h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Marvin the robot has to be the best charater he is so cool and down to earth. and this being so the best moment has to be including marvin. i believe that (in the radio edition) the best section is exceptionaly small. it is infact when zaphod is in the offices of the hitchhikers and when they both are in the lift. The lift says (this is the exact best bit);
"Hello" and marvin replies amazingly with...
"Hello lift" this in it's self does not sound great but the way it is said by marvin just sums up the whole of his character in a deep meaning ful way but also is very amuzing and light hearted. To get the full effect you need to listen to it again now so you can see the greatness of the one line. It is just the best section in the whole thing but it did just have one contender. a few seconds earlier, when marvin says
"I'm all right" this is a good line but i just don't think it has the full content of the other and really only seams so good because of the excelent acting.
these are my views but i am willing to change them if Mark Moxon says they are wrong (for he is king)
Lord Preston

I agree, Marvin is great, but one of my favorite scenes follows directly after that one: Where Marvin "fights" the Frogstar Tank. He talked the tank into shooting the floor out from under, then, looking down, comments apathetically: "What a depressingly stupid machine." Classic.

Trying to pick one favourite piece from HHGTG is like.... well it's very hard. The bit that always sticks in my mind though involves Marvin - it's when they're all sitting in Milliways, and Marvin calls them from the car park to let them know that he's been there for countless millenia. Eventually he asks if they'd like him to put a bucket on his head, which he does. After Zaphod hangs up, someone asks who was on the phone, and Beeblebrox says "Oh, it was only Marvin". "What did he want?" "He just phoned us up to wash his head at us".

There will always be a place for Marvin in my heart

For me it's got to be what has become known as 'Marvin's Speech' in our house-hold, it starts when Ford calls Marvin over to go fetch Zaphod...

"I've just figured out the square-root of minus one, it's never been worked out before, it's always been thought impossible."
"Marvin!"
"I'm going... Pausing only to reconstruct the whole infrastructure of integral mathematics in his head he goes about his humble task, never thinking to ask for a reward, recognition or even a moments ease from the terrible pain in all the diodes down his left side. Fetch Beeblebrox they say and forth he goes."
"Shhhh hmmmm..." go the self satisfying doors as Marvin leaves

That has to be the best! Although the "Hello lift" is beautiful. As is the...

"I hate this door, it's about to open again, I can tell by the intolerable air of smugness it suddenly generates"
"Shhhh hmmmm..."
"Hateful isn't it."

Pure poetry! Thankyou Douglas for filling my heart with joy for a brief second! At least until I wound the tape back again. I have so many favourite moments I could go on forever, there's Marvin falling out of the cup, when he saves Arthur and that clone woman who's name I can't spell from the foot soldiers, when he's getting attacked by the Bugblatter Beast of Traal etc... Marvin I love you!

i have to say that Marvin has so many best bits it is terribly hard to choose. he just has to be the best character. though i do like Fords logic. And ford and zaphod do have that exceptional bit when there falling from the giant cup on that planet which i forget.
Ford: "i hate hights"

Zaphod: "don't worry were on our way down now. maybe we will land in some water or sommething. can you swim?"

Ford: "i don't know"

Zaphod: "what do you mean you don't know!"

Ford: "well, i don't like to go into water in any specific detail"

Zaphod: "hey, what kind of traveler are you? you don't like hights, you don't like water!"

Ford: "perfectly natural! i just get a kick out of being on the ground"

Zaphod: "well your just about to get the biggest kick of your life!"

Lord Preston

Sigh:

"Excuse me for breathing, which I never did to begin with. Oh, God, I'm SO depressed."
"Here I am the brain the size of a planet and they tell me to go get the prisoners. Call that job satisfaction, 'cause I don't."

I identified strongly with Marvin back in my college days. I'd repeat those quotes for my friends when we were hanging out in our usual collegeate funk. (Appologies if I made any minor errors with the canon).

I Completely agree with the comment about the fight between marvin and the frogstar tank, the first time I read that I was in tears, it is sheer comic brillience.

Reading through these quotes made me remember why I love his writing so much, it's bum about face and statement like, completely original (or at least it is to me). It's a shame we will never see his likes again.

laters

marvin is in my opinion the best character in the whole trilogy of five. almost everything he said is worth being quoted in one context or another, but i think his very best line was when he, in "so long, and thanks for all the fish", revealed that he was actually 37 times older than the universe itself because of all the time traveling business he has been through... i need to get the english books as soon as possible

Marvin is my fave character from HHGTTG. My favorite bit with Marvin is in _So Long and Thanks for all the Fish_ where he looks at God's final message to the universe. Here he is 37 times older than the universe itself, every part of him replaced except of course the diodes on his left side that give him a pain. Poor Marvin.

And let us not forget: "Life. Don't talk to me about life."

And we all know that Marvin was an outstanding poet.


"Now I lay me down to sleep
Try to count electric sheep
Sweet dream wishes you can keep
How I hate the night

Now the world has gone to bed
Darkness won't engulf my head
I can see by infra-red
How I hate the night"

Clasics, all clasics, but lets not forget his little speech ndown in his deep dark hole,
"oh look i seam to be lying in a deep dark hole, what does that remind me of? ah, yes, life.
Maybe if i just lie here it will go away again? to be perfectly honest with myself, if it doidn't go away with me falling a mile through the air then falling another mile through solid rock i think i'm stuck with it for good.
Why don't i just lie here? why don't i just climb out? why don't i just go little werdel? does it matter? even if it does matter, does it matter that it matters?
little werdel, little werdil, little werdil..."

and then when ihe finds Aurther and Lintilla, Aurther asks,
"where have you been Marvin?

"i was in a deep dark hole, i climbed out because i started to like it to much."

It wasn't "little werdle", it was "zootlewurdle". I have the book*. I know. I have it memorized. Pretty much.

[*Footnote: "The Original Hitchhiker Radio Scripts"]

yeah, sorry bout that.
Oh and where did you get that scripts book? i've looked for it practicly everywhere!
*sings "two little boys" by Rolf Haris*
Lord Preston

Er, my high school library in New Hampshire.

I looked for the Scripts book everywhere and had almost given up hope when I asked my friend in America and he went to Amazon.com and was able to get it second hand for me. Try that. Alternativly if they put the whole Red Dwarf scripts on the net the Hitch Hiker's ones should be there somewhere. Good luck. I had some I hope you do.

thanx,
i will try that, although i don't have much optimisium
.
Lord Preston

"Marvin's the clearest thinker I know."

"he was halfway to the bridge before he realized that it might be Marvin, so he went back to bed."

"he's an old friend."
"A what? Let me look it up ... Sorry, don't think I have any of those."

"I'm only doing this because I like you robot."

"your plastic pal who's fun to be with."

Let us not forget Marvin's recording career here in the real world. I remember hearing Marvin on the Dr. Demento radio show. I have 3 MP3s starring Marvin the Paranoid Android: Marvin I Love You, Metal Man, and Reasons for Being Miserable. Definatly worth seeking out. I don't know what media they were originaly distributed in, I wonder if there are more songs staring Marvin... maybe an entire album?