So um?

[Pulaskee]

Hi all, i have been a big fan form some time, havnt ever realy dont anything on the fourms till now though. i was wondering whats going on...there has been no updates for ages, and no ENT updates forever, the one reson i love to come here.

Also an aside to Zeke, i never got my fivers i paid for.........

Cheers - Matthew Pulaskee

[Nate the Great]

What happened? What always happens that delays website updates. Real Life. I always capitalize both when it comes to the Internet. RL hits the best and the worst of us at the best and the worst times. That's life. Sure, in a fair world we'd have a new fiver twice a week, but as the wise man once said:

"Whoever said life is fair? Where is that written. Life isn't always fair."

Just be patient. "The best is yet to be." No idea where that one comes from, but if Anne of Green Gables finds it worth memorizing, that's good enough for me.

[Gatac]

I think the story (or the Five-Minute version of it, anyway) roughly goes like this:

Zeke: Yay! I've got a funny website, dedicated fans and lots of ideas for new projects. Nothing can go wrong.
Real Life: Not so fast, skippy.
Zeke: NOOOOO!

Or, put more plainly, whenever Zeke thinks he has time to work on the site, something horrible happens and steals all his time/creativity/sanity. The situation sucks, but he's fully aware of that. Your concerns are valid, but there's nothing that can be done about it right now.

There's only God's Last Message to Creation that truly fits here:

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Gatac

[Nate the Great]

Ah, I see we have another h2g2 fan in the audience. Hola to all of the other hoopy froods out there who know where their towels are!

Of course, if life was fair Zeke'd have a sweat shop full of brilliant programmers who could do absolutely everything to update the site. All he'd have to do is put an approving check in the box on the final drafts of the fivers. If you want to lay me odds on the likelihood of that ever happening, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I want you to look at.

So, Gatac, how'd you like the h2g2 movie compared with the miniseries?

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Pulaskee

Hi all, i have been a big fan form some time, havnt ever realy dont anything on the fourms till now though. i was wondering whats going on...there has been no updates for ages, and no ENT updates forever, the one reson i love to come here.

I know, and I'm sorry. I have good news and bad news. The bad news is this won't let up until Wednesday at the earliest -- that's when my topology exam is, and I know nothing. (Kidding, but seriously, I need to put in lots of study time.) The good news is that I think I can whip out a TJI to tide you over. I have it basically done in my head.

Also an aside to Zeke, i never got my fivers i paid for.........

Look for an announcement about that after Wednesday, when I'm back to regular updates.

I thought the HHG movie was pretty good. I definitely like the movie's down-to-earth Trillian better than the airhead in the miniseries, and Alan Rickman was born to voice Marvin. But neither movie nor TV show is the equal of the book.

[mudshark]

Originally Posted by Infinite Improbability

Ah, I see we have another h2g2 fan in the audience.

Oh, more than one, and we demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty.

[Gatac]

Didn't see the movie, actually. Miniseries watched, but more out of boredom and random chance - I'm one of those "It's the books!" guys.

Yay Wednesday!

Gatac

[Pulaskee]

Thanks for the replys, i understand the work in the way thing, i was jsut a longer time then usial, lest i think it was. lol thanks again.

[Nate the Great]

You know, Zeke, you may have a point. Could any fiver of h2g2 really do justice to the original?

If you're going to claim the book as definitive, then I'm going to have to disagree and say that the original radio series has an equal if not greater claim. Besides which, which book version? There's at least the British and American versions (yay belgium!), if not differing editions.

I won't be holding my breath until Wednesday. I'd just faint from oxygen deprivation and hallucinate that the site updated daily.

[mudshark]

Originally Posted by Infinite Improbability

Besides which, which book version? There's at least the British and American versions...

Eh? How's that?

[Nate the Great]

The British have dirtier minds than we do (read Monty Python), so they have a litany of swearwords that they seem to have no problem with, but that American publishers cringe at printing.

The biggest example comes from Life, the Universe, and Everything. The Rory is for "the most gratuitous use of the word * in a serious screenplay."

* represents the swearword. The British version uses a word that I do not say or think, but it rhymes with duck. The American version uses Belgium, and Douglas Adams added an entire new Guide entry about how it's the foulest swear word in the galaxy and how idiotic earthlings are about considering it to be the name of a rather boring country, similar to how we think of cricket as a boring game and not the name of one of the most violent races in galactic history.

[mudshark]

Hm, okay. I think "Belgium" is actually funnier in that context, but that's just me.

[Gatac]

I don't claim the books to be the definitive version, it's just that I've had the most exposure to them.

Gatac

[Chancellor Valium]

Personally I prefer the radio series.

And by comparison, the film is stale, boring, normal, unimaginitive, and predictable.

