Listen to a sample of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy Tertiary Phase in
MP3
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Amazon.co.uk Review
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Tertiary Phase is a new six-part dramatisation of the third book in Douglas Adams's "Trilogy in Four Parts", Life, the Universe and Everything. We rejoin Arthur Dent--after his anticlimactic revelation of the meaning of life and his unceremonious return to earth--to find him living in a hideously miserable cave in prehistory. However, just as he thinks that things cannot possibly get any worse, they suddenly do. He discovers that the Galaxy is not only mind-bogglingly big and bewildering, but also that most of the things that happen in it are staggeringly unfair.
Many of the cast of the original BBC Radio 4 series have been reunited for superb sequel, which features 20 minutes of material not heard in the broadcast version. The sound is crystal clear and the running time is a massively entertaining 3 hours and 10 minutes. Among the returning cast are Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford Prefect, Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Stephen Moore as Marvin the Paranoid Android. And even the delightful Joanna Lumley pops up unexpectedly. --Paul Eisinger
Product Description
This long-awaited, brand new third series of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" comes to audio on CD and cassette, with 25 minutes of unbroadcast footage. Many of the cast of the original "BBC Radio 4" series have been reunited for this new six-part dramatisation of Douglas Adams' book "Life, the Universe and Everything". Amongst the returning cast are Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford Prefect, Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Stephen Moore as Marvin the Paranoid Android. Other famous names in these new productions include Richard Griffiths, Chris Langham, Joanna Lumley and cricket commentators Fred Trueman and Henry Blofeld. The original two series of "Hitchhiker's" were massively successful on radio and have continued to be bestsellers on audio CD and cassette. This new release also features 25 minutes of material not broadcast on radio.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very floopy,
By
This review is from: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Tertiary Phase (BBC Audiobooks) (Audio CD)
I like the universe again. After the Secondary Phase, I wasn't so sure.In my opinion, this comes very close to being the best of the lot (including Quandary and Quintessential Phases). The pace is perfect. It treats the Secondary Phase as though it was a bad dream (which, if you listen to it lying down and on the edge of sleep, it closely resembles). Don't get me wrong, Secondary has some great stuff, but spirals downward from the midpoint to the end. Tertiary is concerned first and foremost with being funny and quick. The acting is at least as good, if not better than, it was 30 years ago. I love Marvin and the mattress (Zem) on Squornshellous Zeta (if I spelled that right, don't tell me). And as an American who has actually taken the time and risked my sanity to understand the basics of cricket, I love the send-up. But mostly, I liked the sense of energy in this radio play. Everyone was on the same page. The writing and directing seemed, to use a term common in the UK but mostly unknown here, spot on. The piece had a wholeness about it, where the previous Phases sometimes seemed cobbled and bodged together...which they were, given the deadlines and other constraints when they were originally written. The sound quality and production values were very high. The blending of Peter Jones's voice with that of the new voice of the Book was a wonderful tip of the hat...they didn't have to do it, but they did it because it had to be done (if you know what I mean). And Douglas Adams as Agragag (if I spelled that correctly, don't tell me) was a treat. In fact, the whole listening experience is a treat. I've written/produced/etc. radio plays myself. Getting the right tone is sometimes the hardest thing. It may all be there on paper, and the actors may be good, and the effects may be impressive, but it's still an art more than a craft, and tone is so elusive. Given the malleable nature of Time, I'd even reccommend this to someone who'd never heard of the Hitchhikers Guide before. But don't tell The Campaign for Real Time I said so.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Never better,
By
This review is from: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Tertiary Phase (BBC Audiobooks) (Audio CD)
I'm a longtime fan of the Hitchhiker phenomenon. Even way over here in the USA, I can still remember when, in the late 70s/early 80s, when I was working in a college radio station and writing/producing radio plays, I got hold of a set of LPs of the original BBC series.Hopping aboard the Chesterfield and zooming ahead in time, I listened to the Tertiary Phase with some trepidation. How could they recapture it all? I have the Primary and Secondary Phases and have listened to them on and off for many years now, not to mention having read the books and owning the DVDs of the TV series. My expectations were high. In my opinion, the Tertiary Phase is the best of the lot (including the Quandary Phase, which is good but, like the book, slightly more gooey than I would have liked). The sound is fantastic. The characters are more well rounded in general, and the pace is perfect. I agree that the new Slartibartfast is not quite as droll and unflappable as Richard Vernon's. I also liked the nod to Peter Jones, including his voice in the beginning in a clever and touching way. And to hear Douglas Adams doing the voice of Agragag was a treat. I have always found the Secondary Phase (much of which never made its way into the trilogy) a trifle too stark. It had an edge, but at the expense of humor and lightness. I think Adams must have realized this (I think much of it was written on deadline). But the Tertiary Phase is a delight. It ignores the part in Primary where Trillian, Marvin and Zaphod are eaten by a Hagunennon (no idea how it's spelled) and sticks more closely to the chronology of the books. This is a funny, clever, impressive and above all, very human audioplay. Have not listened to the Quintessential Phase yet (tomorrow), but Tertiary is my favorite of the lot. This group was never better.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The music is utterly dire!,
By
This review is from: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Tertiary Phase (BBC Audiobooks) (Audio CD)
I won't go too much into other aspects of the show as they have been covered well here; the fact that these are adaptations from the books and, therefore, are not as pure in their radio form as the original two series (though they do a fine job, all things considered, and use sound in a fabulous way to really make us believe that Zaphod has the two heads; something which was missing in the original shows).
However, I have to state that the music is utterly dire! For a start, it's often far too melancholic or dramatic. The point, first and foremost, is that this is a comedy show. Music often appears when it simply shouldn't; when Ford and Arthur are having a little rant about the problems of the universe in general, or trying to solve some kind of conundrum. The words should speak for themselves, and their comedic value is utterly destroyed by the inclusion of music which is often in completely the wrong emotional tone. It annoyed me so much as it often swamped the show and seemed to take centre stage, in the same way that the music in the new Doctor Who series seems to do so. Subtle, it ain't! A shame, really, as I would have given the show five stars simply for all the effort gone into creating it and the wonder of having (most of) the original cast back together to create something new and fresh for Hitchhiker's out of the audio medium. Of course, if you can ignore the music (difficult for me to do so at times, I'm afraid), and you are a true Hitchhiker's fan, then you'll gain much from this audio adventure.
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