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

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I like how you used a catphrase 'free reign' but I changed it back to 'free rein'.

Just two questions:

"She works in a burger restaurant facing unpleasant customers but this is unsurprising considering the waitresses smoke in the restaurant."

What is unsurprising? Customers are unpleasant because the waitresses smoke?

"To give depth to his experiences, the character of Reese has to explain through exposition, yet his back-story is always told during action sequence in order to ensure the film's pace never slows down."

I'm not sure what this is saying - Reese does a lot of talking about external events, but his own experience is told during action sequence?

I enjoyed this episode much better - the dice jokes were to my taste, and I liked Cat's cat phrases

I decided not to watch the episode from V, and only saw the end of the episode from VII, when Rimmer left the ship.

A day out of the office today, although I did have a 5-minute drive-by h2g2 at lunchtime.

Shame ‘free reign’ went – especially as James Cameron is the self-proclaimed ‘King of the World’ – but is it a serendipitous typo or a phrase?

I imagine that if I was in a restaurant and the waitresses were smoking, I’d imagine customers would complain. You could change it if you wanted to, maybe something like:
‘She works in an unpleasant burger restaurant environment. She not only faces unfriendly customers but the other waitresses smoke in the restaurant.’

As for the other bit, we could expand that section.

The film effectively portrays a haunting future world through two short flashback sequences featuring Reese. We see two short flashbacks into the future world, which are filled with skullsAlways skulls, never any other type of bone., which effectively contrasts with the skull-shaped head of the Terminator endoskeleton. To give added depth to these brief experiences, Reese explains to Sarah, and by extension the audience, exposition about his back-story. Yet he always does this during action sequences, such as telling Sarah what the Terminator is and why it is after her during the thrilling car-chase sequence. This ensures that the film’s frantic pace never slows down.

Does that make more sense?

Ah, you saw the last ever episode to definitely feature that Rimmer – it is a little uncertain as to whether the current Rimmer is the same Rimmer who left to become Ace Rimmer in series VII, or more likely the resurrected Rimmer who was introduced in series VIII but presumably died before ‘Back to Earth’. (To be honest, as long as there’s a Rimmer I don’t think anyone minds that much.)

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Hope it was a worthwhile day out. It's been a week and a half for me already, doing battle with a velociraptor in fur, but we're getting there...

I changed the sentence about the restaurant, as there was so much smoke in restaurants "in them days" that the customers might not have noticed, so they would have been unpleasant anyway...

Thanks for expanding the other section - well clarified I hope that's all OK for you.

Ah, I did wonder at the end of the episode whether XI Rimmer was the same one, and if so how he got back after leaving the ship

"(To be honest, as long as there’s a Rimmer I don’t think anyone minds that much.)" - indeed

I enjoyed watching Dave Gorman etc in Taskmaster last night

No, it wasn't a worthwhile day out at all, alas. The Student Records team has been volunteered out to do international admissions checks. We're supposed to ensure that all our international students have the correct documentation, visas, vignettes, passports, qualifications etc to be able to come to our university. The training for this consisted of being shown where the 'I certify this student has the correct paperwork' button is on our computer system. None of us know a Saudi Arabian diploma from a Ugandan Silver Swimming Certificate, but we've been informed we've got to process as many students as quickly as possible – which means essentially just keep clicking the button regardless. After all, the Uni's new philosophy is why do something slowly and properly when students appear happier if you do it superficially and promptly? We only have a tier 4 audit coming up soon and, if the job's not done properly, the university will only lose its licence to have international students. Not worth them employing a dedicated team who know what they're doing, is it? And in the meantime we're getting shouted at for falling behind in our actual work.

Hope the velociraptor dressed as a is getting a bit more under control…

The Terminator entry looks good – thanks for your hard work on that. I'd intended to watch 'Taskmaster', but sadly forgot. I'll try to remember next week. It's difficult coping with the pressure of having two television programmes to watch on in the same week…

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Aargh - the dreaded words tier 4 audit... I did a little bit of document checking early in my career, but then the powers that be decided it was better if a dedicated team of experts took over, just to boost the statistics a bit However, I've also been there during the audit when the dedicated team came running and needed 50 things from us by the end of the day, and then we got told off for not doing something for our manager as well Good luck with it all

The velociraptor is doing OK, thanks - I'm sitting well behind it, so if it bites it is less likely to bite me...