[Nate the Great]

You know, it boggles me how many times I've read negative reviews of the movie and all of the changes in it, and I still hate how many times I've read, "But Douglas Adams invented all of the new stuff!" All fine and good, and I have to admit that I liked the anti-thought paddles, but it still all smacked of reinventing the wheel. Granted, I wouldn't have wanted a shot-for-shot recreation of the series with new actors and better special effects, mainly because I think the appeal of h2g2 is in the writing and the acting, not the special effects. Remember that the Guide entries were a cartoon, not a computer display. The writing and the acting were just out and out BETTER in the series and the radio show. They could've put a new spin on the material of the older versions while still keeping the same spirit. Here are a few examples of things I liked about the movie that didn't detract from the material, and also could've fit within the older plotline:

1. In the commentary they said that Douglas approved replacing "so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea" using cellular telephones instead. Now, this line wasn't actually in the movie, but it would've been fine.
2. Bringing the Vogon jeweled scuttlecrabs and deer chairs in from the later books.
3. The looking towards the far wall and dropping through the floor into space I really liked.
4. Actually showing a flashback to the Ford Prefect car. They could've had the driver stick his head out and shout "you jerk, you almost scratched my Ford Prefect!" just to help the viewer understand the joke.
5. The lightsabre toaster knife I loved.
6. The Point-of-View gun. ("Hitchhikings' cool. Towels are cool, too!")

But the movie just dropped the ball on so much stuff. Here are just a few of the major questions that arose in my mind (and those of the critics) that would remain unanswered whether you saw the series before or not:

1. Why is Deep Thought on Magrathea, and why don't they tell us that Magratheans built planets until Arthur's actually there?
2. Why does Humma Kavula have a datacube with coordinates for a model of ship and drive that is completely brand-new?
3. How did the Vogons get to Earth Mark Two? It's in a tract of hyperspace within the planet of Magrathea! Is there some sort of cargo elevator, or did they all cram into one of those little crane cabs?
4. If the mice and Slartibartfast were going to resume the Earth program as it was five minutes before it's destruction, why not just stick Arthur in his house and turn it on, then WAIT five minutes?
5. Isn't Trillian necessary for the program, or was she a bit of unnecessary code?
6. For that matter, wasn't the destruction of Arthur's house a part of the program and thus necessary? Isn't an intact house an error that will skew the results?
7. If there are no Dentrassi, who beamed Ford and Arthur aboard?
8. For that matter, we get the impression that they were beamed into the room. So a transporter beam can get in, but Ford's Electronic Thumb, which can transmit a Guide entry halfway across the galaxy, can't get outside one ship?
9. Why would Deep Thought design a Point of View gun with a wide-angle ability? Isn't that tampering with entire societies, and not just idiot husbands?
10. Babel fish aside, how can Trillian read a document written in Betelgeusean, and how can a Vogon clerk read a form written in English?

These questions can be answered very easily, cheaply, and logically (Babel sunglasses anyone? ) but they don't even bother.

[Chancellor Valium]

Personally, I hated the lightknife. It smacked of pandering to the audience to me.

The Point-Of-View gun I felt was just stupid. Trillian was annoying, Arthur was stupid as opposed to just confused, Zaphod was far too normal, Ford...didn't seem like Ford. Even Eddie was wrong. Marvin - all right, Alan Rickman did an OK job, but Stephen Moore was infinitely better at it...

Zaphod wasn't even very badly dressed, and I think they even missed out Gag Halfrunt...

The biggest annoyance for me, though, was that everything on the ship worked. I thought it was all meant to not work, being old fashioned and remembering the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.

Also, the doors were much funnier when they came out with smug little messages as well as sighing...

I felt the humour was castrated to fit the mould of the "British comic romance"/Notting Hill clone, with the exception that Notting Hill at least has the scene with Dylan Moran trying to steal a book...

[Mighty Jalapeno]

Originally Posted by Zeke

The good news is that I think I can whip out a TJI to tide you over.

I fail to see how a length of engineered wood will help.

Oh, more than one, and we demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty.

The clarity is devastating, but where is the ambiguity? Over there, in a box.

Ok, I LOVED the Point-Of-View gun, and the way it was used at the end.... that was pretty sweet. The idea of it seems so... so... English! But true, all in all, except for Arthur and Ford, the new movie suck-diddly-ucked (and I am ever so pissed that the best back-and-forth in the movie, between Arthur and the Building Comissioner, was EXCISED!). Everything was Americanized, so the American audience wouldn't feel dumb for missing all the jokes.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Chancellor Valium

Personally, I hated the lightknife. It smacked of pandering to the audience to me.

Ah yes, the highly vocal "We Demand a Damn Toaster-Knife Already" lobby.

[Nate the Great]

"Pleased to be of service"

I never said that the movie was the best incarnation, I said that upon reflection and multiple viewings it's not that bad. I watched the series again afterward and would still prefer that. It's like these recent remakes. The new Parent Trap can't hold a candle to the old one, but that doesn't make it a bad movie. Ditto with Herbie and all the rest.

Arthur: I didn't like how fast he got acclimated to the hitchhiking lifestyle. Simon Jones spent four episodes totally flabbergasted about everything and it wasn't until Milliways that he seemed to be in stride.

Trillian: Any characterization is better than none. Any at all. In the series what does she have? A degree in math and another in astrophysics, two white mice, and absolutely horrible taste in men. At least in the movie we saw the quirky side that would latch onto the hitchhiking lifestyle.

Ford: He did the best job he could given the circumstances. I never really thought that he got the best deal on the cast. He rescues Arthur and uses a towel, but couldn't they have at least had him scribble down ideas for Guide entries or something?

Zaphod: The movie version is absolutely awful. He's supposed to be vain, clueless, and insenstive, not menacing or bipolar. That was stupid.

As an aside, is there really a definative right or wrong to the great lightsaber vs. lightsabre debate?

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Infinite Improbability

That was stupid.

And remember, Don't Vote For Stupid.