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

First of all, let me say that I absolutely loved Episode One of the new series of 'Doctor Who'. The story was ingenious, exciting and funny, and the show looked great. The script was superb, and writer Russell T. Davies deserves huge credit for some witty and memorable dialogue. I am eagerly looking forward to the rest of the series.

But the show and the attendant publicity left me pondering the following questions:

1) Is Russell T. Davies a Kraftwerk fan? Because, while watching the first episode, I couldn't help thinking of their song 'Showroom Dummies': 'We look around and change our pose/We are showroom dummies.../We start to move/And we break the glass...'

2) Has anyone ever seen Russell T. Davies and GreyDesk in the same room? The resemblance between then is striking.

3) The trailer for next week's episode suggests that The Doctor and Rose travel into the far distant future to view the end of the universe, and are joined by representatives of other worlds for the viewing.

Does this, by any chance, remind you of anything?

A little touch of homage there perhaps?

That's a generous way of looking at it. I'll keep my eyes open for any further homages as the series progresses!

Do keep us posted won't you

You might have a point there, Ormy...

GD - http://www.ehrensteinland.com/htmls/bride/g001/b_russelltdavies.shtml

RTD - http://public.fotki.com/azahar/h2g2_friends/grey_desk.html

I would argue though, that I have better skin

I think you have a valid argument there GD

I come from a genetic stock where none of us look our age

I make no claims to look beautiful - just young looking and ugly.

Must be all that asses milk you bathe in

You did not think that just changing your galsses was going to fool us for ever did you GD?

I really enjoyed the first episode too - although now I am slightly older than when I first saw it I did not have to resort to hiding behind the sofa or at least a cushion. Mind you with hind sight I am not sure how doing this changes anything!

Ormy I am glad it was not just me who spent moments of the first episode waiting for Kraftwork to cut in and then thought resturant and the end of the universe during the trailer for next week

Great minds think alike, Light.

Wait a minute... GreyDesk looks just like Russell T. Davies, only with smoother skin. Could it be that the real Mr. Davies has been eaten by a marauding wheelie bin and GD is his evil, shape-shifting plastic replica?

OK - now I am scared! Its bin day here and I have to bring our empty wheelie bin back - now what if my hands get stuck and then ...




(yes my wheelie bin really has been emptied today!)

Well, now we know for sure that Russell T. Davies *is* a 'Hitchhiker' fan. While watching yesterday's very enjoyable 'Doctor Who' Christmas special, I was just thinking how many 'Hitchhiker' allusions seemed to be going on - the Doctor travelling in space in his dressing gown, the importance of in the story, the Big Red Button That Must Not Be Pressed - and then Mr Davies' script acknowledged it by having the Doctor comment on how it was all 'very Arthur Dent'.

Even Grandad didn't miss that & he wanted to know if we'd meet Marvin in the next episode

Well, the trailer for the new series at the end of the Christmas show revealed that the Cybermen are making a comeback. Perhaps Marvin has joined them?

Yes, the Cybermen worry me... I'm going to seriously have to rearrange my lounge furniture before that particular storyline starts, as there's no way I'm going to fit behind my sofa given its current layout

I'd better warn my little brother & youngest son

The former is now 6ft 4in and won't fit behind their sofa and as the youngest son kicked one in the shins and had a fit of the screaming abdabs when the Cyberman posed for a photo, attacking me, I don't think either of them will want to watch .

I wonder if my nephew knows his dad's frightened of them & how much it's worth to little bro not to tell him

Well, there's something we have in common, Granny - we've both posed for photos with Doctor Who villains! I shook hands with a Dalek, you were attacked by Cybermen...

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of Marvin joining the Cybermen. 'Resistance is futile. But then, isn't everything?'

You shook hands with a Dalek? Pffft nothing!

I've *been* a Dalek

Actually, now I come to think of it, so have I - in the Doctor Who exhibition in Blackpool. Did you get inside the Dalek shell and speak through a tube to get that 'exterminate, exterminate' tone?

Yep, absolutely right

The only difference was that my experience of being a representative of absolute evil in the Universe came one afternoon at the Museum of the Moving Image on the South Bank.