The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Hexagonal Phase

[Delete Delete Delete]

Its a cover for the TV series.

[Replies From View]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_(radio_series)

Special editions of the Primary and Secondary Phases were released in November 2008. These have, according to the BBC, been given "a thorough clean-up and remaster" by Dirk Maggs. This includes using the new Philip Pope signature tune, so the material can be released worldwide, which has required John Marsh to re-record his announcements so they could be mixed in. Cleaning up the recordings aims to reduce the hiss produced by the overdubbing in the original and also re-levelling the episodes to produce a greater clarity in the sound.[78]

According to the inlay which comes with the Special Edition, all previous CD editions of the Primary & Secondary Phases played back slightly fast due to capstan wear on the mastering tape machine, with the result that the audio was pitch-shifted up by half a semitone. That was corrected for the special editions and has the effect of making the episodes nearly a minute longer.

If the original broadcasts used the Eagles' recording of the track, and they later switched it to a cover version, that was probably a rights issue too. Did they change it on later re-broadcasts of the first two series, or just on the non-broadcast releases?

I'm not sure if the Primary and Secondary Phases have been repeated on radio since 2008.

[Replies From View]

From the same wiki page, there is also this bit about commercial rights issues:

A number of scenes from Fit the Third were cut from commercially released recordings of the radio series because they featured copyrighted music. For example, in one scene Marvin "hums" like Pink Floyd, using the opening to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", then "sings" "Rock and Roll Music" by The Beatles, and finally the theme music from 2001: A Space Odyssey, the opening "Sunrise" movement from Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra. It would have been very cost prohibitive in the 1980s to get clearances to release a recording of Fit the Third with this music, though agreements were reached on most of the rest of the copyrighted music used during the first series. As a result, all commercial recordings of Fit the Third are about two minutes shorter than other episodes. Recordings of the original radio broadcasts still contain it.[39]

For the CD and cassette releases of the Tertiary Phase in the United States, and all CD and cassette releases of the Quandary and Quintessential Phases, the instrumental title theme, "Journey of the Sorcerer," composed by Bernie Leadon and originally recorded by US rock band the Eagles, was re-interpreted by The Illegal Eagles, a tribute band, using an arrangement by Philip Pope. This was done for licensing reasons (though the original track was used for the original radio transmissions and the on-demand downloads).[79] In a 2005 interview with Simon Jones, the use of this song was mentioned as a major cause for the delay in releasing recordings of the new series in the United States.[80][81]

[JesusAndYourBush]

Did anyone stick with this to the end? I downloaded them all, but tbh haven't felt motivated to listen past episode 1 yet. Just wondering if it improved.

I am enjoying the subsequent re-broadcast of the previous 5 series, though, and the opportunity to grab 320kbps rips from iPlayer to replace the 128kbps versions I had before.

I've also been grabbing them for the same reason.  Unfortunately the BBC seem to be using even more dynamic compression compared to a few years ago so it's still a good idea not to get rid of the old copies.  Plus for some reason they've re-recorded the end credits for some of them. (EDIT: Oh, probably to replace the theme music.)

I've never listened to any of the radio stuff. Should I just leave it at the first two series then?

Bloody hell!  It's the best version (s1&2).  Listen to it ASAP!

I still have this on my shelf:



(and the computer game that came with the peril-sensitive sunglasses, the miniature space fleet in a bag, and all the other bits, but that's not strictly germane to this conversation)

I still have these (taped from the 1981 repeats)...



Some of them have faded badly in one channel, they've been superseded by other copies but I can't bring myself to throw them away.

[Replies From View]

Blimey - a different brand for nearly every cassette, so the spines can't neatly line up.  That would have driven me spare.

Any reason you didn't label them as 'fits'?

[olliebean]

I'm not sure if the Primary and Secondary Phases have been repeated on radio since 2008.

They were repeated just a couple of months ago, straight after the Hexagonal Phase, nightly over a couple of weeks. (Followed by the 3rd and 4th, weekly, and presumably the 5th to come.)

Incidentally, on the subject of alternative mixes, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th series were also released in 5.1 surround versions, downloadable at the time of first broadcast from the BBC website.

[Pauline Walnuts]

Any reason you didn't label them as 'fits'?

Personally I'd never heard of the term 'fits' until the post Douglas radio shows.

So they get fuc, oh hang on,



My bad, the original 1988 CD releases called them Fits. Live and learn eh?

[Replies From View]

They were called 'Fits' from the very first broadcasts.  It's the terms 'Primary Phase' and 'Secondary Phase' that were applied retrospectively.


Therefore your entire youth was a sham, I'm afraid.

[Bad Ambassador]

Edit

[StuglePStugleton]

RE: The Fit the Third Edit.

The excised clip is available online. And I have, somewhere, a version of the episode where I've cut it back in.

God know's why, bored weekend with Cool Edit Pro probably

[JesusAndYourBush]

Blimey - a different brand for nearly every cassette, so the spines can't neatly line up.  That would have driven me spare.

Any reason you didn't label them as 'fits'?

Different brands of tape - well, I was 12 and didn't have much money to spend on cassettes.  Some were older tapes being re-used, some were whatever cheap brand I could get my hands on.

