The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Where does the real political power lie in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?

This question relates to events in a novel (several novels!) written by Douglas Adams, rather than to the original radio series (Series 2, broadcast in 1980) on which the key novel is based.

I make this point because the novels had a rather different (in this case read very different) storyline to the radio show. Therefore reading the 2nd novel won’t necessarily take you very far in understanding the somewhat whacky world of Hitchhikers.

As the radio show came first, and as it contains different facts to the 2nd novel, the answer to the question will differ depending on which version you consult, the book or the radio show.

In Series 2 of the radio show, Episode 6 (Fit the Twelfth) — the final episode — has the Ruler of the Universe reveal that Zaphod is in a conspiracy with a consortium of psychiatrists to sabotage the computer which has been built to answer the ultimate question (see Series 1), by destroying the Earth (the ultimate computer), presumably (it’s implied) because the psychiatrists believe that discovery of the ultimate answer would solve everyone’s neuroses and put psychiatrists out of business — hence stopping that is worth a lot of money!

However, this explanation is given in such a roundabout manner, and so obliquely, and so rapidly, that it’s not readily understood from a first hearing of the episode. Yet it does explain so much about that 1980 Series (including the demolition of the Earth, the involvement of the Vogons, and the recurring appearances by Zaphod’s analyst) that it’s difficult to dismiss it as being just an after-thought.

Unfortunately, without this small – but vital – piece of information, everything that happens in Series 2 makes very little sense.

Additionally, the radio episode in question (Fit the Twelfth) casts doubt upon the existence of the Ruler of the Universe, who, it implies, may be part of the unreality of Zarniwoop’s pocket universe — for the following reasons.

The key question is: do they ever leave Zarniwoop’s pocket universe? The Ruler of the Universe seems to be aware that there is some doubt as to whether the universe he rules is real or not. But the meeting with him occurs after Zaphod’s meeting with Zarniwoop (at which Zaphod, Ford and Arthur appeared to return to the real universe: the pocket universe appeared to collapse in upon itself: the sky fell, they gained access to the Heart of Gold, etc). But unexpectedly, at their very next stop, the Ruler of the Universe believes he’s ruling an artificial universe. Hence Series 2 ends on an ambiguous note: have they actually exited the pocket universe — or not?

None of the events in the three subsequent radio series (which were not made until twenty years later) casts any light on these developments!

Series 3, 4 and 5 on the radio are based on the various novels written by Douglas Adams in the two decades after the 2nd radio series was made, which depart radically from the facts established on the radio in 1980. No attempt is made to resolve the plot which had led up to Fit the Twelfth.

So the relationship between the part-time president Zaphod Beeblebrox, the so-called Ruler of the Universe and his cat, Zaphod’s analyst, and the Vogons, is never cleared up!

Of course, if the entirety of Series 2 occurred in the unreal cosmos within the pocket universe, then nothing which happened in 1980 is real, so events in Series 3 and thereafter might reasonably play out without reference to the events of Series 2.

Douglas Adams was clearly even smarter than he was given credit for. He seems to have written his own escape clause into the 1980 Series. If he couldn’t resolve its plot, he could wash it out, abandoning the whole thing and starting afresh. Which is just what he did. In the event, no one asked him for a 3rd series in 1981, so when he wrote up the 1980 Series for his 2nd novel he just rewrote events to please himself, without explanation or apology.