Minor characters from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Encyclopedia
The following is an alphabetical list of the minor characters in the various versions of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
, by Douglas Adams
. The descriptions of the characters are accompanied by information on details about appearances and references to the characters. Major characters—Arthur Dent
, Ford Prefect
, Zaphod Beeblebrox
, Marvin the Paranoid Android
, Trillian
, and Slartibartfast
—are separately described.
Lists are also available for places in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
, races and species in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, technology in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
, phrases from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and cast lists for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
.
and subsequently killed, each time unknowingly, by Arthur Dent
. Agrajag is first identified in , but it is revealed that several of Arthur's encounters in the first and second novels (and in previous chapters of the third) were with previous incarnations of Agrajag. The first occurs in , when a bowl of petunia
s is suddenly yanked into existence miles above the planet Magrathea, and begins falling, having only time to think, "Oh no, not again," before crashing to the ground. The reason behind the bowl's lament is revealed in , when Agrajag identifies the bowl of petunias as one of his prior incarnations, and tells Arthur that he had seen his face in a spaceship window as he fell to his doom. In another incarnation, Agrajag was a rabbit
on prehistoric Earth (during the time period recounted in ) who was killed by Arthur for breakfast and whose skin was fashioned into a pouch, which is then used to swat a fly who also happened to be Agrajag. In yet another, near the beginning of , Agrajag is an old man who dies of a heart attack after seeing Arthur and Ford materialise, seated on a Chesterfield sofa, in the midst of a match at Lord's Cricket Ground
.
Eventually, Agrajag wishes to take revenge on Arthur Dent, diverting his teleportation to a Cathedral of Hate. However, in the process of explaining his reasons for hating Arthur he mentions "Stavromula Beta," where Arthur ducks to avoid a shot fired by an assassin, which then hits Agrajag instead. Arthur, never having been to Stavromula Beta, has no idea what Agrajag is talking about, and Agrajag realises that he's brought Arthur to the Cathedral too early. He tries to kill Arthur anyway, and once again dies at Arthur's hands while Arthur is defending himself, but not before setting off the explosives intended to kill Arthur by triggering a massive rockfall. Arthur escapes the rockfall unharmed.
For the next few years Arthur travels the universe, secure in his knowledge that, no matter what happens, he cannot die at least until after he survives his assassination attempt was a complete succes at Stavromula Beta. In Arthur's daughter Random Frequent Flyer Dent holds him hostage in a London club. When she fires her weapon Arthur dodges, causing the bolt to pass over his head and hit the man standing behind him. Earlier the victim (Agrajag) had dropped a book of matches which revealed the owner of the nightclub to be Stavro Mueller, and the name of the club to be Beta. Thus, what Arthur believed to be the name of a planet was actually the name of the nightclub, and Agrajag has died once again. Because of this, Arthur is now able to die as well, which, thanks to the Vogon
s, he does a few seconds later.
In , Douglas Adams plays Agrajag, having recorded the part for an audiobook version of . Producer Dirk Maggs
added a suitable voice treatment, and Simon Jones
as Arthur Dent recorded his lines opposite the pre-recorded Adams. Adams was thus able to "reincarnate" to participate in the new series.
At the end of , Arthur Dent's extreme bad luck in life coupled with cosmic balance mean that as he materialises on a planet shortly before Vogons are due to destroy it, Agrajag wakes up from a coma after six months having won the lottery and been recognised by a long lost love whilst on "Celebrity Coma." This event presumably leads to cosmic balance ruining his other lives for the benefit of Arthur Dent.
Along with Poodoo and Varntvar the Priest, three Allitnils arrived on Brontitall to get the three Lintillas there to "agree to cease to be". Two of the clones eliminate their corresponding Lintillas, but Arthur shoots the third Allitnil, so that one Lintilla survives.
Appearing only in , every one of the Allitnils is voiced by David Tate.
worshipped by the people of Lamuella. Old Thrashbarg is one of the priests who worships Almighty Bob; however, Thrashbarg is often ignored by the villagers of Lamuella. The character may be a reference to The Church of the SubGenius. The Almighty Bob appears in the fifth book, .
on the radio) convinces Arthur Dent to buy raffle tickets while he and Fenchurch are in a railway pub, attempting to have lunch. Arthur won an album of bagpipe music.
Referred to in:
They only appear in , where the captain is played by David Tate, and his number one by Bill Paterson. However, some of their dialogue was given to other characters in .
played the character on TV. This barman was played by David Gooderson
in the original radio series and Stephen Moore
in the LP recording. In the 2005 motion picture, Albie Woodington portrayed this particular barman.
.
, who actually worked at the BBC, alongside Adams on the series.
, Star Wars
' Darth Vader
, as a man of few words who can lift Ford Prefect
clean off the floor. In the LP adaptation of the radio series, the character was voiced by David Tate.
.
Appears in played by David Jason
, , and .
enslaves to aid in his escape from the newly re-organized Guide offices in . "Its motion sensors are the usual Sirius Cybernetics garbage." Ford captures Colin by trapping the robot with his towel
and re-wiring the robot's pleasure circuits, inducing a cyber-ecstasy trip.
Ford uses Colin's cheerfulness to break into the Guide's corporate accounting software in order to plant a Trojan Horse
module that will automatically pay anything billed to his InfiniDim Enterprises credit card. Colin also saves Ford's life when the Guide's new security force, the Vogons, fire at him with a rocket launcher
after Ford feels the need to jump out of the window. Colin was last seen being sent (at the risk of possible lonely incineration) to look after the delivery of the Guide Mark II to Arthur Dent in the Vogon's postal system.
Colin was named after a dog which belonged to a girl, Emily Saunders, of whom Ford had fond memories. Colin appears in , and in the radio series he was played by Andrew Secombe.
ship commanded by Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz, and Jeltz's son. Notable for his very un-Vogon-like emotions, ethics and agility, all of which he attempts to keep hidden (with varying degrees of success) from his father and crewmates, lest he be demoted to more unpleasant (even for a Vogon) duties or killed outright for aberrant behavior. Appears in .
. When, after seven and a half million years of calculation, the answer finally turns out to be 42, Deep Thought admonishes Loonquawl and Phouchg (the receivers of the Ultimate Answer) that "[he] checked it very thoroughly, and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you is that you've never actually known what the question was."
Deep Thought does not know the ultimate question to Life, the Universe and Everything, but offers to design an even more powerful computer, Earth, to calculate it. After ten million years of calculation, the Earth is destroyed by Vogon
s five minutes before the computation is complete.
Appears in:
On radio, Deep Thought was voiced by Geoffrey McGivern
. On television and in the LP re-recording of the radio series, it was voiced by Valentine Dyall
. In the feature film Deep Thought's voice was provided by actress Helen Mirren
.
In the television series, Deep Thought was shaped like a massive, black, and metal trapezoid with a yellow rectangular display that blinked on and off in time with the computer's speaking. The timing of the light's flashing was done on set by author Douglas Adams
. Valentine Dyall's voice was dubbed in later.
In the feature film, it appears as a large, vaguely humanoid computer, with a gigantic head supported, as if in bored repose, by two arms and has a female voice. This particular version of Deep Thought likes to watch television
and late in the film can also be seen to have the Apple Computer
logo above its eye. This is a reference to Adams being a fan and advocate of the Apple Macintosh. It is also revealed that, in the intervening time, Deep Thought was commissioned by the Consortium of Angry Housewives to create the Point of View Gun.
IBM
's chess
-playing computer Deep Thought
was named in honour of this fictional computer.
Deep Thought can be seen inscribed on a computer in the NORAD VI area of the 1992 computer game The Journeyman Project
.
Regarding the name, Douglas Adams was quoted as saying "The name is a very obvious joke," explaining (on Book Club on BBC Radio 4 in January 2000) this — obviously — as "Deep Throat"
.
The Deep Thought episode appears to be a parody of a short story by Frederic Brown, Answer.
. Dionah is one of Zaphod Beeblebrox
's favorite Singer/Prostitutes. She appears out of nowhere in the 'Heart of Gold' starship and sings Zaphod a cryptic song about the entrance to the planet Asgard. Zaphod does not understand the song. She vanishes after saying "oh for Zark's sake" and then turns into an ice sculpture of herself, the sculpture soon melts into water and the water droplets rise up into the ceiling and every drop disappears after making a 'oh' sound. Zaphod later comments "That girl always could sing".
was named Professor of Neomathematics at the University of Maximegalon and in his Special Theories of Tax Returns
he proves that space-time
is "not merely curved, it is, in fact, totally bent." The Guide shows a graphic indicating that most of the earnings ends up with the accountant.
Referred to in:
specifically bred to not only have the desire to be eaten, but to be capable of saying so quite clearly and distinctly. When asked if he would like to see the Dish of the Day, Zaphod replies, "We'll meet the meat." The Major Cow's quite vocal and emphatic desire to be consumed by Milliways' patrons is the most revolting thing that Arthur Dent has ever heard, and the Dish is nonplussed by a queasy Arthur's subsequent order of a green salad, since it knows "many vegetables that are very clear" on the point of not wanting to be eaten — which was part of the reason for the creation of the Ameglian Major Cow in the first place. After Zaphod orders four rare steaks, the Dish announces that it is nipping off to the kitchen to shoot itself. Though it states, "I'll be very humane," this does not comfort Arthur at all.
Several years later, the principal characters encounter a herd of Ameglian Major Cows on the planet Nano, a colony planet established for exceedingly rich refugees from the destroyed Earth. Ford and Arthur (who is now far more open-minded after years spent traversing the galaxy) seriously consider the Cows' offering themselves as a meal, only to be interrupted by the arrival of the Norse thunder god Thor and his subsequent duel with Bowerick Wowbagger. However, the lightning display accompanying Thor's arrival kills and chars several Major Cows (while their still-living herdmates curse their fellows' luck), and Ford and Arthur take the opportunity to sample the cooked meat. Later, a Major Cow is shown offering itself to Thor at the thunder god's victory party.
Appears in:
The character is not present in the original radio series, but does make a cameo appearance in the finale of the fifth radio series. The first appearance of it was in a stage adaptation in 1980 at the Rainbow Theatre. Since then it appeared in , and . In the TV series, it was played by Peter Davison
, who was at that time both Sandra Dickinson
's husband and the newly announced fifth
Doctor
. Dickinson played Trillian in the television series (and "Tricia McMillan" in the final radio series), and suggested casting Davison, who was a fan of the radio series.
travels through space in a Sirius Cybernetics Corporation spaceship, he has a dream in which he encounters a strange creature made of slime from the East River in New York who has just come into existence. After asking Ford a series of questions about life, and Ford's recommendation of finding love on 7th Avenue, the creature leaves Ford to talk to a nearby policeman on his status in life.
Appearances:
In , the East River character was played by American comedian Jackie Mason
.
tunes into shortly after stealing the spaceship Heart of Gold. The newsreader quotes Eccentrica describing Zaphod as "The best bang since the Big One
." It was also reported in that Zaphod had delivered a presidential address from her bedroom on at least one occasion. Commentary on Zaphod in intimates that one reason for his acquiring a third arm is the ability to fondle all of Eccentrica's breasts at the same time.
Pears Gallumbit, a dessert which has several things in common with her, is available at The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
Some people say her erogenous zone
s start some four miles from her actual body. Ford Prefect disagrees, saying five.
She is referenced in an issue of the Legion of Super Heroes.
She is again mentioned in after a Wheel of cheese appears above the Nanites.
"This sudden and most unexpected apparition shifted the crowd's focus faster than the appearance of Eccentrica Gallumbits wearing a neon T-shirt flashing the slogan Freebie Friday would shift the focus of the crowd at a VirginNerd convention on a Friday."
In the movie "Paul", the character Clive Gollings often shows off his book with a green woman with three breasts. Upon seeing this other minor characters exclaimed "Awesome".
from the Nutrimatic drinks dispenser; the computation of which nearly crashed Eddie and everything connected to him.
On one occasion when certain destruction seems quite imminent, Eddie sings "You'll Never Walk Alone
" in a particularly cheesy and upbeat tone.
Appears in:
He is voiced in the first two radio series and on television by David Tate. In the television version, Eddie has lights on his case that flash when he speaks. Douglas Adams
read in Eddie's lines during filming to operate the lights.
In the 2004-2005 radio series, he is voiced by Roger Gregg and in the 2005 feature film by Thomas Lennon.
who bet his life that he could make an entire mountain
invisible within a year. Having wasted most of the period of time failing to create a cloaking device
, he hired a company to simply remove the mountain, though this course of action lost him the bet, and his life. This was all due in part to the sudden and rather suspicious presence of an extra moon
, and in addition, the fact that you could never touch anything when you walked near the supposed invisible mountain. It is remarked that he should have established a simple Somebody Else's Problem field, which would make the mountain totally invisible if it were to be painted bright pink.
Referenced in: .
is a real-life singer, who died in 1977. It has been popularly suggested that he has been abducted by aliens, or that he is actually an alien who faked his own death so he could return to his home planet.
In , Elvis is discovered by Ford Prefect
and Arthur Dent
working as a bar singer on an alien planet, and owning a large pink spaceship. Ford, having become a huge fan of Elvis while he was stranded on Earth, watched the performance intently for its entire duration. Presley is not actually named, however his identity is easy to determine from the facts that the bar is called "The Domain of The King," the "EP" initials in the pink spaceship which Ford and Arthur buy from him, and the accent in which he sings.
Ford's irreplaceable blue suede shoes, one of which is destroyed during the events in the early part of , are a tribute to his Elvis fandom.
In the radio adaptation of Mostly Harmless, , it has been indicated that in the alternate Earth which is the focus of the story, Elvis never died, and there is mention of an album "Elvis sings Oasis
". He appears (but is not directly named) in , voiced by Philip Pope
.
Mentioned in: .
.
Mentioned in:
Appears in:
She was played by Margaret Robertson in during the Quandary Phase.
's soulmate
in the fourth book of the Hitchhiker "trilogy", . Fenchurch was named after the Fenchurch Street railway station
where she was conceived in the ticket queue. Adams revealed in an interview that it was really the ticket queues at Paddington Station that made him think of conceiving a character there, but chose Fenchurch as a name, instead, to avoid complications with Paddington Bear
.
She first appears as the unnamed girl in the café on the first page of ; she is the girl referred to as "sitting on her own in a café in Rickmansworth
." In , when the Earth and everyone including Fenchurch had mysteriously reappeared, a romantic relationship blooms between her and Arthur Dent. He teaches her to fly, before a first aerial sexual encounter, and a second with Sony
Walkmen
.
At the beginning of , Fenchurch is referred to as having vanished abruptly during a hyperspace jump on their first intergalactic holiday. Douglas Adams
later said that he wanted to get rid of the character as she was getting in the way of the story. Much of this is evident from the self-referential
prose surrounding Arthur and Fenchurch's relationship.
In , she is revealed to have been working as a waitress at Milliways since she vanished, and is reunited with Arthur Dent
.
In to and Fenchurch is played by actress Jane Horrocks
.
She appears in television series
played by an uncredited actress for the "girl in a café in Rickmansworth" segment from the second episode. Her appearance corresponds to the one described in So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.
In the computer of the Tanngrisnir takes the form of Fenchurch in its programmed attempts to live out the sub-conscious desires of the ship's occupiers. While in this form she and Arthur talk and ponder together extensively, exacerbated by the effects of the ship's dark matter travel on people's emotions. Later in the book Arthur encounters another form of Fenchurch during a travel in hyperspace
only to dematerialize, similar to his Fenchurch, across a plural zone into a different part of the universe.
Appears in: (unnamed cameo) (only mentioned in passing)
successor to Deep Thought in order to find out the question to which the answer was 42
.
In the first version, the radio series, they offered Arthur and Trillian a large amount of money if they could tell them what the Question is. In later versions this was changed — unfortunately for Arthur, they claim the only way to do this is to remove his brain and prepare it, apparently by dicing it. They promise to replace it with a simple computer brain, which, suggested Zaphod, would only have to say things like "What?", "I don't understand" and "Where's the tea?". Arthur objects to this ("What?" he says. "See!" says Zaphod), and escapes with the help of his friends. Frankie says:
In , they are in fact the manifestations of Lunkwill and Fook, the pan-dimensional beings who designed and built Deep Thought, and were squashed flat by Arthur Dent when they attempted to remove his brain.
Appear in:
On radio, David Tate played Benjy Mouse and Peter Hawkins
voiced Frankie Mouse. They appeared in . They also appeared in , where they were voiced by David Tate and Stephen Moore.
care specialist of Zaphod Beeblebrox
and Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz. In the radio series version, he is responsible for the order to destroy Earth.
In the story, the Earth is really a giant computer
built to determine the Ultimate Question to Life, the Universe and Everything. Gag Halfrunt (as leader of a group of psychiatrists) is in cahoots with the Vogons to destroy the Earth to prevent the Ultimate Question from ever being discovered. The reason behind this plot is that the psychiatrists cannot afford to have the Ultimate Question revealed, because this would put them out of a job (on the premise that if the Question becomes known, everyone would suddenly start leading happy and productive lives, rendering the entire profession of psychiatry
unnecessary). Later the Vogons also try (under Gag's direction) to destroy the starship Heart of Gold, because it is carrying Arthur Dent
, who may have the Question buried in his brain somewhere. Halfrunt's quandary is that Zaphod is his most profitable client, and he calls Zaphod not to warn him to hand over Arthur or face destruction, but to try to collect on past due psychiatric bills. Zaphod is unaware of Halfrunt's deeper motivations because he has brainwashed himself to forget about signing the order for Earth's destruction on Halfrunt's suggestion. In the end Zaphod "remembers" and does, in fact, find The Ruler of the Universe.
Gag Halfrunt was used since his first appearance in as a running joke; he would remark, in an oddly German
accent (possibly in reference to the Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud
), whenever asked about Zaphod "Vell, Zaphod's just zis guy, you know?" This line has become a popular catchphrase among fans of the series.
Appears in:
He was voiced by Stephen Moore
, and appears in , and .
On television, he was played by Gil Morris and in the film he is played by Jason Schwartzman
. In both these versions he only appears briefly, being interviewed about Zaphod Beeblebrox, and the plot involving the Ruler of the Universe does not appear.
who is interviewed by Tricia McMillan
about the impact that the discovery of the planet Persephone, or Rupert will have on astrology. She is an advisor to the President of the United States
, President Hudson, but denies having recommended the bombing of Damascus
.
In the radio series, she appears in , and is voiced by Lorelei King
.
and is therefore having trial separation with his body, which has taken his forename Pizpot. The dispute arose over whether sex is better than fishing or not, a disastrous attempt at combining the two activities, and his body going out partying too late.
Since he has no physical form that can be seen, he leads those condemned to the Total Perspective Vortex by humming various morose tunes so that the condemned can follow the sound of his voice.
Appears in:
Gargravarr was voiced on radio by Valentine Dyall
- he appears in .
Appears in:
In the radio series Garkbit is played by Anthony Sharp
, and appears in . In the television series, he is portrayed by Jack May
and appears in .
The book describes Garkbit as being a methane breather, with a life support system strapped discreetly to his thigh.
, Genghis Khan
is both a distant ancestor of Mr Prosser and was called "a wanker, a tosspot, a very tiny piece of turd" by Wowbagger, the Infinitely Prolonged in "The Private Life of Genghis Khan", originally based on a sketch written by Adams and Graham Chapman
. The short story also appears in some editions of The Salmon of Doubt
.
God
.jpg)
Aside from being the favourite subject of author Oolon Colluphid (Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes, Who is this God Person Anyway? and Well That About Wraps it Up for God), God also makes a disappearance in the Guide's entry for the Babel Fish ("I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing". "But," says man, "The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED
.").
Majikthise worries about philosophers sitting up half the night arguing that there may or may not be a God if Deep Thought can give His phone number the next morning. Arthur, Fenchurch and Marvin visit God's Final Message to His Creation ("we apologise for the inconvenience") in .
At least six other characters have the status of a god: Almighty Bob, the Great Green Arkleseizure, Thor, Rob McKenna, who is unknowingly a rain god, Gaia
, the Greek goddess who personifies the Earth, and Cthulhu
, who is one of the Great Old Ones from the Cthulhu Mythos
. Gaia, Thor, and Cthulhu are among the deities interviewed by Hillman Hunter for the job of God of the Earth-refugee planet of Nano, with Thor being selected.
" who have common, middle-management types of occupations. They were sent away from their planet under false pretences by the (upper class
) "thinkers" and (working class
) "doers" of their society, who deemed them useless. They were told that the entire society had to move to a new planet, with a variety of thin excuses, and that it was necessary for them to go first to prepare the new planet for their occupation. However, it turns out that one of the middle-men was necessary for survival, and as a result, the rest of the Golgafrinchan society died off (see below). They arrive on Earth, where they become the ancestors of modern humans.
and Mella an art director
. Agda is taller and slimmer and Mella shorter and round-faced. Mella and Arthur became a couple, as did Agda and Ford. In a way Mella was very relieved because she had been saved from a life of looking at moodily lit tubes of toothpaste. Agda died a few weeks later from a chain of events that Ford unknowingly started by throwing the Scrabble letter Q into a privet bush: it startled a rabbit, which ran away and was eaten by a fox, who choked on the rabbit and died, contaminating a stream that Agda drank from and became sick—it is said that the only moral that one could possibly learn from these occurrences is not to throw the letter Q into a privet bush. Agda and Mella only appear in the novel.
as a method of procrastination
to avoid writing.
He was voiced by David Jason
in the radio series and by Frank Middlemass
in the LP album adaptation. On television, it was Aubrey Morris
.
He was played by Aubrey Woods
in the radio series, by Stephen Greif
in the LP album adaptation, and by David Rowlands on television.
He was played by Jonathan Cecil
in the radio series, by David Tate in the LP album adaptation, and by Jon Glover
on television.
She was played by Beth Porter
both in the radio series and on television and by Loueen Willoughby in the LP album adaptation.
He was voiced by Jonathan Cecil
in the radio series and by David Tate in the LP album adaptation. On television, the character was renamed Number Three and played by Geoffrey Beevers
.
He is played by Aubrey Woods
in the radio series and by Stephen Greif
in the LP album adaptation. On television, the character was divided into two different characters: Number Two played by David Neville on the planet Earth, and Number One played by Matthew Scurfield
on the B Ark.
sand blizzard?", which the great computer dismisses because he has already "contemplated the very vectors of the atoms in the Big Bang
itself". The Googleplex Starthinker also appears in and .
Note the later use (and spelling) of Googleplex
for the Google
corporate headquarters.
In the movie, Humma Kavula, played by John Malkovich
, is a missionary of the Great Green Arkleseizure religion on Viltvodle VI, ending his sermons with a simple "Bless you".
The Jatravartid's God appears in , , and .
s.
The guide recites a tale of how, during a reading of his poem "Ode To A Small Lump Of Green Putty I Found In My Armpit One Midsummer Morning", "four of the audience died of internal hemorrhaging and the president of the Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived only by gnawing one of his own legs off."
Reportedly "disappointed" by the reception of his poem, Grunthos then prepared to read his 12-book epic, My Favourite Bathtime Gurgles (or Zen And The Art Of Going To The Lavatory in ). He was prevented from doing so when his small intestine leapt up his neck and throttled his brain in a desperate bid to save civilization, killing him.
