The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Tertiary Phase

Hitchhiker's Guide BBC Radio Series #3

by Douglas Adams

Don’t panic! The Hitchhiker’s saga continues with a full-cast dramatisation of Life, the Universe and Everything, the third book in Douglas Adams’s famous ‘trilogy in five parts’

‘The pitch here at Lord’s is blackened, lightly smoking down towards square leg – and two men have just materialised on a Chesterfield sofa...’

And so the scene is set for the Tertiary Phase of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the phenomenon which began life as a BBC radio series and went on to spawn a bestselling series of novels. With this full-cast radio dramatisation, the Guide returns to its original medium with its original cast.

Stranded on prehistoric Earth, Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect find escape in the form of a time-travelling sofa. But as eleven homicidal, bat-wielding robots proceed to blow up Lord’s Cricket Ground, it seems that Arthur is far from Home and Dry. In fact, he is not even Home and Vigorously Towelling Himself Off. Soon he is on an explosive quest to save the Universe, equipped with only a rabbit bone, a worn dressing gown, and a spaceship which looks remarkably like an Italian bistro.

Simon Jones returns as Arthur, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford, Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, and Stephen Moore as Marvin the Paranoid Android. William Franklyn is the Book, the late Douglas Adams himself appears in the role of Agrajag, and guest stars include Richard Griffiths, Chris Langham, Joanna Lumley and Leslie Phillips.

Genres: Audiobook, Science Fiction, Humor, Fiction, Comedy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Classics

3 pages, Audible Audio

First published October 25, 2004

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Douglas Noel Adams was an English author, humourist, and screenwriter, best known for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (HHGTTG). Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy developed into a "trilogy" of five books that sold more than 15 million copies in his lifetime. It was further developed into a television series, several stage plays, comics, a video game, and a 2005 feature film. Adams's contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academy's Hall of Fame.
Adams also wrote Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988), and co-wrote The Meaning of Liff (1983), The Deeper Meaning of Liff (1990) and Last Chance to See (1990). He wrote two stories for the television series Doctor Who, co-wrote City of Death (1979), and served as script editor for its seventeenth season. He co-wrote the sketch "Patient Abuse" for the final episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus. A posthumous collection of his selected works, including the first publication of his final (unfinished) novel, was published as The Salmon of Doubt in 2002.
Adams was a self-proclaimed "radical atheist", an advocate for environmentalism and conservation, and a lover of fast cars, technological innovation, and the Apple Macintosh.

Reviews

[Alyson Walton · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is nothing I do not like about Hitchhikers!!! Having read these books at least four times over, listening to it out of order didn't bother me, I just love it!

[Ilana (illi69) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I much enjoyed revisiting the Primary and Secondary phases (or books 1 and 2) which was a nostalgic experience for me as I’d discovered this series on student radio as an 18 year old young woman. As with the first two audiobooks, the sound effects were fun but I think I’ve come to the end of my adventure with THGTTG as the silliness factor proved more annoying than fun this time around.

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, adored listening to this amazing radio play by the insanely talented Douglas Adams the world was lucky to have had him and his chaos neutral mind that brought, and brings joy and laughter to so many.

Listened to this one out of sequence, which is fine, as I am close to word perfect.... or so I thought. Turns out that this edition must have been remastered or reedited, it is noticeably different in many small ways to the original radio play I know so well.

Unless I have fallen through a wormhole in space caused by an improbability drive, or something...

[Denise みか Hutchins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though, once upon a time, I had read all the Hitchhiker's Guide novels, and this dramatization is based on the third book, I didn't remember anything about it as I listened to this. That's not a complaint, just an interesting observation, since this series is among my all-time favorites. Not knowing what was coming meant all the plot twists and jokes were fresh and new, so I enjoyed this radio play completely! I loved the cast, including the recasting of characters whose actors had passed away, though it was sad to think that both of Slartibartfast's voice actors have now passed 😞 I didn't know until finishing this and reading others' reviews that Douglas Adams himself voices a role posthumously, as well! Definitely looking forward to listening to the next entry in this series!

[Meg O'Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

It doesn’t quite have the twinkle and swashbuckling charm as the previous two, and I was upset to discover that a huge portion of the second one is revealed retroactively to have been a dream of Zaphod’s. Trillian is just such a boring character, and the romance between her and Arthur is really insipid! There are not so many dazzlingly witty asides, and the atheism takes a back seat, too. Also not enough Marvin for my liking. There are of course many brilliant moments, but I just didn’t get on with it as well as I have the primary and secondary phases.

[Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well nevermind the secondary phase theny it apparently never happened. This one is a straight adaptation of the third book, which is not a bad thing since it's a good book (albeit not my favorite in the series). A bit sad that nothing ever happened to the alternate storyline the radio plays before set up, but Douglas Adams wanted it that way.

