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Sci-Fi Entertainment

Hitchhiker's Guide Quandary Phase Starts May 3rd 166

Posted by timothy from the hot-trillian-action dept.
MilenCent writes "Time to grab your towels once again! BBC Radio 4 is set to begin the Quandary Phase (that is, the fourth) of the radio version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on May 3, covering the events of So Long And Thanks For All The Fish. Once again you'll be able to listen to it on the web from Radio 4's site. There's a production diary on BBC Radio 4's website that discusses the Quandary and Quintessential Phases, which will each be four episodes and will deviate further from the books than the Tertiary Phase did (it may not end the same way it did in Mostly Harmless), as well as tie up loose ends from the first two phases. In other news, their illustrated version of the Hitchhiker's text game won a BAFTA! They also have an interview with the game's co-creator, Steve Meretzky, who also created Planetfall."
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Hitchhiker's Guide Quandary Phase Starts May 3rd More

Hitchhiker's Guide Quandary Phase Starts May 3rd

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  • British radio stirkes again (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Winckle ( 870180 ) <mark&winckle,co,uk> on Wednesday April 20, 2005 @04:47PM (#12296839) Homepage
    This is worth my licence fee alone. fortuntely I also get 5 TV channels, 2 news channels, and more radio channels than I can count. Anyone who says commercial radio is better is just plain wrong.
    • My thanks to the British people for paying for the wonderful thing that is the BBC. I think i'll take BBC radio 4 with me to a deserted island.
      Maybe they should put a paypal donate link on their homepage. I'll do anything to keep enjoying this forever.
    • I prefer the situation in the States, in which I can choose to pay or not for programming depending on whether I want to watch it or not. Sometimes the payment is direct (e.g., HBO) and sometimes it's indirect (commercial advertising), but the key to me is choice.

      I don't like these all-or-nothing deals that charge me a flat rate when I want only a tiny fraction of what is offered. I mean, $300 is a year of NFL Sunday Ticket on DirecTV, a much greater volume (let alone percentage) of the programming of wh
      • In principle, you're right. In practice, you get Desperate Housewives.

        I'd rather have BBC. I'd be DELIGHTED to pay the license fee and get that, instead of the crapfest that is American cable TV.
        • HBO and Showtime have plenty of quality programming. So do many cable channels. Yeah, the networks mostly suck, but even they have some good programming along with a lot of bad stuff. But the point is that I don't have to pay for it if I don't want to patronize their advertisers.

          FWIW, Monty Python's Flying Circus sucks. I've never liked it, and I'm glad I never had to pay for it. Mandatory fees bad; choice good.

      • Re:British radio stirkes again (Score:5, Insightful)

        by datajack ( 17285 ) on Wednesday April 20, 2005 @06:16PM (#12297648)
        It's not .. quote .. like that.

        The problem with advertising based revenue, or 'subscriber-choice' based revenue is simple .. everything revolves around the numbers.
        The 'experts' can happily say that show a will attract x million viewers because it fits into the same mould as another show that got a similar number of viewers, whereas with show b - which is a completely original affair, or a departure from the current norm - they have no idea, no frame of reference to say that it is going to make so many millions in revenue. Most companies will therefore stick with the same-old same-old tried and tested variants of Big Brother.
        Organisations like the BBC have extra freedom to experiment somewhat, and therefore do a lot of quality non-mainstream programmes (I presume that many of the ones I don't like have a quality an purity of their own) including a hell of a lot of excellent stuff that would very rarely even be attempted elsewhere - things like Monty Python, Dr. Who, Neverwhere, HHGTTG, Hustle, Red Dwarf, Blackadder, Little Britain to name but a few. They are encouraged to 'push the envelope' rather than chase ratings.
        Sure, there are some notable experiments in the ratings sector (Ultraviolet, 24 and BSG spring to mind), but these are relatively few and far between in comparison to the BBC's gems.

        I'm happy to shell out my hard-earned for a situation that engenders creative programming.

