Ljk said:

> I have to correct you on Zaphod Beeblebrox's experience with
>the TPV (Total Perspective Vortex): In the novel, it was actually
>a simulacrum of the real TPV. Zaphod was informed that had
>he experienced the real TPV, his brain would have been quickly
>turned to mush, or words to that effect.

I think(?) in the radio play version of the Hitchhiker's Guide, Zaphod Beeblebrox was in a parallel universe that had been made specifically for him. Consequently when Gargravarr put Beeblebrox in the TPV, Beeblebrox discovered that he was indeed the most important person in the universe. However if Beeblebrox had been put in the TPV of the real universe then his mind would have been destroyed.

>BTW, was anyone else as disappointed with the film version as
>I was?

It was tolerable but not great.

>Was it just because I knew most of the jokes since HHGTTG
>first came out in the late 1970s? Or was the humor just too
>deadpan? Or was it funnier to hear and read about them
>instead? And why is it that one of my favorite characters,
>Marvin the Paranoid Android, came across as just annoying
>in the film? I want you to know that I found that very depressing.

The actor for Arthur Dent was well casted. I had always visualized Trillian as a generic good looking blond chick so the actress casted for Trillian was less good (she performed acceptably). The casting for Zaphod was acceptable (the fake second head was less annoying than the television version). Having a black guy casted as Ford Prefect was a mistake. The robot was par for the course. I preferred the "Heat of Gold" as shown in the movie versus the book's description (having it look like a running shoe was just lame). The Vogons were okay. The scene in the movie where they destroyed the Earth was well done. The Vogon poetry scene in the movie could have been done better. "The Voice of the Book" for the movie was not acceptable. The dead pan style of "The Voice of the Book" in the radio play was what really made the story funny. The Hollywood ending of the movie where the Earth was restored and Arthur Dent gets Trillian was totally unacceptable and contrary to the spirit of the book and radio play (cynical nihilism). I would have given the movie a "B+" until they spoiled it with that stupid ending. With the stupid ending, I give it a "C+" (barely acceptable).

Gary