As for the labelling, dunno, I probably never saw the point of it.  Recently I saw someone comment something to the effect they were "looking forward to the 27th fit" which made me cringe just a little bit.

[Replies From View]

Very fair enough - my post there wasn't intended as a dig.  More an observation that you and other people were - in a good way - clearly less obsessive than me about having everything line up perfectly.  A tape collection having variety because of the way it reuses found tapes is a lot more interesting than what my childhood has gifted me.

Trivia:  Douglas Adams named the episodes of Hitchhikers 'fits' after Lewis Carroll's poem 'The Hunting of the Snark (An Agony in 8 Fits)' - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunting_of_the_Snark

[Ambient Sheep]

Drive-by posting:

Also worth noting that the very first broadcasts of the show differed in some minor respects to ALL later repeats; the only one that comes to my poor demented mind right now is that the mice were originally almost incomprehensible and their parts were re-recorded in a less garbled fashion for all subsequent broadcasts.  There were other minor tweaks as well though.

The LPs were quite different again and I believe the cassettes and CDs follow that although I'm really no expert on those as I still cling to my set of off-air TDKs. :-)

For the original radio series accept no editions that remove Pink Floyd, it's a truly sublime moment.

OK that's enough for now, I can feel the panic rising.

[magval]

Can the mostly un-edited versions of series 1 and 2 be got on vinyl?

[Phil_A]

The original LP version was a complete re-recording, has completely different music and a different actress playing Trillian.

[gloria]

The original LP version was a complete re-recording, has completely different music and a different actress playing Trillian.

Indeed. That and the sequel LP are simply fantastic. The music and production are miles ahead of the radio show and make it sound rather thin and like The Archers in comparison. Such a shame these two albums were never given a CD release.

[magval]

Still haven't bought anything. Should I go for these then?

[Endicott]

Also worth noting that the very first broadcasts of the show differed in some minor respects to ALL later repeats; the only one that comes to my poor demented mind right now is that the mice were originally almost incomprehensible and their parts were re-recorded in a less garbled fashion for all subsequent broadcasts.  There were other minor tweaks as well though.

Thank you (about the mice). I always wondered about them, I preferred the original mice and thought I was going mad.

[Endicott]

My Dad taped the original radio broadcast, unless they repeated them shortly afterwards and he taped that.

I'm pretty sure they did repeat them, as I certainly didn't tape the original broadcast. I can remember listening to it the first time around, whilst travelling in the car with my parents on a transistor radio held to my ear, aged 14. I think that was when I first heard so long and thanks for all the fish. I would have taped it off the radio later on, and then at some point got the CD. Tapes lost now.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Still haven't bought anything. Should I go for these then?

I'd still recommend the radio series (just the first 12 episodes) over the records.

If anyone wants to hear the records whack me a PM.

[Replies From View]

I'd still recommend the radio series (just the first 12 episodes) over the records.

Same.  The records are an interesting novelty, but they can't replace the original radio series for me.  They have a much quicker pace and I find the differences fascinating but jarring.  For example the line about the Vogon ships hanging in the air "in exactly the way that bricks don't".  That's a line that I believe was originally from the TV series.

I guess you fall in love with the first version of something you know.  Some people prefer the books for the same reason.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

I remember, on the record, they joked that Vogons were among the worst poets, but worse still was a poet called Paul Neil Milne Johnstone, of England, and that later versions of the record distorted the name and made it illegible, presumably because someone of that specific name complained.

[Andy147]

I remember, on the record, they joked that Vogons were among the worst poets, but worse still was a poet called Paul Neil Milne Johnstone, of England, and that later versions of the record distorted the name and made it illegible, presumably because someone of that specific name complained.

He was at school with Douglas Adams. I think I've read that he complained not because he was insulted but because it gave his actual address as well.

[Chriddof]

I think it was in the TV series that they changed the poet's identity to a young girl called Nancy (?), who was illustrated in the guide with what was basically a drawing of Adams with pig-tails.

[olliebean]

Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings, IIRC.

[Replies From View]

He was at school with Douglas Adams. I think I've read that he complained not because he was insulted but because it gave his actual address as well.

Ha, I love that Adams would do that.  Or even just think that that would be okay.

[JesusAndYourBush]

The TV series gave the real phone number of "a small flat in Islington" which I phoned a few days after it aired and spoke to the guy.  Not sure who he was but he did say he knew Douglas Adams.

[olliebean]

IIRC, it was the flat where Adams was living when he wrote it, but not by the time it aired.

[Pauline Walnuts]

Can the mostly un-edited versions of series 1 and 2 be got on vinyl?

They're releasing the first 5, err.. phases on that expensive vinyl box sets, probably edited to buggery mind.


"limited edition Amazon.co.uk Exclusive which also includes a 12″ x 12″ print signed by Neil Gaiman Only 500 available! https://amzn.to/2L2o5D7

Standard Edition: https://amzn.to/2L3YpWI "

Neil Gaiman...

Are Mark Wing-Davey and the other lot dead or something?

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What does Neil Gaiman have to do with it again?