        • Re:British radio stirkes again (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Evil Pete ( 73279 ) on Wednesday April 20, 2005 @09:28PM (#12298985) Homepage

          As a non-Brit (Aussie) I have to say I've always had a high opinion of the BBC, which just seems to get better. OK influenced a bit by recent events.

          Last night I watched the second installment of the BBC series "Grumpy Old Men" gotta be the funniest documentary I have ever seen. Brilliant idea, well executed. And inspired by these "grumpy old men" of my gen I have decided to be a boring and obnoxious old fart and have my own rant!

          OK. Last Sunday here the ABC (Oz's weak but welcome clone of the BBC) screened the BBC production of Supervolcano ... which I have to say is the best disaster movie I have seen ... an eerie doco that looks more like a blockbuster with nice interviews interlaced into the story that reminds me of "The Third World War" some years back. In some ways the interviews are the most disturbing parts. Well acted too.

          I remember hearing the original HHGTTG series that was broadcast on double-J locally. The ABC mainstream stations wouldn't touch it, so they gave it to the rock station. Somehow appropriate. Nice to listen again online.mmmmmm

          Hmmph. Ranted out. BTW, agree about Utlraviolet, nice idea ... was too busy at the time to follow it but interesting ... a war between intelligence agencies and vampires treating them as spies.

          Time to go back to sleep ..............

        • things like Monty Python, Dr. Who, Neverwhere, HHGTTG, Hustle, Red Dwarf, Blackadder, Little Britain to name but a few. They are encouraged to 'push the envelope' rather than chase ratings.
          Sure, there are some notable experiments in the ratings sector (Ultraviolet, 24 and BSG spring to mind), but these are relatively few and far between in comparison to the BBC's gems.

          You know, good programmes on the BBC are also few and far between. You make it seem that every other programme on the BBC is Blackadder or
      • Oh we still have choice in so much as there are the commercial channels that use advertising, the satelite and cable standard package channels, the premium channels and VOD.

        Having said that I subscribe to standard and premium channels on Sky's digital broadcasting and I still find that most of my viewing is of BBC produced content, either on the BBC channels or on the "UK" network.

        A tenner a month is damn good value for money for the ability to keep up to date via the BBC News website, listen to old radio

  • Let me be the first to say... (Score:5, Funny)

    by nganju ( 821034 ) on Wednesday April 20, 2005 @04:48PM (#12296845)
    Steve Meretzky is one hoopy frood.
    • Steve Meretzky was cool enough to reply to a letter I sent him when I was in high school in the 80's. I loved his Infocom games. He is a hoopy frood.
      • He wrote you back? That rules!

        I loved (and still do) all those old Infocom games when I was a kid...

        Planetfall taught me how to type.
        Bureaucracy taught me how to swear.
        http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=Bureauc racy [the-underdogs.org]

        3 Steve & Douglas

        I miss Floyd, too
        • I bet a lot of us learned to type via Infocom's interactive fiction. Zork was my typing tutor. I can still type attack troll faster than any other phrase.

          Off topic, but in my opinion, modern adventure games pale in comparison with Infocom's classics. Their stories were top-notch, and the puzzles were well thought out. And the graphics (AKA mental imagery) were better than anything in today's games.

          • "examine" and "medicine" were the toughest words for me to learn to spell, yet they were fairly important in Planetfall. (Examine being important in most all Infocom games.

            I think it's due to the rigid parsing structure and spelling constraints that my grammar skills are what they are today.

            I blame the click-fest games and minimal typing interfaces on the current 'how r u?' and 'c u l8r' epidemic.

            I appreciate the quality levels in the ongoing 'Myst' games, but the engrossing _story_ just isn't there. I
      • In the 5th grade we had a class project to write a letter to our "hero," and see what the response was. Most people write to Michael J. Fox or Joe Montana and they mostly got form responses or a poster and such. I wrote to Steve Meretzky, and I was the first to get a response in my class, like a week later. Not only that, be he had handwritten the whole letter - I had only typed mine.