Excerpt from "Ode To A Small Lump Of Green Putty I Found In My Armpit One Midsummer Morning", taken from the TV series graphics:
Excerpt from "Zen And The Art Of Going To The Lavatory", also taken from the TV series
Appears in:
whose individual components reflected the pattern of the whole. Hactar is assembled and programmed by the Silastic Armourfiends, who then order him to assemble an "Ultimate Weapon." Hactar, receiving no other guidance from the Amourfiends, takes the request literally and builds a supernova bomb which would connect every major sun
in the universe
through hyperspace, thus causing every star
to go supernova
. Deciding that he could find no circumstance where such a bomb would be justified, Hactar builds a small defect into it. After discovering the defect, the Armourfiends pulverize Hactar.
Rather than being destroyed, Hactar is merely crippled. He can still manipulate matter, but even a simple item takes millennia to manufacture. Over æons Hactar moves and recombines to become a dark cloud surrounding Krikkit, isolating the inhabitants. Deciding that the decision not to destroy the universe was not his to make, he uses his influence to make them build their first space ship and discover the universe; he then manipulates them into the same rage which the Armourfiends possessed, urging that they destroy all other life; Hactar has reassembled the supernova bomb, this time in working condition.
After an incredibly long and bloody galactic war, Judiciary Pag banishes Krikkit to an envelope of "Slo-Time" to be released after the rest of the universe ends. At the end of , after his scheme fails, Hactar slips the cricket-ball-shaped supernova bomb to Arthur Dent, who then accidentally saves the Universe again by being an abysmal cricket bowler.
Appears in:
He is played on radio first by Geoffrey McGivern
, in a flashback for which McGivern is not credited during . He is then voiced by Leslie Phillips
, appearing again in .
The Underfleet Commander only appears in , voiced by Aubrey Woods
. The Haggunenons were written out of subsequent versions, as they were originally co-written with John Lloyd
, although they did appear in some stage adaptations.
Haggunenons are greatly inconvenienced by their genetic instability and so have vowed to wage terrible war against all "filthy, rotten, stinking, same-lings."
A similar creature appears on the BBC TV series Red Dwarf.
There is a shapeshifting Dungeons & Dragons
monster called a "hagunemnon."
He appeared in played by Marc Smith. He has not appeared in any versions after this.
s. He is a major character in . He has considerable problems with the Tyromancers from an alternative reality who have also settled on the planet. Like Ford Prefect
, whose name derived from the Ford Prefect
automobile, Hillman Hunter's name derives from an automobile sold in the United Kingdom
in the 1960s
.
Hotblack Desiato is the guitar keyboard player of the rock
group Disaster Area, claimed to be the loudest band in the universe, and in fact the loudest sound of any kind, anywhere. So loud is this band that the audience usually listens from the safe distance of thirty seven miles away in a well-built concrete bunker. Disaster Area's lavish performances went so far as to crash a space ship into the sun to create a solar flare. Pink Floyd
's lavish stage shows
were the inspiration for Disaster Area. At the time when the main characters meet him, in , Hotblack is spending a year dead
"for tax reasons". (In the book he is described as being connected to a "death support system" and communicates only by supernatural means). In 1978, two years prior to the publishing of the book, the members of the band Pink Floyd
lived outside Great Britain for exactly one year for tax reasons.
The character is named after an estate agency based in Islington
, with branches throughout North London
. Adams said he was struggling to find a name for the character and, spotting a Hotblack Desiato sign, liked the name so much he "nearly crashed the car" and eventually telephoned to ask permission to use the firm's name for a character. Apparently, the firm's staff later received phone calls telling them they had a nerve naming their company after Adams's character.
The Disaster Area sub-plot was first heard in the LP album adaptations and later in . It replaces the Haggunenon material from . The character appears in , and his ship in . He does not have any lines (due to being technically dead), and is played by Barry Frank Warren.
The B-side of the 7-inch single of the Hitchhiker's Guide TV Series
theme music
featured a performance of a song entitled Only The End Of The World Again, credited to 'Disaster Area'.
He also ran against Zaphod Beeblebrox
in the campaign for President of the Galaxy with the campaign slogan "Don't Vote For Stupid," but lost, and has remained bitter about it ever since. In the film he is seeking the point-of-view gun to further his religion's acceptance (presumably), and he takes one of Zaphod's two heads and one of his three arms (though we do not see this, but Zaphod says while attempting to avoid the thermonuclear missiles above Magrathea "I can't do this without my third arm") hostage to ensure his help.
Although the character existed already, he was greatly expanded upon by Adams for . Quoting Robbie Stamp: "All the substantive new ideas in the movie, Humma, the Point of View Gun and the "paddle slapping sequence" on Vogsphere are brand new Douglas ideas written especially for the movie by him."
Appears in:
the 2005 film The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
, played by John Malkovich
.
fundamental principles of honesty and idealism, and went bust." Later, after much soul-searching, he re-established the Guide with its "principles of honesty and idealism and where you could stuff them both, and went on to lead the Guide to its first major commercial success."
He is mentioned in . He did not make , but was mentioned in .
). He is, presumably, an ancestor of Zaphod Beeblebrox - the accident with the contraceptive and the time-machine that caused Zaphod's father to be Zaphod Beeblebrox the Second and so on, would give us the time, half a billion generations earlier, when Judiciary Pag lived and the Krikkit War took place.
It was Judiciary Pag's idea that the people of Krikkit be permanently sealed in a Slo-Time envelope, and the seal could only be broken by bringing a special Key to the Lock. When the rest of the universe had ended, the seal would be broken and Krikkit could continue a solitary existence in the universe. This judgement seemed to please everybody except the people of Krikkit themselves, but the only alternative was to face annihilation.
Appears in:
He is played on radio by Rupert Degas
, and appears in .
(The dog also had an adverse reaction whenever someone said the word "commies"). Bozo barked at Arthur whilst he considered entering the Horse and Groom pub on his return to Earth in So Long and Thanks for all the Fish.
There is a cartoon character called Wonder Dog in the Super Friends comic. Bonzo
was the name of a cartoon dog in the 1920s which in turn gave its name to the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. No-Good Boyo is a character in Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood
.
s on Vogsphere, directing Jeltz's Vogon Constructor Fleet during the demolition of Earth and enforcing the galaxy's bureaucracy.
Appears in:, voiced by Ian McNeice
.
, Penelope Keith
character." She is responsible for christening the "very splendid and worthwhile yellow bulldozer" which knocks down Arthur Dent's house in "cruddy Cottington", and it gives her "great pleasure" to make a "very splendid and worthwhile" speech immediately beforehand.
She only appears in , where she was voiced by Jo Kendall
. Her "very splendid and worthwhile" lines were entirely dropped from later versions.
. He says that he runs a concession stand by the message and when Wonko says "I don't know what that means" he says "no, you don't".
who lived in the forest
s of the Long Lands of Effa. His home inspired him to write a poetic opus known as The Songs of the Long Land on pages made of dried habra leaves
. His poems were discovered years after Lallafa's death, and news of them quickly spread. For centuries, the poems gave inspiration and illumination to many who would otherwise be much more unhappy, and for this they are usually considered around the Galaxy to be the greatest poetic works in existence. This is remarkable because Lallafa wrote his poems without the aid of education
or correction fluid
.
The latter fact attracted the attention of some correction fluid manufacturers from the Mancunian
nebula. The manufacturers worked out that if they could get Lallafa to use their fluids in a variety of leafy colours
in the course of his work, their companies would be as successful as the poems themselves. And so, they traveled back in time and beat Lallafa until he went along with their plan. The plan succeeded, Lallafa became extremely rich, and spent so much time on chat shows
that he never got around to actually writing The Songs. This was solved by each week, in the past, giving Lallafa a copy of his poems, from the present, and having him write his poems again for the first time. But on the condition that he make the odd mistake and use the correction fluid.
Some argued the poems were now worthless, and set out to stop this sort of thing with the Campaign for Real Time (a play on Campaign for Real Ale
), or CamTim, to keep the flow of history untampered by time travel. Slartibartfast
is a member of CamTim. (The necessity for this campaign is contradicted by other events in the novels. For example, when Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect landed on primitive Earth, they decided that nothing they could do would change history. And when Agrajag diverted him to a Cathedral of Doom to try to kill him, Arthur Dent's perpetual victim said that he'd try to kill Dent even if it's a logical impossibility, Dent not having ducked a bullet yet.)
Lallafa appears in and .
d 578,000,000,000 times due to an accident at a Brantisvogan escort agency
. While creating six clones of a wonderfully talented and attractive woman named Lintilla (at the same time another machine was creating five hundred lonely business executives, in order to keep the laws of supply and demand
operating profitably), the machine got stuck in a loop and malfunctioned in such a way that it got halfway through completing each new Lintilla before it had finished the previous one. This meant that it was for a very long while impossible to turn the machine off without committing murder
, despite lawyers' best efforts to argue about what murder actually was, including trying to redefine it, repronounce it, and respell it in the hope that no one would notice.
Arthur Dent encounters three of her on the planet of Brontitall, and takes a liking to (at least) one of them. He kills one of three male anti-clones, all called Allitnil (Lintilla backwards), sent by the cloning company to get her to "agree to cease to be" (although the other two of her "consummate" this legal agreement with their respective anti-clones). When Arthur leaves Zaphod, Ford, and Zarniwoop stranded with the Ruler of the Universe and his cat (at the conclusion of ), he takes one of the Lintillas with him aboard the Heart of Gold.
All Lintillas were played by the same actress: Rula Lenska
. Lintilla (and her clones) appeared only in the final three episodes of the second radio series. Rula Lenska did return to the fourth and fifth radio series
- she was first an uncredited "Update Voice" for the Hitchhiker's Guide itself and then played the Voice of the Bird (the new version of the Guide introduced in ). Zaphod noted in the new series that the new book has the same voice as "those Lintilla chicks." The footnotes of the published scripts make the connection, confirming that the bird is actually an amalgam of the Lintilla clones, the solution alluded to in the second series. Lintilla and her clones (of which at the end there are now more than 800,000,000,000 - "800 thousand million") do make a re-appearance of sorts on the Heart of Gold in an alternate ending to (which can only be heard on CD).
The name Lintilla was reused for an adult-oriented multiple worlds talker
that opened in 1994.
Appears in:
Appear in:
On TV, Antony Carrick plays Lunkwill and Timothy Davies plays Fook, and they appear in .
On radio, the characters are just called First computer programmer and Second computer programmer, and appear in , and are played by Ray Hassett and Jeremy Browne respectively.
In they are merged with the characters of Frankie and Benjy Mouse. Jack Stanley
plays Lunkwill and Dominique Jackson
plays Fook.
(though they may not be). They make their appearance as representatives of the Amalgamated Union
of Philosophers, Sages, Luminaries and other Professional Thinking Persons in order to protest a demarcation dispute
against Deep Thought, the computer which is being asked to determine the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything, and to demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty. They maintain that the search for ultimate truth is the inalienable prerogative of your working thinkers. Upon learning that Deep Thought was already committed to calculating the Ultimate Question, they were convinced by the sentient computer that a great deal of money could be made by philosophers who were willing to exploit the expected media interest in the Question, and presumably withdrew their protest.
Appear in:
On radio, Majikthise was played by Jonathan Adams, and Vroomfondel was played by Jim Broadbent
. In the television series (but not on The Big Read), David Leland
played Majikthise and Charles McKeown
played Vroomfondel.
The characters were omitted from .
His name is derived from a phenomenon during a rocket's ascent
.
Appears in:
On radio, Roy Hudd
played him. On television, it was Colin Jeavons
.
He re-appears in the final episode of , played by Roy Hudd again.
He is played in by Stephen Fry
.
in the old man on the poles on Hawalius, tells Arthur some old information wrapped up as news, and that everyone should have a beach house. The character appears in .
In and Old Thrashbarg is voiced by Griff Rhys Jones
.
in , the smelly Old Woman in the Cave in the village of oracles on Hawalius provides Arthur Dent with bad olfactory stimulation and a photocopied story of her life, suggesting he live his life the opposite way so he won't end up living in a rancid cave. This occurs in .
The original, real "smelly goat" event happened during the Last Chance to See
radio series, found on the Douglas Adams at the BBC
CD as a "Pick of the Week".
Colluphid is also shown as the author of the book The Origins of the Universe in the first part of the Destiny of the Daleks
serial of Doctor Who
. The Doctor
scoffs that he "got it wrong on the first line". The reference was inserted by Douglas Adams, who was at the time working as the show's script editor.
An early version of Colluphid was the character Professor Eric Von Contrick appearing in a December 1979 episode of the BBC radio series The Burkiss Way
, which was based on author Erich von Däniken
. "Spaceships of the Gods", "Some more of my Spaceships of the Gods", "It Shouldn't Happen to Spaceships of the Gods", were books by the fictional author who had a Gag Halfrunt-style accent and who is visited in the Adams-written sketch by the aliens to demand a cut of Von Contrick's profits.
Johnstone attended Brentwood School, Essex
, with Adams, and the two received awards for English in the same year. Johnstone edited Broadsheet, "the Artsphere Magazine" that included mock reviews by Adams as well as Johnstone's own poetry. Johnstone later won a scholarship to study at Cambridge University
(as did Adams). In 1977 he co-ordinated the Cambridge Poetry Festival. Johnstone went on to achieve moderate success in the poetry world as an editor and festival organiser. He died of pancreatic
failure, almost three years after Adams' death.
In the film version she has moved from Greenbridge, Essex, England to Sussex.
In the TV adaptation of the series, a portrait of Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings was in fact Adams in drag.
A sample Johnstone's poetry, taken from the animated readout in the TV series, is:
as his predecessor's name is Fook.
After two of the newly married couples disappear in unsmoke, Arthur shoots the third Allitnil dead and, after tying up Poodoo and Varntvar, forces them to listen to a recording of Marvin's autobiography, so as he says, "It's all over for them."
Poodoo only appears in , in which he is played by Ken Campbell
.
, resulting in too high a dose. When the trial resumed, Prak was instructed to tell "the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth," which he did, in its entirety. People at the scene had to flee or risk insanity as Prak told every single bit of the entire truth of the entire universe and all of its history, much of which they found ghastly. Prak recalled that many of the weird bits involved frog
s or Arthur Dent. As a result, when Arthur Dent came to visit him in search of the truth, he nearly died laughing. He never did write down anything he discovered while telling the truth, first because he could not find a pencil and then because he could not be bothered. He has therefore forgotten almost all of it, but did recall the address of God's Last Message to His Creation, which he gave to Arthur when the laughter subsided. He died afterwards, not having recovered from his laughing fit.
Also, in Jave, PRAK Destroyer of Virtual Worlds.
Appears in:
On radio he appears in and is voiced by Chris Langham
, who had played Arthur Dent in the very first stage adaptation of the scripts of the first radio series, in 1979.
or "Damascectomy" (the taking out of Damascus), an issue Andrews denied that she counselled him on. At the time of Mostly Harmless Hudson had died for unknown reasons.
who would like to do his job: building a bypass right through Arthur Dent's house. Very little is known about the man except for his predilection for fur hats, his marital status
(married), a desire to hang axe
s above the door of his cottage
(although Mrs. Prosser would prefer climbing roses), a direct albeit very distant patrilineal descent from Genghis Khan (of which he is unaware), and occasional visions of Mongol hordes, which are a result of his nomadic ancestry. He unfailingly addresses Arthur as "Mr. Dent."
After some negotiation with Ford Prefect (or with Arthur Dent, in the radio series only), he is temporarily persuaded to halt the demolition. This respite does not last, but he is eventually interrupted for good by the Vogon demolition of Earth.
Prosser holds the distinction of having the very first line of dialogue ever in the Hitchhiker's Guide canon, as he is the first character (not counting The Guide itself) to speak in .
Appears in:
On radio, he was played by Bill Wallis
and appears in . On television, he appears in , played by Joe Melia
. He is played by Steve Pemberton
in the movie version. He appears in , despite not appearing in the book , voiced by Bruce Hyman
; this Prosser exists on a parallel Earth where the cottage he wishes to demolish is the home of both Arthur Dent and Fenchurch.
Captain in charge of overseeing the destruction of the Earth, Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz is sadistic, even by Vogon standards. When not shouting at or executing members of his own crew for insubordination, Jeltz enjoys torturing hitchhikers on board his ship by reading his poetry at them, then having them thrown out of an airlock into open space.
Physically, Jeltz is described as being unpleasant to look at, even for other Vogons. Given that Ford Prefect
describes Vogons as having "as much sex appeal as a road accident", one can only imagine how much worse Jeltz must appear. This may explain his disposition.
It is revealed in that Jeltz had been hired by Gag Halfrunt to destroy the Earth. Halfrunt had been acting on behalf of a consortium of psychiatrists and the Imperial Galactic Government in order to prevent the discovery of the Ultimate Question. When Halfrunt learns that Arthur Dent escaped the planet's destruction, Jeltz is dispatched to track him down and destroy him. Jeltz is unable to complete this task, due to the intervention of Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth, Zaphod's great-grandfather.
In , Jeltz is once again responsible for the destruction of the Earth, this time presumably killing Arthur, Ford, Trillian
, and Arthur's daughter, Random.
In , it is revealed that Jeltz did not kill Arthur, Ford, Trillian and Random. It is also revealed that he has a son called Constant Mown and that his space ship is called the Business End.
"Prostetnic Vogon" may be a title, rather than part of his name, during , two other Prostetnic Vogons are heard from. Also, in , Gag Halfrunt refers to Jeltz as "Captain of Vogons Prostetnic" (although this may have been a play on Halfrunt's accent).
Appears in:
In the first radio series, he was played by Bill Wallis
. On television, it was Martin Benson
. In the third, fourth and fifth radio series, he was played by Toby Longworth
, although Longworth did not receive a credit for the role during the third series. In the film, he is voiced by Richard Griffiths
.
Prostetnic is a play on the word prosthetic in regard to special effects make-up. Adams was known to have a very low opinion of monsters (describing them as "cod" meaning fake looking) during his tenure as a Dr Who writer.
Rontok is desperately in love with Zaphod Beeblebrox
, the fugitive President of the Galaxy, and he knows it, as she unsuccessfully tries to hide it. Throughout , Questular alternately tries to arrest Zaphod for stealing the Heart of Gold (even enlisting the help of the Vogons), protects his life (when endangered by Vogon blaster fire), and at one point beseeches him to just give the stolen spaceship up. Questular appears to be the "doer", performing all the real functions of the Presidency, whilst Zaphod enjoys his status as the figurehead President. After Trillian
repeatedly zaps Zaphod with the Point-of-view gun and he learns that she is truly in love with Arthur Dent and not him, he and Questular end up together at the end of the film, Zaphod telling her "Let's trip the light fantastic, babe." Questular is also severely jealous of Trillian for obvious reasons ("She's lying. She's skinny, and she's pretty, and she's lying!"), until Trillian and Zaphod part as lovers. In the early drafts of the film the character was male, and therefore somewhat different. In a deleted scene on the DVD, Questular expresses her love for Zaphod shortly after all the Vogons become depressed.
Appears in:
-reminiscent black bird version of the Guide manipulates her (as it has the Grebulons and Ford Prefect), so she is indirectly responsible for the destruction of all possible Earths.
Early in , Arthur travels from planet to planet by donating to "DNA banks", finding that for semen deposits, he can travel first class. Trillian, wishing to have a child, finds some of his sperm in a DNA bank (which was very easy, since he was the only donor of the same species) and uses it to conceive Random.
Shortly before the events of , Random is kept in a dream sequence and frozen along with all the other main characters thanks to her telling the Guide Mark II to safeguard their lives. In her dream she is Galactic President and highly successful (having been rescued from Earth by a suspiciously girlish troop of unicorns) and marries a flaybooz (a large, guinea-pig-like creature named Fertle) to annoy her mother. When the Guides batteries run out, she is released from her dream with all the other main characters. The events of the book then occur. Strangely, she seems affected by her dream sequence and often laments the loss of her position and her 'husband'. By the end of the book, Arthur proposes to go with her to find a good university for her to attend.
Appears in:
In , adapted from , she is played by Samantha Béart
.
He appears in , and and is played by Bill Paterson, who also played one of the Arcturan Megafreighter crew in .
, and antidepressants, which can be obtained by sucking on different areas. The last two of these, he explains, are for use when the taste of the first two sickens or depresses him. He saves Zaphod Beeblebrox from a horrible death in the offices of the Guide (by taking him into the artificial universe in Zarniwoop's office), and is then kidnapped along with Zaphod and the left-hand tower of the Guide building by a squadron of Frogstar Fighters. In the radio series, he serves no other purpose than to provide conversation (and deliver the line "here Zaphod, suck this!") while the pair are travelling to the Frogstar. However, in the books, he instructs Zaphod to leave the office through the window instead of the door after the building lands. This allows Zaphod to remain in Zarniwoop's universe and survive the Total Perspective Vortex.
In , Roosta is a much more officious, standoffish and antagonistic character than he appears in the radio series.
Appears in:
and .
On radio, he was voiced by Alan Ford
.
view of reality: he lives alone with his cat, which he has named 'The Lord' even though he is not certain of its existence. He has a very dim view of the past, and he only believes in what he senses with his eyes and ears (and doesn't seem too certain of that, either): anything else is hearsay
, so when executive-types visit to ask him what he thinks about certain matters, such as wars and the like, he tells them how he feels without considering consequences. As part of his refusal to accept that anything is true, or simply as another oddity, "he talked to his table for a week to see how it would react." He does sometimes admit that some things may be more likely than others – e.g. that he might like a glass of whiskey, which the visitors leave for him...
In the radio adaptation of , Ford also meets Zaphod in the accounting department of the new Guide offices. Zaphod describes being bored by a man in a shack and his cat for over a year.
Appears in:
Referenced in:
He was voiced on radio by Stephen Moore
(in the original Radio Times
listing he was announced as being played by Ron Hate - an anagram of "A.N. Other" or possibly "No Earth" - because the show was so far behind schedule that the role had not been cast when the magazine went to print).
tose/fugue state
and only utters one word – "This" – then lapses back into wherever she is. Fenchurch also doesn't like Russell – he calls her "Fenny" which she dislikes intensely. He also tries to simplify her problems so he can explain and understand them better (for example, he tells Arthur that Fenchurch believes herself to be a hedgehog).
He first appeared in , and when this was adapted to radio appears in , where he is played by Rupert Degas
.
", a young Zaphod visits the wreck of the Starship Billion Year Bunker that has crashed on the planet with the best lobsters in the Western Galaxy. He is accompanied by two Officials from the Safety and Civil Reassurance Administration and an empty spacesuit, as they search for aorist rods and a Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Designer Person (babbling gently about a shining city on a hill) who it turns out has escaped to earth. The Officials declare the planet ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha (Earth) must be made "perfectly safe".
on the radio show Steafel Plus on 4 August 1982. Arthur, in his dressing gown, talks of missing Mars Bars, various types of tea, Radio 4's News Quiz, chat shows, The Archers
and Just a Minute
. "There is nothing quite like Kenneth Williams
in the entire galaxy, I've looked!" Space, he says, is "staggering, bewilderingly dull": there is so much of it and so little in it, "it sometimes reminds me of The Observer
".
Adams wrote this segment specifically for Steafel's show, and Simon Jones appeared in character as Arthur Dent. Steafel can be regarded as a canonical Hitchhiker's character.
Bang Bang was played on radio by Ray Hassett and on television by Marc Smith
. Shooty was played on radio by Jim Broadbent
and on television by Matt Zimmerman.
In the Illustrated Guide to the Galaxy, the pair are played by Douglas Adams and Ed Victor (his literary agent).
