Places in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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This is a list of places featured in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
[edit] Algol
Algol is an eclipsing binary star in the constellation of Perseus. It is the home of the Algolian Suntiger, the tooth of which is one of the ingredients of the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. Before being placed into the Total Perspective Vortex, Zaphod Beeblebrox wished for Algolian Claret, an alcoholic drink presumably created by the gray humanoid species inhabiting the planet. Despite Zaphod's apparent affinity for this drink, Algolian cuisine is equally noted for its unpleasantness. The Algolian Zylatburger is one such case. As related by Ford Prefect, "They're a kind of meatburger made from the most unpleasant parts of a creature well-known for its total lack of any pleasant parts." It is briefly mentioned as pretty neat in a song protesting teleportation.
[edit] Allosimanius Syneca
Allosimanius Syneca is a planet noted for ice, snow, mind-hurtling beauty and stunning cold. The view from the top of the Ice Crystal Pyramids of Sastantua is widely known for its ability to release the observer's mind to hitherto unexperienced horizons of beauty.
[edit] Alpha Centauri
Apart from being one of the closest stars to Earth's solar system, (4.1 light-years northwest of earth) Alpha Centauri is home to both small furry creatures and a local planning department office of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council. It has a rough, bumpy surface and sixteen cities (the fifteenth one is the best place to buy a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster), and is also inhabited by super-intelligent lizard squirrels. Its main spaceport, Port Brasta, has a massive duty-free shopping mall, the motto of which is, "BE LIKE THE TWENTY-SECOND ELEPHANT WITH HEATED VALUE IN SPACE -- BARK!" This slogan contains an ingenious pun in Centaurian that the natives find hilarious.
[edit] Alpha Proxima
The first novel points out that it's four light years from Alpha Proxima whilst Damogran is five hundred thousand light years.
[edit] Antares
In the first book, the guide relates smuggling Antarean parakeet glands, an after cocktail delicacy out of Antares.
[edit] Arcturus
The red giant star Arcturus is home to the great Arcturan megafreighters, automated cargo carriers that transport vast quantities of goods between star systems. So large that they eclipse a planet's sun when in orbit, they are supposedly impregnable, though Zaphod Beeblebrox somehow managed it as a child. Former galactic president Yooden Vranx was a one-time megafreighter captain. Arcturus is also home to a staggering array of oversize and often deadly fauna, from the Arcturan Megaleech to the Arcturan Megavoidwhale, Arcturan megagnat to the Arcturan megaelephant and megapuppy, as well as the megacamel, well known by the turn of phrase "ones soul moves at the speed of an Arcturan megacamel", presumable the reason for distilling Arcturan Mega-gin.
[edit] Argabuthon
Argabuthon is a technologically advanced planet whose perspex Sceptre of Justice turned out to be part of the key to the Wikkit Gate.
[edit] Arglebard Forest
The forests that provided the wood to build the Argabuthon Chamber of Law.
[edit] Arkintoofle Minor
The Hingefreel people built spaceships powered by bad news, as it is the only thing that travels faster than light, but were never welcomed at any of their destinations.
[edit] Artifactovol
From the great shipbuilding asteroid complexes Artifactovol came the majestic and luxurious cruise-liner Starship Titanic. The ship was one of the first large experiments in Improbability Physics, with the intent being to make it Infinitely Improbable that anything would ever go wrong with any part of the ship. The shipbuilders were unaware that, due to the nature of Improbability calculations, that which is Infinitely Improbable is actually very likely to happen almost immediately. Before it could transmit its first radio message - an SOS - the ship underwent a sudden and gratuitous Total existence failure.
[edit] Asgard
Thor, the thundergod is from Halls of Asgard.
[edit] Axel Nebula
Near the Axel Nebula Ford Prefect was passed by limoship customized by Lazlar Lyricon.
[edit] Barnard's Star
A red dwarf star only six light-years from Earth, Barnard's Star is an interstellar transit stop used by the Vogons after demolishing Earth.
[edit] Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse is a red giant star approximately the size of Jupiter's orbit about 500 light-years away which appears to Earthbound observers to be in the constellation of Orion.
[edit] Betelgeuse Five
- Betelgeuse Five is the home planet of Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox and his semi-cousin Ford Prefect.
[edit] Betelgeuse Seven
- Betelgeuse Seven was the birthplace of Ford Prefect's father, who was the only survivor of the Great Collapsing Hrung Disaster of Gal./Sid./Year 03758, which wiped out the old Praxibetel communities on the planet. The whole episode is shrouded in deep mystery: in fact no one ever knew what a Hrung was nor why it had chosen to collapse on Betelgeuse Seven particularly.
[edit] New Betel
Presumably a planet somewhere in the Betelgeuse system. One of the mentioned locations on New Betel is Café Lou.
