The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy began as a radio sitcom on BBC Radio 4, airing two series between 1978 and 1980. Its creator, Douglas Adams, built a comedy science fiction franchise that soon expanded into novels, comic books, a 1981 BBC television series, a 1984 text adventure game, stage shows, and a 2005 feature film. By 2005, the novels had been translated into over 30 languages, making them the most widely distributed part of the franchise. The first novel, published in 1979, placed fourth in the BBC’s The Big Read poll. A sixth novel, *And Another Thing...*, was written by Eoin Colfer using additional unpublished material from Adams. In 2017, BBC Radio 4 announced a 40th-anniversary celebration overseen by original producer Dirk Maggs; the first of six new episodes aired on 8 March 2018.

The story follows Arthur Dent, the last surviving human from Earth, after the planet is demolished to clear space for a hyperspace bypass. He is rescued by Ford Prefect, a human-like alien who writes for the electronic travel guide *The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy*, by hitchhiking onto a passing spacecraft. Arthur then travels with Ford, Trillian (another human taken from Earth before its destruction by Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox), and Marvin the Paranoid Android. The various adaptations change certain narrative details.

Spelling of the title varies across editions: *Hitch-Hiker’s Guide*, *Hitch Hiker’s Guide*, and *Hitchhiker’s Guide* appear in different UK or US printings, audio versions, and compilations, with some omitting the apostrophe. Some editions even use different spellings on the spine and title page. According to h2g2’s English Usage in Approved Entries, Adams preferred *Hitchhiker’s Guide*. At least two reference works note the inconsistency, but both repeat that Adams decided in 2000 that “everyone should spell it the same way [one word, no hyphen] from then on.”

The plot remains broadly consistent across versions, though Adams rewrote the story substantially for each new adaptation, leading to contradictions. Arthur Dent, a hapless Englishman, survives Earth’s destruction by the Vogons—bureaucratic, unpleasant aliens—who need the space for a hyperspace bypass. He meets Ford Prefect (an alien researcher for the guidebook), Zaphod Beeblebrox (Ford’s eccentric semi-cousin and Galactic President who stole the spaceship *Heart of Gold* with its Infinite Improbability Drive), the depressed robot Marvin, and Trillian (formerly Tricia McMillan), a woman Arthur once met at a party in Islington and who, thanks to Beeblebrox, is the only other human survivor. Arthur learns that Earth was a giant supercomputer built by another supercomputer, Deep Thought. Deep Thought was created to answer the “Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything”; after eons, it answered simply “42.” Deep Thought then designed Earth to determine what the Question actually is. The Vogons destroyed Earth moments after its calculations finished but before the results could be communicated. Arthur becomes a target of the descendants of Deep Thought’s creators, who believe his mind holds the Question. With his friends, he escapes and they decide to have lunch at The Restaurant at the End of the Universe before further adventures.

The original radio series came from a proposal called “The Ends of the Earth,” which planned six self-contained episodes, each ending with Earth destroyed in a different way. While writing the first episode, Adams realized he needed an alien on the planet to provide context, and that alien needed a reason to be there. He settled on making the alien a roving researcher for a “wholly remarkable book” called *The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy*. As the first episode progressed, the Guide became the story’s center, and only the destruction of Earth remained from the original idea. Adams claimed the title came from a 1971 incident while hitchhiking in Europe with a copy of the *Hitch-hiker’s Guide to Europe*: lying drunk in a field near Innsbruck, looking at the stars, he thought someone should write a hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy. He later said he reassembled the memory from retelling it so often and lost the original impression to old age. Friends recall Adams mentioning “hitch-hiking around the galaxy” on a 1973 holiday in Greece. The fictional Guide is an electronic guidebook to the universe, published by Megadodo Publications of Ursa Minor Beta. The narrative is punctuated with excerpts from the Guide, voiced by Peter Jones (first two radio series and TV), later William Franklyn (third, fourth, and fifth radio series), and Stephen Fry (the film).