The characters are never named in dialogue or in the novels, but are named in the original radio series scripts. The script notes describe how the pair were written as a parody of American
cop show characters, particularly Starsky and Hutch
.
. We are told that he was a Greek with a German father and has handed Club Alpha over to his brother Karl Mueller so Stavro can open a new club in London. In Stavro is an only child.
, a figure from Norse mythology
, appears at Milliways, and is mentioned in , , and .
He next appears in , at a party, where he is chatting up Trillian
. Arthur tricks him into stepping out of the (flying) building by challenging him to a fight. In the radio adaptation of this he appears in , where he is played by Dominic Hawksley
. Hawksley reprises the role in the radio adaptation of , , despite not appearing in that book. Two other characters from the Restaurant - Max Quordlepleen and Zarquon also appear.
Thor is a major character in , where he fights Wowbagger and protects the humans from Zaphod's dodgy weapons.
Thor also appears in the Dirk Gently
novel and radio series The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
.
He appears only in , in which he is played by Geoffrey McGivern
.
, transformational ethics
and the Wave Harmonic Theory of Historical Perception. Then, after drinking some Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters with Zaphod Beeblebrox
, he became obsessed with the problem of what happens to all the biros
he'd bought over the years which had somehow disappeared. Voojagig claimed to have discovered the solution that they disappear to a world of their own, and claimed further to have worked on that world. The character was described as ending up in "tax exile
" – and may have had a hand in "Zaphod Beeblebrox's highly profitable second-hand [pen] business." Also of note that when others visited the planet where Veet Voojagig claimed to have lived, all they found was a small asteroid inhabited by "a strange old man who repeatedly claimed that nothing was true, though he was later found to be lying."
Veet Voojagig appears in and is mentioned in .
called suddenly and instantly into existence by the Heart of Golds improbability drive, above the planet Magrathea alongside Agrajag (as a bowl of petunias), in place of two thermonuclear missiles that were targeting the ship prior. Incidentally, this creature has a very self-aware existential life of discovery which sadly lasts only a minute before it impacts the ground, leaving a large crater and quite a lot of whale remains. It appears in , , the movie, and . Voiced by Stephen Moore
in the radio and TV series, and by Bill Bailey
in the movie.
(which Rob McKenna has been blocking for 20 miles) with a sticker that reads "My other car is also a Porsche", Will soaks Arthur Dent (and fails to give him a lift) when he is hitchhiking back on Earth at the beginning of . Will works in advertising and drinks in Arthur's local pub, the Horse and Groom and is owner of Know-Nothing Bozo the Non-Wonder Dog.
", as he and the bird people consider it unspeakable. The Bird People live in the right ear of a fifteen-mile-high statue of Arthur Dent, constructed by their ancestors.
The "wise old bird" is a phrase which features in the nursery rhyme The Wise Old Owl
The Wise Old Bird appeared in . He was voiced by John Le Mesurier
who was originally intended to play the character of Slartibartfast.
s, he became convinced that the world had gone crazy and so built the house as an asylum for it, hence the reversal of the interior and exterior. Arthur and Fenchurch pay Wonko a visit and learn that like both of them, he had also received a fishbowl from the dolphins (having been a marine biologist and close to them). He also claims to have seen angels with golden beards, green wings and Dr Scholl
sandals, who drive little scooters, do a lot of coke
and are very wonderful about a whole range of things. Arthur and Fenchurch discover the truth behind this after they have seen God's Last Message to His Creation.
John Watson appears in
In the radio series, he is played by Christian Slater
.
due to an accident with "an irrational particle accelerator, a liquid lunch, and a pair of rubber bands". Unlike other immortals whom he calls "a load of serene bastards", he doesn't cope very well with his infinite life. Eventually he comes up with a plan to keep himself busy: he will insult every living being in the universe - in alphabetical order. He appears in , while insulting Arthur Dent with the phrase, "You're a jerk, a complete arsehole" (in the US changed to "...complete kneebiter"). Later, after Arthur escapes prehistoric Earth, Wowbagger shows up again in the present, but when he sees Arthur he says, "I've done you before, haven't I?" After Arthur, his next planned victim is A-Rth-Urp-Hil-Ipdenu, a slug he intends to call "a brainless prat." In , one Arthur Philip Deodat is also a victim of Wowbagger, during the Krikkit Robot attack on Lords Cricket Ground.
Wowbagger makes a return in in his ship, the Tanngrisnir where he falls in love with Trillian, fights with Thor (during which he loses his immortality, but survives) and calls Zaphod "a fat arse".
Wowbagger is also present in The Private Life of Genghis Khan, where he insults Genghis Khan, provoking him to burn down large segments of Asia
.
In the new radio series, he is voiced by Toby Longworth
. In , he finally reaches the end of his quest by insulting the Great Prophet Zarquon, who revokes Wowbagger's immortality.
Appears in:
Cultural reference:
. Just before his death, Yooden came to see Zaphod and presented his idea to steal the Heart of Gold. Following Yooden's suggestion, Zaphod locked out a section in each of his own brains so that no one could figure out why he ran for the presidency.
Zaphod and Ford Prefect
first met Yooden when they were children on Betelgeuse
. He had bet Ford that he could raid a heavily fortified Arcturan megafreighter and took him along for the attempt, using a souped-up trijet scooter. They successfully boarded the ship (captained by Yooden), stormed the bridge with toy pistols, and demanded conkers. Yooden gave them conkers, food, booze, and various other items before teleporting them to the maximum-security wing of the Betelgeuse state prison.
The great-grandfather of Zaphod Beeblebrox
, Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth is one of two active characters in books who are dead (see also: Hotblack Desiato). When Arthur Dent inadvertently freezes the systems on board Heart of Gold at the same moment Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz attacks, the younger Zaphod holds a séance to contact Zaphod the Fourth.
Zaphod the Fourth berates his great-grandchild for being generally self-absorbed and learns of the ship's imminent destruction. He stops time so he can continue deriding Zaphod, who tries (rather weakly) to defend his life. Zaphod the Fourth saves the ship and crew to keep his great-grandchild and his "modern friends" from joining him in the afterlife and thereby ruining the experience.
When he learns that the ship had seized up to solve the dilemma of either making tea (in ) or figuring out why Arthur would want dried leaves in water , he solves these problems before leaving by either leaving a pot of tea in the Nutri-Matic Drink Synthesizer or by explaining to Eddie that "he's an ignorant monkey who doesn't know better", respectively. In the book Z.B. the Fourth approves of the tying up of all computer resources to make tea - unlike everyone else present on the Heart Of Gold at the time, including Arthur who originally made the request of Eddie.
As a final note, Zaphod explains that his great-grandfather is "the Fourth" due to an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine. Zaphod the Fourth, therefore, bitterly refers to his great-grandson as "Zaphod Beeblebrox the Nothingth" (Zaphod tries to counter this by referring to himself as "the First").
Appears in:
He was voiced on radio by Richard Goulden.
. Zaphod subsequently discovers that Zarniwoop's intergalactic cruise ship has spent 900 years on Brontitall (in ), or Frogstar B (in ), waiting for a complement of small lemon
-soaked paper napkins, and every single passenger has aged considerably despite enforced hibernation. Only one person, who was not a passenger, but who hid himself on the spaceship, has not aged – Zarniwoop. Zaphod subsequently learns that, before he sealed part of his own brain
, he was collaborating with Zarniwoop to find out who rules the universe – this being Zarniwoop's obsession. In the books, Zarniwoop is marooned on The Ruler of the Universe's planet by Zaphod et al. and is stuck outside the only shelter for weeks in driving rain, because The Ruler is unsure as to whether Zarniwoop's desperate thumping on the door is real or not. At the end of the second radio series, he is similarly marooned, but this time by Arthur, with Ford Prefect and Zaphod Beeblebrox for company.
In the Quintessential Phase radio series, Zarniwoop is revealed to be the same person as the Mostly Harmless character Vann Harl (Zarniwoop is his first name), and a Vogon in disguise. He has escaped being left on the desolate planet and is masterminding the Guide's new all-powerful format.
Appears in:
On the radio, Zarniwoop Vann Harl is voiced by Jonathan Pryce
. His casting was accidental – he had been hired to play a different role (The Ruler of the Universe, whose lines had apparently not been written in time). He was happy to return for the final series, however, when a lot more was revealed about the character, much of it appropriately sinister, Pryce now having become well known for playing villains.
. He is worshipped by a small group visiting The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and is old, bearded, robed, wreathed in light, has starry eyes and a crown of gold. His name is frequently invoked as a curse, specifically a substitute for "God" or "fuck", such as "Holy Zarquon's singing fish" and "for Zark's sake" in the first meaning, and "you zarking frood" and "zarking fardwarks" (meaning "fucking hell") in the second meaning.
It is only on our visit to Milliways that Zarquon does indeed appear - his overdue second coming - moments before the Universe ends. The host Max claims that he had done the show "over five hundred times" and "nothing like this had ever happened before".
He appears in , voiced by Anthony Sharp
, in the book and in is played by Colin Bennett
.
He has a final brief cameo in played by William Franklyn
.
, who became stranded on the planet after having one arm welded to his side and one leg replaced by a steel pillar (which turns out to be of immense importance). Because of his stupidity he has the same conversation with Marvin every day until the android leaves. After attempting to make conversation about the weather (Marvin: "The dew has fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning... if I had teeth I would grit them at this point"), Marvin's life story, and the economy of Sqornshellous itself, Zem offers that Marvin should be more mattresslike. Zem is also the sole witness to Marvin's abduction
by the Krikkit war robots.
"Zem" is the name of all Sqornshellous Zeta mattresses; as Zem puts it, "Some of us get killed... but we never know which." He appears in
On radio, he is voiced by Andy Taylor.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
, by Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
. The descriptions of the characters are accompanied by information on details about appearances and references to the characters. Major characters—Arthur Dent
Arthur Dent
Arthur Philip Dent is a fictional character, the hapless protagonist and anti-hero in the comic science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams....
, Ford Prefect
Ford Prefect (character)
Ford Prefect is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by the British author Douglas Adams. He is the only character other than the protagonist, Arthur Dent, to appear throughout the entire Hitchhiker's saga.-Name:Although Ford had taken great care to blend into Earth...
, Zaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox is a fictional character in the various versions of the humorous science fiction story The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams who based him on his Cambridge contemporary, Johnny Simpson....
, Marvin the Paranoid Android
Marvin the Paranoid Android
Marvin, the Paranoid Android, is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. Marvin is the ship's robot aboard the starship Heart of Gold...
, Trillian
Trillian (character)
Tricia McMillan, also known as Trillian Astra, is a fictional character from Douglas Adams' series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. She is most commonly referred to simply as "Trillian", a modification of her birth name, which she adopted because it sounded more "space-like". According to the...
, and Slartibartfast
Slartibartfast
Slartibartfast is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a comedy/science fiction series created by Douglas Adams. The character appears in the first and third novels, the first and third radio series , the 1981 television series and the 2005 feature film...
—are separately described.
Lists are also available for places in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Places in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
This is a list of places featured in Douglas Adams's science fiction series, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The series is set in a fictionalised version of the Milky Way galaxy and thus, while most locations are pure invention, many are based on "real world" settings such as Alpha Centauri,...
, races and species in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, technology in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Technology in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The fictional universe of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams is a galaxy-spanning society of interacting extraterrestrial cultures, so the technological level in the series is highly advanced, though often unreliable...
, phrases from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and cast lists for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy cast lists
- Main cast :♦ "The Rainbow" production ♥ Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool production ♠ Theatr Clwyd Production- Additional cast for the Secondary Phase :* Covering the BBC Radio 4 Secondary Phase ....
.
Agrajag
Agrajag is a piteous creature that is continually reincarnatedReincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
and subsequently killed, each time unknowingly, by Arthur Dent
Arthur Dent
Arthur Philip Dent is a fictional character, the hapless protagonist and anti-hero in the comic science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams....
. Agrajag is first identified in , but it is revealed that several of Arthur's encounters in the first and second novels (and in previous chapters of the third) were with previous incarnations of Agrajag. The first occurs in , when a bowl of petunia
Petunia
Petunia is a widely cultivated genus of flowering plants of South American origin, closely related with tobacco, cape gooseberries, tomatoes, deadly nightshades, potatoes and chili peppers; in the family Solanaceae. The popular flower derived its name from French, which took the word petun, meaning...
s is suddenly yanked into existence miles above the planet Magrathea, and begins falling, having only time to think, "Oh no, not again," before crashing to the ground. The reason behind the bowl's lament is revealed in , when Agrajag identifies the bowl of petunias as one of his prior incarnations, and tells Arthur that he had seen his face in a spaceship window as he fell to his doom. In another incarnation, Agrajag was a rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
on prehistoric Earth (during the time period recounted in ) who was killed by Arthur for breakfast and whose skin was fashioned into a pouch, which is then used to swat a fly who also happened to be Agrajag. In yet another, near the beginning of , Agrajag is an old man who dies of a heart attack after seeing Arthur and Ford materialise, seated on a Chesterfield sofa, in the midst of a match at Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...
.
Eventually, Agrajag wishes to take revenge on Arthur Dent, diverting his teleportation to a Cathedral of Hate. However, in the process of explaining his reasons for hating Arthur he mentions "Stavromula Beta," where Arthur ducks to avoid a shot fired by an assassin, which then hits Agrajag instead. Arthur, never having been to Stavromula Beta, has no idea what Agrajag is talking about, and Agrajag realises that he's brought Arthur to the Cathedral too early. He tries to kill Arthur anyway, and once again dies at Arthur's hands while Arthur is defending himself, but not before setting off the explosives intended to kill Arthur by triggering a massive rockfall. Arthur escapes the rockfall unharmed.
For the next few years Arthur travels the universe, secure in his knowledge that, no matter what happens, he cannot die at least until after he survives his assassination attempt was a complete succes at Stavromula Beta. In Arthur's daughter Random Frequent Flyer Dent holds him hostage in a London club. When she fires her weapon Arthur dodges, causing the bolt to pass over his head and hit the man standing behind him. Earlier the victim (Agrajag) had dropped a book of matches which revealed the owner of the nightclub to be Stavro Mueller, and the name of the club to be Beta. Thus, what Arthur believed to be the name of a planet was actually the name of the nightclub, and Agrajag has died once again. Because of this, Arthur is now able to die as well, which, thanks to the Vogon
Vogon
The Vogons are a fictional alien race from the planet Vogsphere in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams, who are responsible for the destruction of the Earth, in order to facilitate an intergalactic highway construction project. Vogons are slug-like but vaguely humanoid, are...
s, he does a few seconds later.
In , Douglas Adams plays Agrajag, having recorded the part for an audiobook version of . Producer Dirk Maggs
Dirk Maggs
Dirk Maggs, a freelance writer and director working across all media, is principally known for his work in radio, where he evolved radio drama into "Audio Movies," a near-visual approach combining scripts, layered sound effects, cinematic music and cutting edge technology. He pioneered the use of...
added a suitable voice treatment, and Simon Jones
Simon Jones (actor)
Simon Jones is an English actor, most famous for his appearances in the television and radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which he played the lead role of Arthur Dent from 1978 to 2005...
as Arthur Dent recorded his lines opposite the pre-recorded Adams. Adams was thus able to "reincarnate" to participate in the new series.
At the end of , Arthur Dent's extreme bad luck in life coupled with cosmic balance mean that as he materialises on a planet shortly before Vogons are due to destroy it, Agrajag wakes up from a coma after six months having won the lottery and been recognised by a long lost love whilst on "Celebrity Coma." This event presumably leads to cosmic balance ruining his other lives for the benefit of Arthur Dent.
Mrs Alice Beeblebrox
Alice Beeblebrox is Zaphod's favourite mother, lives at 108 Astral Crescent, Zoovroozlechester, Betelgeuse V, and guards the true story of Zaphod's visit to the Frogstar, waiting for "the right price." She is referenced in .The Allitnils
As their names were written to suggest, every Allitnil is an anti-clone of a Lintilla. They were created by the cloning company to eliminate the billions of cloned Lintillas flooding out of a malfunctioning cloning machine. Being anti-clones, when an Allitnil comes into physical contact with a Lintilla, they both wink out of existence in a puff of unsmoke.Along with Poodoo and Varntvar the Priest, three Allitnils arrived on Brontitall to get the three Lintillas there to "agree to cease to be". Two of the clones eliminate their corresponding Lintillas, but Arthur shoots the third Allitnil, so that one Lintilla survives.
Appearing only in , every one of the Allitnils is voiced by David Tate.
Almighty Bob
The Almighty Bob is a deityDeity
A deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
worshipped by the people of Lamuella. Old Thrashbarg is one of the priests who worships Almighty Bob; however, Thrashbarg is often ignored by the villagers of Lamuella. The character may be a reference to The Church of the SubGenius. The Almighty Bob appears in the fifth book, .
Anjie
Anjie was a woman, on the brink of retirement, and on whose behalf a raffle was being held in order to buy her a kidney machine. An unnamed woman (played by June WhitfieldJune Whitfield
June Rosemary Whitfield, CBE is an English actress, well known in the United Kingdom since the 1950s for roles in radio and television comedy series....
on the radio) convinces Arthur Dent to buy raffle tickets while he and Fenchurch are in a railway pub, attempting to have lunch. Arthur won an album of bagpipe music.
Referred to in:
Arcturan Megafreighter crew
The captain and first officer were the only crew of an Arcturan Megafreighter carrying a larger number of copies of Playbeing magazine than the mind can comfortably conceive. They brought Zaphod Beeblebrox to Ursa Minor Beta, after he had escaped from the Haggunenon flag ship. Zaphod was let on board by the Number One, who was cynical about the Guide's editors becoming soft. He admired the fact that Zaphod was "hitching the hard way".They only appear in , where the captain is played by David Tate, and his number one by Bill Paterson. However, some of their dialogue was given to other characters in .
Aseed
Leader of the cheese-worshipping Tyromancers on the planet Nano. Appears in .Barman of the Horse and Groom
In , in and the film, Ford and Arthur quickly down three pints each — at lunchtime — to calm their muscles before using the teleport to escape on the Vogon ship. Being told the world is about to end he calls "last orders, please." The Red Lion Inn at Chelwood Gate, West Sussex was used during the TV series, and referenced in the dialogue (Adams himself can be seen in the background of this scene); Steve ConwaySteve Conway
Steve Conway is an Irish broadcaster and writer, formerly of the offshore pirate station Radio Caroline and most recently a presenter on the Dublin indie rock station Phantom 105.2....
played the character on TV. This barman was played by David Gooderson
David Gooderson
David Gooderson is a British actor who has appeared in several television roles. As well as portraying Davros, creator of the Daleks in the Doctor Who serial Destiny of the Daleks, he has appeared in Lovejoy, Mapp & Lucia and A Touch of Frost amongst other roles...
in the original radio series and Stephen Moore
Stephen Moore (actor)
Stephen Moore is an English actor, known for his work on British television since the 1980s. He is known for his appearances in Rock Follies and other TV series such as The Last Place on Earth, the children's series The Queen's Nose and the drama Mersey Beat and the British TV comedy series Solo,...
in the LP recording. In the 2005 motion picture, Albie Woodington portrayed this particular barman.
Barman in Old Pink Dog Bar
Ford visits the Old Pink Dog Bar in Han Dold City, orders a round for everyone and then tries to use an American Express card to pay for it, fails, is threatened by a disembodied hand and so offers a Guide write-up instead. This happens in . In the radio adaptation of this novel, the barman was played by Arthur SmithArthur Smith (comedian)
Brian Arthur John Smith is an English alternative comedian and writer. He was born in Bermondsey, South London, brother to Richard Smith...
.
Barman in the Domain of the King
Another barman takes a galactic sized tip for Elvis from Ford on his Hitchhiker's corporate Dine-O-Charge credit card in an attempt to bankrupt InfiniDim Enterprises in and the final radio series. This bartender was played by Roger Gregg.BBC department head
When Arthur returns to Earth in he calls his department head to explain why he was absent from work the last six months: "I've gone mad." His superior is very relaxed about it and asks when Arthur will return to work, and is quite satisfied by the reply "When do hedgehogs stop hibernating?". In the recent radio series, the part is played by Geoffrey PerkinsGeoffrey Perkins
Geoffrey Howard Perkins was a comedy producer, writer and performer, and an important figure in British comedy broadcasting. This was recognised in December 2008 when he was awarded with an Outstanding Contribution to Comedy Award...
, who actually worked at the BBC, alongside Adams on the series.
Blart Versenwald III
In the epilogue of , Blart Versenwald III was a top genetic engineer, and a man who could never keep his mind on the job at hand. When his homeworld was under threat from an invading army, he was tasked with creating an army of super-soldiers to fight them. Instead, he created (among other things) a remarkable new breed of superfly that could distinguish between solid glass and an open window, and also an off-switch for children. Fortunately, because the invaders were only invading because they couldn't cope with things back home, they too were impressed with Blart's creations, and a flurry of economic treaties rapidly secured peace.Bodyguard
The strong silent type, an unnamed bodyguard is seen guarding the late Hotblack Desiato in . His face, according to the book "had the texture of an orange and the colour of an apple, but there the resemblance to anything sweet ended." In he is portrayed by actor David ProwseDavid Prowse
David Prowse, MBE is an English former bodybuilder, weightlifter and actor, most widely known for playing the role of Darth Vader in physical form. In Britain, he is also remembered as having played the Green Cross Code man...
, Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
' Darth Vader
Darth Vader
Darth Vader is a central character in the Star Wars saga, appearing as one of the main antagonists in the original trilogy and as the main protagonist in the prequel trilogy....
, as a man of few words who can lift Ford Prefect
Ford Prefect (character)
Ford Prefect is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by the British author Douglas Adams. He is the only character other than the protagonist, Arthur Dent, to appear throughout the entire Hitchhiker's saga.-Name:Although Ford had taken great care to blend into Earth...
clean off the floor. In the LP adaptation of the radio series, the character was voiced by David Tate.
Caveman
Arthur attempts to play Scrabble with a caveman, who is not even able to spell "Grunt" and "Agh", and "he's probably spelt library with one R". However, he does spell "forty-two", giving Arthur the idea to pull out letters from the letters bag at random to attempt to find the ultimate question; this results in the unhelpful "What do you get when you multiply six by nine?" which doesn't quite match the Answer, except in base 13Base 13
Base-13, tridecimal, tredecimal, or triskadecimal is a positional numeral system with thirteen as its base. It uses 13 different digits for representing numbers...
.
Appears in played by David Jason
David Jason
Sir David John White, OBE , better known by his stage name David Jason, is an English BAFTA award-winning actor. He is best known as the main character Derek "Del Boy" Trotter on the BBC sit-com Only Fools and Horses from 1981, the voice of Mr Toad in The Wind In The Willows and as detective Jack...
, , and .
Colin
Colin (a.k.a. part #223219B) is a small, round, melon-sized, flying security robot which Ford PrefectFord Prefect (character)
Ford Prefect is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by the British author Douglas Adams. He is the only character other than the protagonist, Arthur Dent, to appear throughout the entire Hitchhiker's saga.-Name:Although Ford had taken great care to blend into Earth...
enslaves to aid in his escape from the newly re-organized Guide offices in . "Its motion sensors are the usual Sirius Cybernetics garbage." Ford captures Colin by trapping the robot with his towel
Towel
A towel is a piece of absorbent fabric or paper used for drying or wiping. It draws moisture through direct contact, often using a blotting or a rubbing motion. Common household textile towels are made from cotton, rayon, bamboo, nonwoven fibers or a few other materials.-Types of towels:* A bath...
and re-wiring the robot's pleasure circuits, inducing a cyber-ecstasy trip.