        Anyway, when I met him at GDC in 1999 or so, he didn't remember my letter. Bastard. I wish he was doing something more inter
    • I sass him. He's a frood who knows where his towel is.
    • I probably shouldn't be doing this, but, one cannot be a "hoopy frood," unless the one doing the describing has had one too many pan-galactic gargle blasters.

      Hoopy is not an adjective. It's a noun. It's like saying, "You're a relly-together-guy amazingly-together-guy." Which sort of implies that whoever is saying such a thing hasn't quite got a handle on the whole "together" thing.

  • In related news (Score:4, Funny)

    by WillAffleck ( 42386 ) on Wednesday April 20, 2005 @04:50PM (#12296859)
    Paramount has announced they will do a radio version of the HHGTTG that is available only in mono (not stereo) and in which all of the jokes have been made unfunny.

    The series will be cancelled six weeks into its 13-week series due to Lack of Interest by listeners.

    .

    .

    Well, I wouldn't put it past them ...

  • BAFTA (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20, 2005 @04:50PM (#12296863)
    In case anyone's wondering, BAFTA is the The British Academy of Film and Television Arts. [bafta.org] They give awards [bafta.org] sort of like the Oscar, only without quite as poor a sense of judgement.

    I'm not sure why an 'academy of film and television arts' thinks they're particularly qualified to judge interactive media [bafta.org] though...
  • I'm a herring you insensitive clod!!
  • I missed it. When I was younger, I was into all sorts of sci-fi. I loved TNG, I watched the original Battlestar Galactica. I read sci-fi books. But Hitchhiker's Guide never made it on my radar? Of the 10 or so people I knew in middle school who were into sci-fi, only 1 was into Hitchhiker's Guide.

    What do people like so much about Hitchhiker's Guide, what is it about? How does he compare to other great writers?

  • . . . to declare adding illustrations to a classic Infocom game blasphemy.
    • And the Pope says: "Classic Info-what's-it now?"

      Actually, he'd probably go along with you on that one. Sounds like quite the dogmatic traditionalist. You'd think he'd at least get a head-worn mic so that his assistant can quit wobbling that late-1980's handheld-on-a-gooseneck in his face. I mean, let's put the A/V back into into Ave Maria!

    • Re:I call upon Pope Benedict . . . (Score:5, Funny)

      by Koiu Lpoi ( 632570 ) <koiulpoi@gma i l .com> on Wednesday April 20, 2005 @05:05PM (#12297003)
      Oh, man. That is so what we need. The SlashPope. A man dedicated to the leadership of geeks and other angsty teenagers. Now, some may say that Cowboy Neal is, but I disagree. We must vote on the SlashPope from the members of the community.

      The SlashPope would make it a lot easier - he would just tell you your opinion. No more confusion over whether to hate Microsoft, IBM, Java, etc. No more arguments over whether or not Google is evil. We can now speak as one unified voice - and this voice will be the SlashPope.
    • declare adding illustrations to a classic Infocom game blasphemy.

      The real blasphamy is adding in the ability to save the game. Part of the design philosphy behind Hitchhikers was to make it complete bastard of a game. Thus something you forgot to do (eg feed dog) screws you right up later in the game, with no chance of recover other than to start from scratch.

  • Is it on BitTorrent yet? (Score:5, Funny)

    by timka ( 706628 ) on Wednesday April 20, 2005 @04:57PM (#12296933)
    Sorry, did I say something wrong? Pardon me for breathing which I never do anyway so I don't know why I bother to say it, Oh God I'm so depressed.
  • except I missed the first three phases... anyone wanna hook me up?


    I like the trailer!

  • I remember Planetfall (Score:3, Funny)

    by coolgeek ( 140561 ) on Wednesday April 20, 2005 @05:16PM (#12297078) Homepage
    enter disk

  • Best Quote from Interview (Score:4, Informative)

    by chill ( 34294 ) on Wednesday April 20, 2005 @05:17PM (#12297085) Journal
    What should I tell them about the Babel Fish puzzle?" He said, "What should you tell them? Tell them to f*** off!" So the puzzle stayed... and its very difficulty became a cult thing.

