This little thing's been bothering me for some time... In the book it is said that the Heart of Gold's bridge is Improbability-shielded. So why do the palm trees and everything else appear on it when Arthur switches on the Improbability Drive when the missiles are launched at them?
This rope can only hold 900 POUNDS!!!!!!
That might be one of the reasons why everyone wasn't so keen on the idea of engaging the improbability drive at such short notice. It might be the type of shielding that isn't in effect all the time (needs a bit of a warm-up). I guess it kept anything particularly bad from (improbably) happening to them but was still subject to some improbability. In fact, I would think that a change to that more atrium/lounge type of atmosphere would be quite pleasant on a spaceship. I don't recall, but did they happen to get a piano in the deal? That certainly would have cinched it for me.
"Nobody move. My name's Nixon. I'm a tax collector."
Hi there. In the book Zaphod makes the statement, "That's very good thinking, you know. Turn on the Improbability Drive for a second without first activating the proofing screens. Hey, kid, you just saved our lives, you know that?"
So, yes, the proofing screens have to be activated before activating the drive. That's how the book has it and the mini-series. Much different than the movie.
Seems to me they could have made the movie longer by half an hour and kept some of the actual wit that made Hitchhiker's so endearing to most of us. And also a bit of the actual sci-fi pseudo-science that might make the movie understandable to those non-fans who have never read the books, heard the radio show, or seen the mini-series...
Isn't it strange that the low-tech non-computerized graphics of the mini-series actually look better and make more sense than the CGI book graphics of the movie?
"What do we do now?"
"Enjoy it..."
You could also do well to remember the fate of the Starship Titanic. When that was built it was made so that it would be impossible for anything wrong to happen while using an improbability drive. But of course, due to the cyclic nature of improbability, their precauctions made sure that something improbable would instantly happen and the ship suffered a total existance failure.
So I guess any precaution against the improbability drive in the Heart of Gold wouldn't, or shouldn't, be too effective.
easy answer: ignore the book!!! Adams wrote both of them, so he can't be wrong!
www.notebookinhand.com - hang out for writers, artists, actors, musicians, etc.
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Douglas Adams actually said in A Guide To The Guide at the start of the four-in-one book that he'd been writing The Hitchhikers series for so long that most of it ended up contradicting itself.
sharePart of the charm of the books is that not all of it is meant to make sense. At least, that's what I think. One thing may make sense at one time but then later make no sense at all. But it works in these quirky books.
shareThe shild was turned off at the time.
"I love the smell of napalm in the morning."
Hey, Hellboy13, I have never seen the tv series, heard the radio show, nor read the books (actually, I don't know what I'm doing here), but the movie made perfect sense to me. And I really love it. I just thought that the improbability... uh, button... would make something improbable but useful to happen, which it did: When they wanted to get to Magrathea, the ship went to where Humma Kavula was, who gave them the coordenates to Magrathea. And when they were trying to get rid of the missiles, it turned them into petunias and a whale... improbable, but it saved them.
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