Enjoy your telly watching tonight

Well, the velociraptor showed me its teeth 3 times after lunch, but hopefully it didn't do too much damage...

I enjoyed Red Dwarf today - fascinating time travel... I liked the jazzy wheelchair(s) too!

A dedicated tier 4 team would definitely be a good idea, especially considering the seriousness of what it entails. Everyone who is balancing dipping their toes into the area while doing their own work agrees it is needed, but of course those higher up aren't interested in employing more people. Perhaps they need to be threatened with a bite from a velociraptor, or worried they'll be stepped on by a herd of dreadnoughtuses…?

Still, almost the weekend. I'm hoping it'll stay dry and that we'll be able to convince my son to do his 10th Parkrun – as an under 16, once he gets to 10 he's earned his first t-shirt.

'Red Dwarf' was great fun; I loved the 1950s style robot with only four buttons as well as the first glimpse of a scutter this series. I managed to fit the push-ups into the advert break between episodes too. The lift dialogue did remind me of the Christmas Episode of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, though.

30 out of the34 entries still in Peer Review today are ones I've written I've decided to take a break from writing for h2g2 for a while as that is getting a bit silly. It should at least give me a chance to catch up with Futurelearn courses.

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It is strange not to invest in that, as if it bites it's more than a velociraptor so will cost a lot of money to fix... I guess it helps for my organisation that one of our neighbours got bitten, so they know it isn't an empty threat...

Wow - that is impressive that your son has done 9 parkruns. Very close to the 10 indeed. I'm sure he'll get the t-shirt soon if not tomorrow

What is a scutter? I don't know whether I know the Christmas Episode of HHGG either... That is the good thing about advert breaks indeed - I'm quite the master of getting stuff done in between programme sections these days

That's very sad about Peer Review It's lasted a year longer than we thought it would this time last year, but it's definitely on the downward slope... I've got a few Entries in the pipeline, but I can't manage to write one a week - I admire you immensely for that, as it isn't as if you don't have other commitments...

A scutter or skutter is a little knee-high robot that looks like an angle-lamp on wheels with a 3-fingered mouth, which they use to hold tools etc. The Christmas Episode is an episode of the radio series. After the first series was a success the BBC commissioned a Christmas Special episode, but by the time it was written it instead was essentially the first episode of the second series of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', but still broadcast on Christmas Eve while the rest of the second series was transmitted from the end of January/February. It isn't actually Christmassy, but involves a sentient lift capable of seeing the future and wanting to hide in the basement while Zaphod wants to go upstairs.

I just saw an advert that said you can get a free Lego toy with a newspaper in WH Smith's tomorrow – I must remember that. I love that the shop is (semi)-named after the admiral mocked in 'HMS Pinafore' (his father was also 'WH Smith' while the chain had been founded by his grandfather, HW Smith')

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Ah, I missed the skutter, but I'll try to remember to look out for them next time. This week's episode was OK - the Pacman bit was very funny! I saw the episode after that, too, from Series III where they went to a mirror universe - that was complicated, with a backwards-time element to it that was hard to work out...

I didn't know that about WH Smith I hope you were successful in getting the Lego My Lego parcel is on its way to you, and the estimated delivery date is Wednesday

Forgot to say that explains why I don't know the Christmas Hitchhiker's episode, as they only repeated Series 1 last year, so that was not included, sadly...

Glad you enjoyed the episode and found the Pacman bit funny. 'Backwards' is a classic episode and the first of series III. It is the first episode in which Kryten is a regular, Holly is played by Hattie Hayridge and the first episode in which Starbug appears – so I hope you were paying attention to the fast-moving scrolling text at the very start of the episode which explains how come Lister is no longer pregnant.

I hope they repeat both original radio series again soon – although they announced they were going to make a series 6 – not heard anything about that for a while, though…

I'll happily look out for the parcel.

