Authors: ed. Simon Petrie
ASIM_issue_54 (29 page)
Fortuitously, this hypothesis can be easily and conclusively proved simply by listening to the concluding moments of episode one. Pay close attention to the pitch of Bill Wallis’ voice. ‘Tell me how good my poem was’ is precisely a semitone lower than ‘die in the vacuum of space’—an error that an actor of Wallis’ vast experience would never make unless called upon to patch in a replacement line months after the original session.
8
Anyone listening to Fit the First will note that the aforementioned break is covered by an overly prolonged burst of György Ligeti’s organ piece
Volumina
—written into the script as ‘DRAMATIC CHORD’ but in fact offering little by way of drama or tension; more a discordant, ‘Whoops, that’s broken. How can we fix it? Quick, hum something while I’m thinking,’ sort of legerdemain. Yet, if Bill Wallis were involved in a patch-up re-recording, surely he’d remember the original script, even if it were then subjected to
damnatio memoriae
?
Not necessarily.
Hitchhiker’s
broke from BBC comedy tradition in that it was not recorded in front of a studio audience.
9
Furthermore, for the purposes of achieving ‘voice separation’, actors were often kept thoroughly segregated or had their parts spliced into the recording during post-production. (Richard Goolden, for instance, was hidden in a cupboard to play Zaphod Beeblebrox IV.
10
Roy Hudd (Max Quordlepleen) and Stephen Moore (Marvin) both played in Fit the Fifth but remained unaware of each other’s involvement until they met for a BBC World Service interview and discovered that the ‘really strange thing’ Hudd had just recorded for was indeed, as it sounded, the very same thing as Moore’s ‘that sounds like the thing that I’m in’.
11
) It seems perfectly feasible, then, that the Vogon Captain’s speech in the ‘nine lines’ fragment might ring true to Bill Wallis while Arthur’s character does not—in all likelihood he would have performed one without ever hearing the other.
Douglas Adams became notoriously possessive over
Hitchhiker’s
; most famously in his having cal ed upon John Lloyd to help finish Fits the Fifth and Sixth before the deadline flat-lined, only then to write Lloyd’s contributions out of all subsequent versions of the production.
12
Hitchhiker’s
was,
au fond
, Adams’ possession, and there is a tendency amongst those involved with the production to downplay their own contributions. Simon Brett, for instance, makes no claim of co-authorship, and merely says of the ‘nine lines’ excerpt:
Douglas had already written something very similar, but he did it rather better.
13
The tense here is significant: not ‘wrote’ but ‘had already written’. Beyond the self-effacement that also pervades Brett’s website,
14
there lies implicit in his verdict the suggestion both of contemporaneous composition and of a changed (yet still inclusive) authorial hand. With this subtext in mind, it seems highly probable that Max Mooney’s discovery is, in fact, genuine
Hitchhiker’s
material—revised and discarded, perhaps, between recording and broadcast, but genuine nonetheless.
Tom Holt concludes:
Surgeons proverbially bury their mistakes. Producers of cult radio shows don’t have that privilege. This fragment and the implications it raises for Adams scholarship in general casts a fascinating light on the development of the text, and in particular the influence of Adams’ crucial but often overlooked hidden collaborators.
15
A nail-clipping from the Hitchhiker’s thumb? Fly, Toasty Vogon …
References:
1
Simpson, M. J.,
Hitchhiker
: A Biography of Douglas Adams (Hodder and Stoughton, 2003), p. 119.
(back)
2
Adams, Douglas,
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: The Original Radio Scripts—25th Anniversary Edition
(Pan, 2003), p. 31.
(back)
3
Susan Sheridan, personal correspondence, 19 October 2010.
(back)
4
Simpson, M. J.,
The Pocket Essential Hitchhiker’s Guide
(Pocket Essentials, 2005), p. 31.
(back)
5
Simpson,
Hitchhiker,
p. 98.
(back)
6
Bill Wallis, personal correspondence, 17 November 2010.
(back)
7
Mark Wing-Davey, personal correspondence, 22 October 2010.
(back)
8
Tom Holt, personal correspondence, 15 April 2011.
