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Title: The Complete Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (MP3 CD) by Douglas Adams ISBN: 0-563-49421-2 Publisher: BBC Consumer Publishing Pub. Date: 07 April, 2003 Format: Audio CD |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A must-hear before the movie comes
Comment: The first radio series of Hitchhiker was utterly marvellous, and I believe will stand up in history as the 20th century's equivalent of 'Alice in Wonderland'. The second series never achieved the same zenith, for several reasons:
1. It was very much a follow-on to the first series, and thus it could never hope to be as devestatingly original.
2. Although there are one or two grand ideas in the second series -- such as the Platonic concept of a disinterested philosopher actually running the Universe, and Zaphod colluding with psychiatrists to destroy the Earth -- these don't permeate the whole series in the same way that the Earth-as-ultimate-computer idea held almost everything together in the first series.
3. In fact, apart from Zaphod feeling he must find Zarniwoop, our heroes wander fairly aimlessly through the second series, largely reacting to circumstances and just trying to survive.
4. The absence of Trillian means that there is no female protagonist until the three Lintillas arrive in episode 5. Quite apart from the benefit of a female perspective -- if Douglas was capable of writing from one -- a female voice gave additional colour to the first series. Until you've heard a couple of episodes, it can at times be hard to distinguish between the voices of Mark Wing-Davey, Geoff McGivern, and at times, even Simon Jones.
5. One of the many stars of the first series was the background music, which provided a wonderful selection of much of the best 'space' music of the 1970s -- Stomu Yamash'ta, Patrick Moraz, Terry Riley etc. In the second series -- perhaps for reasons of expense -- we get Paddy Kingsland's original music, which is nice enough, but was never going to win any awards or achieve commercial success.
6. Douglas Adams seemed to have used up many of his best philosophical ideas in the first series. At times you definitely feel that Peter Jones, as the Book, has been given a second-rate selection of observations for the second series. The second series contained one or two of Douglas's gripes about the late 70s -- e.g. the noisiness of discos, and the surplus of shoe shops on the high street -- but one wonders whether it was really worth making them a major theme of a sci-fi story.
7. The decision to broadcast episodes 8 to 12 on Monday to Friday of the same week was a mistake. It was just to much to take in so quickly. Perhaps the production team were unaware how the first series became such a cult: university students (particularly in Cambridge) were taping each episode, and very quickly copies of copies of copies of the original broadcast were circulating around the colleges. You really needed to hear each episode at least three times to begin to appreciate all that had been put into it. With episodes coming every night, as they did in the second series, you never stood a chance of getting that familiar before the next episode arrived.
OK, that's all the negative criticism. There are many reasons for liking the second series almost as much as the first series. Stephen Moore is fantastically versatile here -- e.g. as Marvin, as the pupil, and as the disinterested philosopher -- and his achievement really deserved to be compared with Alec Guinness in 'Kind Hearts and Coronets'.
Rating: 3
Summary: Good contents but poor audio quality
Comment: This box cosists of 2 CDs. The first contains all 12 parts of the original BBC Radio 4
Hitchhiker series as 124 MP3 files (encoded at 160kbps). The second contains Douglas Adam's
Guide to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (28 MP3 files, also 160kbps).
The radio series really is a must have for every Hitchhiker fan ! It was available
before on 6 regular CDs in two sets called "The Primary Phase" and "The Secondary Phase".
Unfortunatly this MP3 edition - while being cheaper - has comparatively poor audio quality
with lots of cracks and pops that are *not* present on the original CDs (I also own
"The Primary Phase"). The files sound as if they were recorded from an old vinyl record.
I can not help but think that these cracks and pops were introduced deliberately to justify
the more expensive non-MP3 editions.
My advice: get the original CDs and encode them yourself (80kbps at 22kHz will do) - you'll
get much better sounding MP3s that way.
Curiously enough, the files on the second CD (Adam's Guide to H2G2) have good quality and
are crystal clear.
Rating: 5
Summary: Must Have for any SciFi Fan
Comment: I originally borrowed the cassette version of this Radio Dramatization form the library, but I could never find a copy for sale. This MP3 edition compiles all 6 cassettes / CDs onto 2 CDs at a much lower cost. I ordered it from Amazon.co.uk.
It's far more entertaining than the standard "one person reading the book" style audio book. This version is a dramatization, which includes voice actors and sound effects.
Very highly recommended.
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Title: The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene ISBN: 0375412883 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 10 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
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Title: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss ISBN: 1592400876 Publisher: Gotham Books Pub. Date: 12 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $17.50 |
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Title:X2 - X-Men United (Widescreen Edition) ASIN: B0000BWVCM Publisher: Fox Home Entertainme Pub. Date: 25 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $17.99 |
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Title:The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition) ASIN: B00009TB5G Publisher: New Line Home Entertainment Pub. Date: 18 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.99 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $25.99 |
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Title: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken ISBN: 0525947647 Publisher: E P Dutton Pub. Date: 29 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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