THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is a book by Douglas Adams and is often abbreviated as "HHG", "HHGG", "HG2G", "HHGTTG" or "H2G2". In addition to the several incarnations of the story, of which the books are the most popular originated as a 1978 radio comedy series written by Douglas Adams. It was followed by a series of novels, a television series and a computer game. A film version was released in April 2005 starring Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell and Mos Def. Although the various versions followed the same basic plot, they are in many places mutually contradictory, as Adams rewrote the story substantially for each "adaptation".
Brief History to the Hitchhiker's Guide
The books are described as "a trilogy in five parts", having been described as a trilogy on the release of the third book, and then a "trilogy in four parts" on the release of the fourth book. They have a wide following around the world, thanks to their outlandish situations, characters and concepts (e.g. Babel fish, Vogon poetry, Slartibartfast and other minor characters, The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything), their anarchic, humour, and their subtle social commentary.
The first radio series was originally going to be called 'The Ends of the Earth': six self-contained episodes, all ending with the Earth being destroyed in a different way. While writing the first episode, Adams realised that he needed someone on the planet who was an alien to provide some context for the story. Having done that, he then decided that this person needed a reason to be there, and so he decided that the alien was a field researcher for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and as he explored the concept more, it became obvious to him that the Guide was becoming the centre of the story and so he decided to focus the series on it, with the destruction of Earth in the first episode being the only hold-over from 'The Ends of the Earth'.
Adams claimed numerous times at length that the title came from an incident while he was hitch-hiking around Europe as a young man with a copy of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to Europe (being too poor to afford Europe on Five Dollars a Day), and while lying drunk in a field in Innsbruck with a copy of the book and looking up at the stars, thought it would be a good idea for someone to write a hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy as well. However, he also claimed later in life that he had told this story so many times that he had forgotten his actual memory of the incident, and only remembered himself telling various people the story.
See Also: Douglas Adams and The Ultimate Answer.
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