[edit] Café Lou
Café Lou is a dive bar in Gretchen Town, New Betel. There are rentable rooms on the floors above the bar. Ford Prefect spent many nights in one those rooms talking and drinking with Hotblack Desiato, who was often writing songs for his ajuitar in the neighbouring room.
[edit] Big Bang Burger Bar, The
The Big Bang Burger Bar is mentioned by Max Quordlepleen as another place where he performs. It is the opposite of Milliway's in that it is at the beginning of the universe, namely the Big Bang. It is known as The Big Bang Burger Chef in the radio and UK versions of the book.
[edit] Bethselamin
Bethselamin is a fabulously beautiful planet which attracts billions of tourists each year. Unsurprisingly, erosion is a primary concern of the local authorities. Their solution is to remove any net imbalance between the amount of matter eaten and the amount subsequently excreted through amputative surgery. Thus it is vitally important to get a receipt after every trip to the lavatory while on the planet.
[edit] Bistro Illegal, The
A no doubt seedy nightclub fondly recalled by Ford Prefect during his one way conversation with his former drinking buddy and currently-deceased rock star Hotblack Desiato. According to the Guide's onscreen playback at the beginning of the television series, the bar staff at the Bistro Illegal mix a very good Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.
[edit] Blagulon Kappa
Blagulon Kappa is the planet which the police that attack Zaphod Beeblebrox are from. Its air is rich in methane, as its lifeforms depend on it for survival.
[edit] Boston
Home (on Earth) of Mrs E. Kapelsen.
[edit] Brequinda
Brequinda on the Foth of Avalars was famed in myth, legend and stultifyingly dull tri-d mini-series as home of the magnificent and magical Fuolornis Fire Dragon. As the guide hardly ever updates, it now mystifies tourists who go to visit the City State of Brequinda.
[edit] Brontitall
Brontitall is a planet populated by a highly evolved bird people who live in the right ear of a 13-mile high marble statue of Arthur Dent, built as a reminder of the moment when Arthur (due to a freak occurrence) appeared in the sky over the city arguing with a Nutrimatic Drink Dispenser, inspiring the people of the planet to get rid of all robots.
Originally the bird people were ground dwellers, but gradually the planet was taken over by the shoe shops of the Dolmansaxlil Shoe Corporation, apparently thanks to the shoe shop intensifier ray deployed by the corporation in order to keep the populace buying more and more poorly made and ill-fitting shoes. Eventually, the "shoe event horizon" was reached, whereby all of the shops on the planet were shoe shops that sold impossible-to-wear shoes. The result was economic collapse, ruin, and famine – the survivors evolved into birds and vowed never to walk on the ground again.
The guide later reveals that the shoe shop intensifier ray "is, in actuality, a phony, designed to make Dolmansaxlil executives feel they are doing something excitingly aggressive, when in fact all they need to do is wait".
On the ground, three clones of an archaeologist called Lintilla discover the strata of shoes, thus revealing the planet's history.
Nearby, a derelict spaceport contains a number of crumbling old spaceships, but one of which is still on power, "delayed" for over 900 years due to the non-arrival of its complement of lemon-soaked paper napkins.
The inspiration for the events on Brontitall arose from Douglas Adams' frustrating experience trying to buy a pair of shoes on Oxford Street in central London. The name "Dolmansaxlil" was an amalgam of several of the shoe shops he fruitlessly visited.
Brontitall is only mentioned in the original BBC radio show. However, in the books, Frogstar B has some (but not all) of the attributes of Brontitall.
[edit] Bournemouth
A town in Dorset, England, which Ford Prefect wrote a baroque fiction about which caused it to be visited by a mute giant robot.
[edit] Carfrax
The Carfrax Gamma Caves become a war front line between the Strangulous Stilettans of Jajazikstak, the Strenuous Garfighters of Stug and the Silastic Armorfiends of Striterax
[edit] Chalesm
Location of a famous cathedral that, due to temporal engineering, was never built.
[edit] Ciceronicus 12
Ciceronicus 12 is the planet on which the Great Hyperlobic Omni-Cognate Neutron Wrangler, the Magic and Indefatigable, is located.
[edit] Cottington
Cottington is, or rather was, an obscure and unsung little country village in the West Country of England which was, for three years prior to the demolition of Earth, Arthur Dent's home. Had the Vogons not shown up, Cottington was scheduled to be transformed into a service station for the very "splendid and worthwhile" New Beddingford motorway bypass, despite the unpopularity of this project with the locals.
The village has a small hotel with a saloon bar named the Horse and Groom.
[edit] Constellation Fraz
Location of the planet Stegbartle Major.
[edit] Cruxwan
Cruxwan has a University from which Majikthise and Vroomfondel originate.
[edit] Cwulzenda
Silastic Armorfiends of Striterax fought the Strenuous Garfighters of Stug in the Radiation Swamps of Cwulzenda.
[edit] Damogran
A small, remote, uninteresting planet whose surface comprises a number of small, uninteresting islands surrounded by ocean. Two of these islands are coincidentally named "Easter Island" and "France". The starship Heart Of Gold was built, and subsequently stolen from, here.
