural end as you dine from the safety of the time 
bubble inside which the restaurant is located.  While meandering around 
the restaurant, Ford sees one of his idols-Hotblack Desiato, lead singer 
of Disaster Area, the loudest rock band in existance.  Ford's attempt to 
strike up a conversation prove fruitless because:
A) He is roughly manhandled by Hotblack's personal bodyguard 
B) The singer is spending a year dead for tax reasons and so wouldn't be 
   able to converse with Ford anyway!
Back at their table, our intrepid quartet is introduced to the Dish Of 
The Day: a sort of pig-like creature, specially bread so that it wants 
to provide parts of its body as food for people.  Arthur, needless to say, 
quickly loses his appetite!  A surprise phone call to Zaphod reveals that, 
for the past several million years, Marvin has been patiently waiting for 
them near the ruins of Magrathea, upon which Milliways was built.  In the 
interim, Marvin has acquired a job at Milliways as the car park attendant.  
While the others meet up with Marvin, Zaphod and Ford examine some of the 
space vessels in the car park.  They eventually come across a ship which 
they find rather intriguing-and which they would like to have!
GUEST CAST:Jack May as the head waiter Garkbit, Colin Jeavons as Max 
Quordlepleen, Barry Frank Warren as Hotblack Desiato, David Prowse as the 
bodyguard, Colin Bennett as Zarquon, peter Davison as the Dish Of The Day.
WRITERS:Douglas Adams and John Lloyd


FIT THE SIXTH (airdate:Feb. 9, 1981)
Zaphod and company discover too late that the ship they have stolen is the 
prop vessel to be used at the climax of the latest Disaster Area concert.  
This is not good news for our heroes, since the ship is programmed to crash 
into the heart of a nearby sun!  However, the potential for the now 
seemingly obligatory last-minute rescue is realized in the form of a 
teleportation device.  It is very erratic and can only be operated 
manually, so everyone volunteers Marvin to stay behind!  Ford and Arthur 
rematerialize elsewhere, but Zaphod and Trillian are nowhere to be seen.  
They find themselves in a sort of weird mausoleum containing, among other 
things, the apparent remains of telephone sanitizers, hairdressers and 
advertising account executives.  It transpires that they are on a space 
vessel of some sort.  A military-looking chap captures them, brings them 
to the bridge and offers them a gin and tonic at gunpoint.  The Captain, 
who has been taking a bath for some three years now, explains that he and 
the rest of the people of the planet Golgafrincham, have escaped the 
impending doom of their world to colonize another planet.  There are 
reportedly three Ark ships: the "A" Ark which contains all the brilliant 
people, the "C" Ark, which contains all the laborers, and the "B" Ark, 
which contains all the middle men, and where this little conversation is 
taking place (The Book later tells us that the launching of the "B" Ark 
was a ploy by the Golgafrinchams to get rid of the useless third of their 
population.  The remaining two-thirds was eventually wiped out by a 
disease contracted by a dirty telephone!).  The "B" Ark eventually 
lands-or rather, crashes-on the world that is to become the new home of 
the Golgafrinchams.  After taking some considerable time to explore the 
planet on their own, Arthur and Ford discover that the arrival of the 
"B" Ark on this very particular world was a ghastly mistake of ironic 
proportions...
GUEST CAST:Rayner Bourton as the newscaster, Aubrey Morris as the Captain, 
Matthew Scurfield as Number One, David Neville as Number Two, Geoffrey 
Beevers as Number Three, Beth Porter as the marketing girl, David Rowlands 
as the hairdresser, Jon Glover as the management consultant.  

CLOSING THEME:"What A Wonderful World," by Louis Armstong.
