THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY THE QUANDARY PHASE: Fit the Twenty-First

By: Jason Davis
Review Date: Saturday, May 21, 2005

Suffering from less of the heavy-handed narration that's marred the two previous installments of this series, the third episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's Quandary Phase seems more suited to audio adaptation than its narrative-drenched forbears. Here, the interplay between Simon Jones' Arthur Dent and Jane Horrocks' Fenchurch really comes into its own in the aftermath of the airplane wing indiscretion.

The difference between So Long and Thanks For All the Fish (upon which this segment of the radio series is based) and its three predecessors becomes quite apparent when the medium of presentation is altered. Whereas the material that was adapted into Douglas Adams's first two novels can be found, in altered form, throughout the first two radio series, the two most recent series have traversed the medium conversion from the opposite angle. Life, the Universe, and Everything, adapted to radio last year as the Tertiary Phase, was well suited to the medium, as it had originally been conceived as a dramatic production. The fact that the dramatic production in question was a Doctor Who story is neither here nor there. The fact of the matter is that the story was designed to be performed, and thus, when it finally transcended from page to speakers, it worked. So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish was, in effect, Adams' first original novel, as it was not salvaged, re-imagined, or adapted from some other form. As such, its reliance on the trappings of prose are rather strongly structurally embedded. Consequently, William Franklyn's Book has often erred too far toward omniscient narrator exposition rather than the humorous commentary the Guide is intended to provide. As character takes the focus in the chapters here presented, Arthur, Fenchurch, and Wonko manage to carry the drama as an ensemble piece almost devoid of narrative intrusions.


Ah, Wonko the Sane -- easily one of the most memorable characters from the later books, the man who built an asylum round the world would seem a difficult character to get a handle on. Writer-director Dirk Maggs wisely writes and directs the character as utterly ordinary. Rather like the bewildered Arthur of earlier series, Wonko is merely a normal man with a perspective beyond the scope that his contemporaries observe. His interplay with the two protagonists is, thus far, the pinnacle of the book's adaptation and really gets to the gist of the social satire Douglas Adams so ably laced throughout his stories. Maggs manages to convey a primarily visual sense of Wonko's abode without resorting to obvious exclamations on the part of the cast, and Arthur's recitation of the toothpick instructions is likely to become a more widely remembered passage from the saga with Simon Jones's skillful inflections.

Though most would agree that So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish is certainly one off the weaker entries in the cannon of Douglas Adams, this dramatization seems intent on collecting the best bits, like a prospector panning for gold. With memorable moments like the raffle woman in episode two and Wonko's segment herein, the radio version will hopefully call for a reappraisal of the novel and allow audiences another chance to appreciate a lost genius of letters.

On a final note, the casting of the aforementioned Wonko could not have been better...

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