The background shot used in the film version contains a view of Church Rock, near Stackpole in Pembrokeshire in west Wales, UK. This location is later used (in unaltered form) during the flyby sequence of Slartibartfast and Arthur in the planet-builder's factory.
[edit] Dangrabad Beta
Dangrabad Beta is noted for its sand blizzards. The Googolplex Star Thinker was said to have been able to calculate the trajectory of every single dust particle throughout a five-week Dangrabad Beta sand blizzard.
[edit] Domain of the King
The Domain of the King is a bar and grill restaurant located in a desert on an unspecified planet. It is to which the Perfectly Normal Beasts from Lamuella migrate. Elvis Presley performs there, hence the name.
[edit] Dordellis
The space pirates were wiped out in the Dordellis wars and caused Arcturan megafreighters to have the best defence shields known.
[edit] Eadrax
Home to the main administrative hub of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Complaints Department, according the sleeve of the first Hitchhikers LP.
[edit] Earth
Earth is an unregarded little blue-green planet far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the galaxy. The sapient life forms on Earth are, in descending order of intelligence, mice, dolphins and human beings, the lattermost of whom may or may not be descended from a race of Golgafrinchan telephone sanitisers, hairdressers, management consultants, and documentary film producers. These Golgafrinchans arrived in a space ark which crashed into the planet circa 2 mya, and christened their new home "Fintlewoodlewix".
Though often mistaken for a planet, Earth is in reality the greatest supercomputer of all time, designed by the second greatest supercomputer of all time, Deep Thought, to calculate the Great Question of Life, The Universe And Everything (to which the answer is 42).
Earth is also home to Arthur Dent and Trillian. Earth is located in Galactic Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy originally described Earth as "harmless"(the entry is short because of the limited amount of space the Guide handles). After lengthy research Ford Prefect expanded the entry, though his editor trimmed the new description to "mostly harmless" and it is still short when Ford expanded it.
[edit] Eroticon VI
Place of residence of Eccentrica Gallumbits, a triple-breasted prostitute who has several cameos throughout the series. Her erogenous zones are thought to reach an area of 4 miles around her actual body. Ford Prefect disagrees, believing it to be 5.
[edit] Epun
Epun was a small cold blue moon of Sesefras Magna that Ford Perfect left a sales ship (with the speaking clock on the sound system) orbiting during So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish.
[edit] Esflovia
Mentioned in a Guide entry on the first Hitchhikers LP sleeve, Esflovian is a "planet populated by the descendants of an ancient personal-growth-orientated hippy peace commune... It is rumoured to have destroyed itself in recent nuclear encounter therapy".
[edit] Evildrome Boozarama, The
Noted in the television series' animated graphics for its excellent Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters, The Evildrome Boozarama was one of the clubs that Ford Prefect and Hotblack Desiato would frequent before Hotblack became a rock star and Ford wound up stranded on Earth in the course of his job as a field researcher for that wholly remarkable book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
[edit] Fallia
The planet Fallia is best known for its marshes which, according to the instructions on how to make a proper Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, are quite dangerous. Four litres of Fallian marsh gas should be allowed to bubble through the drink "in memory of all those happy Hikers who have died of pleasure in the Marshes of Fallia." Presumably, one can say that the Fallian marshes are a very fun place to be in, but are still more dangerous than they are enjoyable.
[edit] Fintlewoodlewix
Earth as called by the Golgafrinchan telephone sanitisers, hairdressers, management consultants, and documentary film producers who crashed there about 2 mya.
[edit] Flargathon Gas Swamps
Arthur contracted a virulent space disease in the Flargathon Gas Swamps a few days before his return to Earth. The disease was killed after he ate the three least-hairy things in his fridge. Had this not occurred, the disease would have killed off half the population of the Western Hemisphere, blinded the other half and driven everyone else psychotic and sterile.
[edit] Flanux
Just in front of the Grey Binding Fiefdoms of Saxaquine are what are now erroneously called Limitless Lightfields of Flanux, in So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish.
[edit] Folfanga
Folfanga is a star system, the fourth planet of which is inhabited by a species of small slug, genus Arth-Urp-Hil+ Ipdenu. Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged traveled to this planet to insult one such slug, calling it a "brainless prat."
[edit] Foth of Avalars
The planet Brequinda is located in the Foth of Avalars in So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish.
[edit] Frastra
In the fire storms of Frastra, they say, life begins at 40,000 degrees.
[edit] Fraz
The Greater Drubbered Wintwock of Stegbartle Major in the constellation Fraz is now extinct, from So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish.
[edit] Frazfraga
The Fire Mountains of Frazfraga were a regular war location between the Silastic Armorfiends and the Strenuous Garfighters of Stug in Life, the Universe and Everything.
