The Guide (character)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is an electronic guide book in the multi-media series of the same name. In fandom, this narrative device is sometimes shortened to The Guide. In the original radio scripts, it was called "Narrator" and in the 2004-2005 series, "The Voice."[1][2] For all of the radio series and the 1981 TV series, the role was credited as "The Book", though this was changed to "Narrator/The Guide" for the 2005 movie. The narratives from the book serve as a major plot device in every version of the story, providing an expounding amount of information through several entries provided by field researchers throughout the universe.
In the first two phases of the radio series, the LP album adaptations of the first radio series and in the television series, the Guide was voiced by legendary British actor Peter Jones. During the 2004-2005 radio series, The Guide was voiced by William Franklyn. In the film version, it was voiced by Stephen Fry.
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[edit] Entries
The Guide's various entries can be found throughout the various adaptations of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. These fictional entries are provided by various contributors. The most famous of these contributors in the series is Ford Prefect, who spent fifteen years writing an entry on the planet Earth, which was edited down to Mostly Harmless.
[edit] Publisher
Within the series, the Guide was said to have been originally published by Megadodo Publications, "one of the greatest publication houses on Ursa Minor Beta". The first publication of the book was a huge success, beating bestsellers like Oolon Colluphid's philosophical trilogy Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes, and Who is This God Person Anyway?. The series describes the book's success based on two factors: that it is cheaper and more compact than the Encyclopaedia Galactica and that it has the words Don't Panic! written in large friendly letters on its cover.
When Megadodo was bought out by Infinidim Enterprises in Mostly Harmless, the new editor in chief, Vann Harl, changed the Guide's demographic from penniless hitchhikers to families in billions of billions of alternate worlds, thus altering the Guide's original purpose. Ford Prefect, in resistance of this, knocked out Vann Harl, stole his Ident-I-Eze card to increase all limits on Ford's own Dino-O-Charge card. Ford was thus able to use his Dine-O-Charge to buy a pink spaceship, all the foie gras in London, and The London Zoo, in addition to buying the hotel he was staying at for the concierge, all charged to the Guide and Infinidim Enterprises, hoping to "bankrupt the buggers."
[edit] Connection to Arthur Dent
In the novels, the Guide seems to have a symbiotic connection with one of the main characters, Arthur Dent. From the first time Dent sees a copy of the book, the Guide follows Dent wherever he goes. Ford Prefect first shows Arthur the book while the two are trapped on a Vogon Constructor Ship. This copy, along with the protagonists, travels through time and space to Magrathea, Milliways, and eventually to a prehistoric version of Earth. After that, the copy of the Guide winds up on the Starship Bistromath, and eventually the Planet Krikket. Sometime between the third and fourth novels, Arthur acquires his own copy, which Fenchurch discovers after it has been left in her brother's automobile. Finally, after dealing with the Guide Mark II in Mostly Harmless, the book seals the doom of itself and Arthur Dent at the club Stavro Müller Beta, thus sealing the fact that the two beings are connected.
[edit] References
- ^ Adams, Douglas (2003). in Geoffrey Perkins (ed.), additional Material by M. J. Simpson.: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Original Radio Scripts, 25th Anniversary Edition, Pan Books. ISBN 0-330-41957-9.
- ^ Adams, Douglas. (2005). in Dirk Maggs, dramatisations and editor.: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Scripts: The Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential Phases. Pan Books. ISBN 0-330-43510-8.
