Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: Special Edition (BD)

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" started life as a radio series at the BBC, and quickly became a huge smash. Following that success, creator Douglas Adams found himself writing novel adaptations and the screenplay for this wonderful six part television show, which premiered in 1981. It was an instant success and has achieved a huge following worldwide. First seen in the mid 1980s on PBS in the US, its popularity grew greater still, and if any show ever called out for a DVD release this is it. For those of you who aren't familiar with "Hitchhiker" it is the story of a human, Arthur Dent, and his extraterrestrial friend Ford Prefect who flee the Earth after it's destruction (to make way for a hyperspace bypass) and have mind-bending misadventures with compatriots Zaphod Beeblebrox and another human, the lovely Trillian. The series is filled with extremely quirky twists and turns throughout, and truly defies description. Suffice it to say that it is light years ahead of its time and never fails to provoke a laugh. The good humor of the series is cemented by actor Simon Jones, playing Arthur, who tours the galaxy in his bathrobe (and always knows where his towel is.) Simon was one of the key cast members carried over from the radio show, and he truly is made for the part. Likewise David Dixon is perfect as the wild-eyed Ford. Remember that this was a low budget production, so don't expect special effects to rival "Star Wars." Most of the effects are adequate, although I think the producers would have done well to dispense with the robotic second head of Zaphod found in the radio show and book, as the contraption that Mark Wing Davey has to wear is extremely lame, and really doesn't further the plot. His third arm, though, is surprisingly well done. Something to note in this show are what appear to be computer generated entries from the guide, which are actually amazing pieces of first rate animation. The second DVD is a wonderful gift from BBC Video. It contains two documentaries on "Hitchhiker" one from 1992, and one made for this release, as well as outtakes, deleted scenes, behind the scenes footage, and production notes which can be superimposed throughout the entire presentation. It has a digitally remastered stereo soundtrack, but you can also select the original mono soundtrack which I generally prefer, as when the computer, Deep Thought, speaks there is too much reverb in the stereo version to understand it easily. It also contains a tribute to Douglas Adams who died suddenly at the age of 49 immediately before the release of the DVD set. This is still the only science fiction comedy series that truly got it right, and this DVD is an absolute treasure to own and watch. By all means, check it out today, but don't let the Vogons read you any of their poetry!

Have to love British humor

While this does not have the flash of Hollywood, it is incredibly fun and witty. Adams' humor and satire are on full display.

This BBC miniseries production of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" takes place over what would eventually become the first of five books in "the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy" is worth watching for their take on "the guide" which you'll picture in your mind every time you read the books and the theme music which will stick in your head until the Earth is destroyed to make way for a hyperspatial bypass. Normally watching a movie or series based on a book after you've read the book(s) is painfully disappointing, but you will not be disappointed with this series which was written by Adams himself before (and while) the books were written. The series is fantastic, though the humour and production values wain slightly as it progresses and the visuals may look a bit dated by today's standards. Keep your finger on the pause button during guide entries because there's no lorem ipsum filler and you'll miss out on some very good jokes if you don't. The real prize here is the extras. Genuinely interesting captioned commentary, informative behind the scenes, entertaining interviews, and a lot more. Usually extras are tacked-on wastes of time that the publisher includes just to put something on the back cover, but on rare occasions, as in this case, when DVDs are produced by people who became fans of the very work they produced, you get extra material which is created with as much care as the movie/series itself. If you include the three hours to watch the series a second time in order to read the captioned commentary, there is over six hours of extra content, of which only a few minutes I found to be not worth watching. If every DVD contained extras of this quality I think more people would buy DVDs.

Great cleaned up (visually) copy of the old vhs series. Unfortunately the dvd case literally disintegrated when we opened the package but the dvds so far look good.

Purchase was excellent. Item arrived quickly and the discs look clean . I haven't watched it yet but I don't anticipate any problems. I've been looking for this BBC version for a while so I was glad to find it!

Having had the VHS I was eager to get the DVD for the extras. So let us make sure I focus on the two - first on the episodes itself, than on the extras. The episodes, the HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy, is of course brilliant. Everything from towels, to the Book's Voice, to the aliens and special effects are wonderful. Not just for the time they were made and produced, but even today. I find the episodes a delight to watch and can't help feel that people who don't like the show are just looking for things to nitpick. The extras. Well, they have one behind the scene feature, a add-on to the behind the scene feature, then lots of extras in the form of raw footage which were the sources of the features. Frankly, most of the information and interviews could, mostly likely, be seen in other sources - books, YouTube, websites - so on. In other words, unless your VHS tape is going bad, I would suggest holding off on getting the DVD. Its not that it is bad, it is just not worth getting it until you really need to. The extras are nice but not really worth tossing your tape away, unless you can find it a new home, to replace it with a DVD.

Entering my pre-teen years I began to notice women more and more (and girls too, I suppose), but sadly there weren't an awful lot in the science fiction genre. But those that did appear, you remember. And so it was that I recalled Marvin's beach babe who throws or bounces a ball to him. A pleasant memory, now forever preserved on bluray. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who wondered who she was. But, to the series. I was doubtful that this would look better on bluray. I mean there's only so much fidelity you can eek out of video tape, and 16mm, especially late 70's stock, has its limitations. And yet the series looks sharper or more detailed than it ever did in either the old VHS or DVD format. To be honest both VHS and DVD, to me at least, looked about the same, but the bluray really brings out details that were lost in the old home video releases. Does that make it for a better viewing experience? Eh, to be honest, not really. I mean you watched it to get a glimpse of likes of the lovely Jennifer, but you more or less watched it for the story and overall production. To me the very British one-liners hold up, such as "Late? As in the late Dent Arthur-Dent? It's a sort of threat you see..." or "Nuts to your white mice.", and still make me laugh with the very understated delivery that is so characteristic of British society. I like the series in all its iterations, and this bluray set really helps keep it alive. For long after were dead Simon Ward, Wing-Davey, and the lovely Jennifer will forever be preserved on bluray for generations to come. Splurge on a copy.