[edit] Frogstar
In the original radio series, the Frogstar system does not exist and the Total Perspective Vortex is said to be located on "The Frogstar".
[edit] Frogstar World A
Frogstar World A is the first planet of the Frogstar system and the home of the Frogstar fighters which take Zaphod Beeblebrox to Frogstar World B. Frogstar World A is an altogether more congenial place than Frogstar World B.
[edit] Frogstar World B
Frogstar World B is said to be "the most totally evil place in the galaxy". It is somewhat like the books' equivalent of Brontitall in the radio show; although there are differences between the two, they share some attributes. Although there is no statue of Arthur on Frogstar B, the bird people came about the same way; there is no archeologist called Lintilla in the part of the books that concerns itself with Frogstar B; however, the spaceport with the delayed spaceship is there.
Frogstar B is the home of the Total Perspective Vortex, a machine that effectively annihilates one's soul by showing one in an instant the whole infinity of creation and oneself in relation to it.
According to the books, Frogstar World B is the future site of Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is one of the most extraordinary ventures in the entire history of catering. It has been built on the fragmented remains of ... it will be built on the fragmented ... that is to say it will have been built by this time, and indeed has been...) In the radio series this role is given to Magrathea.
[edit] Frogstar World C
Frogstar World C is the home planet of Gargravarr, the guardian of the Total Perspective Vortex. It is said to be a beautiful place with wonderful fishing opportunities. Its native intelligent life exists in two separate forms, minds and bodies, which cohabit in a similar fashion to married couples. The bodies have not been described physically in the series, save for the fact that they are said to be on their "last elbows" rather than "last legs".
[edit] Gagrakacka
The band Disaster Area were from the Gagrakacka Mind Zones, from the first novel, and referred to as a place with all that stuff going on out there in Mostly Harmless.
[edit] Glastonbury
On Earth, Glastonbury was a short-lived location for a financial records office - ten years' worth of financial records were transferred to a magic hill just outside the city mere hours before the Vogons arrived, in Life, the Universe and Everything.
[edit] Golgafrincham
Golgafrincham is a red semi-desert planet that is home of the Great Circling Poets of Arium and a species of particularly inspiring lichen. Its people decided it was time to rid themselves of an entire useless third of their population, and so concocted a story that their planet would shortly be destroyed in some great catastrophe. The useless third of the population (consisting of hairdressers, tired TV producers*, insurance salesmen, personnel officers, security guards, management consultants, telephone sanitizers and the like) were packed into the B-Ark, one of three giant Ark spaceships, and told that everyone else would follow shortly in the other two. The other two thirds of the population, of course, did not follow and "led full, rich and happy lives until they were all suddenly wiped out by a virulent disease contracted from a dirty telephone".
The B-Ark was programmed to crash-land on a suitably remote planet on one of the outer spiral arms of the galaxy, which happened to be Earth, and the Golgafrinchan rejects gradually mingled with and usurped the native cavemen**, becoming the ancestors of humanity and thereby altering the course of the great experiment to find the question for the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, or so Ford Prefect presumes. A lot of them didn't make it through the winter three years prior to Arthur Dent's reunion with Ford Prefect, and the few who remained in the spring said they needed a holiday and set out on a raft. History says they must have survived. Though it is equally plausible that the few remaining surviving Golgafrinchans discovered they were sufficiently genetically close to the primitive humans, who were notably already well on the way from being Homo Erectus to being Homo Sapien, that they simply interbred with them, thus making at least ninety plus percent of the human population of the end of the twentieth century about .0002% Golgafrinchan (this figure is, as can be told, a wild guess!). Not really enough to change the human race in the long run, but certainly enough to screw up the giant super computer's programming sufficiently to read out the wrong question....
People from Golgafrincham are called Golgafrinchans. In some versions of the book The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the planet is also referred to as "Golgafrinchan", but this usage is less common and is thought to be an error of typography.
*Tired was a typo for Tri-D, but was left as is because D.A. thought there should be some tired TV producers too.
**Arthur reflexively called the primitive Earth primates "cavemen", despite Ford pointing out that they didn't actually live in caves as such.
[edit] Han Dold City
A far from harmless city on an unspecified planet, where police tribes lay ambushes for one another, bass players get machine-gunned for playing the wrong riff too many times, and call girls with degrees in sociology tell wealthy record company executives that it's actually okay for them to be rich. Han Dold City is also the home of the Old Pink Dog Bar.
[edit] Han Wavel
An exotic holiday planet, Han Wavel is one of the wonders of the Galaxy, a world of fabulous ultra-luxury hotels and casinos, all of which have been formed by the natural erosion of wind and rain. However geophysicists, probability statisticians, meteoranalysts or bizzarrologists who are so keen to research it cannot afford to stay there to find how this "infinity against" situation came about. In Life, the Universe and Everything.
