Talk:Races and species in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

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42, the Meaning of Life This article is part of WikiProject Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this notice, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.


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[edit] Nowwhattian Boghogs

It's very unfortunate that we seem to have forgotten the Nowwhattian Boghogs from "Mostly Harmless." They're the warthog-like creatures that are inhabitants of the planet Nowwhat that communicate by biting each other in the thigh. I think these beasts deserve a section on this page.

[edit] Vogons

Do the Vogons in the fifth book deserve a mention? They seem to look slightly different due to being from a parallel universe, if I read that right.

They are even described slightly differently in the fifth radio series, so this could/should probably deserve a mention. --JohnDBuell 00:13, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Use of direct quotes from the Hithchiker's Guide

I believe that direct quotes from the Hichhiker's Guide are permissable in the particular case of this article, and not a "rip off" because:

  • The quotes are usually only a couple of paragraphs, and therefore constitute fair use.
  • Because such races are fictitious the most accurate and direct way of describing them is to quote from the guide. The quote from the book is, in fact, the totality of what can be said about the race. Anything else is, as they say, surmise and heresay.
  • It should not be neccessary to paraphrase Douglas Adams excellent writing to write something in Wikepedia. Such paraphrasing only makes the entry less accurate.

Mike Young 21:27, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

You don't even remark that you're quoting! In any case, You're wrong. Jim Apple 23:13, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
If one is going to disagree with a post, I, for one, would find it helpful if, instead of a duplicated link which states, "You're wrong," you give a specific explaination... G33K 05:13, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Note to anyone intending on splitting off a section

This page has been processed by N-Bot, which, for browsing convenience, changes links to redirects to lists to links to the relevant list sections: e.g. [[Fuolornis Fire Dragon]] is changed to [[Races from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy#Fuolornis Fire Dragon|Fuolornis Fire Dragon]].

As a result, anyone who intends to split a section out of this page should be aware that, as of 5 September 2005, the following sections were linked to from the following pages:

~~ N-Bot (t/c) 23:25, 5 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Hooloovoos

If anyone wants to verify and possibly add this...

Hooloovoos are superintelligent shades of the color blue, and are already visible. The hooloovoo on the "Heart of Gold" staff was refracted because the traditional presidential colors are those of a rainbow. The other memebers of the group that created the heart of gold were wearing rainbow sashes, so the hooloovoo was simply being allowed to follow suit.

verified: The hooloovoo on the "Heart of Gold" design team was refracted by a free-standing prism; the rest is not in the book...source? --G33K 05:58, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
Is this why it's listed under "important color articles"? Wow... That is proof that wikipedia is far from perfect... WhateverTS 06:41, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
Or that some of the maintainers try to retain a subtle sense of humour... :P --Quiddity 07:35, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
Well, while I don't trust the validity of Wikipedia overall, I still don't think a sly joke is a pertinent "fact" to maintain...WhateverTS 01:42, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vogon

I've merged Vogon to Races from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy —Quarl (talk) 2006-02-06 21:42Z

[edit] Article title

Sonjaaa did not give a reason for unilaterally moving the page, nor was there any discussion. That managed to leave a lot of text that needs redirecting. However, if we're going for accuracy, I'd actually recommend Races and species in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as the article actually lists both. And I WOULD like there to be a discussion before someone moves the article again.... --JohnDBuell 21:06, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Okay, granted that discussion isn't always required, but.... Another suggestion would be to leave species forked off onto this page, and fork 'races' back onto the original page. --JohnDBuell 21:13, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
Well, I fowled this up with a capital S in Species, so if anyone wants to make it 'more correct', feel free, but there will still be a LOT of redirects to clean up. :) --JohnDBuell 04:29, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hagunennons?Hagunenons? Haggunenons

...a super-evolutionary race featured in episode 5 or 6 (or both) of the original Hitchhiker's Guide radio series, but never made it into later adaptations...as I remember, they had the most restless DNA in the galaxy...rather than passing along survival enhancing mutations to the next generation, they would evolve on a whim...one might be unable to reach a cup of tea and so instantly evolve into something with longer arms, but quite incapable of drinking the tea, this made them very hostile towards species who evolve at a more controlled pace, or "filthy rotten samelings" as they called them.

I can't locate my tape of the episode, so this is just the best that I can squeeze from my memory. I was hoping to find a description here. I googled "super-evolutionary" and found one hit with the name Hagumennons; googled "Hagumennons" to find that THAT was the ONLY page in google's database with a hit! is it spelled correctly? well...who would know?...they didn't make it into the book... G33K 03:38, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

found the tape. episode 6. the final episode of the first BBC radio series, later continued in a second series of 6(?) more episodes...sounds more like Hagunennon or Hagunenon which both get more hits on google...G33K 08:23, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
As they appear in the radio series only, the definitive source of information about them is the Radio Scripts Book. You know, a book? Those things made of tree pulp and bound together with glue? Anyway, while the race has not yet been included here, as a character, the Haggunenon Underfleet Commander appears on the Minor characters from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy page. --JohnDBuell 11:25, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
Those are published? kewl; something else to add to my wishlist... G33K 19:57, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
Only the 25th anniversary edition seems to be in print right now, ISBN 0330419579 --JohnDBuell 21:19, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for all your help. -- G33K 05:52, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Biroid life forms

User:WookieLord submitted the following:

Also perhaps (sry for editing without new topic but i am new here) a section should be added about 'Biros' or 'Biroid life forms,' a theory about which was formulated by one 'Vit Voogagig' (or spelt other ways) in one of the original radio series.

[edit] computers are a species

Several of the characters are computers or robots, like Marvin and Deep Thought and that one from Life, the Universe and Everything

I suppose one could list "Artificial Intelligences", though Marvin has his own article, and Deep Thought and Hactar are covered in the Minor Characters article. --JohnDBuell 17:23, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The race that looks just like humans, but isn't

In Mostly Harmless, I remember Author spending some time on a planet filled with people who look just like humans, but are empty; philosophical zombies if you will. This shocked him into his quest to travel to all the 'alternate earths' he was in at the start of the book. This specied seems more important to the plot than many of the entries. Do they have a name? Is that the only criteria for this? 131.7.52.17 14:27, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

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