The classic TV series cannot be topped, but is very old, whereas the movie is quite new, but can surely be topped. So let’s hope that the new Hulu reboot of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy offers the best of both worlds.
For those few who might be unfamiliar with this classic of geekdom, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy tells the tale of Earth’s destruction so that aliens can build a space highway. It centers on a Brit named Arthur Dent and his best friend Ford Prefect, who is writing the travel guide of the title.
The series was first conceived as a radio show on the BBC back in 1978. Since then, Adams turned the idea into a set of novels that became many fans’ first exposure to his comedic stylings. This Hulu project isn’t the first time Hitchhiker’s Guide has received a visual treatment. The original novel was released as a feature film starring Martin Freeman, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Sam Rockwell, and Stephen Fry in 2005. It was also made into a TV series in the UK in the 1980s, and recently the original radio cast reunited for a new radio dramatization.
I feel about Hitchhiker’s Guide the way I feel about another Douglas Adams masterwork, The Meaning of Liff. I love it, but it’s a statue in the pantheon, so maybe I’m just nostalgic about the idea of it and what it represents. It’s coupled to a long-ago moment of the British comic imagination: tantalizingly close to modern frequencies but, in truth, another universe. The context that made it magical is gone, even to those suspceptible to that particular middle-class English glamour, and I suspect that most will find only a likeable but disengaged ritual of humor.