[edit] Happi-Werld III
Home of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Teleport Systems factory. As per usual with the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, their teleport systems seldom work properly, and the results are, as can be imagined, rather drastic. For this reason the planet has seen an almost continuous mob of protestors outside the factory, chanting songs of defiance, one featuring the memorable lyrics: "I teleported home last night with Ron and Sid and Meg/Ron stole Meggy's heart away and I got Sidney's leg."
[edit] Hastromil
An inhabited solar system which boils away into the ultraviolet a few minutes before the rest of the Universe ends, thus providing Milliways' patrons with a first foretaste of the apocalypse to come at the end of their meals.
[edit] Hawalius
Hawalius, was home to oracles, seers, soothsayers and take-away pizza shops, but was being Plutoed by time-travel taking away the planet's trade. Athur Dent travelled there and met a Smelly Woman with a Photocopier and a Old Man Up a Pole in Mostly Harmless.
[edit] Hollop
Home to the Lord High Sanvalvwag, in Life, the Universe and Everything.
[edit] Horsehead Nebula
In So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish Arthur Dent hitches to Earth from the Horsehead Nebula at the start of the book.
[edit] Hunian Hills
Ford Prefect learned mind control techniques in the Hunian Hills from ex-Pralite monks at their Mind-Surfing resort in the second novel.
[edit] Jaglan Beta
Jaglan Beta is, evidently, the second planet in a star system near the Axle Nebula. The entry on the usefulness of towels in the Hitchhiker's Guide notes that Jaglan Beta's moons are quite cold, and that a towel is useful for wrapping up with while on them.
In the parking lot at Milliways, Ford Prefect briefly recounts a tale about being passed by a Lazlar Lyricon Custom spaceship that subsequently crashed into the third moon of Jaglan Beta, observing that the ship looked like a fish and moved like a fish, but steered like a cow.
A popular showtune in the Hitchhiker's universe is "I Left My Leg in Jaglan Beta."
[edit] Jajazikstak
Jajazikstak is home to the war-link Strangulous Stilettans in Life, the Universe and Everything.
[edit] Kakrafoon
Kakrafoon is an arid world which has a reddish surface similar to that of Mars, perhaps indicating a similar geologic composition and history. Unlike Mars, Kakrafoon has a sentient species known as the Belcerebons. Due to their highly antisocial habit of being quiet, the Belcerebons were sentenced by Galactic Tribunal to be telepathic, the only ways of blocking out these messages is to either talk constantly about anything and everything, or to play host to a Disaster Area rock concert.
In fact, one such concert, following Hotblack's visit to Milliway's, was so loud that the whole desert landscape of Kakrafoon was turned upside down like a big pancake, then hit by the solar flares from the star nearest it when Hotblack's stuntship hit it. These flares caused the desert land to turn into a great, beautiful fertile landscape. Also, the force of the explosion dispersed the telepathy of the Belcerebons. This may or may not have anything to do with the large Improbability Field floating around at this time. Hotblack's agent would later call it "a good gig."
[edit] Kria
Home world of the Azgoths, Kria is therefore home to the second worst poetry in the Universe according to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Azgoth poetry was once exceeded in awfulness by a human poet from Essex, England (on Earth), though the Vogons' demolition of that planet leaves the Azgoths in the top spot.
[edit] Krikkit
The planet Krikkit is (at the beginning of Life, the Universe and Everything) located in a dust cloud composed chiefly of the disintegrated remains of the enormous spaceborne computer Hactar. Hactar was originally created by the Silastic Armorfiends of Striterax to design the Ultimate Weapon. Hactar produced a very, very small bomb that, when activated, would connect every star to every other star and, thus, destroy the universe. The bomb proved dysfunctional because Hactar had designed it with a tiny flaw, reasoning that no consequence could be worse than that of setting the bomb off. The Silastic Armorfiends disagreed and destroyed Hactar.
Due to the dust cloud, the sky above Krikkit was completely black, and thus the people of Krikkit led insular lives and never realised the existence of the Universe. With the population thus prepared, Hactar, disintegrated but still functional, built and crashed a model spaceship onto Krikkit in order to introduce its inhabitants to the concept of the Universe. Secretly guided by Hactar, the Krikkiters built their first spaceship, Krikkit One, penetrated the dust cloud, and surveyed the Universe before them. Unbeknownst to the Krikkiters, Hactar had been subliminally conditioning their minds to the point where they could not accept a Universe into their world view with the intention of putting them into a similar mindset to that of the Silastic Armorfiends. Sooner or later, they would require an Ultimate Weapon, and this would allow Hactar to finally complete his purpose, something he had felt considerably guilty about not doing before. Upon first witnessing the glory and splendor of the Universe, they casually, whimsically, decided to destroy it, remarking, "It'll have to go." Aided again by the mind of Hactar, the Krikkiters built an incredible battlefleet and waged a massive war against the entire Universe. The Galaxy, then in an era of relative peace, was unprepared, and spent the next 2,000 years fighting the Krikkiters in war that resulted in about two "grillion" casualties.
