The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: The Quintessential Phase (Hitchhikers Guide BBC Radio Series #5) by Douglas Adams

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: The Quintessential Phase (Hitchhikers Guide BBC Radio Series #5) Reviews

• 
  kimyunalesca

  Probably the best of the bunch,I laughed a lot and got the hang of things.Everything somewhat came together,loads of explanation also surprises quite like instellar in a way of travel,loops,planet jump of sorts.I pretty much enjoyed this a bit sad it's over.The Radioplay production sounds a lot of fun!
• 
  James

  3.5
  While this is still fun you can feel that the series is really trying at this point
• 
  Ian Lepine

  Stylistically speaking, this is as good as anything Adams ever wrote. A lot of people, however, object to the plot. The book upon which this is based is called Mostly Harmless, but it is anything but. The radio adaptation, however, pretends the ending was all an elaborate joke and gives us several happy endings connected inter-dimensionally. While the last few minutes of this radio play (not written by Adams, as I understand) are funny enough, it does feel like a betrayal to the original story.
  Mostly Harmless IS supposed to be that devastating. Arthur Is supposed to *spoiler* lose Fenchurch because of a stupid bureaucratic clause, and everyone is supposed to die horribly so that Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz can put a tick inside a box. That's just the universe.
  
  But apart from that, the Quintessential Phase has some great bits, like the whole Sandwich Maker fit in Lamuella, and perhaps the most beautiful couple in all of literature, Arthur and Fenchurch.
• 
  Markus

  "Fenchurch, when are you off work?"
  "Shortly after the apocalypse"
  "Do you wanna go fly with me then?"
  "Always"
  I'm not crying, you're crying.
  This one actually profited from the fast pace and is still one of my favorites of the series in general.
• 
  Pinar

  Seriyi böylece bitirmiş olduk. Son kitap en eğlencelisiydi sanki. 10. gezegen Rupert, Arthur'un kızı Random Frequent Flyer Dent, bir bilim olarak astroloji..
• 
  Michael Clemens

  The final entry into the radio plays shows just how far afield Adams got from his original silly little radio drama about Arthur Dent. This very abbreviated phase introduces a number of Big Ideas inspired by the original work -- the notion of a probability continuum, most notably, and "plural zones" -- and it's a shame that Adams didn't get a chance to incorporate all these ideas right from the start, as they would have certainly led to some direction in the otherwise flabby middle episodes of the series.
  
  This phase doesn't have much urgency to the plot, and rushes through large swaths of story to reach the ending... or non-ending, as it turns out, as all the characters come back out for one final bow. This is, perhaps, as satisfying an ending as you could expect from a storyline that's taken the listener through multiple dimensions and character iterations: there isn't one pat ending, because there isn't one single storyline, but a whole great mishmash posing as a coherent story. The quintessential phase is an attempt to reign in all the scattered particles of story and put a neat bow on it. It doesn't quite work.
  
  The neatest ending, however, would have been not to end at all and to leave the story back at the end of the original Hitchhiker's story -- Arthur and Ford, exploring a strange, unexplainable universe with only a trusty towel and a battered Guide to lead them.
• 
  Adrian

  Well, well, well. This adaptation of the final, fifth book,
  Mostly Harmless, in the
  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, is the perfect ending. The book was widely criticised at the time of its release due to its darker feel compared to the previous 4 books. Well, the radio series makes up for this with an extended, alternative, ending.
  
  As for the plot; Fenchurch has disappeared, the guide has been taken over and is due to be upgraded, Arthur, Ford, Zaphod, and Trillian/Tricia, all in seperate parts of the universe, if not in separate parallel universes, are trying their best to cope, fight back, and/or just live their lives as a sandwich maker. How the many strings, across many times and dimensions, are pulled together, is pure genius!
• 
  Andrew Bulthaupt

  I listened to this via Audible.
  
  The Quintessential Phase is the last part of the adaptation of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy into a radio production. It also feels like it is the most-changed of all the three phases that were produced after the author's death. The cast and crew knock things out of the park as always, and it was fantastic to listen to. If you enjoyed everything up until this point you'll like this as well.
  
  If you've read the books, you may recall that the last one is darker overall than the rest of the series, especially the end. This is where most of the changes come in, wrapping everything up with a much happier bow and leaving things open for Eoin Colfer's And Another Thing...
  
  This is another solid recommendation, and the whole series is great and worth a listen for anyone and everyone.
• 
  David

  Probably the best and most quotable in the history of the universe.
  
  "More popular, certainly more successful than the Celestial Home Care Omnibus, better selling than Fifty-Three More Things to do in Zero Gravity, and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes and Who is this God Person Anyway?" (quote Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
  
  I highly recommend. I've read it (the series) about 3 times and it never gets old.
• 
  Adam

  Post listen review:
  
  Totally incoherent, rather plotless, completely insane and fully and thoroughly entertaining. My only complaint is that it is too short.
  
