Rating: 
Summary: As lively as Zaphod's second head
Review: Now we know that the Hitchhiker's Guide will never get turned into a movie, this is the best visual memento we have of what
might have been. Unfortunately the six-episode BBC series has many flaws, not least of which was the casting of Sandra Dickinson as Trillian. Adams' finest moment was the first BBC radio series, broadcast in 1978, and his life after that regrettably was a series of missed deadlines and lesser works which never achieved the same standard of inventiveness. Perhaps Adams recognised that fact himself in his later years, which was why he devoted much of his last months trying to persuade Disney to make that movie. One of the eclectic features of the first radio series, which was missing in both the second and this TV adaptation, was the choice
of original music extracts from the period. Gone are the nuggets from Patrick Moraz, Stomu Yamashta and Terry Riley, and in
their place we get filler music from Paddy Kingsland, Tim Souster and the radiophonic workshop. OK, so the BBC is spared the
problem of royalty payments, but their omission cuts a lot of atmosphere from the backing track. This double-DVD set is instructive in the extras it contains: an hour-long documentary of the making of the TV Hitchhiker
recorded in about 1993. It seemed impossible for any actor to fluff their lines without saying "Oh f*?!" -- that's what makes the
DVD a '15' rating in the UK. The out-takes aren't particularly funny, and there's only one deleted scene. What we really wanted to hear
about was how the idea for the Hitchhiker came about, but that is essentially the stuff of the project that came before the TV
series, namely the radio programmes. Mention of them seems largely verboten in this package. We do get to see an early Douglas
Adams sketch featuring Monty Python's Graham Chapman -- Douglas regularly supported Graham during the latter's alcoholic phases -- but the sketch isn't that funny. We also get to hear a sample of the laughter track recorded for the first episode -- it's generated by a group of science fiction fans
sitting far too close to a microphone. The BBC wisely decided to broadcast without the canned laughter. The main problem with the extras is that there's not enough of Douglas, and too much of Alan Bell, the TV series producer who,
many feel, wasn't quite the right choice to catch the atmosphere of Hitchhiker. Anyway, try it for yourself. I've no regrets about buying the DVD. I already had the series on VHS video (and audio CD, and
audio cassette, and book, and ...). Alongside 'Fawlty Towers' and 'Ripping Yarns', Hitchhiker was the best thing to emerge from
British comedy in the 1970s. The most telling aspect of the TV Hitchhiker is that very little of it is funny, after hearing the radio series. The radio Hitchhiker
opened up endless possibilities. It was radio at its best, opening up our minds and imagination. Putting it down on video somehow
seemed to confine everything. The jokes were nearly all the same as per the radio scripts, and yet they now rang hollow.
Rating:
Summary: It grows on you.
Review: 'The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy' has amassed an enormous reputation, not only as an inventive sci-fi TV comedy, but as prophetic of such things as the Internet and ecological inertia, and in its asking profound questions of life and the universe. So it was with deep disappointment that I watched the first episode. There were a number of maddening things about it - most notably the tone, that of a brilliant, smart-alecky Oxbridge student spewing out brittle, unfunny jokes, wisecracks, non-sequiters, puns; the result of someone who had watched too many Monty Python sketches, could rehearse every one off by heart, and wanted to create something in its image, forgetting to be funny. A related problem was something that often blights English fantasy (as seen most recently in the Wallace and Gromit films) - the disjunction between wild, supernatural events and mundane, clipped British common sense, where mind-boggling philosophical concepts and extravagant science fiction are deflated by Englishmen called Arthur wandering about in dressing gowns despondantly seeking cups of tea. This bathetic method is again borrowed from Monty Python, but their intention was to destabilise and alienate the viewer, not reassure. Fantasy CAN work in this way - in the'Metamorphosis', for example, a salesman in a banal petit bourgeois apartment turns into a monstrous vermin, but Kafka preserves the terror of the unknown, the inexplicable. We may not find out the question to the meaning of life in 'Guide', but we can always have a nice bath. Further, the whole thing is infected with a prog-rock sensibility, and the word-play owes less to Lewis Carroll than Giles Brandreth. Nevertheless, as the programme continued, I began to really enjoy it in spite of myself. I think this is because the picaresque structure - a seemingly random, episodic journey in which the central heroes gather a group of friends, have some adventures, meet some characters with worldviews startlingly different to their own - is inherently compelling. Add to this the (again Python-derived) rooting of this narrative in ancient quest sotries, giving the story a mythical undertow, making us believe and hope our heroes WILL find the meaning of life, even though if they had, we'd probably have heard of it by now. There are some magnificent set-pieces (e.g. the desert planet with Slartibartfast); digressions (the whole Deep Thought fancy; the Milliway Restaurant); and engaging characters, my favourites being the oppressively pessimistic robot Marvin, and the sinisterly blithe B-Ark Captain. The New Romantic glitter sets, lighting and costumes are spangletastic. Best of all are the extraordinary graphics visualising the actual Guide itself, compiling with documentary precision a kind of Borgesian alternative universe, with its own peoples, histories, arts etc.