When Krikkit was eventually defeated, Judiciary Pag sentenced Krikkit and its sun to be sealed in a Slo-Time envelope within which time would pass almost infinitely slowly until the end of the Universe, thus serving the dual purpose of protecting the Universe from Krikkit, and allowing the Krikkiters to enjoy a solitary existence in the twilight of Creation. Light would be deflected around the envelope, making it invisible and impenetrable. The Wikkit Gate, the key that would unlock the envelope, was disintegrated into time, and could therefore not be used to free the planet from the envelope ahead of time.
However, a Krikkit warship carrying deadly white robots of the kind used in the war escaped before the envelope was sealed, and, within a brief ten billion years, managed to reassemble the Wikkit Gate. The Gate was composed of the Steel Pillar of Strength and Power (Marvin the Paranoid Android's artificial leg), the Golden Bail of Prosperity (The Heart of Gold, the small golden box that makes the Infinite Improbability Drive function), the Perspex Pillar of Science and Reason (The Argabuthon Scepter of Justice; "Plastic Pillar" in the American version), the Silver Bail of Peace (The Rory Award For The Most Gratuitous Use Of The Word "Fuck" In A Serious Screenplay—The Rory Award for the Most Gratuitous Use of the Word "Belgium" in a Serious Screenplay in the American version), and the Wooden Pillar of Nature and Spirituality (The reconstituted ashes of the stump signifying the death of English cricket (see: The Ashes).
The robots unsealed the envelope, but Arthur, Slartibartfast, Trillian, and Ford Prefect, with the unintentional help of Marvin, were able to disperse Hactar's particles, freeing the Krikkiters from his continued influence, and thus saving the Universe. Arthur then went to live on Krikkit for three years, before leaving for an unexplained reason.
Krikkit also managed to leave other marks besides the destruction of numerous worlds: due to racial memories, the Earth sport of cricket and the pan-dimensional sport of Brockian Ultra-Cricket were based on the Krikkit Wars. Slartibartfast enjoys the game of cricket, but he notes that most sensible citizens of the galaxy find the sport to be in rather bad taste.
The Krikketers are described as humanoid aliens who are charming and polite, despite their cosmocidal tendencies. They are capable of composing incredibly moving and poetic music. Some of the younger Krikketers are interested in developing sporting links with the rest of the Universe rather than destroying it.
(Most of the Krikkit material from the novel was adapted by Adams from an episode treatment, "Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen", which he had written for the television series Doctor Who. It would have featured the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith.)
[edit] Lalamatine district
The Lalamatine district of Ursa Minor Beta has shops, bolonut trees and pavement cafes and enjoys a cool perpetual early Saturday evening, from the second novel.
[edit] Lamuella
Lamuella is the planet on which Arthur Dent lives and works as The Sandwich Maker at the start of Mostly Harmless. The planet is mostly made up of villages, but intersects a plural zone, allowing for teleportation to the Domain of the King. The primary species of the planet are humanoids, Perfectly Normal Beasts and pikka birds. The residents of Lamuella worship a deity by the name of Almighty Bob.
[edit] Magramal
The great megamountain Magramal was not rendered invisible by Effrafax of Wug in Life, the Universe and Everything.
[edit] Magrathea
Magrathea is a planet whose inhabitants built customized planets (using matter excreted from white holes) for tremendous amounts of money, making Magrathea one of the wealthiest planets in the galaxy. It was the Magratheans who constructed the planet-sized computer named Earth (for a race of hyperintelligent pandimensional beings, the mice) to determine the ultimate question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, which is required to understand the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. But when the great galactic stock market crash occurred, the Magratheans went into hibernation awaiting the recovery of the economy to the point where their services could once again be afforded. They were later awakened for the reconstruction of the Earth (the Earth, Mk. II).
Magrathea orbits the twin stars of Soulianis and Rahm in the Horsehead Nebula.
One of the chief Magrathean planet designers is called Slartibartfast, and he designed the coastline of Norway. (He enjoyed doing the crinkly bits and fjords.)
In the radio series and TV series, Magrathea is the location of Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
In the computer game produced by Infocom, you complete the game once you land on Magrathea.
[edit] Maximegalon
The University of Maximegalon (often simply called Maximegalon) is a very august institution of higher learning that has produced many marvellous discoveries in a myriad of fields scientific and otherwise. Its faculty is composed of many of the finest minds in the Galaxy, and includes the rock band Disaster Area's chief accountant (he is the Professor of Neomathematics). The university also published the Ultra-Complete Maximegalon Dictionary of Every Language Ever. Only one copy of the Dictionary was ever printed, and requires a fleet of trucks to haul it around. Due to the Dictionary's immense size, the University is trying to sell it and regain some valuable parking lots.
