posted
PBS was showing the BBC miniseries tonight: I only caught the last ten minutes or so of it though.
Is that how the movie ends (with the guys stranded bcak millions of years in Earth's past, teaching cavemen to play scrabble)?
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
I believe someone already mentioned that the movie ends with them heading off to the restaurant at the end of the universe. I don't think the Scrabble thing happened until the beginning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
The radio show, produced by the BBC in 1978 (also known as the primary phase) is where the Hitchikers Guide began (although if you have an older copy of the book you can read about it in the forward). DNA then made the second phase for radio and wrote the first book.
Although the book largly stuck to the radio serial, there are a number of differences. DNA then went on to write the second and third book after the production of the second radio show.
The second book, loosley covers parts of the first and the second series, although with alot of changes. It is prety much at the end of the first book that they split and everything becomes confusing (well more confusing).
Sometime during the eighties, they made the TV miniseries, covering the the same material as the fist radio show (although Geoffrey McGivern, who played Ford on the radio, was replaced with Simon Jones in the TV show. This is alegedly because poor old Geoffrey looked too 'normal').
Wait several years, and the BBC made a radio serial (this time based on the third book) about late 2003(?). They have now made radio shows out of the other two books, although these are only just being aired (I think the 3rd episode is next Tuesday).
Now is that clear?
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Well, I saw it, and as I haven't found any other thread with comments of it, I will comment on it.
- I found the background score to be way too emotional and bombastic, kind of like MiB meets "Home Alone 2: Christmas Tinkling". Haven't let it sink in yet, of course.
- The dolphin intro went on a bit long but that's not a major gripe.
- I thought I'd be more bothered by Zaphod's plopping head but I guess it was ok and it cut down on costs of having that head on the shoulder all the time.
- The destruction of earth was tasteful and I thought Heart of Gold was very intricate, if not the "Futurama's 'Planet Express'-ship in gold" that I was hoping for.
- I was surprised by the Arthur/Trillian story that seemed to have taken over all the momentum of the story after she got kidnapped, which I'm not sure happened in the book.
- I liked Bill Nighy muchly, he made a lot out of a very small role (may have been bigger in the book but he was just there for 10 minutes in the film).
Kuestion: The two mice, when they were squished, were shown as the same two hyperintelligent beings that built the supercomputer. Was this in the book? I thought the mice were just, mice. Not those two guys. In fact, I thought those people that asked the Computer and got "42" and "Earth will calculate the question for you" were lynched in the book. Maybe this was an alteration made by Adams prior to his death?
I really do hope they make the next one, and I do hope the decision doesn't ride entirely on this movie's success at the box office. Might be a close save, if so. Does anyone know how it has fared? Anyway, my bro's gf liked it and she usually hates everything I like. I don't know what that says about her or me but still, there it is.
I hope Trillian doesn't replace Fenchurch in the movie-story, not only because I find the story of Arthur's and Fenchurch's meeting (on the rainy highway and later on the train station) to be deeply touching, as well as their brief time of flying and being happy. It's also because I thought Trillian was good as the more "unattainable" and human person she is in the book.
Honestly, it has taken me a long time to accept and appreciate the more drastic plot turns that happened in the latter books, such as the fate of Fenchurch and the ultimate ending, "putting on some soft music instead", so much so that I wonder if that would even fly in a movie...
I was going to start a poll over this matter, comparing the HHGTtG-ending with another similar one, but as it has been disabled in Gen. Sci-Fi for some reason, I have to ask you directly;
Did you feel the ending of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" worked for you? - A simple yes or no will do.
(Did I sound pretentious just now? I'd very well say so! If you felt that, though, this next one will really bake your noodle)
posted
The people who actually built Deep Thought were long dead by the time it came up with "42". Their descendants were the ones who received the answer, and then commissioned the Earth to be built to find the question. As far as I know, those people were long dead by the time of the book, and the mice were even further descendants. So, no, the mice in the book were not the selfsame ones who built the computer, but they were members of the same higher-dimensional race.
Registered: Mar 1999
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IMDb puts its budget at 50 million dollars, and combining their most recent figures for U.S. and U.K. ticket sales gives us $70,021,092. And the U.K. figure is much older than the most recent U.S. one. So anyway, it apparently made a profit.
Registered: Mar 1999
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