Rating:
Summary: If you get the humor...
Review: Okay, so those who love the Hitchhiker's books and appreciate Douglas Adams' brand of humor will be able to enjoy the film version also. The quality of the movie is poor, which just adds to hilarity of the story. If you know your Hitchhiker's material this video will have you cracking up. If you don't know it, you'll probably be clueless. It's sarcastic and it's British and it is funny as hell. That about sums it up.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor Quality Recording
Review: This release of HGTG has two major problems. First, the quality of the video is about that of a very old movie that has been lying in an attic for years. There is a lot of video noise and the picture quality is extremely poor. Second, there are sections on the film where "the Guide" is talking but the sound track is silent. I returned the original one purchased thinking that it was just a bad copy but the replacement was equally as bad. It appears that the BBC used a very poor and incomplete master to generate this copy. The video quality of the series shown on the Sci-Fi cable channel is very good and includes the missing "Guide" sound tracks.
Rating: 
Summary: A Shameful Waste of a Great Resource
Review: The quality of this tape is nearly as bad as that of the DVD version of "One-Eyed Jacks" (q. don't v.)! The Beeb needs to Do the Right Thing and issue a "complete" (whatever that might be) DVD issue, along with the entire radio series, which was The Absolute Best. This would be a fitting tribute to Adams, and they would Make Money (read the other reviews). Adams was a man of integrity and consistency, as I found out when I wished him, tongue in cheek, to "Have a Nice Day". I thought he was going to kill me. He really did hate that expression, and I feel guilty now about having caused him that stress. May he outsell Disney.
Rating: 
Summary: the Bable Fish
Review: The tele vision verion is not wht most hinl it is baed on. instead of being baed on the books, it was instead based on the radio show that both book and tv verions came out of wht is so intewr esting is that they ued new teniqes for the time, and after twenty years it still holds up.
Rating:
Summary: Poor Quality Video
Review: It's real shame that the quality of this recording is so poor. It's almost unwatchable, doesn't track properly, the sound is mushy. I sent it back, believing it was a faulty tape, but no, they're all that bad. GET IT OUT ON DVD ASAP!!!!
Rating:
Summary: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Review: Having been an avid viewer when this BBC show aired originally in the States we were eager to watch and savor this comedy series again. We were however disappointed to discover that quite a bit of the narration has been omitted from the video-leaving large gaps in the story. Several scenes include the video and background music but are missing the narration that explains what is ocurring-without this narration the viewer is lost. Shame on the editors!!!
Rating:
Summary: Douglas Adams should be Knighted
Review: I first saw this movie as a series on PBS sometime in the '80s and thought it was absolutely hillarious. I highly recommend this to anyone who knows how to laugh. I truely hope it comes out on DVD soon since I don't have a functional VCR player anymore. As a side note, if you love Adams' work, you should check out his book "Last Chance to See". It is non-fiction, however, much more entertaining than most fiction books.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant material, damaged by compression to 1 tape
Review: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a brilliant conversion of an original radio script to tape. Not only a story funny and daft as only British Sci-Fi can be, but this was the first exposure to a broad audience of how good computer animation can be. BUT, some fool decided to compress the VCR -- originally released on 2 tapes -- on to one tape. Consequently the reproduction quality is mediocre, when it needs to be bright, and as engaging as the material. WE NEED TO GET THIS RELEASED ON DVD, and stop this nonesense! jim
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