Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (BD) [Blu-ray]

Classic TV show

Great

With the way some films are disappearing from streaming to save on royalties it's worth getting some added to the library so, in theory, it can never disappear. This is one worth saving. No spoilers in this review... And this will be copy pasted to over reviews...

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy is a television show from 1981. It was originally produced by the BBC and is based on the original creation by Douglas Adams, these being a radio series, novel and stage show. It was later adapted for cinema in 2005. The original television show was directed by Alan J. W. Bell and featured six episodes, featured the voice over by Peter Jones and featured the acting chops of Simon Jones, David Dixon and more. As far as old ancient television shows from the BBC goes, this is one of my favourites. Admittedly, I hadn't seen it for a number of years but when it dropped down to £7, I certainly wasn't passing that up. Re-visiting the show after all these years was great. The episodes aren't overly long, they're not preachy and up their own backside their modern shows. The humour is also genuinely clever, smart and witty (a concept that is long gone at the BBC). There were moments through out all six episodes that had me in stitches and even some more subtle in the background jokes got me giggling. It was great and quite refreshing, especially considering what is considered fun television these days. Being a BBC show from the late 70s/early 80s, it's never going to look great in terms of costumes, set design and special effects. British television was usually pretty bad for these things, that was unless you had Gerry Anderson on your side. This hasn't changed a bit. It looked terrible thirty years ago and still does today but they made do with what they had and I still respect that. Things like the hot stage lights ghosting in the film cameras, the spaceships hanging on wires and Zaphod's two heads aren't very convincing. But don't take that as a negative, I find a bit of charm in it. Much in the same way as the original Star Trek series. It's always nice to see proper physical sets etc compared to the cheap CGI they'd use now. You can see and appreciate the effort that went into them, even if they're not convincing. The main reason this show is so good is obviously the writing as well as the delivery from the actors. Simon Jones as the dry every day British man has many great one liners and I honestly think David Dixon would have made for a great Doctor (Dr Who!) judging by his performance as Ford Prefect. Mark Wing Davey as Beeblebrox is superbly over the top and who doesn't love Stephen Moore as Marvin? The plot takes the characters to plenty of interesting places, all of which make for a cool contrast to previous episodes and topping it off with all the hilarious on screen text, it's brilliant. The bluray release isn't impressive in terms of visual quality. The show obviously hasn't been remastered much or the tapes haven't aged too well. The clarity is fine but it's obviously from an old source, looking more like an old DVD print. With that said, the audio is a whole different thing. The 5.1 surround sound for The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy is utterly fantastic. All the cool bleeps, bloops, laser beams and wooshing noises sound crisp, clear and quite grand when blasting out of my home theatre. It more than makes up for the lack of visual improvements over the old DVDs. The extra's are the real icing on the cake for this release. There's so much to digest that it may take fans a while to get through it all. There's the making of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Behind the Scenes footage, deleted scenes, outtakes, the original television trailer, "Mostly Hand Drawn" (HD Animation Feature) and so much more. I think in total, all these cool things easily goes over five hours and is spread over two discs. If you've got the show already but none of these extras, this is worth your money. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy may look dated by the 2020's and the remaster didn't do it any favours but the actual comedy and creativity that went behind the show has aged like a fine wine. This show is as equally of its time as it is timeless. If you're looking for some quality British humour at its finest, this is a must have and an easy buy for fans who doesn't have it already.

Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy was originally aired on BBC when I was at secondary school. From the first episode I remember being hooked. Couldn't wait to get to school the next day and tell the school bully that he was about as scary as a 30 tonne mega elephant with bronchial pneumonia, and that he talked a load of Dingo's Kidneys, and was stunned when Zaphod Beeblrox (with one head, sadly) became the new science teacher. Even more stunned that the sexy blonde teacher was quite possilbe, actually Tricia McMillan, and taught geography Anyway, back to this blu-ray. I am 55 now, and there have been many things that I thought were really cool and froody when I was a kid, that when I view them now I think are totally load of stinking Dingos Kidneys. HHGTG is not one of those. IMHO it is even better than I remember it, and is possilby even better than I Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. This blu-ray, to paraphrase Zaphod Beeblebrox "..is greater than the greatest thing ever" I haven't even started on the extras either The Sensible Bit Great menus, easy to navigate Great picture and sound quality More extras than the eponimous guide itself

Just I remember it on TV brillant

Does exactly what it says.

While never massively bowled over by the TV version, (Even less so with the film), this was a nice upgrade to my now slightly scuffed and beaten DVD copy, (it was, alongside Red Dwarf I, the first DVD I ever bought). The packaging is incredibly clever, though a pedant like myself can't help but notice the inner box is slightly thicker and otherwise dimensionally out of proportion, but that's just me. The new special features are fascinating, but it is a shame more archive material from the production doesn't exist or is in a usable state. While it is a nice option to view all the animations isolated into a 30 min compilation, I feel an opportunity for a more in depth retrospective into the animation process would have been interesting. The inclusion of trailers for the Teritary, Quandary, Quintessential and Hexagonal Phases is an odd, but not entirely unwelcome addition, (always nice to see Sam Beart. Lovely girl, very funny too) The new 5.1 sound mix is amazing and a wonder given it's 80's source materials. The collectors Booklet is interesting and nicely put together and designed. And the Art card, shockingly ISN'T a cheap postcard that's guaranteed to get doggeared and manky, in fact it's a really nice thick cardboard print of the "Vanilla" Blu-Ray's cover. Overall, a must for fans, the casually interested, and people who have might have overheard Douglas Adams' name in someone else conversation

5 stars for being a total HHGTTG geek. Watched it on TV back in the 80s on PBS, and it brought back memories. So, if this is what you are wishing to recapture, well worth it. Sure, the effects are, well, did not age well. But, really close to the book, and I wish it was the same for the movie (don’t compare them). Zaphod’s extra head in this version is horrid, so the movie has that going for it. Bought the DVD after reading the reviews on the Blu-Ray edition, would suggest you save the money and do the same. It is Region 2, just so you are aware. The DVD arrived before the expected date, great service.

This DVD edition of the series is likely a downscale of the upscale that is on the Blu-ray edition, which makes the picture quality a little bit blurry. The picture also seems to have been slightly cropped (probably to 720 × 540 from the original 768 × 576, in order to make the Blu-ray upscale look better – which is 1440 × 1080), which also adds to the blurriness – as this means lower resolution than necessary on a full screen DVD. The cover art with its sleeve around the case looks and feels better than average, although for some reason the Babel fish pictured isn't yellow as they're supposed to be. Including all both newer and older sound mixes, plus previous DVD edition bonus materials aswell as new ones, is a very nice touch.

I love this special edition... So many extra features!!! The more times I watch it the funnier it gets. The behind the scenes stuff is great but gets a little reptitive, as they were hashed together out of a number of TV specials made over the years to celebrate the show If you love watching on TV and want to thrill in the madness that is HHG, buy it now.

Excellent! Quality! No regrets! Can't wait to show my teenage kids.... Some comments/complaints on this forum suggesting that the remastering and restoration aren't up to scratch seem misplaced to me.

This Blu-ray arrived quickly and was well packaged. I played part of it to make sure it worked properly. I'm very happy with this and the price was excellent.