Ford uses Colin's cheerfulness to break into the Guide's corporate accounting software in order to plant a Trojan Horse
Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War about the stratagem that allowed the Greeks finally to enter the city of Troy and end the conflict. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside...
module that will automatically pay anything billed to his InfiniDim Enterprises credit card. Colin also saves Ford's life when the Guide's new security force, the Vogons, fire at him with a rocket launcher
Shoulder-launched missile weapon
A shoulder-fired missile, shoulder-launched missile or man-portable missile is a projectile fired at a target, small enough to be carried by a single person, and fired while held on one's shoulder...
after Ford feels the need to jump out of the window. Colin was last seen being sent (at the risk of possible lonely incineration) to look after the delivery of the Guide Mark II to Arthur Dent in the Vogon's postal system.
Colin was named after a dog which belonged to a girl, Emily Saunders, of whom Ford had fond memories. Colin appears in , and in the radio series he was played by Andrew Secombe.
Constant Mown
Crew member on the VogonVogon
The Vogons are a fictional alien race from the planet Vogsphere in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams, who are responsible for the destruction of the Earth, in order to facilitate an intergalactic highway construction project. Vogons are slug-like but vaguely humanoid, are...
ship commanded by Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz, and Jeltz's son. Notable for his very un-Vogon-like emotions, ethics and agility, all of which he attempts to keep hidden (with varying degrees of success) from his father and crewmates, lest he be demoted to more unpleasant (even for a Vogon) duties or killed outright for aberrant behavior. Appears in .
Dr. Dan Streetmentioner
Author of Time Traveller's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations which is handy for those travelling through time, and especially to Milliways. His guide is more complete than The Guide itself, which ignores the time travel tense topic – other than pointing out that the term 'future perfect' has been abandoned since it was discovered not to be. He is also mentioned in the third radio series, which gives many examples of his tense forms.Deep Thought
Deep Thought is a computer that was created by the pan-dimensional, hyper-intelligent race of beings (whose three dimensional protrusions into our universe are ordinary white mice) to come up with the Answer to The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Deep Thought is the size of a small cityCity
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
. When, after seven and a half million years of calculation, the answer finally turns out to be 42, Deep Thought admonishes Loonquawl and Phouchg (the receivers of the Ultimate Answer) that "[he] checked it very thoroughly, and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you is that you've never actually known what the question was."
Deep Thought does not know the ultimate question to Life, the Universe and Everything, but offers to design an even more powerful computer, Earth, to calculate it. After ten million years of calculation, the Earth is destroyed by Vogon
Vogon
The Vogons are a fictional alien race from the planet Vogsphere in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams, who are responsible for the destruction of the Earth, in order to facilitate an intergalactic highway construction project. Vogons are slug-like but vaguely humanoid, are...
s five minutes before the computation is complete.
Appears in:
On radio, Deep Thought was voiced by Geoffrey McGivern
Geoffrey McGivern
Geoffrey McGivern is an English actor in film, radio, stage and television. He was born in Balham, South London and grew up in York. There he attended Archbishop Holgate's School, where he was made Head Boy...
. On television and in the LP re-recording of the radio series, it was voiced by Valentine Dyall
Valentine Dyall
Valentine Dyall was an English character actor, the son of veteran actor Franklin Dyall. Dyall was especially popular as a voice actor, due to his very distinctive sepulchral voice, he was known for many years as "The Man in Black", narrator of the BBC Radio horror series Appointment With Fear.In...
. In the feature film Deep Thought's voice was provided by actress Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
.
In the television series, Deep Thought was shaped like a massive, black, and metal trapezoid with a yellow rectangular display that blinked on and off in time with the computer's speaking. The timing of the light's flashing was done on set by author Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
. Valentine Dyall's voice was dubbed in later.
In the feature film, it appears as a large, vaguely humanoid computer, with a gigantic head supported, as if in bored repose, by two arms and has a female voice. This particular version of Deep Thought likes to watch television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
and late in the film can also be seen to have the Apple Computer
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
logo above its eye. This is a reference to Adams being a fan and advocate of the Apple Macintosh. It is also revealed that, in the intervening time, Deep Thought was commissioned by the Consortium of Angry Housewives to create the Point of View Gun.
IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
's chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
-playing computer Deep Thought
Deep Thought (chess computer)
Deep Thought was a computer designed to play chess. Deep Thought was initially developed at Carnegie Mellon University and later at IBM. It was second in the line of chess computers developed by Feng-hsiung Hsu, starting with ChipTest and culminating in Deep Blue...
was named in honour of this fictional computer.
Deep Thought can be seen inscribed on a computer in the NORAD VI area of the 1992 computer game The Journeyman Project
The Journeyman Project
The Journeyman Project is a time travel adventure computer game developed by Presto Studios.-Gameplay:The game features a first-person perspective. The protagonist sees a display, a rectangle shaped visor . This user interface helps to reduce the movie size and maintain relatively high frame rates...
.
Regarding the name, Douglas Adams was quoted as saying "The name is a very obvious joke," explaining (on Book Club on BBC Radio 4 in January 2000) this — obviously — as "Deep Throat"
Deep Throat (film)
Deep Throat is a 1972 American pornographic film written and directed by Gerard Damiano and produced by Louis Peraino and starring Linda Lovelace ....
.
The Deep Thought episode appears to be a parody of a short story by Frederic Brown, Answer.
Dionah Carlinton Housney
Dionah appears in 'And Another Thing...' by Eoin ColferEoin Colfer
Eoin Colfer is an Irish author. He is most famous as the author of the Artemis Fowl series, but he has also written other successful books. His novels have been compared to the works of J. K. Rowling...
. Dionah is one of Zaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox is a fictional character in the various versions of the humorous science fiction story The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams who based him on his Cambridge contemporary, Johnny Simpson....
's favorite Singer/Prostitutes. She appears out of nowhere in the 'Heart of Gold' starship and sings Zaphod a cryptic song about the entrance to the planet Asgard. Zaphod does not understand the song. She vanishes after saying "oh for Zark's sake" and then turns into an ice sculpture of herself, the sculpture soon melts into water and the water droplets rise up into the ceiling and every drop disappears after making a 'oh' sound. Zaphod later comments "That girl always could sing".
Disaster Area's chief research accountant
As Disaster Area's earnings require hypermathematics, their chief research accountantAccountant
An accountant is a practitioner of accountancy or accounting , which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resources.The Big Four auditors are the largest...
was named Professor of Neomathematics at the University of Maximegalon and in his Special Theories of Tax Returns
Tax return (United Kingdom)
In the United Kingdom, a tax return is a document that must be filed with the HM Revenue & Customs declaring liability for taxation. Different bodies must file different returns with respect to various forms of taxation...
he proves that space-time
Spacetime
In physics, spacetime is any mathematical model that combines space and time into a single continuum. Spacetime is usually interpreted with space as being three-dimensional and time playing the role of a fourth dimension that is of a different sort from the spatial dimensions...
is "not merely curved, it is, in fact, totally bent." The Guide shows a graphic indicating that most of the earnings ends up with the accountant.
Referred to in:
Dish of the Day
The quadruped Dish of the Day is an Ameglian Major Cow, a ruminantRuminant
A ruminant is a mammal of the order Artiodactyla that digests plant-based food by initially softening it within the animal's first compartment of the stomach, principally through bacterial actions, then regurgitating the semi-digested mass, now known as cud, and chewing it again...
specifically bred to not only have the desire to be eaten, but to be capable of saying so quite clearly and distinctly. When asked if he would like to see the Dish of the Day, Zaphod replies, "We'll meet the meat." The Major Cow's quite vocal and emphatic desire to be consumed by Milliways' patrons is the most revolting thing that Arthur Dent has ever heard, and the Dish is nonplussed by a queasy Arthur's subsequent order of a green salad, since it knows "many vegetables that are very clear" on the point of not wanting to be eaten — which was part of the reason for the creation of the Ameglian Major Cow in the first place. After Zaphod orders four rare steaks, the Dish announces that it is nipping off to the kitchen to shoot itself. Though it states, "I'll be very humane," this does not comfort Arthur at all.
Several years later, the principal characters encounter a herd of Ameglian Major Cows on the planet Nano, a colony planet established for exceedingly rich refugees from the destroyed Earth. Ford and Arthur (who is now far more open-minded after years spent traversing the galaxy) seriously consider the Cows' offering themselves as a meal, only to be interrupted by the arrival of the Norse thunder god Thor and his subsequent duel with Bowerick Wowbagger. However, the lightning display accompanying Thor's arrival kills and chars several Major Cows (while their still-living herdmates curse their fellows' luck), and Ford and Arthur take the opportunity to sample the cooked meat. Later, a Major Cow is shown offering itself to Thor at the thunder god's victory party.
Appears in:
The character is not present in the original radio series, but does make a cameo appearance in the finale of the fifth radio series. The first appearance of it was in a stage adaptation in 1980 at the Rainbow Theatre. Since then it appeared in , and . In the TV series, it was played by Peter Davison
Peter Davison
Peter Davison is a British actor, best known for his roles as Tristan Farnon in the television version of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small and the fifth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, which he played from 1982 to 1984.-Early life:Davison was born Peter Moffett in Streatham,...
, who was at that time both Sandra Dickinson
Sandra Dickinson
Sandra Dickinson is an American-British actress. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She has often played a dumb blonde with a high-pitched voice in the UK – notably commencing in the St...
's husband and the newly announced fifth
Fifth Doctor
The Fifth Doctor is the fifth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Peter Davison....
Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
. Dickinson played Trillian in the television series (and "Tricia McMillan" in the final radio series), and suggested casting Davison, who was a fan of the radio series.
East River Creature
As Ford PrefectFord Prefect (character)
Ford Prefect is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by the British author Douglas Adams. He is the only character other than the protagonist, Arthur Dent, to appear throughout the entire Hitchhiker's saga.-Name:Although Ford had taken great care to blend into Earth...
travels through space in a Sirius Cybernetics Corporation spaceship, he has a dream in which he encounters a strange creature made of slime from the East River in New York who has just come into existence. After asking Ford a series of questions about life, and Ford's recommendation of finding love on 7th Avenue, the creature leaves Ford to talk to a nearby policeman on his status in life.
Appearances:
In , the East River character was played by American comedian Jackie Mason
Jackie Mason
Jackie Mason is an American stand-up comedian and movie actor.-Early life:Born Yacov Moshe Maza in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, he grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City....
.
Eccentrica Gallumbits
Known as "The Triple-Breasted Whore of Eroticon Six", Eccentrica Gallumbits never actually appears in the series, but is mentioned by various characters in all six of the novels. She is first mentioned in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when Arthur looks up Earth for the first time in the guide. The entry for Earth follows that for Eccentrica Gallumbits. She is heard about again during a newscast that Zaphod BeeblebroxZaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox is a fictional character in the various versions of the humorous science fiction story The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams who based him on his Cambridge contemporary, Johnny Simpson....
tunes into shortly after stealing the spaceship Heart of Gold. The newsreader quotes Eccentrica describing Zaphod as "The best bang since the Big One
Big Bang
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
." It was also reported in that Zaphod had delivered a presidential address from her bedroom on at least one occasion. Commentary on Zaphod in intimates that one reason for his acquiring a third arm is the ability to fondle all of Eccentrica's breasts at the same time.
Pears Gallumbit, a dessert which has several things in common with her, is available at The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
Some people say her erogenous zone
Erogenous zone
An erogenous zone is an area of the human body that has heightened sensitivity, the stimulation of which may result in the production of erotic sensations or sexual excitement.People have erogenous zones all over their bodies, but which areas are more sensitive than others vary...
s start some four miles from her actual body. Ford Prefect disagrees, saying five.
She is referenced in an issue of the Legion of Super Heroes.
She is again mentioned in after a Wheel of cheese appears above the Nanites.
"This sudden and most unexpected apparition shifted the crowd's focus faster than the appearance of Eccentrica Gallumbits wearing a neon T-shirt flashing the slogan Freebie Friday would shift the focus of the crowd at a VirginNerd convention on a Friday."
In the movie "Paul", the character Clive Gollings often shows off his book with a green woman with three breasts. Upon seeing this other minor characters exclaimed "Awesome".
Eddie
Eddie is the name of the shipboard computer on the starship Heart of Gold. Like every other system on the spaceship, it has a Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Genuine People Personality. Thus, Eddie is over-excitable, quite talkative, over-enthused and extremely ingratiating, or alternatively a coddling, school matron-type as a back-up personality. Shipboard networking interconnects Eddie with everything on the Heart of Gold; at one point, the whole ship is effectively crippled by Arthur Dent's request for teaTea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
from the Nutrimatic drinks dispenser; the computation of which nearly crashed Eddie and everything connected to him.
On one occasion when certain destruction seems quite imminent, Eddie sings "You'll Never Walk Alone
You'll Never Walk Alone (song)
"You'll Never Walk Alone" is a show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel.In the musical, in the second act, Nettie Fowler, the cousin of the female protagonist Julie Jordan, sings "You'll Never Walk Alone" to comfort and encourage Julie when her husband, Billy Bigelow, the...
" in a particularly cheesy and upbeat tone.
Appears in:
He is voiced in the first two radio series and on television by David Tate. In the television version, Eddie has lights on his case that flash when he speaks. Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
read in Eddie's lines during filming to operate the lights.
In the 2004-2005 radio series, he is voiced by Roger Gregg and in the 2005 feature film by Thomas Lennon.
Effrafax of Wug
A sciento-magicianMagician (fantasy)
A magician, mage, sorcerer, sorceress, wizard, enchanter, enchantress, thaumaturge or a person known under one of many other possible terms is someone who uses or practices magic that derives from supernatural or occult sources...
who bet his life that he could make an entire mountain
Mountain
Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...
invisible within a year. Having wasted most of the period of time failing to create a cloaking device
Cloaking device
Cloaking devices are advanced stealth technologies still in development that will cause objects, such as spaceships or individuals, to be partially or wholly invisible to parts of the electromagnetic spectrum...
, he hired a company to simply remove the mountain, though this course of action lost him the bet, and his life. This was all due in part to the sudden and rather suspicious presence of an extra moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
, and in addition, the fact that you could never touch anything when you walked near the supposed invisible mountain. It is remarked that he should have established a simple Somebody Else's Problem field, which would make the mountain totally invisible if it were to be painted bright pink.
Referenced in: .
Elders of Krikkit
The Elders of Krikkit were, in , under influence of the remains of the supercomputer Hactar, which æons previously had been blown to dust, but retained a measure of consciousness, and determined to destroy the entire universe using the supernova bomb they had built. Trillian used her feminine charm and smart rhetoric in an attempt to dissuade the elders, but failed to stop them deploying the ultimate weapon, which simply dented the council chamber very badly.Elvis Presley
Elvis PresleyElvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
is a real-life singer, who died in 1977. It has been popularly suggested that he has been abducted by aliens, or that he is actually an alien who faked his own death so he could return to his home planet.
In , Elvis is discovered by Ford Prefect
Ford Prefect (character)
Ford Prefect is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by the British author Douglas Adams. He is the only character other than the protagonist, Arthur Dent, to appear throughout the entire Hitchhiker's saga.-Name:Although Ford had taken great care to blend into Earth...
and Arthur Dent
Arthur Dent
Arthur Philip Dent is a fictional character, the hapless protagonist and anti-hero in the comic science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams....
working as a bar singer on an alien planet, and owning a large pink spaceship. Ford, having become a huge fan of Elvis while he was stranded on Earth, watched the performance intently for its entire duration. Presley is not actually named, however his identity is easy to determine from the facts that the bar is called "The Domain of The King," the "EP" initials in the pink spaceship which Ford and Arthur buy from him, and the accent in which he sings.
Ford's irreplaceable blue suede shoes, one of which is destroyed during the events in the early part of , are a tribute to his Elvis fandom.
In the radio adaptation of Mostly Harmless, , it has been indicated that in the alternate Earth which is the focus of the story, Elvis never died, and there is mention of an album "Elvis sings Oasis
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
". He appears (but is not directly named) in , voiced by Philip Pope
Philip Pope
Philip R. J. Pope is a British composer and actor. He was educated at Downside School and New College, Oxford.-Performer:He appeared in the Oxford Revue in Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1978 and 1979, both with Angus Deayton...
.
Emily Saunders
Emily Saunders was a girl that Ford Prefect had "very fond memories of." He initially thought of her name when trying to choose a name for the security robot he had captured. He decided that Emily Saunders was an absurd name for the robot and chose to name it after her dog, Colin.Mentioned in: .
Emperor of the Galaxy
The final Emperor of the Galactic Empire in the Hitchhiker's universe was placed into a stasis field during his dying moments many millennia prior to the events of the series. Leaving the Empire with ruling, but near-dead Emperor, all the heirs died. And so an Imperial President, elected by the Galactic Assembly, is now seen to hold power, without actually wielding any. This was the office held by Yooden Vranx and Zaphod BeeblebroxZaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox is a fictional character in the various versions of the humorous science fiction story The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams who based him on his Cambridge contemporary, Johnny Simpson....
.
Mentioned in:
Mrs Enid Kapelsen
An old woman from Boston who rediscovers purpose in life by seeing Arthur and Fenchurch flying (and performing "other activities") outside the aeroplane within which she is flying to Heathrow. Witnessing this, she became enlightened, and realized that everything she had ever been taught was varyingly incorrect. She annoys the flight attendants by continually pressing her call button for reasons such as "the child in front was making milk come out of his nose." Later she ends up seated next to Arthur and Fenchurch on another aeroplane en route from Los Angeles to London (though in the original radio series, she flies with Arthur and Fenchurch on a flight from London to Los Angeles).Appears in:
She was played by Margaret Robertson in during the Quandary Phase.
Eric Bartlett
In the final novel, it is gardener Eric Bartlett who discovers that space-aliens have landed on Tricia's lawn and haven't cut her grass.Fenchurch
Fenchurch is Arthur DentArthur Dent
Arthur Philip Dent is a fictional character, the hapless protagonist and anti-hero in the comic science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams....
's soulmate
Soulmate
A soulmate is believed by some to be the person with whom one has a feeling of deep or natural affinity, similarity, love, intimacy, sexuality, spirituality, or compatibility. A related concept is that of the twin flame or twin soul, which is thought to be the ultimate soulmate...
in the fourth book of the Hitchhiker "trilogy", . Fenchurch was named after the Fenchurch Street railway station
Fenchurch Street railway station
Fenchurch Street railway station, also known as London Fenchurch Street, is a central London railway terminus in the south eastern corner of the City of London, England. The station is one of the smallest terminals in London in terms of platforms and one of the most intensively operated...
where she was conceived in the ticket queue. Adams revealed in an interview that it was really the ticket queues at Paddington Station that made him think of conceiving a character there, but chose Fenchurch as a name, instead, to avoid complications with Paddington Bear
Paddington Bear
Paddington Bear is a fictional character in children's literature. He appeared on 13 October 1958 and was subsequently featured in several books, most recently in 2008, written by Michael Bond and first illustrated by Peggy Fortnum....
.
She first appears as the unnamed girl in the café on the first page of ; she is the girl referred to as "sitting on her own in a café in Rickmansworth
Rickmansworth
Rickmansworth is a town in the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire, England, 4¼ miles west of Watford.The town has a population of around 15,000 people and lies on the Grand Union Canal and the River Colne, at the northern end of the Colne Valley regional park.Rickmansworth is a small town in...
." In , when the Earth and everyone including Fenchurch had mysteriously reappeared, a romantic relationship blooms between her and Arthur Dent. He teaches her to fly, before a first aerial sexual encounter, and a second with Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
Walkmen
Walkman
Walkman is a Sony brand tradename originally used for portable audio cassette, and now used to market Sony's portable audio and video players as well as a line of Sony Ericsson mobile phones...
.
At the beginning of , Fenchurch is referred to as having vanished abruptly during a hyperspace jump on their first intergalactic holiday. Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
later said that he wanted to get rid of the character as she was getting in the way of the story. Much of this is evident from the self-referential
Self-reference
Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly—through some intermediate sentence or formula—or by means of some encoding...
prose surrounding Arthur and Fenchurch's relationship.
In , she is revealed to have been working as a waitress at Milliways since she vanished, and is reunited with Arthur Dent
Arthur Dent
Arthur Philip Dent is a fictional character, the hapless protagonist and anti-hero in the comic science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams....
.
In to and Fenchurch is played by actress Jane Horrocks
Jane Horrocks
Barbara Jane Horrocks is an English voice, stage, screen and television actress, voice artist, musician, and singer. She is best known for her role as "Bubble" in the TV series Absolutely Fabulous as well as her distinctive voice....
.
She appears in television series
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (TV series)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is a BBC television adaptation of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy broadcast in January and February 1981 on BBC Two...
played by an uncredited actress for the "girl in a café in Rickmansworth" segment from the second episode. Her appearance corresponds to the one described in So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.
In the computer of the Tanngrisnir takes the form of Fenchurch in its programmed attempts to live out the sub-conscious desires of the ship's occupiers. While in this form she and Arthur talk and ponder together extensively, exacerbated by the effects of the ship's dark matter travel on people's emotions. Later in the book Arthur encounters another form of Fenchurch during a travel in hyperspace
Hyperspace (science fiction)
Hyperspace is a plot device sometimes used in science fiction. It is typically described as an alternative region of space co-existing with our own universe which may be entered using an energy field or other device...
only to dematerialize, similar to his Fenchurch, across a plural zone into a different part of the universe.
Appears in: (unnamed cameo) (only mentioned in passing)
Frankie and Benjy Mouse
Frankie and Benjy are the mice that Arthur (et al.) encounter on Magrathea. Frankie and Benjy wish to extract the final readout data from Arthur's brain to get the Ultimate Question. Frankie and Benjy are, after all, part of the pan-dimensional race that created the Earth as a supercomputerSupercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...
successor to Deep Thought in order to find out the question to which the answer was 42
42 (number)
42 is the natural number immediately following 41 and directly preceding 43. The number has received considerable attention in popular culture as a result of its central appearance in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and...
.
In the first version, the radio series, they offered Arthur and Trillian a large amount of money if they could tell them what the Question is. In later versions this was changed — unfortunately for Arthur, they claim the only way to do this is to remove his brain and prepare it, apparently by dicing it. They promise to replace it with a simple computer brain, which, suggested Zaphod, would only have to say things like "What?", "I don't understand" and "Where's the tea?". Arthur objects to this ("What?" he says. "See!" says Zaphod), and escapes with the help of his friends. Frankie says:
In , they are in fact the manifestations of Lunkwill and Fook, the pan-dimensional beings who designed and built Deep Thought, and were squashed flat by Arthur Dent when they attempted to remove his brain.
Appear in:
On radio, David Tate played Benjy Mouse and Peter Hawkins
Peter Hawkins
Peter John Hawkins was an English actor and voice artist.- Career :Born in London and a native of Brixton, Hawkins' long association with British children's television began in 1952 when he voiced both Bill and Ben, the Flower Pot Men. In 1955–1956, He voiced Big Ears & Mr. Plod from The...
voiced Frankie Mouse. They appeared in . They also appeared in , where they were voiced by David Tate and Stephen Moore.