The university includes the Maximegalon Institute of Slowly and Painfully Working Out the Surprisingly Obvious (MISPWOSO), site of the famous Herring Sandwich experiments, where a robot was tricked into an infinite loop whereby it attempted eternally to eat a herring sandwich by picking it up, dropping it, picking it up again, et cetera. From this, the institute both correctly concluded that any intelligence with a function of logic can be deceived by an intelligence with a function of logic of equal or greater power, and incorrectly concluded that the driving force behind all change and evolution in life is herring sandwiches, a theory which was later recanted.
Among the other attractions present on or near the campus is the Museum of Diseased Imaginings.
[edit] Megabrantis Cluster
The political hub of the Galaxy, which all the Vogons moved to from Vogsphere, where they "formed the immensely powerful backbone of the Galactic Civil Service."
[edit] Milliways
| "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "The Universe as we know it has now been in existence for over one hundred and seventy thousand million billion years and will be ending in a little over half an hour. So, welcome one and all to Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe!" |
Milliways, also known as The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, can only be visited practically by time travel, as it exists at the end of time and matter. Marvin the Paranoid Android is one character who manages to reach Milliways without the use of time travel, merely by being very patient. One of the restaurant's major attractions is that diners can watch the entire universe end around them as they eat. The terminal moment is followed by dessert. Reservations are easily obtained, since they can be booked once the patron returns to his or her original time after their meal, and the restaurant's bill can be paid by depositing a penny in any bank account of the present time: by the end of the universe, compound interest will be enough to pay the extremely high bill. Depending on when in Milliways' timeline they visited, the diners' vehicles may have been parked by none other than Marvin the Paranoid Android. Near-instant transportation to the restaurant can be achieved in certain rarefied circumstances, such as being next to an exploding hyperspatial field generator on the planet where Milliways will eventually be built several billion years after the explosion occurs.
Among the items on the menu are various cuts of meat from the very obliging Ameglian Major Cow and the slightly less obliging vegetables in a green salad. While water and Aldebaran liqueurs are in stock, tea is not.
Because of the special number of impossibilities surrounding all aspects of Milliways, their advertising firm penned the following slogan: "If you've done six impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliway's—the Restaurant at the End of the Universe!" "Six impossible things" is a quote from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass.
In the book form of the series, the visit to Milliways takes place in book two, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. In the different versions of the story, Milliways is built on the ruins of either Magrathea or of Frogstar World B.
The end of the movie has a joke involving flying to Milliways, and the ship turning the wrong way. Marvin corrects the others, a squeal of brakes is heard, and the ship sets off in the other direction. This is somewhat peculiar because Milliways is at the end of the universe in time, not in space. However, it is possible that Marvin was directing the ship in the direction of whichever planet the restaurant is located (Magrathea, Frogstar World B, or otherwise).
According to The Salmon of Doubt, Douglas Adams came up with the idea while listening to Procol Harum's Grand Hotel.
[edit] North West ripple of the Galaxy
Relative to life on NowWhat, living on an affluent world in the North West ripple of the Galaxy is said to be easier by a factor of about seventeen million.
[edit] NowWhat
NowWhat is a planet in the Whole Sort of General Mish Mash formerly known as the Hitchhiker's Guide universe. NowWhat can be found in place of planet Earth at an unlikely position along the probability axis, in a parallel universe.
According to Mostly Harmless, "the planet of NowWhat had been named after the opening words of the first settlers to arrive there after struggling across light-years of space to reach the furthest unexplored outreaches of the Galaxy. The main town was called OhWell."
The only export of NowWhat is the NowWhattian boghog skin, which no one in their right minds would want to buy, and the export trade only manages to survive because of the significant number of people in the Galaxy who aren't.
The NowWhattian boghog is the only native animal of NowWhat and, failing to be completely inedible, is the primary source of food for the settlers on NowWhat. The language of the boghogs consists of biting each other very hard on the thigh and thus was never learned by anybody else.
Arthur Dent arrives on NowWhat in search of Earth. After turning the map upside down and adjusting for different sea levels, he discovers that the shapes of the continents of NowWhat resemble those of the planet Earth. For lack of any other similarity Arthur Dent concludes that it is the right planet but the wrong universe and leaves again.
[edit] Oglaroon
The large forest planet Oglaroon is home to a single tree that contains the "intelligent" Oglaroonians who believe their tree to be the entire universe, believing other trees Oglanut-induced illusions, from the second novel.
[edit] Old Pink Dog Bar
A far from harmless bar in Han Dold City where Ford Prefect discovers that Earth was not as demolished as he previously believed at the beginning of So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. Before offering to write an entry for the bar in the Hitchhiker's Guide, Ford attempted to pay for his drinks bill with an American Express credit card.
[edit] Outer Eastern Rim
The Outer Eastern Rim of the galaxy where the guide has supplanted other reference works (in the first book) and where in Mostly Harmless Arthur Dent heads for "wisdom and truth were to be found" and goes to Hawalius.
