THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY THE QUINTESSENTIAL PHASE: Fit the Twenty-Four

By: Jason Davis
Review Date: Sunday, June 12, 2005

When Dirk Maggs set about adapting the latter three volumes of Douglas Adams' increasingly inaccurately named HITCHHIKER'S trilogy, fans of the twelve original radio episodes were understandably confused. While the first series basically follows the same plot, with a few John Lloyd fabrications inserted, as the television series, the second radio series recounts very little of what would eventually find its way into print. In fact, the final five episodes diverge quite far from anything appearing in any other iteration of THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY. As a result of this disparity, it seemed like straight adaptations of the final volumes would utterly fail to account for the events of 1980's radio broadcasts. The premiere of the Tertiary Phase seemed to confirm this fact, relegating Zaphod's adventures in the Total Perspective Vortex along with the bird people and the Linitilas to a delusional narrative side-trip of little significance.

The second episode of the Quintessential Phase has quickly managed to reduce the foregoing concerns to a load of fetid dingo's kidneys by tying the corporate satire of the novel MOSTLY HARMLESS back to the tangential events of series two. By simply adding the elusive radio name Zarniwoop to the surname of the novel's Guide editor Van Harl, two seemingly unrelated characters bridge the narrative gap to create a synthesis that ties up the loose ends of one story while fleshing out the details of the other. Congratulations to Maggs and his outside-the-box interpretation of the text.


As for the story itself, never has Adams' satirical edge been better served by the era of its presentation. Though the corporate mentality was sucking the life out of worthwhile business endeavors in the early 90s when the book was written, the rampant growth of soul-sucking bottom-line mentalities has truly become a universal experience in today's world. Truly ahead of its time, Douglas Adams' work can now be appreciated from a prophetic point of view, as hindsight has confirmed most of his business-oriented fears.

This episode's production values should be singled out for recognition, as the soundscapes and stereo imaging here are an apex for the modern series. In particular, Saeed Jaffrey's three-dimensional jumps as the old man on the pole are really quite impressive. Not only does the stereo mix fully utilize the right/left disparity of his location, but front to back phantom localizations are also evident. Alas, the 5.1 mix available via high-speed internet to UK listeners is not available worldwide (or on the commercial issue of the Tertiary Phase, which should really take advantage of the capabilities existent in the DVD-Audio and SACD formats).

With the whereabouts of the shack from the 12th episode now determined, the multi-dimensional scope of the story established, and only two episodes left before the end of the line, the conclusion of Dirk Maggs's project is nearly here. This reviewer, for one, hopes that Stephen Moore's Man in the Shack will turn in one final appearance to wrap up what Hunter Thompson would no doubt label "a long, strange trip."