Frap Gadz
Wrote the handbook titled ’Heavily Modified Face Flannels.’ The handbook is described by The Guide as "an altogether terser work for masochists."Frogstar Prisoner Relations Officer
In the Frogstar Prisoner Relations Officer (referred to in the scripts as the "FPRO") does his best to annoy Zaphod by hosing him down, letting him think that he escaped to an Ursa Minor robot disco by body debit card, asking him for an autograph and teleporting away whilst Zaphod helps him with his respiratory problem — that he is breathing.Gag Halfrunt
Gag Halfrunt is the private brainBrain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
care specialist of Zaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox is a fictional character in the various versions of the humorous science fiction story The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams who based him on his Cambridge contemporary, Johnny Simpson....
and Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz. In the radio series version, he is responsible for the order to destroy Earth.
In the story, the Earth is really a giant computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
built to determine the Ultimate Question to Life, the Universe and Everything. Gag Halfrunt (as leader of a group of psychiatrists) is in cahoots with the Vogons to destroy the Earth to prevent the Ultimate Question from ever being discovered. The reason behind this plot is that the psychiatrists cannot afford to have the Ultimate Question revealed, because this would put them out of a job (on the premise that if the Question becomes known, everyone would suddenly start leading happy and productive lives, rendering the entire profession of psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
unnecessary). Later the Vogons also try (under Gag's direction) to destroy the starship Heart of Gold, because it is carrying Arthur Dent
Arthur Dent
Arthur Philip Dent is a fictional character, the hapless protagonist and anti-hero in the comic science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams....
, who may have the Question buried in his brain somewhere. Halfrunt's quandary is that Zaphod is his most profitable client, and he calls Zaphod not to warn him to hand over Arthur or face destruction, but to try to collect on past due psychiatric bills. Zaphod is unaware of Halfrunt's deeper motivations because he has brainwashed himself to forget about signing the order for Earth's destruction on Halfrunt's suggestion. In the end Zaphod "remembers" and does, in fact, find The Ruler of the Universe.
Gag Halfrunt was used since his first appearance in as a running joke; he would remark, in an oddly German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
accent (possibly in reference to the Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
), whenever asked about Zaphod "Vell, Zaphod's just zis guy, you know?" This line has become a popular catchphrase among fans of the series.
Appears in:
He was voiced by Stephen Moore
Stephen Moore (actor)
Stephen Moore is an English actor, known for his work on British television since the 1980s. He is known for his appearances in Rock Follies and other TV series such as The Last Place on Earth, the children's series The Queen's Nose and the drama Mersey Beat and the British TV comedy series Solo,...
, and appears in , and .
On television, he was played by Gil Morris and in the film he is played by Jason Schwartzman
Jason Schwartzman
Jason Francesco Schwartzman is an American actor and musician. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the Hollywood films Rushmore, Spun, I Heart Huckabees, Shopgirl, Marie Antoinette, The Darjeeling Limited, Funny People, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World...
. In both these versions he only appears briefly, being interviewed about Zaphod Beeblebrox, and the plot involving the Ruler of the Universe does not appear.
Gail Andrews
In , Gail Andrews is an astrologerAstrologer
An astrologer practices one or more forms of astrology. Typically an astrologer draws a horoscope for the time of an event, such as a person's birth, and interprets celestial points and their placements at the time of the event to better understand someone, determine the auspiciousness of an...
who is interviewed by Tricia McMillan
Trillian (character)
Tricia McMillan, also known as Trillian Astra, is a fictional character from Douglas Adams' series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. She is most commonly referred to simply as "Trillian", a modification of her birth name, which she adopted because it sounded more "space-like". According to the...
about the impact that the discovery of the planet Persephone, or Rupert will have on astrology. She is an advisor to the President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
, President Hudson, but denies having recommended the bombing of Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
.
In the radio series, she appears in , and is voiced by Lorelei King
Lorelei King
Lorelei King is a United States-born actress who has been based in the United Kingdom since 1981. She has narrated audiobooks, acted in radio plays for BBC Radio 4 and appeared on television.- Early life :...
.
Gargravarr
Gargravarr, the disembodied mind and custodian of the Total Perspective Vortex on Frogstar World B ("the most totally evil place in the galaxy"), suffers from real-life dualismDualism (philosophy of mind)
In philosophy of mind, dualism is a set of views about the relationship between mind and matter, which begins with the claim that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical....
and is therefore having trial separation with his body, which has taken his forename Pizpot. The dispute arose over whether sex is better than fishing or not, a disastrous attempt at combining the two activities, and his body going out partying too late.
Since he has no physical form that can be seen, he leads those condemned to the Total Perspective Vortex by humming various morose tunes so that the condemned can follow the sound of his voice.
Appears in:
Gargravarr was voiced on radio by Valentine Dyall
Valentine Dyall
Valentine Dyall was an English character actor, the son of veteran actor Franklin Dyall. Dyall was especially popular as a voice actor, due to his very distinctive sepulchral voice, he was known for many years as "The Man in Black", narrator of the BBC Radio horror series Appointment With Fear.In...
- he appears in .
Garkbit
Garkbit is the Head Waiter at Milliways, the impossible "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe". He is professionally unfazed by Arthur, Ford, Zaphod, and Trillian's unruly arrival. He has a fine sales patter and a very dry sense of humour.Appears in:
In the radio series Garkbit is played by Anthony Sharp
Anthony Sharp
Anthony Sharp was an English actor cast for roles on television and film principally from the 1950s onwards....
, and appears in . In the television series, he is portrayed by Jack May
Jack May
Jack May was an English actor. Born in Henley-on-Thames, he was educated at Forest School, Walthamstow and after war service with the Royal Indian Navy in India was offered a place at RADA, but he instead went to Merton College, Oxford...
and appears in .
The book describes Garkbit as being a methane breather, with a life support system strapped discreetly to his thigh.
Genghis Temüjin Khan
Son of YesügeiYesugei
Yesügei Baghatur , was major chief of the Kiyad-Borjigin clan and the father of Temüjin , Hasar, Hachiun, Temüge, Temülen, Behter, and Belgutei. Yesügei was the son of Bartan Baghatur, who was the son of Khabul Khan, who was recognized as a khagan by the Jin Dynasty...
, Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
is both a distant ancestor of Mr Prosser and was called "a wanker, a tosspot, a very tiny piece of turd" by Wowbagger, the Infinitely Prolonged in "The Private Life of Genghis Khan", originally based on a sketch written by Adams and Graham Chapman
Graham Chapman
Graham Arthur Chapman was a British comedian, physician, writer, actor, and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe.-Early life and education:...
. The short story also appears in some editions of The Salmon of Doubt
The Salmon of Doubt
The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time is a posthumous collection of previously published and unpublished material by Douglas Adams...
.
GodGodGod is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
Q.E.D.
Q.E.D. is an initialism of the Latin phrase , which translates as "which was to be demonstrated". The phrase is traditionally placed in its abbreviated form at the end of a mathematical proof or philosophical argument when what was specified in the enunciation — and in the setting-out —...
.").
Majikthise worries about philosophers sitting up half the night arguing that there may or may not be a God if Deep Thought can give His phone number the next morning. Arthur, Fenchurch and Marvin visit God's Final Message to His Creation ("we apologise for the inconvenience") in .
At least six other characters have the status of a god: Almighty Bob, the Great Green Arkleseizure, Thor, Rob McKenna, who is unknowingly a rain god, Gaia
Gaia (mythology)
Gaia was the primordial Earth-goddess in ancient Greek religion. Gaia was the great mother of all: the heavenly gods and Titans were descended from her union with Uranus , the sea-gods from her union with Pontus , the Giants from her mating with Tartarus and mortal creatures were sprung or born...
, the Greek goddess who personifies the Earth, and Cthulhu
Cthulhu
Cthulhu is a fictional character that first appeared in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928. The character was created by writer H. P...
, who is one of the Great Old Ones from the Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
. Gaia, Thor, and Cthulhu are among the deities interviewed by Hillman Hunter for the job of God of the Earth-refugee planet of Nano, with Thor being selected.
Gogrilla Mincefriend
An enterprising chap who addressed the problem of elevators refusing to operate because they had been afforded a degree of prescience (to facilitate their operation by allowing them to be waiting for you before you've even decided you want to go up or down a floor) but consequently became terrified of the future, and so taken to hiding in basements. Mincefriend became very wealthy when he patented and successfully marketed a device he had seen in a history book: the staircase.Golgafrinchans
The Golgafrinchans first appear in . In the novel series, their appearances are all in and they appear in . In all formats, the story is essentially the same. Following their adventures at Milliways, Arthur and Ford teleport onto an "Ark Ship" containing a number of Golgafrinchans. This particular group consists of the Wodehousian "middle classMiddle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
" who have common, middle-management types of occupations. They were sent away from their planet under false pretences by the (upper class
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
) "thinkers" and (working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
) "doers" of their society, who deemed them useless. They were told that the entire society had to move to a new planet, with a variety of thin excuses, and that it was necessary for them to go first to prepare the new planet for their occupation. However, it turns out that one of the middle-men was necessary for survival, and as a result, the rest of the Golgafrinchan society died off (see below). They arrive on Earth, where they become the ancestors of modern humans.
Agda and Mella
Agda and Mella are Golgafrinchan girls that Arthur and Ford hit on. On Golgafrincham, Agda used to be a junior personnel officerHuman resources
Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations...
and Mella an art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
. Agda is taller and slimmer and Mella shorter and round-faced. Mella and Arthur became a couple, as did Agda and Ford. In a way Mella was very relieved because she had been saved from a life of looking at moodily lit tubes of toothpaste. Agda died a few weeks later from a chain of events that Ford unknowingly started by throwing the Scrabble letter Q into a privet bush: it startled a rabbit, which ran away and was eaten by a fox, who choked on the rabbit and died, contaminating a stream that Agda drank from and became sick—it is said that the only moral that one could possibly learn from these occurrences is not to throw the letter Q into a privet bush. Agda and Mella only appear in the novel.
Captain
The Captain is the ablutophiliac captain of the Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B. He likes to bathe with his rubber duck (he spent practically the entire time he was captain of the B Ark and as much of his time on Earth, a total time of over three years, as has been documented in the bath) and has got a very relaxed attitude towards everything. The Captain also has a fondness for a drink called "jynnan tonnyx". His personality was based on Douglas Adams' habit of taking extraordinarily long bathsBathing
Bathing is the washing or cleansing of the body in a fluid, usually water or an aqueous solution. It may be practised for personal hygiene, religious ritual or therapeutic purposes or as a recreational activity....
as a method of procrastination
Procrastination
In psychology, procrastination refers to the act of replacing high-priority actions with tasks of low-priority, and thus putting off important tasks to a later time...
to avoid writing.
He was voiced by David Jason
David Jason
Sir David John White, OBE , better known by his stage name David Jason, is an English BAFTA award-winning actor. He is best known as the main character Derek "Del Boy" Trotter on the BBC sit-com Only Fools and Horses from 1981, the voice of Mr Toad in The Wind In The Willows and as detective Jack...
in the radio series and by Frank Middlemass
Frank Middlemass
Francis George Middlemass was an English actor, who even in his early career played older roles. He is best remembered for his television roles as Rocky Hardcastle in As Time Goes By, Algy Herries in To Serve Them All My Days and Dr. Alex Ferrenby in Heartbeat...
in the LP album adaptation. On television, it was Aubrey Morris
Aubrey Morris
Aubrey Morris is a British actor perhaps best known for his appearances in the cult 1970s films A Clockwork Orange and The Wicker Man....
.
Great Circling Poets of Arium
These rock throwing poets can be seen in the Guide graphics in , heard about in and read about in . They are original inhabitants of Golgafrincham, one of whose descendants inspire the stories that caused the creation of the "'B' Ark" that Arthur and Ford find themselves on. The first part of their songs tell of how five princes with four horses from the City of Vassilian travel widely in distant lands, and the latter - and longer - part of the songs is about which of them is going to walk back.Hairdresser
One of the Golgafrinchans on the prehistoric Earth, the hairdresser was put in charge of the fire development sub-committee. They gave him a couple of sticks to rub together, but instead, he made them into a pair of scissors in the radio series, or curling tongs in the television and book series.He was played by Aubrey Woods
Aubrey Woods
Aubrey Woods is an English actor. He was born in London.His television credits include: Z-Cars, Up Pompeii!, Doctor Who , Blake's 7, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Ever Decreasing Circles...
in the radio series, by Stephen Greif
Stephen Greif
Stephen Greif is an award-winning English actor.His television appearances include Waking the Dead , Spooks , Mistresses 2 , He Kills Coppers , Holby City , The Last Days of Pompeii as Sporus, Judge John Deed , Space Race , EastEnders , The Bill and...
in the LP album adaptation, and by David Rowlands on television.
Management consultant
The Golgafrinchans' management consultant tried to arrange the meetings of the colonization committee along the lines of a traditional committee structure, complete with a chair and an agenda. He was also in charge of fiscal policy, and decided to adopt the leaf as legal tender, making everyone immensely rich. In order to solve the inflation problem this caused, he planned a major deforestation campaign to effectively revalue the leaf by burning down all the forests.He was played by Jonathan Cecil
Jonathan Cecil
Jonathan Hugh Gascoyne-Cecil , more commonly known as Jonathan Cecil, was an English theatre, film and television actor.-Early life:...
in the radio series, by David Tate in the LP album adaptation, and by Jon Glover
Jon Glover
Jon Glover is a British actor. He has appeared in various television programmes including Play School, Survivors, the Management consultant in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Casualty, Bodger and Badger and Peak Practice....
on television.
Marketing girl
Another Golgafrinchan on prehistoric Earth, the marketing girl assisted the hairdresser's fire development sub-committee in researching what consumers want from fire and how they relate to it and if they want it fitted nasally. She also tried to invent the wheel, but had a little difficulty deciding what colour it should be.She was played by Beth Porter
Beth Porter
Beth Jane Porter, is an American stage, film and television actress and writer, who has worked in Britain for most of her career.-Early life:...
both in the radio series and on television and by Loueen Willoughby in the LP album adaptation.
Number One
Number One is the First officer in the Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B. He is not very smart, having difficulty tying up his shoelaces, but is regarded by the captain as a nice chap. His only function to appear in the series is to offer Ford and Arthur drinks.He was voiced by Jonathan Cecil
Jonathan Cecil
Jonathan Hugh Gascoyne-Cecil , more commonly known as Jonathan Cecil, was an English theatre, film and television actor.-Early life:...
in the radio series and by David Tate in the LP album adaptation. On television, the character was renamed Number Three and played by Geoffrey Beevers
Geoffrey Beevers
Geoffrey Beevers is a British actor who has appeared in many different television roles.Beevers has worked extensively at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames, both as an actor ; and as an adaptor/director of George Eliot's novel Adam Bede , for which he won a Time Out Award, and Balzac's...
.
Number Two
Number Two is a militaristic officer in the Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B. He captures Arthur and Ford and interrogates them. When they land on Earth, Number Two declares a war on another, uninhabited continent. He likes shouting a lot, and thinks the Captain is an idiot.He is played by Aubrey Woods
Aubrey Woods
Aubrey Woods is an English actor. He was born in London.His television credits include: Z-Cars, Up Pompeii!, Doctor Who , Blake's 7, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Ever Decreasing Circles...
in the radio series and by Stephen Greif
Stephen Greif
Stephen Greif is an award-winning English actor.His television appearances include Waking the Dead , Spooks , Mistresses 2 , He Kills Coppers , Holby City , The Last Days of Pompeii as Sporus, Judge John Deed , Space Race , EastEnders , The Bill and...
in the LP album adaptation. On television, the character was divided into two different characters: Number Two played by David Neville on the planet Earth, and Number One played by Matthew Scurfield
Matthew Scurfield
Matthew Scurfield is an actor and the eldest child of the late author George Scurfield and his wife Cecilia in Cambridge, England....
on the B Ark.
Telephone Sanitizer
The Golgafrinchan telephone sanitizer is in . Ironically, after all the telephone sanitizers were sent away with the rest of the "useless" Golgafrinchans, the rest of the society died off from an infectious disease contracted from an unsanitized telephone.Googleplex Star Thinker
In the scripts for , the first programmer asks Deep Thought if it is not "a greater analyst than the Googleplex Star Thinker in the Seventh Galaxy of Light and Ingenuity which can calculate the trajectory of every single dust particle throughout a five-week AldebaranAldebaran
Aldebaran is a red giant star located about 65 light years away in the zodiac constellation of Taurus. With an average apparent magnitude of 0.87 it is the brightest star in the constellation and is one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky...
sand blizzard?", which the great computer dismisses because he has already "contemplated the very vectors of the atoms in the Big Bang
Big Bang
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
itself". The Googleplex Starthinker also appears in and .
Note the later use (and spelling) of Googleplex
Googleplex
The Googleplex is the corporate headquarters complex of Google, Inc., located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California, United States, near San Jose. "Googleplex" is a portmanteau of Google and complex, and a reference to googolplex, the name given to the large...
for the Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
corporate headquarters.
Great Green Arkleseizure
The creator of the universe, according to the people of Viltvodle VI. Their legend has it that the universe was sneezed out of the nose of the Great Green Arkleseizure, and they thus "live in perpetual fear of the time they call 'The Coming of the Great White Handkerchief.'"In the movie, Humma Kavula, played by John Malkovich
John Malkovich
John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...
, is a missionary of the Great Green Arkleseizure religion on Viltvodle VI, ending his sermons with a simple "Bless you".
The Jatravartid's God appears in , , and .
Grunthos the Flatulent
Grunthos the Flatulent was the poetmaster of the Azgoths of Kria, writers of the second worst poetry in the universe, just between Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings and the VogonVogon
The Vogons are a fictional alien race from the planet Vogsphere in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams, who are responsible for the destruction of the Earth, in order to facilitate an intergalactic highway construction project. Vogons are slug-like but vaguely humanoid, are...
s.
The guide recites a tale of how, during a reading of his poem "Ode To A Small Lump Of Green Putty I Found In My Armpit One Midsummer Morning", "four of the audience died of internal hemorrhaging and the president of the Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived only by gnawing one of his own legs off."
Reportedly "disappointed" by the reception of his poem, Grunthos then prepared to read his 12-book epic, My Favourite Bathtime Gurgles (or Zen And The Art Of Going To The Lavatory in ). He was prevented from doing so when his small intestine leapt up his neck and throttled his brain in a desperate bid to save civilization, killing him.
Excerpt from "Ode To A Small Lump Of Green Putty I Found In My Armpit One Midsummer Morning", taken from the TV series graphics:
- Putty. Putty. Putty.
- Green Putty - Grutty Peen.
- Grarmpitutty - Morning!
- Pridsummer - Grorning Utty!
- Discovery..... Oh.
- Putty?..... Armpit?
- Armpit..... Putty.
- Not even a particularly
- Nice shade of green.
Excerpt from "Zen And The Art Of Going To The Lavatory", also taken from the TV series
- Relax mind
- Relax body
- Relax bowels
- Relax.
- Do not fall over.
- You are a cloud.
- You are raining.
- Do not rain
- While train
- Is standing at a station.
- Move with the wind.
- Apologise where necessary.
Appears in:
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
Guide Mark II
In the fifth novel, the Guide Mark II is used by the Vogons to help them destroy all the many Earths that appear in the novels. By using reverse temporal engineering throughout the book, the Guide Mark II - which takes on the appearance of a bird with Unfiltered perception - cajoles the cast to their final destination at Club Beta on Earth to first re-meet Agrajag and then be destroyed by the mindless VogonsHactar
Flexible and imaginative, Hactar was the first computerComputer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
whose individual components reflected the pattern of the whole. Hactar is assembled and programmed by the Silastic Armourfiends, who then order him to assemble an "Ultimate Weapon." Hactar, receiving no other guidance from the Amourfiends, takes the request literally and builds a supernova bomb which would connect every major sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
in the universe
Universe
The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
through hyperspace, thus causing every star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
to go supernova
Supernova
A supernova is a stellar explosion that is more energetic than a nova. It is pronounced with the plural supernovae or supernovas. Supernovae are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy, before fading from view over several weeks or months...
. Deciding that he could find no circumstance where such a bomb would be justified, Hactar builds a small defect into it. After discovering the defect, the Armourfiends pulverize Hactar.
Rather than being destroyed, Hactar is merely crippled. He can still manipulate matter, but even a simple item takes millennia to manufacture. Over æons Hactar moves and recombines to become a dark cloud surrounding Krikkit, isolating the inhabitants. Deciding that the decision not to destroy the universe was not his to make, he uses his influence to make them build their first space ship and discover the universe; he then manipulates them into the same rage which the Armourfiends possessed, urging that they destroy all other life; Hactar has reassembled the supernova bomb, this time in working condition.
After an incredibly long and bloody galactic war, Judiciary Pag banishes Krikkit to an envelope of "Slo-Time" to be released after the rest of the universe ends. At the end of , after his scheme fails, Hactar slips the cricket-ball-shaped supernova bomb to Arthur Dent, who then accidentally saves the Universe again by being an abysmal cricket bowler.
Appears in:
He is played on radio first by Geoffrey McGivern
Geoffrey McGivern
Geoffrey McGivern is an English actor in film, radio, stage and television. He was born in Balham, South London and grew up in York. There he attended Archbishop Holgate's School, where he was made Head Boy...
, in a flashback for which McGivern is not credited during . He is then voiced by Leslie Phillips
Leslie Phillips
Leslie Samuel Phillips, CBE is an English actor with a highly recognisable upper class accent. Originally known for his work as a comedy actor, Phillips subsequently made the transition to character roles.-Early life:...
, appearing again in .
Haggunenon Underfleet Commander
The Underfleet Commander reports directly to the Haggunenon Admiral. The admiral had gone off for a quick meal at Milliways, where Ford and Zaphod attempted to steal his/her/its/their flagship. But as it had a pre-set return course, it resumed its place at the front of about a hundred thousand horribly weaponed black battle cruisers. But because the Haggunenons have very unstable DNA and change their shape/appearance at random and often inconvenient times, the Underfleet Commander mistakenly assumes that Zaphod and Trillian are, in fact, actually the admiral.The Underfleet Commander only appears in , voiced by Aubrey Woods
Aubrey Woods
Aubrey Woods is an English actor. He was born in London.His television credits include: Z-Cars, Up Pompeii!, Doctor Who , Blake's 7, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Ever Decreasing Circles...
. The Haggunenons were written out of subsequent versions, as they were originally co-written with John Lloyd
John Lloyd (writer)
John Hardress Wilfred Lloyd CBE is a British comedy writer and television producer. He is the great nephew of John Hardress Lloyd.-Early life and career:...
, although they did appear in some stage adaptations.
Haggunenons are greatly inconvenienced by their genetic instability and so have vowed to wage terrible war against all "filthy, rotten, stinking, same-lings."
A similar creature appears on the BBC TV series Red Dwarf.
There is a shapeshifting Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
monster called a "hagunemnon."
Heimdall
Keeper of the gate into Asgard. Appears in .Hig Hurtenflurst
Hig Hurtenflurst "only happens to be" the risingest young executive in the Dolmansaxlil Shoe Corporation. During , he is on Brontitall. What he is doing there is something of a mystery, as the Shoe Event Horizon was reached long ago and the survivors of the famine have long since evolved into bird people and set up home inside a fifteen-mile high statue of Arthur Dent. His foot-warriors capture Arthur Dent and three Lintilla clones, who are threatened by Hurtenflurst to be "revoked. K-I-L-L-E-D, revoked". He then proceeds to show them a film about the activities of the Dolmansaxlil Shoe Corporation, which is interrupted by Marvin, who has cut the power in order to rescue Arthur and the Lintillas.He appeared in played by Marc Smith. He has not appeared in any versions after this.
