STARRING: Peter Jones (The Book), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent)(credited as the "Ghostly Image" in 2005's Hitchhiker movie), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Sandra Dickinson (Trillian) (who has provided occassional voices for the "Teletubbies" tv show), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox)

Produced and Directed by: Alan J.W. Bell

Based on: The radio program "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams (script writer and editor of the cult Brit hit "Dr. Who" television series 1978-80, and author of the Hitchhiker novels).

Produced for and by the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) and distributed by Warner Home Video

SYNOPSIS: Hapless Brit Arthur Dent is whisked off the planet Earth just minutes before its demolition to make way for a hyperspace express route by his pal, Ford Prefect, who is in fact an alien writing an updated version of the titular Guide. Rescued from near certain death in space by Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox, his gal pal Trillian and their depressed robot Marvin, Arthur finds himself caught up in all kinds of interstellar wackiness as he and his new friends discover the ultimate question of Life, the Universe, and Everything (we already know the answer: 42. But that isn't really very helpful, is it?).

REVIEW IN BRIEF: Like the movie, only longer and with less impressive acting and a lot more Guide entries.

REVIEW IN EARNEST: I realize that with all the new movies coming out of the Hollywood mill each week that to take the time to make an entry on an obscure UK miniseries from the early eighties may not seem the best use of my time, but I consider myself a reasonably well-informed movie hobbyist, and it would be a huge oversight on my part not to share the spoils of my plunder with 'ye.

I knew of the existence of the miniseries from previous explorations on both "Dr. Who" and the Guide phenomenon, but I didn't realize it was available on DVD until I was strolling down the SciFi aisle of my local Blockbuster Video store. It was like a shaft of light split open the heavens right over the shelf and a heavenly choir started singing that wordless "AAAAAHHHH!" that heavenly choirs often do. It was meant to be. I grabbed up the double DVD set and dashed to the cashier. My furtive, hunched-over creeping and Gollum-like rasping of "my precious" drew a few stares and was, in retrospect, a tad unnecessary since I simply mosied to the counter and paid for it, but hey, I was excited. And a hog for attention.

But enough pointless rambling and onto the REVIEW IN EARNEST. Pointless rambling, you see, is something "The Hitch Hiker's Guide" seems to do quite a bit of. It's a six-part miniseries, and each episode contains numerous entries from the Hitch Hiker's Guide, boldly emblazoned with the words "Don't Panic" on the cover in large, friendly letters. The guide entries inform us of the many oddities and similarities that exist in Adams' fictious and satirical universe, and the miniseries pulls all of them verbatim from the original material and realizes them in very nifty, hand-illustrated animation. It's hilarious stuff, but has the unfortunate side effect of making the already rambling plot even more unwieldy. In the movie, this problem was dealt with by trimming the number and length of the entries and just using the first book, making the story more screen-friendly (the Trillian-Arthur romance, the POV gun, etc). The miniseries adapted the first couple of books in the series, and watching the episodes back-to-back, it's easy to get a little mixed up by all the randomness. Ultimately, the series has the same trouble as the film, which is there's almost too much wackiness to explain in too short a time, and for every gag the miniseries worked in, there are about a hundred more that were skipped over. But if you're not familiar with the Hitch Hiker's Guide, then the pacing works great, because the miniseries takes the time to explain a lot of stuff that really enhances both the humor and the satire.

For its day and origin, "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" had very decent tv effects. Many of them hold up well even today, some 20+ years later. The most obvious problem is that the filmmakers were working with video film, and on a cleaned-up DVD release, it's quite noticeable. The costuming and sets are similarly good quality, and a careful eye may even spot certain set pieces reappearing throughout the six episodes. What struck me, having watched the miniseries after having seen the movie, was how similar the art design is between the two. This shouldn't be all that surprising, given that Adams penned both the miniseries and movie screenplay, but it's kind of creepy all the same. The Heart of Gold interior, Arthur's house and pub down the street and the Vogons and their ships in the miniseries all look like slightly poorer cousins to the film versions. Not as elaborate, of course, but very, very similar.

Aside from the effects department, casting is the one area where I think the movie improved unquestionably upon the miniseries. While most of the players were part of the original radio cast, the majority of the leads play their idiosyncratic characters with a considerable lack of energy. The best performers in the miniseries are Simon Jones as a suitably mopey Arthur, Peter Jones as the high-falutin' British voice of The Guide and David Lerner, who does about as much as one can with a paranoid android. David Dixon plays Ford Prefect with a blank expression on his face for most of the series, and Mark Wing-Davies is an extremely toned-down Zaphod Beeblebrox. Trillian is a distinctive character mostly because of her tight costume and thoroughly irritating whine of a voice, but the three of them seem mostly bored with the material and walk through their scenes listlessly. I got the feeling after a while that I was watching a matinee understudy performance. That said, Douglas Adams has a number of cameos in the miniseries that are fun to look for, and "Dr. Who" fans will want to pay particular attention to the scene involving the Dish of the Day.

BOTTOM LINE: "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" miniseries is a must-see for fans of books and those who have seen the movie, liked it, and want a little more without having to actually get hold of the books. While it runs a little long for a single sitting, it's worth watching simply for the fantastically illustrated and faithfully recited Guide entries, which are by far the highlight of the episodes.