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In article <28GdnTgu_KPjxT_fRVn-gQ@comcast.com>,
"Android" <androvich@NOcomcastSPAM.net> wrote:
> > I've read the books, watched the TV series, listened to the radio series,
> > the records, Stephen Moore reading audio books, read the scripts... I've
> > been into HHHG for over 20 years.
>
> You forgot "played the Infocom computer game..."
Which I replayed in a recent attack on my Infocom Classics CDs. I also
love Bureaucracy which is missing from the collections.
> I'm also a big HHG fan, and have been so ever since I first read the book
> and listened to the radio show back in the early 80's. I think that HHG
> doesn't work as well in a visual medium. If I had to rate them, I'd put the
> radio show first, followed by the books, then the new movie, and finally the
> television series.
I disagree. The books rate highest in my opinion, with the brit telly
serial next, the radio close behind and the Touchstoned movie way down
in the pits. It is far too Americanized, for starters. The humour
timing is all off, and many humourous subplots such as the argument
between the computer guys who built deep thought and the philosophers
who feared being put out of work. And the execution of so much of the
retained "book" humour is so fast talking Americanized, that unless you
are paying very close attention, it flies past. Just try to take in the
battle of the Vl'hurgs vs. the G'Gugvuntt in the closing credits. Much
of the undertext surrounding the narrative in the book and brit tv
serial is missing from this, axed down the the American attention span,
and most of the laughs from it are gone.
Also missing from the movie ar such gems as the uncharted backwaters of
the western spiral arm of the galaxy, Zaphod being described by
Eccentrica Gallumbits as the Best Bang since the Big One, talk of
digital watches and the clasic having the supervisor lie down, as you
say, in the mud.
> The television show was pretty good considering it was pre-CG, but Zaphod's
> robotic heads and some other cheesy effects ruined it for me.
One thing I like about brit sci-fi is that they make up for lack of
ability to afford ILM-style effects by creating stories engaging enough
to keep the mind going. Even Red Dwarf is not up to Star Wars/Trek
standards, but I enjoy it much more than those two.
> I also
> disliked Trillian intensely. I thought the radio actress was much better
> (and I liked the radio Ford Prefect better as well).
I still regard Sandra Dickenson as the definitive Trillian. I also got
to me her back in the 80's, just after she and her husband, the Cow at
Milliways a.k.a. the 5th Dr, Peter Davidson, had had their first baby.
Not only was she still a babe, but I got to meet with her semi-privately
for a local TV interview I was camera opping, and she was so
tremendously charming and witty. with the same wry temperament that made
her an idea choice to play Trillian.
> =As for the recent
> movie, I think they did the best they could. Arthur and Ford were fine.
Arthur here was brit, but under American direction his timing was
horrible. Ford was better, but I prefer the TV Ford on the whole. So
much more the mindset of British culture, so the humour worked far
better.
> Trillian was actually okay, and I didn't mind the romantic subplots.
> Zaphod...well, I like Sam Rockwell, but the character is more cunning and
> less stupid in the radio shows/books. In the film he's just an airhead with
> a Fabio-like mane of hair.
How can Trillian be an American and work? Totally out of character.
And Zaphod in the movie never existed in any other form of the story,
and should not have existed here.
> The books were good when they were based upon the radio programs with some
> added/expanded material. By the time Adams got around to writing "Mostly
> Harmless" and even "So Long and Thanks For All The Fish," I felt that the
> magic was gone. His writing was better-suited to the radio scripts, IMO.
I thorough enjoyed all the books, save for the way the firth book of the
trilogy ended. Sadly, I heard rumour (perhaps wishful thinking on
someone's part, but Adam's never denied this) that a sixth book was
being contemplated so the saga didn't end on such a down note. This
will not happen now that he has passed on.
Which brings me back to the movie. He was just into the first portion
of the first draft when he passed on, and the writer who took over
didn't seem to understand the story of HHG and the humour it entailed.
Nor, it seems, did anyone else involved with the project. Seriously,
would Doug Adams have taken a minute sub story about the dolphins
leaving just ahead of the Vogon arrival, and made it a song and dance
opening to the movie, thus totally shifting the focus of the movie from
the "book" to the destruction of the earth? And does anyone who has
only seen the movie even know that the Earth was destroyed five minutes
before its program would have completed its execution"?
I shall not be adding the Touchstoned movie to my collection of HHG
story forms.
I will, however, keep enjoying the Infocom Adventure version of it.
jt
/www.GodsLabRat.com
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