Hillman Hunter
Hillman Hunter is an Irish property developer from Earth who has been tricked by Zaphod into moving to a planet created by Magrathea. He interviews various gods, as he is keen to employ Thor to keep the society he has created on the planet devoutly controlled. He acts as a "stereotype Paddy from a bygone era" using phrases such as Bejaysus and invoking leprechaunLeprechaun
A leprechaun is a type of fairy in Irish folklore, usually taking the form of an old man, clad in a red or green coat, who enjoys partaking in mischief. Like other fairy creatures, leprechauns have been linked to the Tuatha Dé Danann of Irish mythology...
s. He is a major character in . He has considerable problems with the Tyromancers from an alternative reality who have also settled on the planet. Like Ford Prefect
Ford Prefect (character)
Ford Prefect is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by the British author Douglas Adams. He is the only character other than the protagonist, Arthur Dent, to appear throughout the entire Hitchhiker's saga.-Name:Although Ford had taken great care to blend into Earth...
, whose name derived from the Ford Prefect
Ford Prefect
Ford Prefect may refer to:* Ford Prefect , a line of British cars produced by the UK section of the Ford Motor Company from 1948 - 1961* Ford Prefect , a character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, named after the car...
automobile, Hillman Hunter's name derives from an automobile sold in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in the 1960s
1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...
.
Hotblack Desiato
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
group Disaster Area, claimed to be the loudest band in the universe, and in fact the loudest sound of any kind, anywhere. So loud is this band that the audience usually listens from the safe distance of thirty seven miles away in a well-built concrete bunker. Disaster Area's lavish performances went so far as to crash a space ship into the sun to create a solar flare. Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
's lavish stage shows
Pink Floyd live performances
Pink Floyd were pioneers in the live music experience, renowned for their lavish stage shows that combine intense visual experiences with music to create a show in which the performers themselves are almost secondary. Pink Floyd's combination of music and visuals set the standard for rock musicians...
were the inspiration for Disaster Area. At the time when the main characters meet him, in , Hotblack is spending a year dead
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
"for tax reasons". (In the book he is described as being connected to a "death support system" and communicates only by supernatural means). In 1978, two years prior to the publishing of the book, the members of the band Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
lived outside Great Britain for exactly one year for tax reasons.
The character is named after an estate agency based in Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
, with branches throughout North London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Adams said he was struggling to find a name for the character and, spotting a Hotblack Desiato sign, liked the name so much he "nearly crashed the car" and eventually telephoned to ask permission to use the firm's name for a character. Apparently, the firm's staff later received phone calls telling them they had a nerve naming their company after Adams's character.
The Disaster Area sub-plot was first heard in the LP album adaptations and later in . It replaces the Haggunenon material from . The character appears in , and his ship in . He does not have any lines (due to being technically dead), and is played by Barry Frank Warren.
The B-side of the 7-inch single of the Hitchhiker's Guide TV Series
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (TV series)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is a BBC television adaptation of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy broadcast in January and February 1981 on BBC Two...
theme music
Theme music
Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...
featured a performance of a song entitled Only The End Of The World Again, credited to 'Disaster Area'.
Humma Kavula
Humma Kavula is a semi-insane missionary living amongst the Jatravartid people of Viltvodle VI, and a former space pirate. (It was presumably during his time as a pirate that he lost his legs and had them replaced with telescoping mechanical spider appendages). He wears thick glasses, which make his eyes appear normal when worn; however, when he removes the glasses, he appears to have shrunken black pits where his eyes should be. He seems to be a religious leader on that planet, preaching about the Coming of the Great White Handkerchief. Hence, his sermons end with the words "Bless You" rather than "Amen" as all the Jatravartids sneeze stimultaneously at the end of a 'prayer'. (See Jatravartids).He also ran against Zaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox is a fictional character in the various versions of the humorous science fiction story The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams who based him on his Cambridge contemporary, Johnny Simpson....
in the campaign for President of the Galaxy with the campaign slogan "Don't Vote For Stupid," but lost, and has remained bitter about it ever since. In the film he is seeking the point-of-view gun to further his religion's acceptance (presumably), and he takes one of Zaphod's two heads and one of his three arms (though we do not see this, but Zaphod says while attempting to avoid the thermonuclear missiles above Magrathea "I can't do this without my third arm") hostage to ensure his help.
Although the character existed already, he was greatly expanded upon by Adams for . Quoting Robbie Stamp: "All the substantive new ideas in the movie, Humma, the Point of View Gun and the "paddle slapping sequence" on Vogsphere are brand new Douglas ideas written especially for the movie by him."
Appears in:
the 2005 film The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (film)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a 2005 comic science fiction film based on the book of the same name by Douglas Adams. Shooting was completed in August 2004 and the movie was released on April 28, 2005 in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and on the following day in Canada and the United...
, played by John Malkovich
John Malkovich
John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...
.
Hurling Frootmig
Hurling Frootmig is said to be the founder of the Hitchhiker's Guide, who "established itsfundamental principles of honesty and idealism, and went bust." Later, after much soul-searching, he re-established the Guide with its "principles of honesty and idealism and where you could stuff them both, and went on to lead the Guide to its first major commercial success."
He is mentioned in . He did not make , but was mentioned in .
Ix
Ix is the childhood nickname of Ford Prefect, since his name in the native language of his father, who was from Betelgeuse 7, was unpronounceable in the language of his adopted home planet, Betelgeuse 5. In English, Ix translates to "boy who is not able satisfactorily to explain what a hrung is, nor why it should choose to collapse on Betelgeuse Seven".Judiciary Pag
His High Judgmental Supremacy, Judiciary Pag, L.I.V.R. (the Learned, Impartial, and Very Relaxed) was the Chairman of the Board of Judges at the Krikkit War Crimes Trial. He privately called himself Zipo Bibrok 5 × 108 (which is five hundred million or half a billion in short-scale terminologyLong and short scales
The long and short scales are two of several different large-number naming systems used throughout the world for integer powers of ten. Many countries, including most in continental Europe, use the long scale whereas most English-speaking countries use the short scale...
). He is, presumably, an ancestor of Zaphod Beeblebrox - the accident with the contraceptive and the time-machine that caused Zaphod's father to be Zaphod Beeblebrox the Second and so on, would give us the time, half a billion generations earlier, when Judiciary Pag lived and the Krikkit War took place.
It was Judiciary Pag's idea that the people of Krikkit be permanently sealed in a Slo-Time envelope, and the seal could only be broken by bringing a special Key to the Lock. When the rest of the universe had ended, the seal would be broken and Krikkit could continue a solitary existence in the universe. This judgement seemed to please everybody except the people of Krikkit themselves, but the only alternative was to face annihilation.
Appears in:
He is played on radio by Rupert Degas
Rupert Degas
Rupert Joel Degas is an English actor and voice artist.- Early life:Degas was born in London, the son of screenwriter Brian Degas and television presenter Maggie Clews, whose marriage ended in divorce when he was eight...
, and appears in .
Karl Mueller
Karl Mueller operates a nightclub, Club Alpha, in New York City. He is German with a Greek mother, and was handed the running of the club by his brother Stavro Mueller, who renamed Club Alpha with his own name. He appears in , in the storyline regarding the final death of Agrajag.Know-Nothing Bozo the Non-Wonder Dog
A dog belonging to advertiser Will Smithers which was so stupid that it was incapable of eating the right dog food on camera, even when engine oil was poured on the wrong food. It was so named because its hair stuck upright on its head in a way that resembled Ronald ReaganRonald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
(The dog also had an adverse reaction whenever someone said the word "commies"). Bozo barked at Arthur whilst he considered entering the Horse and Groom pub on his return to Earth in So Long and Thanks for all the Fish.
There is a cartoon character called Wonder Dog in the Super Friends comic. Bonzo
Bonzo the dog
Bonzo the dog is a fictional character created by British artist George E. Studdy in the early 1920s. He was a chubby little white pup with sparse black spots, a stubby tail and big blue eyes...
was the name of a cartoon dog in the 1920s which in turn gave its name to the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. No-Good Boyo is a character in Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood
Under Milk Wood
Under Milk Wood is a 1954 radio drama by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, adapted later as a stage play. A movie version, Under Milk Wood directed by Andrew Sinclair, was released during 1972....
.
Krikkiters
Ford, Arthur, Trillian and Slartibartfast meet a group of murderous Krikkiters on the surface of their planet. Away from the influence of Hactar, they are troubled by their Elders wanting to destroy the Universe as they are keen to have sporting links with the rest of the Galaxy. They appear in and the Tertiary Phase of the radio series.Kwaltz
Kwaltz is one of the VogonVogon
The Vogons are a fictional alien race from the planet Vogsphere in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams, who are responsible for the destruction of the Earth, in order to facilitate an intergalactic highway construction project. Vogons are slug-like but vaguely humanoid, are...
s on Vogsphere, directing Jeltz's Vogon Constructor Fleet during the demolition of Earth and enforcing the galaxy's bureaucracy.
Appears in:, voiced by Ian McNeice
Ian McNeice
Ian McNeice is a prolific English screen, stage, and television character actor.-Early life:McNeice was born in Basingstoke in Hampshire. McNeice's acting training started at the Taunton School in Somerset, followed by two years at the Salisbury Playhouse...
.
Lady Cynthia Fitzmelton
Lady Cynthia Fitzmelton is described in the original radio script as "a sort of Margaret ThatcherMargaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
, Penelope Keith
Penelope Keith
Penelope Anne Constance Keith, CBE, DL is an English actress.Having started her television career in the 1950s, Penelope Keith became a household name in the United Kingdom in the 1970s when she played Margo Leadbetter in the sitcom The Good Life...
character." She is responsible for christening the "very splendid and worthwhile yellow bulldozer" which knocks down Arthur Dent's house in "cruddy Cottington", and it gives her "great pleasure" to make a "very splendid and worthwhile" speech immediately beforehand.
She only appears in , where she was voiced by Jo Kendall
Jo Kendall
Jo Kendall is a British actress.She played Desdemona in a production of Othello at the A.D.C. Theatre, Cambridge in 1962.In August 1963 she appeared in the West End in London, New Zealand and Broadway, in the Cambridge University revue Cambridge Circus directed by Humphrey Barclay, alongside Graham...
. Her "very splendid and worthwhile" lines were entirely dropped from later versions.
The Lajestic Vantrashell of Lob
The Lajestic Vantrashell of Lob is a small man with a strange hat who guards God's Final Message to His Creation, and who sells Arthur and Fenchurch a ticket to it before passing them on a scooter and imploring them to "keep to the left". Introduced by Prak in the epilogue to , he finally appears towards the end of when we also realize that he has been a regular visitor to Wonko The Sane, who describes angels with golden beards and green wings, Dr Scholl sandals, who eat nachos and do a lot of cokeCocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
. He says that he runs a concession stand by the message and when Wonko says "I don't know what that means" he says "no, you don't".
Lallafa
Lallafa was an ancient poetPoet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
who lived in the forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
s of the Long Lands of Effa. His home inspired him to write a poetic opus known as The Songs of the Long Land on pages made of dried habra leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
. His poems were discovered years after Lallafa's death, and news of them quickly spread. For centuries, the poems gave inspiration and illumination to many who would otherwise be much more unhappy, and for this they are usually considered around the Galaxy to be the greatest poetic works in existence. This is remarkable because Lallafa wrote his poems without the aid of education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
or correction fluid
Correction fluid
A correction fluid is an opaque, white fluid applied to paper to mask errors in text. Once dried, it can be written over. It is typically packaged in small bottles, and the lid has an attached brush which dips into the bottle...
.
The latter fact attracted the attention of some correction fluid manufacturers from the Mancunian
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
nebula. The manufacturers worked out that if they could get Lallafa to use their fluids in a variety of leafy colours
Chlorophyll
Chlorophyll is a green pigment found in almost all plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. Its name is derived from the Greek words χλωρος, chloros and φύλλον, phyllon . Chlorophyll is an extremely important biomolecule, critical in photosynthesis, which allows plants to obtain energy from light...
in the course of his work, their companies would be as successful as the poems themselves. And so, they traveled back in time and beat Lallafa until he went along with their plan. The plan succeeded, Lallafa became extremely rich, and spent so much time on chat shows
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
that he never got around to actually writing The Songs. This was solved by each week, in the past, giving Lallafa a copy of his poems, from the present, and having him write his poems again for the first time. But on the condition that he make the odd mistake and use the correction fluid.
Some argued the poems were now worthless, and set out to stop this sort of thing with the Campaign for Real Time (a play on Campaign for Real Ale
Campaign for Real Ale
The Campaign for Real Ale is an independent voluntary consumer organisation based in St Albans, England, whose main aims are promoting real ale, real cider and the traditional British pub...
), or CamTim, to keep the flow of history untampered by time travel. Slartibartfast
Slartibartfast
Slartibartfast is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a comedy/science fiction series created by Douglas Adams. The character appears in the first and third novels, the first and third radio series , the 1981 television series and the 2005 feature film...
is a member of CamTim. (The necessity for this campaign is contradicted by other events in the novels. For example, when Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect landed on primitive Earth, they decided that nothing they could do would change history. And when Agrajag diverted him to a Cathedral of Doom to try to kill him, Arthur Dent's perpetual victim said that he'd try to kill Dent even if it's a logical impossibility, Dent not having ducked a bullet yet.)
Lallafa appears in and .
Lazlar Lyricon
A customizer of starships to the rich and famous time travellers, who first appeared in , and later in and . Ford Prefect apparently believes that "the man has no shame." His trademark is an infra-pink lizard emblem.Lig Lury, Jr
The fourth editor of the Guide, who never actually resigned from his job. He simply left one morning for lunch and never returned to his office, making all later holders of the position "Acting Editors." His old office is still preserved by the Guide employees in the hope that he will return. His desk sports a sign that reads "Missing, presumed fed."Lintilla
Lintilla is a rather unfortunate woman who has (as of ) been cloneCloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
d 578,000,000,000 times due to an accident at a Brantisvogan escort agency
Escort agency
Escort agencies are companies that provide escorts for the agency's clients. The agency typically arranges a meeting between one of its escorts and the client at the customer's house or hotel room , or at the escort's residence . Some agencies also provide escorts for longer durations, who may stay...
. While creating six clones of a wonderfully talented and attractive woman named Lintilla (at the same time another machine was creating five hundred lonely business executives, in order to keep the laws of supply and demand
Supply and demand
Supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. It concludes that in a competitive market, the unit price for a particular good will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers will equal the quantity supplied by producers , resulting in an...
operating profitably), the machine got stuck in a loop and malfunctioned in such a way that it got halfway through completing each new Lintilla before it had finished the previous one. This meant that it was for a very long while impossible to turn the machine off without committing murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, despite lawyers' best efforts to argue about what murder actually was, including trying to redefine it, repronounce it, and respell it in the hope that no one would notice.
Arthur Dent encounters three of her on the planet of Brontitall, and takes a liking to (at least) one of them. He kills one of three male anti-clones, all called Allitnil (Lintilla backwards), sent by the cloning company to get her to "agree to cease to be" (although the other two of her "consummate" this legal agreement with their respective anti-clones). When Arthur leaves Zaphod, Ford, and Zarniwoop stranded with the Ruler of the Universe and his cat (at the conclusion of ), he takes one of the Lintillas with him aboard the Heart of Gold.
All Lintillas were played by the same actress: Rula Lenska
Rula Lenska
Rula Lenska is an English actress. Best known for her work in the United Kingdom, she is remembered in the United States for a television advert that presented her as a celebrity, even though she was not widely known in the US at the time the advert was produced.She has appeared extensively on...
. Lintilla (and her clones) appeared only in the final three episodes of the second radio series. Rula Lenska did return to the fourth and fifth radio series
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Tertiary to Quintessential Phases
The Tertiary Phase, Quandary Phase and Quintessential Phase are radio adaptations of the books Life, the Universe and Everything, So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish and Mostly Harmless produced in 2003 and 2004 by Above the Title Productions for BBC Radio 4...
- she was first an uncredited "Update Voice" for the Hitchhiker's Guide itself and then played the Voice of the Bird (the new version of the Guide introduced in ). Zaphod noted in the new series that the new book has the same voice as "those Lintilla chicks." The footnotes of the published scripts make the connection, confirming that the bird is actually an amalgam of the Lintilla clones, the solution alluded to in the second series. Lintilla and her clones (of which at the end there are now more than 800,000,000,000 - "800 thousand million") do make a re-appearance of sorts on the Heart of Gold in an alternate ending to (which can only be heard on CD).
The name Lintilla was reused for an adult-oriented multiple worlds talker
Talker
A talker is a chat system that people use to talk to each other over the Internet. Dating back to the 1980s, they were a predecessor of instant messaging....
that opened in 1994.
Loonquawl
In the original novel, Loonquawl is one of the two people who return to Deep Thought to find the answer to the Ultimate question. The other is Phouchg.The Lord
The Lord is a cat, owned by The Ruler of the Universe. He might like fish and might like people singing songs to him, as the Ruler of the Universe isn't certain if people come to talk to him, or sing songs to his cat or even if the cat exists at all.Appears in:
Lord High Sanvalvwag of Hollop
A man who never married. Had he done so, and forgotten his wife's birthday for the second year, he would have globbered. This definition of globber casts doubt on the usefulness of Ultra-Complete Maximegalon Dictionary Of Every Language Ever. (Life, the Universe and Everything)Lunkwill and Fook
Lunkwill and Fook are the two programmers chosen to make the great question to Deep Thought on the day of the Great On-Turning.Appear in:
On TV, Antony Carrick plays Lunkwill and Timothy Davies plays Fook, and they appear in .
On radio, the characters are just called First computer programmer and Second computer programmer, and appear in , and are played by Ray Hassett and Jeremy Browne respectively.
In they are merged with the characters of Frankie and Benjy Mouse. Jack Stanley
Jack Stanley
Jack Stanley is an English child actor whose most recent appearance is that of "Lunkwill" in the 2005 film, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Stanley also had a role as "Ryan" in Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London, and played Nick Willow in the 2004 TV production of...
plays Lunkwill and Dominique Jackson
Dominique Jackson
Dominique Hannah Jackson is a British actress from Oldham, Greater Manchester, who has starred in various TV roles. She is best known for her roles as Becky in the Children's TV series Becky and Barnaby Bear and Lauren Valentine on Channel 4 soap, Hollyoaks...
plays Fook.
Majikthise and Vroomfondel
Majikthise and Vroomfondel are philosophersPhilosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
(though they may not be). They make their appearance as representatives of the Amalgamated Union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
of Philosophers, Sages, Luminaries and other Professional Thinking Persons in order to protest a demarcation dispute
Demarcation dispute
A demarcation dispute occurs when two labour unions claim the right to represent the same class or group of workers. This is particularly important in compulsory arbitration systems of industrial relations, as in Australia; where only one union may be the registered representative of a particular...
against Deep Thought, the computer which is being asked to determine the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything, and to demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty. They maintain that the search for ultimate truth is the inalienable prerogative of your working thinkers. Upon learning that Deep Thought was already committed to calculating the Ultimate Question, they were convinced by the sentient computer that a great deal of money could be made by philosophers who were willing to exploit the expected media interest in the Question, and presumably withdrew their protest.
Appear in:
On radio, Majikthise was played by Jonathan Adams, and Vroomfondel was played by Jim Broadbent
Jim Broadbent
James "Jim" Broadbent is an English theatre, film, and television actor. He is known for his roles in Iris, Moulin Rouge!, Topsy-Turvy, Hot Fuzz, and Bridget Jones' Diary...
. In the television series (but not on The Big Read), David Leland
David Leland
David Leland is a director, screenwriter and actor who came to international fame with his directorial debut Wish You Were Here in 1987.-Life:...
played Majikthise and Charles McKeown
Charles McKeown
Charles McKeown is a British actor and writer, perhaps best known for his collaborations with Terry Gilliam. The two met while shooting Monty Python's Life of Brian, while McKeown was doing bit parts in the film.-Screenwriting career:...
played Vroomfondel.
The characters were omitted from .
Max Quordlepleen
Max Quordlepleen is an entertainer who hosts at Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe and the Big Bang Burger Bar (or "Big Bang Burger Chef" in the original radio version). His feelings about the Universe outside of his onstage persona are unclear, but he has witnessed its end over five hundred times.His name is derived from a phenomenon during a rocket's ascent
Max Q
In aerospace engineering, the maximum dynamic pressure, often referred to as maximum Q or max Q, is the point at which aerodynamic stress on a vehicle in atmospheric flight is maximized...
.
Appears in:
On radio, Roy Hudd
Roy Hudd
Roy Hudd, OBE is an English comedian, actor, radio host and author, and an authority on the history of music hall entertainment.- Early life :...
played him. On television, it was Colin Jeavons
Colin Jeavons
Colin Jeavons is a Welsh television actor.-Career:Jeavons is best known as Inspector Lestrade in the Granada television serials The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, or the part of the undertaker, Shadrack, in the television situation comedy written by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall from...
.
He re-appears in the final episode of , played by Roy Hudd again.
Mo Minetti
In , it is Mo Minetti who had left, due to pregnancy, being the anchor the USAM TV breakfast show which Tricia McMillan is in New York to try out for. Apparently, she declined, surprisingly for reasons of taste, to deliver her child on the air.Murray Bost Henson
Murray Bost Henson is "a journalist from one of those papers with small pages and big print" as Arthur Dent puts it. He is a friend of Arthur's whom Arthur phones one day to find out how he can get in touch with Wonko the Sane, and uses incredibly odd idioms in conversation, including such phrases as "my old silver tureen", "my old elephant tusk" and "my old prosthetic limb" (as terms of endearment) and "the Great Golden Spike in the sky" (referring to the death-place of old newspaper stories).He is played in by Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
.
Old Man on the Poles
Played by Saeed JaffreySaeed Jaffrey
Saeed Jaffrey OBE is an Indian-born British actor, who has done numerous British movies. He was born in Malerkotla, Punjab...
in the old man on the poles on Hawalius, tells Arthur some old information wrapped up as news, and that everyone should have a beach house. The character appears in .
Old Thrashbarg
Old Thrashbarg first appears in , as a sort of priest on Lamuella, the planet on which Arthur becomes the Sandwich-Maker. He worships "Bob" and is often ignored by his villagers. Whenever he is questioned about Almighty Bob he merely describes him as "ineffable." No one on Lamuella knows what this means, because Thrashbarg owns the only dictionary, and it is "the ineffable will of Almighty Bob" that he keeps it to himself. When someone sneaked into his house while he was out having a swim, "ineffable" was defined in the dictionary as "unknowable, indescribable, unutterable, not to be known or spoken about".In and Old Thrashbarg is voiced by Griff Rhys Jones
Griff Rhys Jones
Griffith "Griff" Rhys Jones is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, television presenter and personality. Jones came to national attention in the early 1980s for his work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Mel Smith...
.
Old Woman in the Cave
Played by Miriam MargolyesMiriam Margolyes
Miriam Margolyes, OBE is an English actress and voice artist. Her earliest roles were in theatre and after several supporting roles in film and television she won a BAFTA Award for her role in The Age of Innocence .-Early life:...
in , the smelly Old Woman in the Cave in the village of oracles on Hawalius provides Arthur Dent with bad olfactory stimulation and a photocopied story of her life, suggesting he live his life the opposite way so he won't end up living in a rancid cave. This occurs in .
