Changes

'''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'''' is a science fiction comedy series, a series of books, CDs, computer games and stage shows, a TV series and a feature film, all created by the author [[Douglas Adams]]. It was originally broadcast as six-part radio series on BBC Radio 4 in 1978. Since that time, it has existed in a number of different and contradictory formats, and has become an international phenomenon.  

'''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'''' is a science fiction comedy series, a series of books, CDs, computer games and stage shows, a TV series and a feature film, created by the author [[Douglas Adams]]. It was originally broadcast as six-part radio series on BBC Radio 4 in 1978. Since that time, it has existed in a number of different formats, and has become an international phenomenon. Its title is often abbreviated by fans as ''HHGTTG'', or ''H2G2''.

 

The title ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' is often abbreviated as [[HHGTTG]], or even [[H2G2]] and this is used on fan websites.

 

 

The main thesis of the book is that Arthur Dent, an "ordinary bloke" wakes up one morning to find that his house is about to be demolished to make way for a bypass. His friend, [[Ford Prefect]] (who mysteriously turns out to be not from Guildford, as Arthur had been led to believe, but from [[Betelgeuse]] - pronounced ''beetle-juice''), takes him to the pub and informs him that it is not just his house, but the whole Earth which is about to be destroyed. Before Arthur has time to take this in, he finds that the Earth has been destroyed by a fleet of Vogon spacecraft to make way for a new hyperspace bypass, and that he and Ford Prefect are on board the Vogon spaceship, having "thumbed" a lift.

 

The name of the book derives from the fact that Ford is a researcher on ''The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to The Galaxy'', an electronic book which allows hitchhikers to travel the galaxy, armed only with their towel, and 30 Atarian dollars a day. The book has two main features - firstly that it has supplanted the Encyclopedia Galactica as the repository of all known wisdom, and secondly, that it has the words "Don't Panic" in big letters on the cover. Escaping from the Vogons, Ford and Arthur meet up with Trillian, [[Zaphod Beeblebrox]] and Marvin the paranoid android, for a series of adventures, mainly, but not entirely, involving the spaceship ''Heart of Gold'', and Eddie, the ship's computer.

 

Douglas Adams' creation has become a cult, and many of the elements of the story have now become part of the language. For example, the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything, is, according to the book, 42; this is now ubiquitous, often found in computer programmes and hackerspeak. Other element such as the Babel Fish, which when placed in the ear, allows aperson to understand any language, has spawned a translation website. According to the book, the babel fish, is probably the oddest thing in the universe, and so bizzarely improbable that some have seen it as the clinching proof that God does not exist.  

==Links==

==Links==

*BBC Website for HHGTTG http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/

*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/ BBC Website for HHGTTG]

*H2G2 Website http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/

*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/ H2G2 Website ]

[[category:book|Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]

[[category:book|Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]