  Pre-listen guess
  
  Woohoo! Douglas Adams is (ok was) a genious at being funny! Finally something decent to listen to.
• 
  Arlene

  Amazing. Totally different ending than the book. Huge plot twists.
• 
  Denise みか Hutchins

  If you've gotten this far in the radio series, there's no reason to stop! This installment was not only just as humorous and mind-bending as all the previous ones, it even ended in such a way as to patch up the heart that the Quandary Phase broke 💖 I honestly had happy tears in my eyes at the end. It was so moving! And with all the probability and multiversal stuff that's been thrown around since the very beginning, it was perfectly believable, even if it was different from the original novel.
  
  This ends the material I had some familiarity with (even if I had forgotten most of it). Next, the Hexagonal Phase, which I have absolutely no idea about. I haven't read the book it's based on yet (though I do have it ready in my library!), all I know is that it was posthumously written by another author. I'm actually quite looking forward to it!
• 
  February

  As far as things go, this entry into the radio series took quite a different turn at the end then the book it at least mirrors at the start (one
  Mostly Harmless), and while I'm not sure how I feel about the altered ending (up to you to be familiar with either), I have to say that overall this radio play was enjoyable. It went by much faster than my varied attempts almost two decades ago to read Mostly Harmless. Do love this cast, and it was a fun listen.
• 
  Steve Mitchell

  The final series of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy radio series ties up the lack of loose ends from the fifth H2G2 novel, Mostly Harmless, to allow any future series to follow on without disrupting the continuity in a way that Douglas Adams never even bothered about in the first place!
• 
  D.L. Pitchford

  Omg, Marvin! <3 <3 <3 I freaked out. So emotional.
• 
  Eric

  Had I fully realized it was a radio play I might have passed on checking it out. It turned out to be entertaining, but less than my full cup of tea.
• 
  Gary Mcfarlane

  Great you like herring sandwiches and want to find out what actually happened to Elvis.
• 
  Sytze Hiemstra

  Even though it's not genuine Adams, this is a fun conclusion to the guide.
• 
  Morgan

  Story and adaptation: 4.5/5
  Sound quality of available radio play (from audible): 3/5
• 
  sch

  2021 Jul. Redeems the Quandary phase, whose rating I am upgrading from 2 to 3. Apparently they were originally released at the same time, once "fit" per week for eight weeks in a row.
• 
  Greg

  Another fabulous production and performance with a satisfying conclusion. An improvement over my memory of the final novel.
• 
  Rachel Kieltyka

  Not as good as the originals, but how could it be?
• 
  Eirik Gumeny

  I think the changes made from "Mostly Harmless" to this actually enhance the story. I might even like the radio play adaptation more than the original book in this case.
• 
  Kirsty (wanderingbookishsoul)

  I have come to conclusion that I will always be a die hard Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fan. This phase did not disappoint although I was a little surprised it ended so well and then it was just bitter sweet and a bit sad knowing that we lost such a great person.
  
  I will always recommend this series.
• 
  Alex

  This threatened to be really good. Insanity has been restored to the Hitchhikers Universe with the multidimensional parallel universe strands coming into full force, two Trillians, Arthur Dent - Sandwich maker - has a daughter and Ford Prefect befriends an amusing new robot and uncovers a hostile takeover of the Hitchiker's Guide...
  
  ...but again at 4 episodes this is just too short to work those ideas through and they're no sooner introduced than they're abandoned again. Maggs and the BBC decide to impose thier own forced happy ending on the material for no reason I can make out and I just feel sorely disappointed that it's all over. Still, this is heaps funnier than the Quandary phase and a joy to listen to. I've loved hearing the old cast reprise their roles 25 years on and they really get into it. (It's a big shame there's not so much Zaphod and Marvin in these later novels, though) and casting choices for other roles have been generally great, with the production of the shows being fine. Just a bit of a shame about the scripting that can't force the material into the holes it wants to put it and worse, tries to update Adams humour for a modern audience and stumbles horrible from time to time.
• 
  Paul

  I picked this up thinking it was the final book (Mostly Harmless) in the Hitchhiker's trilogy. I was disappointed to find out it was actually the BBC production of the book, and not an actual reading of it. But BBC did a nice job of it, so I enjoyed it nonetheless.
  
• 
  Kerry

  This one was only okay? I think? I was sewing at the time so I was only paying half attention. At least everybody was in it, that was good. Usually I'm a fan of parallel whatevers. But this was short and there was too little of the Book and too much American!Trillian. I dunno. It was all right.
• 
  Laura

  In which Arthur Dent makes sandwiches .Ford Prefect goes on a spending spree. And we discover where the whole thing comes to a conclusion. Listened to the 2005 Radio Broadcast which gives the series a different ending than the books.
  SPOILER******
  Given Arthur a happy ending or various endings.