Reply to: Dirk Gently

[Bluespider]

Bit of mixed feelings on this one, it certainly wasn't as good as the book, chopped the story up somewhat and the only reference tot he electric monk was on a whiteboard that was painted over!

Still, good to see this character on the screen and the fundamentally conectedness of all things was handled quite well in the end.

[Spacecadet]

I read the books and liked the movie.

Ditto

Although I liked the book more than the film version, I still thought the film was good enough to stand on it's own two feet.

[VectraMan]

I quite enjoyed it. A bit of a shame it's a one off.

I'll have to read the book again to see how much they used. I'm sure Gordon Way was the ghost.

[VectraMan]

Someone else (I forget who) made some writing contributions which Adams then removed from subsequent versions.

I've never heard that before. Somewhere I've got "Don't Panic", the book about the book/radio/TV/film/game/towel.

It probably depends what you experienced first, but it was the TV series I saw first so I tend to think of that but then read all the books. When I first heard the radio series I hated it, especially the bloke playing Ford as in my mind he'll always be David Dixon from the TV series.

[Sysman]

Thanks Xogg.

I'm sticking to what I know.

Dos 3.3.

I think I was just discovering VAX/VMS when the first Dirk Gently book came out,

My first home computer was one of those Amstrad word processy things. I took the first one back because the contrast knob contacts were loose. The replacement didn't work either (different knob had dropped off in transit); they delivered the replacement for that one.

CP/M I tell Ya! I got a C compiler for it and that came with vi*. The combination was definitely the work of the devil and it was many years before I tackled them again.

It was actually not a bad word processor, having a <sic> button to mark words as not to be spell checked; something I've never seen in a WP package since, and quite useful.

I got a surprisingly good price for the beasty a few years later.

* remember the slogan "Shareware - one day you will buy all your software this way" ?

[Sysman]

Someone else (I forget who) made some writing contributions which Adams then removed from subsequent versions.

That rings a bell.

Meanwhile next Thursday's episode has appeared on my digital box programme guide. It's the first of a series apparently, but it doesn't say how many episodes there are.

It's preceded by The Beauty of Diagrams:

DNA - The significance of Odile Crick's Double Helix drawing, which was included in a Nature article in 1953 by Francis Crick and James Watson, explaining the structure of DNA. Part of the Tools od Science season.

and that is preceded by Come Clog Dancing. I might skip that

[xoggoth]

Off topic, but I found an old MS DOS 5 book while clearing out the garage. Knowing how cutting edge you are, I wondered if you might want it.

[Sysman]

None of it benefited much from the rewriting after the first radio series.

That really was the classic.

Adams busily deleted everything that he hadn't written himself.

I always thought of the original as a joint effort between Adams and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. It really wouldn't have been the same without the sound effects.

[gingerjedi]

The first one was quite good I thought, but the second book was dire. It'll be interesting to see what they can do with it, but being BBC4 they don't have to try that hard.

Poor old Douglas Adams had one completely genius idea when he was young, then seemed doomed never to be able to repeat that success. Though he can count himself lucky he died before the abomination that was the Hitchiker's movie saw the light of day.

I read the books and liked the movie.

'Last Chance to See' by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine is a great read, laugh your socks of funny in parts but never deviates from the serious subject.

[TykeMerc]

Yes, I only got a few pages in when I realised that and put it down. Never finished it. Was it good?

I like the book, I do prefer the Hitch Hikers Guide books as they're utter classics, but the Dirk Gently book is good in its own right.

[VectraMan]

Yes, I only got a few pages in when I realised that and put it down. Never finished it. Was it good?

The first one was quite good I thought, but the second book was dire. It'll be interesting to see what they can do with it, but being BBC4 they don't have to try that hard.

Poor old Douglas Adams had one completely genius idea when he was young, then seemed doomed never to be able to repeat that success. Though he can count himself lucky he died before the abomination that was the Hitchiker's movie saw the light of day.

[Doggy Styles]

Never liked Dirk Gently that much... somewhat of a let down after Hitchhiker.

Yes, I only got a few pages in when I realised that and put it down. Never finished it. Was it good?

[Wodewick]

Never liked Dirk Gently that much... somewhat of a let down after Hitchhiker.

[Platypus]

It's on Thursday 16th at 9pm
Repeated on the 17th at 01:10
Repeated on the 17th at 03:40
Repeated on the 21st at 22:10
Repeated on the 22nd at 23:20

[Sysman]

Ta for the tip.

Can't see it on this Sunday's programme guide, so maybe it's destined for another one

Beeb Four looks right