[Chinook · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty interesting - for all that I listened to it out of order - though the audio was a bit rough at times, particularly sound effects.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4ish? 4.5? Idk? I enjoyed it and it definitely had more Plot than the last one, but it just didn't have that jena se quois.
They did choose probably the funniest way possible to make the plots of the radio series and the book series gel better, though: the entire Secondary Phase was a hallucination had by influencer-in-chief Zaphod Beelbebrox (EDIT: back from the future to say it was only large chunks of it lol). Sure, why not?
Also, no shade at Dirk Maggs at all - he has done some banger radio shows and he honored all of Adam's wishes with this one, sounds like- but I found out recently that Douglas Adams initially asked Neil Gaiman* if he wanted to adapt the third book for radio and...it haunts me, y'all. What could have been...
Also also, very curious about the Doctor Who**...episode? movie? that the Krikkit part of the plot was initially going to be. Might check out the novelisation at some point.

*Mostly I just want Neil Gaiman to adapt everything. H2G2. Howl's Moving Castle. Various Discworlds. I trust him.
**I have been wondering if Ford was the result of Adams asking himself "what if the Doctor was kind of an asshole (affectionate)?"

[Daniel Bensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny ramble.
Part of the reason I like the Hitchhiker's Guide books is how non-linear they are. It's clear Adams was willing to go where his muse took him, although perhaps he wasn't always happy about it. The radio play I actually like less than the audiobook (some of the jokes work better as internal rather than external dialogue) but oh my God, I love "Journey of the Sorcerer by the Eagles." I've been listening to it on repeat for weeks.

[Sarah u · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series of the radio plays brings to life Life, the Universe and Everything, Douglas Adams' third Hitchhiker novel. Differently to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Primary Phase and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Secondary Phase, the Tertiary Phase radio play was adapted from the novel.

The story this time is about the people of Krikket, a xenophobic race who until recently were sure they were alone in the universe. This story is more structured than previous Hitchhiker stories, with a theme throughout and one thing logically moving to another. The humour, observations of human beings and wit remain and make this series thoroughly enjoyable despite the loss of the random elements of the stories. There were also some wonderful additions to the story in this radio series, including the new voice of the Guide being mingled with the old at the beginning (Peter Jones, the original voice of the Guide, died before the Tertiary Phase was made) and Douglas Adams as Agrajag (Adams also died before the Tertiary Phase was made, his voice acting was taken from the audiobook of Life, the Universe and Everything). These were lovely touches, and added something more to this series for me.

I really love this radio series, and can't recommend it highly enough. They are as good as, if not better than, the books and so much fun to listen to.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given the two major problems that this radio adaptation faced it's a surprise to me that I enjoyed it as much as I did. Firstly, Life, the Universe and Everything was clearly never written as a radio drama and so, next to the first two seasons, this was always going to look and feel differently. Secondly, the final books of the Hitchhikers cycle were never as strong as those that were originally adapted from the radio series anyway.

Life, the Universe and Everything is problematic to me because it's an adaptation of a script originally intended to be a Doctor Who adventure and so right off the bat (pun totally intended) it doesn't feel like a Hitchhiker's story. There's too much focus and structure in the diea of the Krikkitmen trying to find a bunch of different things to use to destroy the universe. Hitchhiker's is best when the connections feel random and crazy and the plot of this just feels cliche and by numbers. Despite this, Adams writing is still very wacky and funny in the book, and a lot of that excellent humour translates well to the new radio series, which does a good job of being like the old radio series, mostly featuring the old cast and getting good replacements where necessary. There are some excellent Hitchhiker highlights here, such as Marvin going round in circles and talking to the mattress, or Arthur Dent's encounter with Agrajag (wonderfully voiced by a Douglas Adams himself) a poor soul whom Arthur keeps accidentally killing in his different incarnations and also the immortal guy whose mission is to insult everyone in the universe.

I'm very glad they made this since it was a delight to listen to.

[Karen Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't believe how I missed out on the radio series and judged the book based on its contents. I completely forgot that Douglas wrote the series to be a radio play! This would explain why some aspects of the book felt lacking and some jokes fell flat. You truly need to hear them in order to enjoy them at their fullest.

This radio drama is much more enjoyable and fun than the book. There, I said it.

The characters and voice actors match, the music is well utilized and the sound effects are hilarious. Arthur sounds like the harried British man that he is, Ford sounds posh and calm, Slartibartfast has a very clipped and formal pronunciation whereas Zaphod sounds like an American who got lost in a foreign country for too long. Vaguely Latin? Vaguely South African? No idea. But I like how I could tell them apart right away. I like how depressing Marvin sounds like. But the white robots have a weird Italian Brooklyn accent I couldn't place and it didn't help that they also were garbled by voice changing machines.