Did you have a good weekend? I had great fun riding around the Isle of Wight on buses as part of the Isle of Wight Beer and Bus weekend. I might even write about it for .

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Ah, I missed the beginning of III because it overlapped with the ending of XI on Dave ja vu, but I recall mention of the pregnancy. That's interesting that that was the first episode in III. I understand it a bit more now, that some scenes were establishing the character of Kryten as he was relatively new.

I did have a good weekend, thanks. Excellent catch up with a friend - she's another one in the same boat as us, so at this rate 'we're gonna need a bigger boat'... Good weather on the Sunday, so I enjoyed seeing and experiencing A87790026 as well as attending a lecture about the geology of the Wirral, which was food for thought.

Glad to hear you enjoyed your Beer and Buses weekend - sounds like a good way to see the Island Definitely more refined than a pub crawl - I quite enjoy a Real Ale occasionally, although I prefer cider as it is fruity rather than malty but dry.

Have you ever been stalked by a double decker that seems to follow you wherever you go?
I'll be honest and say I was more interested in having a ride on the buses than drinking ale, but it was a good chance to catch up with a couple of friends from school. I'm not really fussed about alcohol, it doesn't taste as nice as ice-cream, pancakes and waffles I too enjoy a cider on a nice, warm sunny day when you're sitting outside in a beer garden – sadly the weather was sunshine and showers, so though we had lovely warm sunshine, it was often punctured by extremely wet showers.

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I can't say I have been stalked by a , no!

Glad you had a good catch up with people too

I didn't used to be fussed about alcohol, but it is a comfort of an evening in the absence of other comforts... The Rules say it is naughty to do that, but hopefully a few units of cider a week is OK overall, and I enjoy studying the flavours of different types, so that is no bad thing really...

(The Rules have a lot to say about icecream, pancakes and waffles, too, so I mostly end up eating bread sandwiches in the evening instead, which is not the most exciting, but never mind... I've got some Quail's Eggs to go with the bread this week, though, which is always good Good protein to help my muscles be strong for the #22pushupchallenge )

Sorry to hear the weather wasn't the best, but I hope you managed to dodge at least some of the showers while enjoying the bus ride

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Can I check the spelling of Tarturus please? Should it be Tartarus?

"'Ever Fallen in Love' by Pete Shelley" - is a ? needed in the song title?

Ah yes – it should be Tartarus, but the song title doesn't have a question mark. Which is bad punctuation, but that is how they named the song

I've written all about the bus adventures for - so if they're desperately short of things worth reading it'll probably be included in a week or two. Fortunately I was able to escape most of the rain showers – the only time we were caught outside rather than being in a pub was the last walk around Cowes. It was very enjoyable, I just wish it lasted longer than 10am-6pm on Saturday and 10am-3pm on Sunday (although all the pubs stayed open longer, of course).

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I look forward to seeing the write up

Red Dwarf was good - painfully true black humour... I liked Kryten's Ferrari, though

I saw another episode from III after that, and the Skutter appeared, coincidentally, plus a Blue Midget. It was BodySwap, which was a fascinating episode - Craig Charles lip synced Rimmer's words well but with a bit of a scouse 'accent', but Chris Barrie did a great job of lip syncing Lister's scouse!

I'm sorry about Peer Review - I put one Entry in to try to reduce your percentage, but now two have been taken out... I plan to finish Bee Movie this weekend, but I also have other stuff to do (one of the velociraptors in fur turned out to be a T-Rex ) so I'll see how I get on...

I hope you managed to get your parcel

The & entry is going to be in the 7th November's, apparently, as next week is a Halloween-themed .

'Painfully true black humour' – that sounds a good description for 'Red Dwarf'. I don't know if you realised that before 'Red Dwarf VI', the hologramatic Rimmer couldn't touch or interact with objects at all, but in series VI he becomes a Hard Light hologram and able to touch and feel once more (but presumably still not really eat). The current Rimmer appears to be Hard Light too. They seem to be showing a lot of Series III – I wonder how they decide which episodes to show?

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