He has forgotten the his father’s face. Oh, wait, sorry, that’s Stephen King, not Stephen Fry.
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This puzzle has more clues than a Hitchhiker’s Guide Mark IV has options.
Have you tried pressing the dispenser button?
You need to block the small hole.
Let’s hope you aren’t stuck here, because it only gets harder.
It has something to do with the hook above the hole.
You need to hang something on the hook.
Examine the gown.
Notice the loop? Hang the gown on the hook, then press the button again.
Well, you’ve made a little progress. Don’t give up now.
You’ll have to block the drain.
There’s only one thing large enough to completely cover the drain.
Cover the drain with the towel, then push the button again.
Oh, well. Forging ahead, you’ll have to block the tiny robot panel.
Standing or lying in front of the panel won’t work.
You’ll have to put some object in front of the panel.
If it isn’t bulky enough, the cleaning robot dashes around it.
Examine all the objects around.
The satchel is bulky. Put it in front of the panel, then push the button again.
At this point, brave men have been known to break down and cry.
Read, very carefully, the paragraph when Ford goes to sleep.
Note that when you placed the satchel in front of the panel the response was “The satchel is now lying on its side in front of the panel.”
The point of the two previous hints is that you can put an object on top of the satchel.
Put something on the satchel, then push the dispenser button again.
Notice that the upper-half-of-the-room cleaning robot just manages to catch the second item.
Perhaps if there were several items on the satchel, they would all fly in the air and confuse the flying robot.
Unfortunately, there’s only room for one object on the satchel.
Do you have an object, or have you seen an object, that when flung into the air might act as many items?
Remember that when the upper-half-of-the-room cleaning robot grabbed the babel fish, before you put an object on the satchel, the text said that the fish was “the only flying junk” that the robot found.
Put the pile of junk mail on the satchel, then press the dispenser button again.
Voila!
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The TV show and the movie weren’t very good, and it’s really too late now.
In my opinion this is the closest we’ll get to some proper Hitchhiker’s Guide on a screen:
It’s a bit like if they stretched the first episode of HHGG out into a whole series.
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Lighten Up Comrade Marvin
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This space left blank intentionally.
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No, the film was objectively terrible. The cheesy BBC TV version made for a budget that must have been spare change found in the sofa cushions was better.
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It’s a great series but the last two books were a huge slog to get through, the characters i found them to become really unlikable. The humorous tone of everything else was the only thing keeping me going.
But I don’t want a trial subsciption to audible. Bummer.
I only happen to be PopoBowa, and I only happen to be a babbling git on the BBS, and I only happen to be deeply disturbed by finding my planet riddled with subversives undermining the whole structure of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and I have half a mind to take my brain out and play with it. Any questions?
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I was unimpressed by the film as a whole. But there were a few great moments. I think my favourite was when they were animated knitting.
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I would love to hear that… I need to find a copy
… Available here - BBC Radio 4 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - The Game - 30th Anniversary Edition
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The radio dramas are a labor of love for everyone involved, full stop.
They came first, and the books later, even though I read some of the books first.
When the ill-conceived TV show came out, they made their best effort to keep the same folks who did the voices for the radio drama.
~20 years later, when they made the radio dramas off which the books were based, they went so far as to hire the best friend of the now-dead narrator, on account of his doing a good impression of his passed friend.
The radio dramas are worth your time, all of them, old and new. For me, at least, they give a voice to the characters in the books, even for material which hasn’t made it to radio drama yet.
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That’s always BBC scify at its best. Who needs fancy CGI when the story is just really really good. See Blake’s 7 for a fine example.
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just finished this over christmas break. Stephen Fry does an impeccable job. strange pronunciation on a few words for my midwestern/west coast tongue, but fantastic overall.
Brilliant writing should not be buried or destroyed. These things might be old and stale to you, but they aren’t stale for the general public. There’s always new generations to discover them and keep them fresh. That’s what makes a classic.
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I think the word you’re looking for is “subjectively”.
It’s not the book, the radio drama, the video game, or whatever else, but it’s its own kind of fun interpretation of the ideas. Sam Rockwell as Zaphod was brilliant, the dolphin song, the Vogons, the Heart of Gold, the animation of the Book – there’s a lot of genius there and I enjoyed it.
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How do you keep fresh digital watch jokes?
Ah, gotcha. So media becomes stale once the technology and references in them are even a little bit dated. However enjoyable Hitchhiker’s Guide may be as a book, well, it has jokes about digital watches and 80s computers, so better chuck the whole thing just in case a Millennial is confused!
I’d better let the library know – I think they have some books that refer to horse buggies and pocket watches.
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Yes, Please!
