Doctor Who: The Doomsday Contract
by John Lloyd; adapted by Nev Fountain (Big Finish, 2021)
Originally commissioned during Douglas Adams’ tenure as script editor, The Doomsday Contract exhibits a Hitchhiker’s tonality but without quite the same zest. Tom Baker gives it some welly but the denunciation of bureaucracy via reductio ad absurdum seems a bit old hat.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
dir. Garth Jennings (2005)
Depressingly close to being really, really good. The Vogons are top-notch and the reworked characterisations have much to offer. Ironically, though, while the newly scripted scenes are vintage Adams, a great deal of slavishly reproduced old material fails to hit the mark.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
by Douglas Adams (Heinemann, 1987)
Rushed ending aside, this is a consummate piece of genre creation. Adams crafts a supernatural SF detective story with gorgeous (often subtle) pieces of interconnectedness, Doctor Who rehash and zany bits of faux-throwaway, all brought together by the late-appearing protagonist. Improbably brilliant.
Last Chance to See…
by Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine (Guild, 1990)
In many respects this is Douglas Adams’ best book. Being non-fiction, the plot is taken care of, and Adams’ observational wit offsets the grave subject matter. What results is a humorous travelogue and rallying cry, at once poignant, profound, cautionary and hopeful.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Season 1
(2016)
Very much ‘inspired by’ rather than ‘based on’, this BBC American adaptation of Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently books takes a simple outlandish idea and builds strangeness upon strangeness. As per Adams, the plot is essentially meaningless but brilliantly funny in the unfolding.
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
by Douglas Adams (William Heinemann, 1988); audiobook read by Douglas Adams (Phoenix, 2015)
The story, when looked back upon at book’s end, turns out to have been the flimsiest of nonsense. Dirk actually does very little. But this only serves to emphasise the deft, droll, audacious touch of Adams’ whimsy, and the lure of interconnectedness.
The Salmon of Doubt
by Douglas Adams (William Heinemann, 2002); audiobook read by Simon Jones (Phoenix, 2005)
A patchy, posthumous collection of Adams writings (predominantly non-fiction) exemplifying his off-beat, self-indulgent style, his knack for pinning down human absurdities, and his incurable technophilia and recycling of ideas and anecdotes. Most tantalising for fans is the nascent unfinished Dirk Gently novel(la).
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
by Douglas Adams (Pan, 1984); audiobook read by Martin Freeman (Macmillan, 2012)
The ideas, as ever, are ingenious, and Adams is at the top of his game in reuniting Arthur Dent with the erstwhile-destroyed Planet Earth. The story, however, such as it is, hitchhikes half-heartedly while secretly yearning to become a Dirk Gently novel.
I Was Douglas Adams’s Flatmate, and Other Encounters with Legends
by Andrew McGibbon (Faber and Faber, 2011)
With the exception of the title piece, this collection of reminiscences focusses far more on the people making them than on the legends in question. It’s an interesting enough hodgepodge but reads rather like a single good idea released as an album.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Hexagonal Phase
by Eoin Colfer; adapted by Dirk Maggs (BBC, 2018)
Colfer’s contribution to Hitchhiker’s probably works better in adaptation—as a continuation of the seminal radio series—than as a novel. Forty years on, the original actors have returned to their recording booths and sound ever-young, still invested in Adams’ cosmic zaniness.