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First of 6 new HHGG episodes, Tonight!
Prof.Phreak writes "From HHGG: Twenty-five years after the original radio series of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy exploded into the public consciousness, the further exploits of its bewildered hero, Arthur Dent, are being brought to life in their original medium and with the (mainly) original cast. Episode 1- Tuesday 21 September 2004 6.30pm; In which Arthur wakes up, Trillian opts out, and Marvin is stuck fast..."
So let's do the math...
The planet factory was 13 light/sec in circumferance. Light travels at approximately 3e8 m/s which puts the circumferance at 3.9e9 meters around.
3.9e9 / (2 * PI) ~= 6.2e8 meters which is the radius. That puts the diameter at 1.24e9 meters.
There is 6.2e-4 meters/mile, so 1.24e9 * 6.2e-4 = 7.7e5 miles. That's pretty close to the estimated 1 million mile diameter!
I really like the way this guy thinks.
In which Arthur wakes up, Trillian opts out, and Marvin is stuck fast...
...
If you view the HTML of the BBC page, you'll notice much longer introductions to each story, currently commented out...
Arthur Dent awakes to find that he has spent the last four years on prehistoric Earth, alone in all that time save for five minutes with an infuriating alien called Wowbagger who arrived, insulted him, and left. Reunited with Ford Prefect, Arthur discovers that the Hitchhikers Guide he threw in the river still works - and is being updated. Rescue appears in the form of a sofa caught in the Space-Time Continuum and Arthur and Ford disappear in a fashion which would cause stern looks from the Campaign For Real Time.
Aboard the Heart of Gold Zaphod Beeblebrox is nursing a large Pan Galactic Gargleblaster and two headaches. He believes that he survived the Total Perspective Vortex while pursuing a Hitchhikers Guide employee called Zarniwoop and that Arthur marooned him by stealing the Heart of Gold, which of course Zaphod himself stole (but then Zaphod thinks he alone has the right to indulge in excitement, adventure and really wild things).
His girlfriend Trillian (who, as Tricia McMillan, is the only human apart from Arthur to survive the Destruction of Earth by the Vogon Constructor Fleet) has no memory at all of these events and is therefore convinced that Zaphod has had a psychotic episode brought on by too many drinks. Tired of his selfishness she snaps and leaves him, having herself beamed by Eddie the shipboard computer in any direction but here.
Meanwhile in the swamps of Squornshellous Zeta, Marvin the Paranoid Android pivots helplessly in circles on an artificial leg, his only company a talkative mattress called Zem
He wrote "Mostly Harmless" when he was pretty depressed. I read an article/interview (Maybe in "Salmon of doubt"?) where he said that he wanted to go back to the series one last time to put it to rest in a slightly more cheery way. He was going to do it after he finished the dirk gently novel he was working on when he died.
"Physics is to math as sex is to masturbation." -R. Feynman