I guess it would have been too much to ask for Slartibartfast to sound like a Norwegian man to help me tell him apart better but I cannot complain too much already.

Can't wait to listen to the primary phase. If I listened to this from the start, I might be more inclined to rate the book lower because it doesn't live up to the drama. So I'm glad I didn't find this until now.

[February · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never was there a more devastating burn in the entirety of the universe than when someone replied to Zaphod Beeblebrox introducing himself with a deadpan, "So what?"

Another entertaining radio series, which retcons a bit of what happened in the previous series (because of course it does!) and follows along some of the key points of Life, the Universe and Everything, complete with the Starship Bistromath (loved actually hearing it here, the strife with Krikkit (much more exciting than actual Cricket... though, come to think, the Cricket of this book may have also been more exciting than actual Cricket due to the murderous robots that appear), and the characters Wowbanger and Agrajag who display levels of pettiness to which I can only hope to aspire.

Great radio play and much improved audio, though I would say some of the dramatic effect pauses (or maniacal laughter) may have been a bit overlong, as were some fluff bits. The script slogged a bit in places for me because of it. Still very enjoyable, and a fun afternoon walk listen.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating between 3.5 & 4

The only reason for 4 stars is the enjoyment of listening to the actors all together again performing their original roles.
The new book was well done and worked very well.
The overall story was okay I thought and the decision to continue from the end of the primary phase was correct I think.
There was a brief reference to the effect that the secondary phase only happened in zaphod’s mind. Certainly that is my least favourite series.
The major downside of this series was that it was a relatively faithful adaptation of the novel and if Adams had been alive he would have changed the story much more than this did.

Overall recommend

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5 stars)

The very British elements of Adams’ galactic story world is so funny, and so brilliant, and that’s certainly no different here, as the primary hitchhikers take on cricket and Kricket and the end of the universe. The biggest problem is, unfortunately, a strange meandering sensibility to it that feels less like a journey and more like a bizarre experience through odd situations in a way that’s entirely different to either of the earlier series. But Maggs’ keeps the soul of Adams’ writing at the forefront as he adapts that world more than 20 years on since the last radio series. Flawed, but nevertheless fun.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where the first two novels in the series were adapted from the radio dramas, this third series of the radio plays was adapted from the third book in the series. It was produced without Adams this time around, and since so many years had passed between the second and tertiary phases, some of the cast had to be replaced. It still flowed well, and it was nice to remember the details of the books as I listened to the drama; it's been over thirty years since I last read the series.

2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book in a different format than what you normally read (audio adaptation)

[Thomas Firth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written. Douglas Adams spent so long making the original radio series 1-2 truly work on radio. These post-series 2 continuations contain the worst writing eg. Characters saying contrived dialogue to explain what is happening visually. It’s like the most amateurish way of writing for radio and is such a shame. Since these are adaptations of novels there were serious narrative problems with scenes that don’t work on radio. They needed to change more of the events to adapt them properly. The actor that replaces Peter Jones as the book sounds way too perky too. Such a shame.

[Bonnie Dale Keck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have saw the serial and the movies and read the books individually and as omnibus and different sets, hardback, still in my library, says a lot. Date wrong, just saw it to review. also listened to radio ones of course

[Delores Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the craziest versions. Since it deals with time travel it begins and ends at the same spot. Since I’m listening to it as an audiobook it is well presented but very confusing. This is fun as well as funny.

[Andy Dainty · Rating 2 out of 5]

An adaptation of the 3rd Hitchhikers book, which itself I understand was adapted from a abandoned Dr Who script. Slartibartfast plays the Doctor role. Although there are some funny moments, this is my least favourite in the 5 BBC radio series.

[Adam Gutschenritter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arthur Dent meets Thor, learns the tragic backstory of Krikkit, and it's ties to his beloved Cricket. Slartibartfast pushes for Real Time and Arthur is called to task for his gratuitous use of violence in killing the same lifeform in all of their reincarnations.

[Anneli · Rating 5 out of 5]

See Primary/Secondary. Same Apply

[Matt Heavner · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun read with Aven!

[Joshua Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the radio play of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! Douglas Adams is so creative. It's a fun read/listen. I'm looking forward to watching the movie.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite so far, though the ending is weaker than the start.

[Gary Mcfarlane · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Except most of the good bits were about frogs" ...

[Sytze Hiemstra · Rating 4 out of 5]

also fun

[Dandelion Jester · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the last two sadly

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this phase. It was really well written and the characters used perfectly. The actors were great. It just felt very Douglas Adams in all the best ways.