    Damn, that was a fun game that sucked up weeks of my life.

    -Charles

  • Torrents? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by FinchWorld ( 845331 ) on Wednesday April 20, 2005 @05:17PM (#12297090) Homepage
    I know I can listen to them legally live (Being a UK licence payer with t'internet and Digital radio), but I have a nasty habit of missing these things. Anyone know of a site that torrents all these?
  • This is quite cool! Part of the US movie site. If you like collecting and trading stuff you will probably find this fun. UK users can also register, I just did. http://disney.tokenzone.com/dtz2/set/hitchhikers/H ome There are several other collectible sets at www.tokenzone.com

  • Greater deviation == good (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Goobergunch ( 876745 ) <martin@NoSPaM.goobergunch.net> on Wednesday April 20, 2005 @05:22PM (#12297133) Homepage Journal
    I liked the Tertiary Phase, but it was pretty much identical to Life, the Universe, and Everything and didn't really provide much new entertainment. I especially think that changing the ending to Mostly Harmless is a good idea. I was never comfortable with that (no spoilers here). And tying up loose ends are good as well....what did ever happen to Lintilla?
    • At the beginning of the original second series, someone mentions that she was carried away by Galactic Shriners.

      I didn't even know they did a third series. I LOVED the cliffhanger at the end of the second series, and didn't care much for how the books carried the story along.

      Stefan
  • Maybe I'm missing some sublety of the Queen's English, but I thought the fourth in a series is the QUATERNARY and the fifth is the QUINARY.

    Please enlighten me if I'm missing the joke or something. They do identify the previous phase as the TERTIARY.
    • Yes.

      It will be clear when you understand why 6x9=42.

    • Re:Quandary? (Score:2, Informative)

      by ZapoAM ( 735550 )
      Maybe I'm missing some sublety of the Queen's English, but I thought the fourth in a series is the QUATERNARY and the fifth is the QUINARY.

      Please enlighten me if I'm missing the joke or something. They do identify the previous phase as the TERTIARY.

      You're missing the joke. A quandary is a "state of uncertainty or perplexity", and something that is quintessential "[represents] the perfect example of a class or quality." They're puns, in other words (ahaha).

  • Direct link for those listening live (Score:5, Informative)

    by Jaycatt ( 530986 ) on Wednesday April 20, 2005 @05:40PM (#12297312) Journal
    Last September, I used this method for listening to / archiving the tertiary phase:

    1) Grab RA WAV Recorder [homestead.com]
    2) Open this location with it, at the appropriate time: BBC4 radio feed [bbc.co.uk]. Last September, it played Tuesdays at 10:30AM on the west coast (US).
    3) Convert WAV, if you want to (or put right to CD for the car).
    4) Profit (no, not really)

    Just tried it again, to make sure the address hadn't changed, and it still seems to work great!

  • Lem (Score:3, Interesting)

    by roman_mir ( 125474 ) on Wednesday April 20, 2005 @05:46PM (#12297375) Homepage Journal
    I like Adams, but I like Lem more. I guess it maybe because I read Lem earlier - it clicked better.

    If you like THGTTG you should read Stanislaw Lem's

    The Star Diaries - with the main character Ion Tihiy (Ion Quiet,) you will not regret it.

  • If you thought the books unhoopy... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by CarlJagt ( 877688 ) on Wednesday April 20, 2005 @07:38PM (#12298296) Homepage
    ...get yourself to your local public library and request to borrow the audio recording produced by the BBC back in the 70s. They will likely be cassettes (yes, dammit, cassettes) but if you're really lucky, it might be a copy of the original broadcast which, to nutters such as myself, would rank you way up there. While the books are funny-ish (for literary teehees you must admit), the radio play not only pre-dates them, but as a working, successful form of comedy, out performs them. About 27 minutes, per episode, its an easy format to enjoy on-demand. Wear headphones. Thumbs up. Win awards!

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