The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (in-universe)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a series of books, as well as a radio series, television series, and film, from the late 20th and early 21st century that was referenced by the Doctor on a few occasions.

The Doctor once asked, rhetorically, who had said that "Earthmen rarely invite their ancestors to dinner", which comes from the series. (DW: Ghost Light) The Doctor once compared himself to Arthur Dent after saving the Earth from invasion in a dressing gown (Dent's trademark dress), and after being awoken from his post-regenerative coma by tea, the character's favourite drink. (DW: The Christmas Invasion) The number 42, which in the Hitchhiker's books was the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything, was one of the numbers the Doctor guessed when trying to find out the security protocol for the the Host. (DW: Voyage of the Damned) Also, the Doctor had used the phrase "DON'T PANIC" – the exact words on the cover of the Guide in "big, friendly letters" – very expressively when in a tight situation in an episode written by Douglas Adams, himself. (DW: The Pirate Planet) Another similarity is the name of the planet Bantraginus V, whose name bears near-exact resemblance to a planet from Hitchhiker's, Santraginus V. (DW:The Pirate Planet)

Behind the scenes

Real World connections

Hitchhiker's creator Douglas Adams wrote a number of Doctor Who serials and served as its script editor during Season 17. Consequently, lines from Hitchhiker's Guide found their way into DW: The Pirate Planet, while Hitchhiker's character Oolon Coluphid gets a mention in DW: Destiny of the Daleks, which Adams script-edited (the Doctor is seen reading one of Caluphid's books, Origins of the Universe). DW: Shada, also written by Douglas Adams, involves a Ford Prefect car (and the character Professor Chronotis was reused in Adams' first non-Hitchhiker's book, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency). The storyline of Adams' Life, the Universe and Everything was based on a rejected Doctor Who script called Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen.

See Douglas Adams

Just prior to becoming the Doctor, Peter Davison made a cameo appearance in the BBC's 1981 adaptation of the first book as the "Dish of the Day". His wife, Sandra Dickinson, played Trillian in the miniseries.

Bill Nighy, who played a role in the 2005 film, was seriously considered for the role of the Ninth Doctor, Tenth Doctor and the Eleventh Doctor, and expressed interest in all three roles. He later appeared in DW: Vincent and the Doctor as Dr Black.

Stephen Fry who narrated and voiced the Book in the 2005 film, played the Minister of Chance in WC: Death Comes to Time, and was to write a script for the second series of the new series, although this eventually failed to happen.

Metafictional parallels and references

• The plot of DW: Voyage of the Damned is similar (but not identical) to that of "Starship Titanic", a video game authored by Adams which was published in 1998. Both feature a large luxury spaceship/cruiseliner named "Titanic" which goes out of control and whose computers must be manipulated to fix the ship. The video game was based on a brief mention of the ship in the first Guide book, which was unable to send out its first and only message - an S.O.S. - during its launch before suffering a "total existence failure".
• DW: 42 shares its title with the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, as revealed in Adams' Hitchhiker's series. As with the spaceship stolen by Arthur Dent and friends in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the ship in 42 is on its way to crashing into a star, leaving its passengers with no escape.
• The reference to Oolon Coluphid has raised speculation as to whether the Doctor Who Universe and that of the Hitchhiker's Guide are one and the same. The BBC's viral marketing website WEB: Defending the Earth! included a forum posting by a man named Arthur Dent, who wrote, "This rather odd man was lying down in front of a bulldozer in front of my home." Another matter blurring the lines between the Hitchhiker's universe and the Whoniverse is the Tenth Doctor's early reference to Arthur Dent being a "nice man" who saved the universe in "his jim-jams"; it's left ambiguous as to whether he's referring to a fictional character or a real person. (DW: The Christmas Invasion) Also, it is mentioned in Doctor Who(though not proven or brought up further in any later episode) that humans may have evolved from an extraterrestrial species. (DW: Image of the Fendahl ) This might have some relation to the idea of humans being descended from Golgafrinchans in Hitchhiker's.
• In the Seventh Doctor serial "Ghost Light", The Doctor makes a comment to the effect of "Who was it who said humans never invite their ancestors round for tea."
• Perhaps by a coincidence, the scene in the third book of the quintilogy (later adapted into a radio script of the same name) Life, the Universe, and Everything, in which Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect, materialise in Lord's Cricket Ground, is similar to a similar scene in The Daleks' Master Plan in which the Doctor materialised his TARDIS at The Oval.
• On the second DVD disk of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (TV series), a TARDIS in policebox form can be seen tracking the ship upon which Arthur is getting a lift, during the opening credits of the 'The Making of...' documentary.
• One of the spaceships in BBCR:Max Warp is described as a "Lazlar Lyricon custom job". This is how one of the spaceships in the Milliways car park in episode 5 of HHGG was described.

External links

• Doctor Who at the Hitchhikers Wiki