Tuesday 5 April 2011

Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy


In 1977, 'Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy' was born, thanks to Douglas Adams, along the same time as 'Star Wars', and headed the beginning of the British comedic scifi radio drama genre. The series became so popular it subsequently became a TV series and a film.

In vast contrast to 'War of the Worlds', HGTTG is very much based around comedic value and the tangibility of the imagination as opposed to destructive seriousness that forebodes the end of the world. HGGTG quite clearly and in a blasé manner destroys the Earth within the opening scenes.

From the classic folky "galactic" intro, the tone is set and we can tell that this series is going to be "terribly" British, from humour to accent to lexical choices. There is tea drinking, dire politeness and popping down the pub. How British can we get? With use of SFX in the opening scenes we can get the full extent of what it is to live in Britain, politely quite patrons in the pub and the polar opposites of life in space, bleepy, woopy, technology. In theme of Britishness, the humour is both dry, quick and highly satirical, 58p for six pints and the remedy to the world going to end? "Go and lie down, have a rest.", even the hitchhikers guide itself is drenched in satire.

Music is used softly in the back ground, rising and falling with tension or lack there of, whilst tension was used to represent the nothingness of space.

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