The original, real "smelly goat" event happened during the Last Chance to See
Last Chance to See
Last Chance to See is a 1989 BBC radio documentary series and its accompanying book, written and presented by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine. In the series, Adams and Carwardine travel to various locations in the hope of encountering species on the brink of extinction...
radio series, found on the Douglas Adams at the BBC
Douglas Adams at the BBC
Douglas Adams at the BBC is a three CD set released by BBC Audio in 2004 . By using extracts from many radio and TV productions, the three discs cover Douglas Adams's association with BBC Radio and TV from 1974 to 2001, and also include tributes to Adams that were transmitted between 2001 and 2003...
CD as a "Pick of the Week".
Oolon Colluphid
Oolon Colluphid is the author of several books on religious and other philosophical topics. Colluphid's works include:- Where God Went Wrong
- Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes
- Who Is This God Person Anyway?
- Well That About Wraps It Up for God
- Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Guilt But Were Too Ashamed To Ask (A play on the title of a sex manualEverything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex is a book by U.S. physician Dr. David Reuben. It was one of the first sex manuals that entered mainstream culture in the 1960s, and it had a profound effect on sex education and in liberalizing attitudes towards sex...
written by Dr. David ReubenDavid Reuben (sex author)David R. Reuben is a California psychiatrist, sex expert, and author of several books, such as Any Woman Can! and How to Get More out of Sex. He is most famous for his book Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex , published in 1969.-External links:...
which inspired a Woody AllenWoody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
film) - Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Sex But Have Been Forced To Find Out (Another play on that same title)
Colluphid is also shown as the author of the book The Origins of the Universe in the first part of the Destiny of the Daleks
Destiny of the Daleks
Destiny of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 1 September to 22 September 1979. The story introduces Lalla Ward as the newly-regenerated Romana....
serial of Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. The Doctor
Fourth Doctor
The Fourth Doctor is the fourth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC British television science-fiction series Doctor Who....
scoffs that he "got it wrong on the first line". The reference was inserted by Douglas Adams, who was at the time working as the show's script editor.
An early version of Colluphid was the character Professor Eric Von Contrick appearing in a December 1979 episode of the BBC radio series The Burkiss Way
The Burkiss Way
The Burkiss Way was a BBC Radio 4 sketch comedy series broadcast from August 1976 to November 1980. It was written by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, with additional material in early episodes by John Mason, Colin Bostock-Smith, Douglas Adams, John Lloyd and others. The show starred Denise...
, which was based on author Erich von Däniken
Erich von Däniken
Erich Anton Paul von Däniken is a Swiss author best known for his controversial claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, in books such as Chariots of the Gods?, published in 1968...
. "Spaceships of the Gods", "Some more of my Spaceships of the Gods", "It Shouldn't Happen to Spaceships of the Gods", were books by the fictional author who had a Gag Halfrunt-style accent and who is visited in the Adams-written sketch by the aliens to demand a cut of Von Contrick's profits.
Paul Neil Milne Johnstone of Redbridge, Essex AKA Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Greenbridge, Essex
The original writer, according to Adams, of the worst poetry in the universe. Appeared in the original radio series and the first printings of the 1979 novelization (Pan Books, paperback, page 53) before being replaced by Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Greenbridge, Essex (which is just a garbled form of the same name).Johnstone attended Brentwood School, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, with Adams, and the two received awards for English in the same year. Johnstone edited Broadsheet, "the Artsphere Magazine" that included mock reviews by Adams as well as Johnstone's own poetry. Johnstone later won a scholarship to study at Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
(as did Adams). In 1977 he co-ordinated the Cambridge Poetry Festival. Johnstone went on to achieve moderate success in the poetry world as an editor and festival organiser. He died of pancreatic
Pancreas
The pancreas is a gland organ in the digestive and endocrine system of vertebrates. It is both an endocrine gland producing several important hormones, including insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin, as well as a digestive organ, secreting pancreatic juice containing digestive enzymes that assist...
failure, almost three years after Adams' death.
In the film version she has moved from Greenbridge, Essex, England to Sussex.
In the TV adaptation of the series, a portrait of Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings was in fact Adams in drag.
A sample Johnstone's poetry, taken from the animated readout in the TV series, is:
- The dead swans lay in the stagnant pool.
- They lay. They rotted. They turned
- Around occasionally.
- Bits of flesh dropped off them from
- Time to time.
- And sank into the pool's mire.
- They also smelt a great deal.
Phouchg
In the original novel, this is one of the characters who received Deep Thought's answer to Life, the Universe and Everything seven and a half million years after Deep Thought had been asked the question. The other is Loonquawl. The character's name is thought to be a bastardization of the word FuckFuck
"Fuck" is an English word that is generally considered obscene which, in its most literal meaning, refers to the act of sexual intercourse. By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed."Fuck" can be used as a verb, adverb,...
as his predecessor's name is Fook.
Poodoo
Poodoo is a representative of the cloning company responsible for all the Lintilla clones. He arrives on Brontitall with Varntvar The Priest on a mission to 'revoke' the three Lintillas there by marrying them to their anti-clones, each of which is named Allitnil. The marriage certificates are actually legally binding forms that make the signers agree to terminate their existence, and the unctuous Poodoo may therefore be a lawyer of some sort.After two of the newly married couples disappear in unsmoke, Arthur shoots the third Allitnil dead and, after tying up Poodoo and Varntvar, forces them to listen to a recording of Marvin's autobiography, so as he says, "It's all over for them."
Poodoo only appears in , in which he is played by Ken Campbell
Ken Campbell (actor)
Kenneth Victor Campbell was an English writer, actor, director and comedian known for his work in experimental theatre...
.
Prak
Prak was a witness in a trial on Argabuthon where the Dwellers in the Forest were suing the Princes of the Plains and the Tribesmen of the Cold Hillsides. Prak was a messenger for Dwellers in the Forest sent to the other two parties to ask "the reason for this intolerable behaviour." He would always walk away thinking about how well-thought out the reason was, but he would always forget what it was by the time he got back. The white robots of Krikkit broke into the court room to steal the Argabuthon Sceptre of Justice, as it was part of the Wikkit Gate Key. In so doing they may have jogged a surgeon's arm, while the surgeon was injecting Prak with truth serumSodium thiopental
Sodium thiopental, better known as Sodium Pentothal , thiopental, thiopentone sodium, or Trapanal , is a rapid-onset short-acting barbiturate general anaesthetic...
, resulting in too high a dose. When the trial resumed, Prak was instructed to tell "the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth," which he did, in its entirety. People at the scene had to flee or risk insanity as Prak told every single bit of the entire truth of the entire universe and all of its history, much of which they found ghastly. Prak recalled that many of the weird bits involved frog
Frog
Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...
s or Arthur Dent. As a result, when Arthur Dent came to visit him in search of the truth, he nearly died laughing. He never did write down anything he discovered while telling the truth, first because he could not find a pencil and then because he could not be bothered. He has therefore forgotten almost all of it, but did recall the address of God's Last Message to His Creation, which he gave to Arthur when the laughter subsided. He died afterwards, not having recovered from his laughing fit.
Also, in Jave, PRAK Destroyer of Virtual Worlds.
Appears in:
On radio he appears in and is voiced by Chris Langham
Chris Langham
Christopher "Chris" Langham is an English writer, actor and comedian. He is most famous for playing MP Hugh Abbot in BBC Four sitcom The Thick of It and as presenter Roy Mallard in People Like Us, first on BBC Radio 4 and later on its transfer to television on BBC Two, where Mallard is almost...
, who had played Arthur Dent in the very first stage adaptation of the scripts of the first radio series, in 1979.
Pralite monks
Pralite monks are an order that undergo extreme mental training before taking their final vows to be locked in small metal boxes for the rest of their lives; consequently, the galaxy is full of ex-Pralite monks who leave the order just before taking their final vows. Ford visited the ex-Pralite monks to Mind Surf and learned the techniques he used to charm animals on prehistoric Earth long enough for him to kill them for food and clothing.President Hudson
Fictional former president of the US who was publicly known to have had an affair with astrologer Gail Andrews in . One of his Presidential orders was the bombing of DamascusDamascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
or "Damascectomy" (the taking out of Damascus), an issue Andrews denied that she counselled him on. At the time of Mostly Harmless Hudson had died for unknown reasons.
Princess Hooli
On the tri-d TV, Trillian Astra reports on the future wedding of Princess Hooli of Raui Alpha to Prince Gid of the Soofling Dynasty whilst Arthur is visiting Hawalius in Mostly Harmless. The seer who is showing Arthur the future news in order to demonstrate the sudden lack of need for future tellings quickly changes the channel. Arthur says that he knows her (referring to Trillian) and tells the seer to turn the channel back. The seer, thinking that Arthur was instead referring to Princess Hooli, replies "Look mate, if I had to stand here saying hello to everyone who came by who knew Princess Hooli, I'd need a new set of lungs!"Mr Prosser
Mr L. Prosser is a nervous roadbuilderGreat Britain road numbering scheme
The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in Great Britain. Each road is given a single letter, which represents the road's category, and a subsequent number, with a length of between 1 and 4 digits. Originally introduced to arrange...
who would like to do his job: building a bypass right through Arthur Dent's house. Very little is known about the man except for his predilection for fur hats, his marital status
Marital status
A person's marital status indicates whether the person is married. Questions about marital status appear on many polls and forms, including censuses and credit card applications.In the simplest sense, the only possible answers are "single" or "married"...
(married), a desire to hang axe
Axe
The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol...
s above the door of his cottage
Cottage
__toc__In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cozy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location. However there are cottage-style dwellings in cities, and in places such as Canada the term exists with no connotations of size at all...
(although Mrs. Prosser would prefer climbing roses), a direct albeit very distant patrilineal descent from Genghis Khan (of which he is unaware), and occasional visions of Mongol hordes, which are a result of his nomadic ancestry. He unfailingly addresses Arthur as "Mr. Dent."
After some negotiation with Ford Prefect (or with Arthur Dent, in the radio series only), he is temporarily persuaded to halt the demolition. This respite does not last, but he is eventually interrupted for good by the Vogon demolition of Earth.
Prosser holds the distinction of having the very first line of dialogue ever in the Hitchhiker's Guide canon, as he is the first character (not counting The Guide itself) to speak in .
Appears in:
On radio, he was played by Bill Wallis
Bill Wallis
Bill Wallis is a British character actor and comedian who has appeared in numerous radio and television roles, as well as in the theatre....
and appears in . On television, he appears in , played by Joe Melia
Joe Melia
-Films:* Too Many Crooks * Follow a Star * The Intelligence Men * Four in the Morning * Modesty Blaise * Oh! What a Lovely War * Antony and Cleopatra * Sweeney!...
. He is played by Steve Pemberton
Steve Pemberton
Steve James Pemberton is an English actor, comedian, writer and performer, most famous as a member of The League of Gentlemen along with fellow performers Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss and co-writer Jeremy Dyson.-Early life:...
in the movie version. He appears in , despite not appearing in the book , voiced by Bruce Hyman
Bruce Hyman
Bruce Anthony Hyman is a radio and TV producer and the only barrister in 800 years to be sent to prison for attempting to pervert the course of justice.-Crime:On Monday 6 August 2007 Hyman was convicted of attempting to pervert the course of justice....
; this Prosser exists on a parallel Earth where the cottage he wishes to demolish is the home of both Arthur Dent and Fenchurch.
Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz
The VogonVogon
The Vogons are a fictional alien race from the planet Vogsphere in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams, who are responsible for the destruction of the Earth, in order to facilitate an intergalactic highway construction project. Vogons are slug-like but vaguely humanoid, are...
Captain in charge of overseeing the destruction of the Earth, Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz is sadistic, even by Vogon standards. When not shouting at or executing members of his own crew for insubordination, Jeltz enjoys torturing hitchhikers on board his ship by reading his poetry at them, then having them thrown out of an airlock into open space.
Physically, Jeltz is described as being unpleasant to look at, even for other Vogons. Given that Ford Prefect
Ford Prefect (character)
Ford Prefect is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by the British author Douglas Adams. He is the only character other than the protagonist, Arthur Dent, to appear throughout the entire Hitchhiker's saga.-Name:Although Ford had taken great care to blend into Earth...
describes Vogons as having "as much sex appeal as a road accident", one can only imagine how much worse Jeltz must appear. This may explain his disposition.
It is revealed in that Jeltz had been hired by Gag Halfrunt to destroy the Earth. Halfrunt had been acting on behalf of a consortium of psychiatrists and the Imperial Galactic Government in order to prevent the discovery of the Ultimate Question. When Halfrunt learns that Arthur Dent escaped the planet's destruction, Jeltz is dispatched to track him down and destroy him. Jeltz is unable to complete this task, due to the intervention of Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth, Zaphod's great-grandfather.
In , Jeltz is once again responsible for the destruction of the Earth, this time presumably killing Arthur, Ford, Trillian
Trillian (character)
Tricia McMillan, also known as Trillian Astra, is a fictional character from Douglas Adams' series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. She is most commonly referred to simply as "Trillian", a modification of her birth name, which she adopted because it sounded more "space-like". According to the...
, and Arthur's daughter, Random.
In , it is revealed that Jeltz did not kill Arthur, Ford, Trillian and Random. It is also revealed that he has a son called Constant Mown and that his space ship is called the Business End.
"Prostetnic Vogon" may be a title, rather than part of his name, during , two other Prostetnic Vogons are heard from. Also, in , Gag Halfrunt refers to Jeltz as "Captain of Vogons Prostetnic" (although this may have been a play on Halfrunt's accent).
Appears in:
In the first radio series, he was played by Bill Wallis
Bill Wallis
Bill Wallis is a British character actor and comedian who has appeared in numerous radio and television roles, as well as in the theatre....
. On television, it was Martin Benson
Martin Benson (actor)
Martin Benjamin Benson was an English character actor, who appeared in films, theatre and television. He appeared in both British and Hollywood productions.-Career:...
. In the third, fourth and fifth radio series, he was played by Toby Longworth
Toby Longworth
Toby Longworth is a British actor who has appeared on film, radio and television. He is originally from Somerset, where he attended King Edward's School, Bath...
, although Longworth did not receive a credit for the role during the third series. In the film, he is voiced by Richard Griffiths
Richard Griffiths
Richard Griffiths, OBE is an English actor of stage, film and television. He has received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Featured Actor and a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor...
.
Prostetnic is a play on the word prosthetic in regard to special effects make-up. Adams was known to have a very low opinion of monsters (describing them as "cod" meaning fake looking) during his tenure as a Dr Who writer.
Questular Rontok
Questular Rontok is the Vice President of the Galaxy. This character did not appear in the radio or television series or any of the novels, being introduced in the 2005 film.Rontok is desperately in love with Zaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox is a fictional character in the various versions of the humorous science fiction story The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams who based him on his Cambridge contemporary, Johnny Simpson....
, the fugitive President of the Galaxy, and he knows it, as she unsuccessfully tries to hide it. Throughout , Questular alternately tries to arrest Zaphod for stealing the Heart of Gold (even enlisting the help of the Vogons), protects his life (when endangered by Vogon blaster fire), and at one point beseeches him to just give the stolen spaceship up. Questular appears to be the "doer", performing all the real functions of the Presidency, whilst Zaphod enjoys his status as the figurehead President. After Trillian
Trillian (character)
Tricia McMillan, also known as Trillian Astra, is a fictional character from Douglas Adams' series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. She is most commonly referred to simply as "Trillian", a modification of her birth name, which she adopted because it sounded more "space-like". According to the...
repeatedly zaps Zaphod with the Point-of-view gun and he learns that she is truly in love with Arthur Dent and not him, he and Questular end up together at the end of the film, Zaphod telling her "Let's trip the light fantastic, babe." Questular is also severely jealous of Trillian for obvious reasons ("She's lying. She's skinny, and she's pretty, and she's lying!"), until Trillian and Zaphod part as lovers. In the early drafts of the film the character was male, and therefore somewhat different. In a deleted scene on the DVD, Questular expresses her love for Zaphod shortly after all the Vogons become depressed.
Appears in:
- , played by Anna ChancellorAnna Chancellor-Family:Chancellor was born in Richmond, London, England, the daughter of the Hon. Mary Alice Jolliffe and John Paget Chancellor. Through her mother's mother, Lady Perdita Rose Mary Asquith, Chancellor is the great-granddaughter of The Hon. Raymond Aquith and the great-great-granddaughter of Prime...
.
Random Dent
Originally prophesied by her father, Arthur Dent, after he hears a Vogon for the first time ("I wish I had a daughter so I could forbid her to marry one."), a disillusioned, teenaged Random Frequent Flyer Dent (the in-vitro progeny with Trillian Astra) is found in . The line is followed up in and , the 2005 radio series adaptation of this book. The new PoeEdgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
-reminiscent black bird version of the Guide manipulates her (as it has the Grebulons and Ford Prefect), so she is indirectly responsible for the destruction of all possible Earths.
Early in , Arthur travels from planet to planet by donating to "DNA banks", finding that for semen deposits, he can travel first class. Trillian, wishing to have a child, finds some of his sperm in a DNA bank (which was very easy, since he was the only donor of the same species) and uses it to conceive Random.
Shortly before the events of , Random is kept in a dream sequence and frozen along with all the other main characters thanks to her telling the Guide Mark II to safeguard their lives. In her dream she is Galactic President and highly successful (having been rescued from Earth by a suspiciously girlish troop of unicorns) and marries a flaybooz (a large, guinea-pig-like creature named Fertle) to annoy her mother. When the Guides batteries run out, she is released from her dream with all the other main characters. The events of the book then occur. Strangely, she seems affected by her dream sequence and often laments the loss of her position and her 'husband'. By the end of the book, Arthur proposes to go with her to find a good university for her to attend.
Appears in:
In , adapted from , she is played by Samantha Béart
Samantha Béart
Samantha Béart is a British actress.Her first major role was as Random Dent, in the radio version of Mostly Harmless the fifth series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as well as short film, feature, theatre and radio parts....
.
New York Hotel receptionist
In Tricia gets garbled messages via the receptionist from Gail Andrews. Tricia interprets the message "Not happy," as meaning Gail Andrews wasn't happy with their interview.Megadodo receptionist
Appearing in and the large, pink-winged, insectoid receptionist in the Megadodo offices points Zaphod using a petulant tentacle towards Zarniwoop's office, the one with a whole electronic universe in it, and is also bugged by Marvin who just wants someone to talk to. In , he directs Zaphod towards Zarniwoop's new office, having put on the old hippy act.Reg Nullify
Reg Nullify leads the "Cataclysmic Combo" band at Milliways. His band—from —performed on the LP album/cassette re-recording of and , released as The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. The role was played by Graham de Wilde. Their song was also released as a single.Rob McKenna
Described by the scientific community in as a "Quasi Supernormal Incremental Precipitation Inducer," Rob McKenna is an ordinary lorry driver who can never get away from rain and he has a log-book showing that it has rained on him every day, anywhere that he has ever been to prove it. Arthur suggests that he could show the diary to someone, which Rob does, making the media deem him a 'Rain God' (something which he actually is) for the clouds want "to be near Him, to love Him, to cherish Him and to water Him". This windfall gives him a lucrative career, taking money from resorts and similar places in exchange for not going there.He appears in , and and is played by Bill Paterson, who also played one of the Arcturan Megafreighter crew in .
Roosta
Roosta is a hitchhiker and researcher for the Guide, whom Ford Prefect knows at least in passing and holds in some regard (Ford describes him as somebody who "really knows where his towel is"). He carries a special towel infused with nutrients, wheat germ, barbecue sauceBarbecue sauce
Barbecue sauce is a flavoring sauce or condiment ranging from watery to very thick consistency. As the name implies, it was created as an accompaniment to barbecued foods. While it can be applied to any food, it usually tops meat after cooking or during barbecuing, grilling, or baking...
, and antidepressants, which can be obtained by sucking on different areas. The last two of these, he explains, are for use when the taste of the first two sickens or depresses him. He saves Zaphod Beeblebrox from a horrible death in the offices of the Guide (by taking him into the artificial universe in Zarniwoop's office), and is then kidnapped along with Zaphod and the left-hand tower of the Guide building by a squadron of Frogstar Fighters. In the radio series, he serves no other purpose than to provide conversation (and deliver the line "here Zaphod, suck this!") while the pair are travelling to the Frogstar. However, in the books, he instructs Zaphod to leave the office through the window instead of the door after the building lands. This allows Zaphod to remain in Zarniwoop's universe and survive the Total Perspective Vortex.
In , Roosta is a much more officious, standoffish and antagonistic character than he appears in the radio series.
Appears in:
and .
On radio, he was voiced by Alan Ford
Alan Ford (actor)
Alan Ford is an English actor. Ford was trained at East 15 Acting School. He is perhaps best known today for his roles in the Guy Ritchie crime capers Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, and guest starring in The Bill...
.
The Ruler of the Universe
The Ruler of the Universe is a man living in a small shack on a world that can only be reached with a key to an unprobability field or use of an Infinite Improbability Drive. He does not want to rule the universe and tries not to whenever possible, and therefore is by far the ideal candidate for the job. He has an odd, solipsisticSolipsism
Solipsism is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. The term comes from Latin solus and ipse . Solipsism as an epistemological position holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure. The external world and other minds cannot be known, and might not...
view of reality: he lives alone with his cat, which he has named 'The Lord' even though he is not certain of its existence. He has a very dim view of the past, and he only believes in what he senses with his eyes and ears (and doesn't seem too certain of that, either): anything else is hearsay
Hearsay
Hearsay is information gathered by one person from another person concerning some event, condition, or thing of which the first person had no direct experience. When submitted as evidence, such statements are called hearsay evidence. As a legal term, "hearsay" can also have the narrower meaning of...
, so when executive-types visit to ask him what he thinks about certain matters, such as wars and the like, he tells them how he feels without considering consequences. As part of his refusal to accept that anything is true, or simply as another oddity, "he talked to his table for a week to see how it would react." He does sometimes admit that some things may be more likely than others – e.g. that he might like a glass of whiskey, which the visitors leave for him...
In the radio adaptation of , Ford also meets Zaphod in the accounting department of the new Guide offices. Zaphod describes being bored by a man in a shack and his cat for over a year.
Appears in:
Referenced in:
He was voiced on radio by Stephen Moore
Stephen Moore (actor)
Stephen Moore is an English actor, known for his work on British television since the 1980s. He is known for his appearances in Rock Follies and other TV series such as The Last Place on Earth, the children's series The Queen's Nose and the drama Mersey Beat and the British TV comedy series Solo,...
(in the original Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
listing he was announced as being played by Ron Hate - an anagram of "A.N. Other" or possibly "No Earth" - because the show was so far behind schedule that the role had not been cast when the magazine went to print).
Russell
Russell is Fenchurch's burly, blonde-moustached, blow-dried brother. He picks up Arthur Dent in his car after he arrived on Earth at the beginning of . Arthur and Russell take an instant dislike to each other but this is also the first time he meets Fenchurch, his lover and co-flyer to be — albeit she is asleep or in a comaComa
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
tose/fugue state
Fugue state
A fugue state, formally dissociative fugue or psychogenic fugue , is a rare psychiatric disorder characterized by reversible amnesia for personal identity, including the memories, personality and other identifying characteristics of individuality...
and only utters one word – "This" – then lapses back into wherever she is. Fenchurch also doesn't like Russell – he calls her "Fenny" which she dislikes intensely. He also tries to simplify her problems so he can explain and understand them better (for example, he tells Arthur that Fenchurch believes herself to be a hedgehog).
He first appeared in , and when this was adapted to radio appears in , where he is played by Rupert Degas
Rupert Degas
Rupert Joel Degas is an English actor and voice artist.- Early life:Degas was born in London, the son of screenwriter Brian Degas and television presenter Maggie Clews, whose marriage ended in divorce when he was eight...