(back)
9
Gaiman, Neil,
Don’t Panic: The Official Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Companion
(Pocket Books, 1988), p. 31.
(back)
10
Webb, Nick,
Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography of Douglas Adams
(Headline, 2003), p. 126.
(back)
11
Geoffrey Perkins, quoted in Webb, Nick,
Wish You Were Here
, p. 124.
(back)
12
Gaiman,
Don’t Panic
, pp. 33-35.
(back)
13
Brett, Simon, personal correspondence, 13 June 2011.
(back)
14
http://www.simonbrett.com/
(back)
15
Tom Holt, personal correspondence, 15 April 2011.
(back)
…Edwina Harvey
I had the pleasure of meeting American author, Brenda Cooper, recently when she was visiting with mutual friends Ted and Ros Scribner following the FutureGov Australia conference which she attended in Canberra.
Anyone who has read the invitation only anthology,
Tales for Canterbury
, published to donate funds to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal, will be familiar with Brenda’s story, ‘Phoenix Dogs’, about two totally different rescue dogs and their respective handlers.
The story was written with such an insight of a working dog’s attachment to its handler that I had to ask the obvious. While the answer was no, she didn’t train rescue dogs, she knew others who did, and yes, she was a dog lover. Three border collies and a golden retriever share her household. The inspiration for the story came from the Chilean earthquake.
Like a lot of us, Brenda always wanted to be a writer. She took an adult writing class, and had some success in getting her poetry and contemporary stories published. Her turning point came when her son turned 18, and she decided to pursue her dream.
Brenda has been privileged to co-author
Building Harlequin’s Moon
with Larry Niven. The novel was developed from the first spec fic short story that Brenda had published. She got to know Larry Niven through Steve Barnes. She describes Niven as a good teacher and a social writer who enjoys collaborating with other authors.
While science fiction is popular in movies and TV series, she laments that written SF often isn’t viewed as marketable by the bigger publishers, despite it having respectable sales via titles published by smaller publishing houses.
When asked what she thinks of the revolution the writing and publishing industry in presently undergoing, she is candid and refreshingly optimistic in her outlook. A self-described techno-geek, she finds these changeable times very exciting. Self-publishing is much easier and also becoming more respected. While the readership of paper-based books, journals and newspapers is in decline, we are reading more than ever, using online books, journals, blogs and forums for information and entertainment.
We agree that after many failed attempts over the past few decades, with the variety of easily attainable and affordable e-readers now on the market, e-books have finally come into their own. Brenda states that while e-books cost roughly the same in lay-out and design as paper books, e-publishing overcomes the problems of storage, remainders, and returns that plague paper book publishers.
Her latest book, the time travel fantasy,
Mayan December
, (Prime Books, 2011) is available in print and for the Kindle and the Nook. And while Brenda’s a techno-geek, she’s also quick to admit that there’s something pretty special about seeing your book in print, and displayed in a book fair, shop or convention.
Whether published in electrons or on paper, she is aware how important it is these days for authors to market their book—a position not all authors are suited to. She is fortunate to have a flair for promotion and public speaking, and would love to visit Australia again as a guest speaker at a science fiction convention.
Mole Hunt: The Maximus Black Files (Book 1)
by Paul Collins
Ford Street Publishing, 2011
ISBN: 9781742373423
Reviewed by Edwina Harvey
This is a Spy/Thriller novel with a science fiction backdrop aimed at young male readers (12+) but just as suitable for girls and adults.
Collins is an experienced writer, and
Mole Hunt
is a tightly written, action-packed fast moving story. The point of view shifts between master spy for RIM, Maximus Black, and Anneke Longshadow, also a RIM spy who is trying to find the mole working within the agency. When Anneke’s Uncle Viktus—a high ranking member of the RIM organization—is murdered before her eyes, she suspects the mole assassinated him. Or was she the mole’s intended target? Anneke’s and Maximus’s paths criss-cross, as they exchange roles of hunter and hunted, with many sub-plots woven into the story along the way. This book starts with a bang, and the pace just doesn’t let up. The story is surprisingly dark at times, as suits the thriller genre, I suppose, though I was left wondering if it was better suited to older teens and adults. I found this a gripping read with strongly drawn characters.