Lates from Neverdie

Yes. IMHO all the versions are great although the movie is sub great... it's reasonable enough, with the possible exception of the computer game being just too obfuscated and hard. I've got all the radio plays on CD/MP3CD with the exception of the newest one which I heard from the BBC radio catchup app. I was told it was bad, I liked it though. I think I'll always like the TV show the best but it had much of the same cast as as the radio in. A few years ago I was lucky enough to go see the original radio cast perform hitchhikers on stage locally. That was so much fun. Mark Wing Davey really IS Zaphod even now and you could tell he was absolutely loving it. In fact I think they all were.

The movie was OK. I think it gets a bad rap and people are too critical of it. The thing I found most disappointing was Alan Rickman's portrayal of Marvin. This was compounded once the 3rd radio series was released with the original Marvin and he had so much malice you could cut the air with it. This was what was missing from Alan's performance. He played Marvin as merely depressed not someone who had millennia of bitterness from being abused be people he considered to be idiots. There was a classic line in the radio show where Zaphod says "Marvin! How you doing kid?" and Marvin replies, "rather badly I suspect..." (they were about to ask him to sacrifice himself to save them). The delivery of that line had such tangible loathing it was comedy perfection.

But yeh, there are some things in the movie that were very good, the casting of Slartibartfast and Zaphod was great, (and even Ford once you get the joke) the bit where they start the life cycle was lovely, the song at the end was perfect. Yeh it wasn't a faithful reconstruction of the radio or TV show but where's the fun in doing that? You don't add anything new.

On a final note I loved the 3rd+ radio series that they did much later especially number 3 and 5. They were done really well. TBH they all were. I particularly liked the bit with Agrajag. That was hilarious and spot on to how I imagined it from the book.

Wistrel

PS random funny. I got to hear some of the later radio plays live on radio as they went out for the first time. This might amuse the older age forum members but this was the first time I'd ever listened to a play live on a radio. I kept finding myself staring at the radio itself is if it were a TV and then reminding myself I could look anywhere XD

 

haha! Nice! I never saw that update before. I joined in April 2004 so it was 2 months prior to that. I guess I imagined it had been a decent amount of time before somehow. Haha just thinking back to those early days... I could go hunting with a Jester D1 and take 2 to 3 hits on a sabakuma and loot 5 to 6 pecs. Calmer times...

 

"Ever thought of going into advertising?"

Loved that dialog - it was delivered with such anger