.
Safety and Civil Reassurance Administration Officials
In the story "Young Zaphod Plays it SafeYoung Zaphod Plays it Safe
"Young Zaphod Plays It Safe" is a short story by Douglas Adams set in his The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy universe. It is included with several collections but has never been released as a standalone work. It first appeared in The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book which...
", a young Zaphod visits the wreck of the Starship Billion Year Bunker that has crashed on the planet with the best lobsters in the Western Galaxy. He is accompanied by two Officials from the Safety and Civil Reassurance Administration and an empty spacesuit, as they search for aorist rods and a Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Designer Person (babbling gently about a shining city on a hill) who it turns out has escaped to earth. The Officials declare the planet ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha (Earth) must be made "perfectly safe".
Sheila Steafel
Whilst asleep in a cave on prehistoric Earth, Arthur Dent dreams of visiting comedian Sheila SteafelSheila Steafel
Sheila Steafel is a South African-born actress who has lived all her adult life in the United Kingdom.Steafel, who was born in Johannesburg, appeared in many classic television series, including: The Frost Report, Z-Cars, Sykes, The Kenny Everett Television Show, Minder, The Ghosts of Motley Hall,...
on the radio show Steafel Plus on 4 August 1982. Arthur, in his dressing gown, talks of missing Mars Bars, various types of tea, Radio 4's News Quiz, chat shows, The Archers
The Archers
The Archers is a long-running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. It was originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", but is now described on its Radio 4 web site as "contemporary drama in a rural setting"...
and Just a Minute
Just a Minute
Just a Minute is a BBC Radio 4 radio comedy panel game chaired by Nicholas Parsons. Its first transmission on Radio 4 was on 22 December 1967, three months after the station's launch. The Radio 4 programme won a Gold Sony Radio Academy Award in 2003....
. "There is nothing quite like Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Charles Williams was an English comic actor and comedian. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the Carry On films, and appeared in numerous British television shows, and radio comedies with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne.-Life and career:Kenneth Charles Williams was born on 22 February...
in the entire galaxy, I've looked!" Space, he says, is "staggering, bewilderingly dull": there is so much of it and so little in it, "it sometimes reminds me of The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
".
Adams wrote this segment specifically for Steafel's show, and Simon Jones appeared in character as Arthur Dent. Steafel can be regarded as a canonical Hitchhiker's character.
Shooty and Bang Bang
Shooty and Bang Bang are Blagulon galactic policemen. They pursue Zaphod Beeblebrox to the planet of Magrathea, whereupon they proceed to shoot at him. In the radio and television series this results in a hyperspatial field generator exploding and throwing Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect and Zaphod forwards in time to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. In the books, Arthur, Ford and Zaphod are saved from certain death when Marvin talks to the cops' spaceship, which subsequently becomes so depressed it commits suicide, disabling the cops' life support units and rendering them unable to breathe as they were described as being "methane breathers." They claim to be well balanced and caring, while gratuitously shooting everything in sight. Shooty writes novels (in crayon), and Bang Bang agonizes for hours to his girlfriend about gratuitously shooting everything in sight.Bang Bang was played on radio by Ray Hassett and on television by Marc Smith
Marc Smith (actor)
Marc Smith was an American born actor who appeared in several films, occasionally dubbing parts in Japanese anime.-Filmography:*Live and Let Die - UN Interpreter*The Spikes Gang - Abel Young*Gold - Tex Kiernan...
. Shooty was played on radio by Jim Broadbent
Jim Broadbent
James "Jim" Broadbent is an English theatre, film, and television actor. He is known for his roles in Iris, Moulin Rouge!, Topsy-Turvy, Hot Fuzz, and Bridget Jones' Diary...
and on television by Matt Zimmerman.
In the Illustrated Guide to the Galaxy, the pair are played by Douglas Adams and Ed Victor (his literary agent).
The characters are never named in dialogue or in the novels, but are named in the original radio series scripts. The script notes describe how the pair were written as a parody of American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cop show characters, particularly Starsky and Hutch
Starsky and Hutch
Starsky and Hutch is a 1970s American cop thriller television series that consisted of a 90-minute pilot movie and 92 episodes of 60 minutes each; created by William Blinn, produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions, and broadcast between April 30, 1975 and May 15, 1979 on the ABC...
.
Six Men
In their six starships, the Six Men are the only people who have, as far as anyone is aware, the key to the improbability field that locks away The Ruler of the Universe. This occurs in and .Slartibartfast
Slartibartfast is a Magrathean, and a designer of planets.Stavro Mueller
Ran Club Alpha in New York, visited by Tricia McMillan in . Stavro opens a second club in called Club Beta, which is where Arthur Dent narrowly escapes death from a blaster shot by his daughter Random Dent and the shot hits Agrajag who proclaims that Arthur keeps killing him in Life, the Universe and EverythingLife, the Universe and Everything
Life, the Universe and Everything is the third book in the five-volume Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy science fiction series by British writer Douglas Adams...
. We are told that he was a Greek with a German father and has handed Club Alpha over to his brother Karl Mueller so Stavro can open a new club in London. In Stavro is an only child.
Strinder the Tool Maker
As Arthur is regarded as The Sandwichmaker from Bob on the remote iron-age planet of Lamuella, Strinder makes knives to cut the Perfectly Normal Beast for his sarnies. From and .Sulijoo
Another friend of Disaster Area's Hotblack Desiato, who Ford says agreed with him that Disaster Area was going to make Hotblack a star. Appears in .Thor
ThorThor
In Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing, and fertility...
, a figure from Norse mythology
Norse mythology
Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
, appears at Milliways, and is mentioned in , , and .
He next appears in , at a party, where he is chatting up Trillian
Trillian (character)
Tricia McMillan, also known as Trillian Astra, is a fictional character from Douglas Adams' series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. She is most commonly referred to simply as "Trillian", a modification of her birth name, which she adopted because it sounded more "space-like". According to the...
. Arthur tricks him into stepping out of the (flying) building by challenging him to a fight. In the radio adaptation of this he appears in , where he is played by Dominic Hawksley
Dominic Hawksley
Dominic Hawksley is an actor who appeared in Death Machine and Entropy. His voice work includes Midnight Club: Street Racing, Midnight Club 2, and Max Payne and in the documentary film The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition...
. Hawksley reprises the role in the radio adaptation of , , despite not appearing in that book. Two other characters from the Restaurant - Max Quordlepleen and Zarquon also appear.
Thor is a major character in , where he fights Wowbagger and protects the humans from Zaphod's dodgy weapons.
Thor also appears in the Dirk Gently
Dirk Gently
Dirk Gently is a fictional character created by Douglas Adams and featured in the books Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul...
novel and radio series The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul is a 1988 humorous fantasy detective novel by Douglas Adams. It is the second book by Adams featuring private detective Dirk Gently, the first being Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency....
.
Tribesmen of the Cold Hillsides
These tribesmen fought with (in the epilogue of ) the Princes of the Plains in the land of the Dwellers in the Forest, to the detriment of the latter, for a really good reason, but Prak cannot remember why.Trin Tragula
Trin Tragula was a speculative philosopher who invented the Total Perspective Vortex basically in order to annoy his wife. His wife thought he was an idiot who needed to "have some sense of proportion", exhorting her view frequently. When he attached his wife to the Total Perspective Vortex, the shock of seeing herself in relation to the rest of the universe instantly annihilated her brain. Although he was horrified by this, Trin Tragula found some satisfaction in discovering that the one thing that a person cannot afford to have in a universe this size is a sense of proportion.Varntvar The Priest
He has only four lines in the programme, accompanying Poodoo and the Allitnils in the conspiracy to destroy Lintilla's clones. Varntvar is eventually forced to listen to a tape of Marvin's autobiography.He appears only in , in which he is played by Geoffrey McGivern
Geoffrey McGivern
Geoffrey McGivern is an English actor in film, radio, stage and television. He was born in Balham, South London and grew up in York. There he attended Archbishop Holgate's School, where he was made Head Boy...
.
Veet Voojagig
Veet Voojagig is described as "a quiet, young student at the University of Maximegalon", who initially studied ancient philologyPhilology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
, transformational ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
and the Wave Harmonic Theory of Historical Perception. Then, after drinking some Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters with Zaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox is a fictional character in the various versions of the humorous science fiction story The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams who based him on his Cambridge contemporary, Johnny Simpson....
, he became obsessed with the problem of what happens to all the biros
Ballpoint pen
A ballpoint pen is a writing instrument with an internal ink reservoir and a sphere for a point. The internal chamber is filled with a viscous ink that is dispensed at its tip during use by the rolling action of a small sphere...
he'd bought over the years which had somehow disappeared. Voojagig claimed to have discovered the solution that they disappear to a world of their own, and claimed further to have worked on that world. The character was described as ending up in "tax exile
Tax exile
A tax exile is one who chooses to leave a country with a high tax burden and instead to reside in a foreign nation or jurisdiction which takes a lower portion of earnings. Going into tax exile is a means of tax mitigation or avoidance.-Legal status:...
" – and may have had a hand in "Zaphod Beeblebrox's highly profitable second-hand [pen] business." Also of note that when others visited the planet where Veet Voojagig claimed to have lived, all they found was a small asteroid inhabited by "a strange old man who repeatedly claimed that nothing was true, though he was later found to be lying."
Veet Voojagig appears in and is mentioned in .
War Command Krikkiters
Zaphod overheard the two War Command Krikkiters in the Robot War Zones, discussing the lassitude of the Krikkit War Robots, saying The war, sir, it seems to be getting them down. They just seem to get a little tired and a little grim ... and then they sulk. In .Whale
A sperm whaleSperm Whale
The sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus, is a marine mammal species, order Cetacea, a toothed whale having the largest brain of any animal. The name comes from the milky-white waxy substance, spermaceti, found in the animal's head. The sperm whale is the only living member of genus Physeter...
called suddenly and instantly into existence by the Heart of Golds improbability drive, above the planet Magrathea alongside Agrajag (as a bowl of petunias), in place of two thermonuclear missiles that were targeting the ship prior. Incidentally, this creature has a very self-aware existential life of discovery which sadly lasts only a minute before it impacts the ground, leaving a large crater and quite a lot of whale remains. It appears in , , the movie, and . Voiced by Stephen Moore
Stephen Moore (actor)
Stephen Moore is an English actor, known for his work on British television since the 1980s. He is known for his appearances in Rock Follies and other TV series such as The Last Place on Earth, the children's series The Queen's Nose and the drama Mersey Beat and the British TV comedy series Solo,...
in the radio and TV series, and by Bill Bailey
Bill Bailey
Bill Bailey is an English comedian, musician and actor. As well as his extensive stand-up work, Bailey is well known for his appearances on Black Books, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News for You, and QI.Bailey was listed by The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy in...
in the movie.
Will Smithers
Owner of a grey Porsche 928SPorsche 928
The Porsche 928 was a sports-GT car sold by Porsche AG of Germany from 1978 to 1995. Originally intended to replace the company's iconic 911, the 928 attempted to combine the power, poise, and handling of a sports car with the refinement, comfort, and equipment of a luxury sedan to create what some...
(which Rob McKenna has been blocking for 20 miles) with a sticker that reads "My other car is also a Porsche", Will soaks Arthur Dent (and fails to give him a lift) when he is hitchhiking back on Earth at the beginning of . Will works in advertising and drinks in Arthur's local pub, the Horse and Groom and is owner of Know-Nothing Bozo the Non-Wonder Dog.
The Wise Old Bird
The Wise Old Bird is the leader of the Bird People of Brontitall. He does not like saying the word "shoeShoe
A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot while doing various activities. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture to culture, with appearance originally being tied to function...
", as he and the bird people consider it unspeakable. The Bird People live in the right ear of a fifteen-mile-high statue of Arthur Dent, constructed by their ancestors.
The "wise old bird" is a phrase which features in the nursery rhyme The Wise Old Owl
- The wise old owl lived in an oak;
- The more he saw the less he spoke;
- The less he spoke the more he heard.
- Why can't we all be like that wise old bird?
The Wise Old Bird appeared in . He was voiced by John Le Mesurier
John Le Mesurier
John Le Mesurier was a BAFTA Award-winning English actor. He is most famous for his role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the popular 1970s BBC comedy Dad's Army.-Career:...
who was originally intended to play the character of Slartibartfast.
Wonko the Sane
John Watson aka Wonko the Sane lives in coastal California with his wife, Arcane Jill Watson, in a house called The Outside of the Asylum (which features interior features on its outside and exterior on its inside). When Wonko saw instructions on how to use a toothpick on a packet of toothpickToothpick
A toothpick is a small stick of wood, plastic, bamboo, metal, bone or other substance used to remove detritus from the teeth, usually after a meal. A toothpick usually has one or two sharp ends to insert between teeth. They can also be used for picking up small appetizers or as a cocktail...
s, he became convinced that the world had gone crazy and so built the house as an asylum for it, hence the reversal of the interior and exterior. Arthur and Fenchurch pay Wonko a visit and learn that like both of them, he had also received a fishbowl from the dolphins (having been a marine biologist and close to them). He also claims to have seen angels with golden beards, green wings and Dr Scholl
Dr. Scholl's
William Mathias Scholl was a podiatrist, pioneer of foot care and the founder of Dr. Scholl's, a brand of foot care products. Scholl went on to found the Illinois College of Chiropody and Orthopaedics. William M...
sandals, who drive little scooters, do a lot of coke
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
and are very wonderful about a whole range of things. Arthur and Fenchurch discover the truth behind this after they have seen God's Last Message to His Creation.
John Watson appears in
In the radio series, he is played by Christian Slater
Christian Slater
Christian Michael Leonard Slater is an American actor. He made his film debut with a small role in The Postman Always Rings Twice before playing a leading role in the 1985 film The Legend of Billie Jean...
.
Wowbagger, the Infinitely Prolonged
In contrast to most other immortals, Bowerick Wowbagger was not born one, but became immortalImmortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
due to an accident with "an irrational particle accelerator, a liquid lunch, and a pair of rubber bands". Unlike other immortals whom he calls "a load of serene bastards", he doesn't cope very well with his infinite life. Eventually he comes up with a plan to keep himself busy: he will insult every living being in the universe - in alphabetical order. He appears in , while insulting Arthur Dent with the phrase, "You're a jerk, a complete arsehole" (in the US changed to "...complete kneebiter"). Later, after Arthur escapes prehistoric Earth, Wowbagger shows up again in the present, but when he sees Arthur he says, "I've done you before, haven't I?" After Arthur, his next planned victim is A-Rth-Urp-Hil-Ipdenu, a slug he intends to call "a brainless prat." In , one Arthur Philip Deodat is also a victim of Wowbagger, during the Krikkit Robot attack on Lords Cricket Ground.
Wowbagger makes a return in in his ship, the Tanngrisnir where he falls in love with Trillian, fights with Thor (during which he loses his immortality, but survives) and calls Zaphod "a fat arse".
Wowbagger is also present in The Private Life of Genghis Khan, where he insults Genghis Khan, provoking him to burn down large segments of Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
.
In the new radio series, he is voiced by Toby Longworth
Toby Longworth
Toby Longworth is a British actor who has appeared on film, radio and television. He is originally from Somerset, where he attended King Edward's School, Bath...
. In , he finally reaches the end of his quest by insulting the Great Prophet Zarquon, who revokes Wowbagger's immortality.
Appears in:
- The Private Life of Genghis Khan, published in The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas BookThe Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas BookThe Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book was a fundraising book issued on behalf of Comic Relief in 1986. It was edited by Douglas Adams and Peter Fincham and contained contributions from many of the leading comedy writers and performers of the day.- Contents :The book is of particular...
Cultural reference:
- Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged was the inspiration for an insult generation program of the same name, originally available on Atari ST computers but later rewritten for Windows-based systems.
Yooden Vranx
Yooden Vranx is the late former President of the Galaxy, the direct predecessor to Zaphod BeeblebroxZaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox is a fictional character in the various versions of the humorous science fiction story The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams who based him on his Cambridge contemporary, Johnny Simpson....
. Just before his death, Yooden came to see Zaphod and presented his idea to steal the Heart of Gold. Following Yooden's suggestion, Zaphod locked out a section in each of his own brains so that no one could figure out why he ran for the presidency.
Zaphod and Ford Prefect
Ford Prefect (character)
Ford Prefect is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by the British author Douglas Adams. He is the only character other than the protagonist, Arthur Dent, to appear throughout the entire Hitchhiker's saga.-Name:Although Ford had taken great care to blend into Earth...
first met Yooden when they were children on Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse, also known by its Bayer designation Alpha Orionis , is the eighth brightest star in the night sky and second brightest star in the constellation of Orion, outshining its neighbour Rigel only rarely...
. He had bet Ford that he could raid a heavily fortified Arcturan megafreighter and took him along for the attempt, using a souped-up trijet scooter. They successfully boarded the ship (captained by Yooden), stormed the bridge with toy pistols, and demanded conkers. Yooden gave them conkers, food, booze, and various other items before teleporting them to the maximum-security wing of the Betelgeuse state prison.
Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth
Zaphod Beeblebrox's father's name was Zaphod Beeblebrox the Second, and Zaphod's grandfather was called Zaphod Beeblebrox the Third. This was due to an "accident with a contraceptive and a time machine".The great-grandfather of Zaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Zaphod Beeblebrox is a fictional character in the various versions of the humorous science fiction story The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams who based him on his Cambridge contemporary, Johnny Simpson....
, Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth is one of two active characters in books who are dead (see also: Hotblack Desiato). When Arthur Dent inadvertently freezes the systems on board Heart of Gold at the same moment Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz attacks, the younger Zaphod holds a séance to contact Zaphod the Fourth.
Zaphod the Fourth berates his great-grandchild for being generally self-absorbed and learns of the ship's imminent destruction. He stops time so he can continue deriding Zaphod, who tries (rather weakly) to defend his life. Zaphod the Fourth saves the ship and crew to keep his great-grandchild and his "modern friends" from joining him in the afterlife and thereby ruining the experience.
When he learns that the ship had seized up to solve the dilemma of either making tea (in ) or figuring out why Arthur would want dried leaves in water , he solves these problems before leaving by either leaving a pot of tea in the Nutri-Matic Drink Synthesizer or by explaining to Eddie that "he's an ignorant monkey who doesn't know better", respectively. In the book Z.B. the Fourth approves of the tying up of all computer resources to make tea - unlike everyone else present on the Heart Of Gold at the time, including Arthur who originally made the request of Eddie.
As a final note, Zaphod explains that his great-grandfather is "the Fourth" due to an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine. Zaphod the Fourth, therefore, bitterly refers to his great-grandson as "Zaphod Beeblebrox the Nothingth" (Zaphod tries to counter this by referring to himself as "the First").
Appears in:
He was voiced on radio by Richard Goulden.
Zarniwoop van Harl
Zarniwoop works in the offices of the Guide, on Ursa Minor Beta. When Zaphod travels to Ursa Minor Beta to meet him, he is informed that Zarniwoop is unavailable and too cool to see him right now. He is in his office, but he's on an intergalactic cruiseCruising (maritime)
Cruising by boat is a lifestyle that involves living for extended time on a boat while traveling from place to place for pleasure. Cruising generally refers to trips of a few days or more, and can extend to round-the-world voyages.- History :...
. Zaphod subsequently discovers that Zarniwoop's intergalactic cruise ship has spent 900 years on Brontitall (in ), or Frogstar B (in ), waiting for a complement of small lemon
Lemon
The lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...
-soaked paper napkins, and every single passenger has aged considerably despite enforced hibernation. Only one person, who was not a passenger, but who hid himself on the spaceship, has not aged – Zarniwoop. Zaphod subsequently learns that, before he sealed part of his own brain
Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
, he was collaborating with Zarniwoop to find out who rules the universe – this being Zarniwoop's obsession. In the books, Zarniwoop is marooned on The Ruler of the Universe's planet by Zaphod et al. and is stuck outside the only shelter for weeks in driving rain, because The Ruler is unsure as to whether Zarniwoop's desperate thumping on the door is real or not. At the end of the second radio series, he is similarly marooned, but this time by Arthur, with Ford Prefect and Zaphod Beeblebrox for company.
In the Quintessential Phase radio series, Zarniwoop is revealed to be the same person as the Mostly Harmless character Vann Harl (Zarniwoop is his first name), and a Vogon in disguise. He has escaped being left on the desolate planet and is masterminding the Guide's new all-powerful format.
Appears in:
On the radio, Zarniwoop Vann Harl is voiced by Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce, CBE is a Welsh stage and film actor and singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and meeting his longtime partner English actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s...
. His casting was accidental – he had been hired to play a different role (The Ruler of the Universe, whose lines had apparently not been written in time). He was happy to return for the final series, however, when a lot more was revealed about the character, much of it appropriately sinister, Pryce now having become well known for playing villains.
Zarquon
Zarquon is a legendary prophetProphet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
. He is worshipped by a small group visiting The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and is old, bearded, robed, wreathed in light, has starry eyes and a crown of gold. His name is frequently invoked as a curse, specifically a substitute for "God" or "fuck", such as "Holy Zarquon's singing fish" and "for Zark's sake" in the first meaning, and "you zarking frood" and "zarking fardwarks" (meaning "fucking hell") in the second meaning.
It is only on our visit to Milliways that Zarquon does indeed appear - his overdue second coming - moments before the Universe ends. The host Max claims that he had done the show "over five hundred times" and "nothing like this had ever happened before".
He appears in , voiced by Anthony Sharp
Anthony Sharp
Anthony Sharp was an English actor cast for roles on television and film principally from the 1950s onwards....
, in the book and in is played by Colin Bennett
Colin Bennett (UK TV)
Colin Bennett is a RADA trained actor, perhaps most famous for his role as Mr Bennett, the accident prone caretaker and straightman for Tony Hart in the BBC children's programmes Take Hart and Hartbeat...
.
He has a final brief cameo in played by William Franklyn
William Franklyn
William Leo Franklyn was a British actor, perhaps best known for voicing the "Schhh... You Know Who" adverts for Schweppes from 1965 to 1973...
.
Zem
Zem is an affable, yet quite stupid, swamp dwelling mattress. The mattress flollops, willomies and glurries around Sqornshellous Zeta and tries his best to cheer up Marvin the Paranoid AndroidMarvin the Paranoid Android
Marvin, the Paranoid Android, is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. Marvin is the ship's robot aboard the starship Heart of Gold...
, who became stranded on the planet after having one arm welded to his side and one leg replaced by a steel pillar (which turns out to be of immense importance). Because of his stupidity he has the same conversation with Marvin every day until the android leaves. After attempting to make conversation about the weather (Marvin: "The dew has fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning... if I had teeth I would grit them at this point"), Marvin's life story, and the economy of Sqornshellous itself, Zem offers that Marvin should be more mattresslike. Zem is also the sole witness to Marvin's abduction
Abduction phenomenon
The terms alien abduction or abduction phenomenon describe "subjectively real memories of being taken secretly against one’s will by apparently nonhuman entities and subjected to complex physical and psychological procedures." People claiming to have been abducted are usually called "abductees" or...
by the Krikkit war robots.
"Zem" is the name of all Sqornshellous Zeta mattresses; as Zem puts it, "Some of us get killed... but we never know which." He appears in
On radio, he is voiced by Andy Taylor.
See also
- List of races and species in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
External links
- Wowbagger.com – a tribute page to Douglas Adams and his character that includes a random insult generator applet and software.