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

I've read to book of Contact. Infact I thought it was so good I've read it four or five times in three years. I also have the film on tape but I haven't watched it yet and I don't for a long time becuase I don't want it to spoil my imagination.
I was nice to be able to read such a full account though. I can see it is more different from the book than I orginaly realised by what my Dad had told me about it.
I just thought you may be intrested to know that they had a programme on The Outer Limits that was very much like Contact where a woman who was deaf could hear an alien message being spoken to her in binary with Xs along with the 1s and 0s. She tells her hunsband and the doctor who thinks she's hearing things that arn't there. She gets together with a man who had a computer and they find that if you hold all the sheets together and join up the Xs you get a picture of Pionner 10 along with the man and woman on the plaque and an alien. They decode the binary and it is the instructions to build a machine (surprise, surprise). A lot of the materials they can order and others they have to make and run up several thousand on the woman's husband credit card bill (her hunsband isn't the one she's been decoding the message with). Her hunsand thorws the man out and she follows him and they finish building the machine that is a laser. Apparently and alien space craft is traveling through our system using solar sails and had been pulled off course and is on course to the Sun and the laser is needed to correct their course. After the laser is fierd there ships shows up breifly however only the woman sees it however her husband and the other man belive her.
It really is worth watching. If you have seen it, let me know.

Yes, I saw this episode.
I read the book "Contact" but much preferred the film version.
I love Jodie Foster's portrayal of Ellie.

Thanks for writing.

I think I'd like the film and was interested the Jodie Foster played as Ellie but I think it'll be while before I watch it however it sounds interesting from what you mentioned.
I liked the bit in the book where Ellie was having the 'discussion' about religion and suggesting that God left some kind of proff behind and came up with mentioning that DNA is double helix (as well as a brilliant writer(!)) and the mention of the Cadassus (spelling?). Then at the end she discoveres there is a message in Pi.
Did you spot the bit about her safe combination being the first six numbers of Pi? I missed that the first time I read it but spotted it the second time.

No I didn't spot that, and I only borrowed the book from the library.
I won't be reading it again.
I really struggled with it, it was like an entirely different story.

I found the book hard going at times. In fact I'm suprised I managed to get through it and understand just about all of it since I do find a lot of books heavy going. That felt heavy going but I didn't seam to have trouble I can't quite explain it. I think the second (or third) time I read it, it was by accident. I meant to read the first two chapters about Ellie's childhood since I like those two chapters and ended up reading the whole book. I done that before with other books. I meant to read the first paragraph of one and ended up reading all three books in the trilogy.
I thinking of byeing from Smiths 'Anna and the King'. I saw 'The King and I' at the theater a long time ago and liked it and I think 'Anna and the King' is supposed to be a modern version. I was particularly interested since it had Jodie Foster after I found out she'd play Ellie in Contact.
I have to say I have seen the starting of Contact. The space views before it shows Ellie and Ted and I thought that was really impressive.

The start of the film *is* wonderful.


I haven't seen Jodie Foster's version of the King and I.
I am a big fan of the original with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr though. I even have the original LP which my mother bought many years ago.