[edit] Orion Beta
Orion Beta is a star system noted for its madranite mining belts. At a hyperspace port serving the mining belts Ford Prefect learned to play a drinking game similar to that of Earth's "Indian wrestling." It might be Rigel; that is, Beta Orionis.
[edit] Pleiades system
Ford Prefect hacks into the British phone system from the Pleiades system (Epsilon and Zeta) in So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish.
[edit] Poghril
Located in the Pansel system, Poghril was once inhabited by a primitive tribe of humanoids. In a very strange occurrence, two hundred and thirty-nine thousand lightly fried eggs fell out of a tear in space-time, forming in a large heap on the planet. The whole Poghril tribe had died out from famine except for one last man who died of cholesterol poisoning some weeks later.
[edit] Port Sesefron
Ford prefect takes an Escape-O-Buggy from the sales ship he left in orbit around Epun to Port Sesefron' in So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish.
[edit] Preliumtarn
Beyond what used to be known as the Limitless Lightfields of Flanux, until the Grey Binding Fiefdoms of Saxaquine were discovered lying beyond them, lie the Grey Binding Fiefdoms of Saxaquine. Within the Grey Binding Fiefdoms of Saxaquine lies the star named Zarss, around which orbits the planet Preliumtarn. On the planet Preliumtarn is the land of Sevorbeupstry, in which is the Great Red Plain of Rars, bounded on the South side by the Quentulus Quazgar Mountains. According to the dying words of Prak, written here in thirty foot high letters of fire is God's Final Message to His Creation. In So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish, Arthur and Fenchurch journey here, and do indeed see the Message.
[edit] Qualactin Zones
By providing Hypermint extract for mixers of Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters, Qualactin Zones are known for being "subtle sweet and mystic", in the first novel.
[edit] Quentulus Quazgar Mountains
The Quentulus Quazgar Mountains are visited by Arthur and Fenchurch in the fourth novel, having being mentioned by Prak during the third.
[edit] Qvarne
In The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Max Quordlepleen greets a party from the Zansellquasure Flamarion Bridge Club from beyond the Vortvoid of Qvarne.
[edit] Rahm
One of the twin suns Soulianis and Rahm around which the planet Magrathea is found during the first novel.
[edit] Rickmansworth
Rickmansworth is a place in England, on Earth, where Fenchurch is drinking tea in a small cafe when she has a revelation which is the result of 17,500,000 years of compuation. From the opening of the first and fourth novels.
[edit] River Moth
The River Moth is a slow, heavy torrent which can be towel-sailed with a mini raft.
[edit] Rupert
A planet in Earth's solar system beyond the orbit of Pluto. Rupert was named Persephone, but nicknamed Rupert after "some astronomer's parrot." It was eventually settled by the Grebulons.
In 2005, an actual tenth planet fitting Rupert's description was discovered beyond Pluto. In a poll of the public condcted by New Scientist magazine to search out potential names for the object, "Rupert" ranked #5. [1] The planet was, however, ultimately named Eris
[edit] Rudlit desert
The Rudlit desert is vast desert on the planet Kakrafoon, which is turned into a fertile oasis by a live concert in the second novel.
[edit] Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha
Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha is a galactic sector containing Earth, Barnard's Star, and probably other nearby systems. The "Plural" designation may indicate probability problems; after Fenchurch disappeared during a hyperspace jump, it was pointed out to Arthur Dent that the small print advised against hyperspace travel for inhabitants of Plural sectors.
[edit] Sector QQ7 Active J Gamma
Galactic Sector QQ7 Active J Gamma containts the Sun Zarss, the planet Preliumtarn of the famed Sevorbeupstry and Quentulus Quazgar Mountains. In Life, the Universe and Everything and So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish.
[edit] Santraginus V
Santraginus V is a planet known widely for its marble-sanded beaches. Seawater from the oceans adjoining those beaches forms a key ingredient for the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.
[edit] Saquo-Pilia Hensha
Saquo-Pilia Hensha is the planet that the Vogons move the headquarters of the Guide to after InfiniDim Enterprises bought it out. One of Saquo-Pilia Hensha's most renowned holidays is Assumption of St. Antwelm. Because King Antwelm assumed everybody wanted to be happy, enjoy themselves, and have the best possible time together, on his death he willed his entire personal fortune to financing an annual festival to remind everyone. Features of this holiday include an annual feast, dancing, and silly games such as Hunt the Wocket.
[edit] Sesefras Magna
Sesefras Magna is an orange gas giant with a blue moon known as Epun. The space near the planet is home to space station Port Sesefron, a docking place for Xaxisian battleships and other spacecraft visiting the star system of Zondostina (known to human astronomers as Pleiades Zeta.)
[edit] Seventh Dimension
Ford says he has heard of a planet in the 'seventh dimension that got used as a ball in a game of intergalactic bar billiards, in the second novel.
[edit] Seventh Galaxy of Light and Ingenuity
In the first novel, the giant computer the Googleplex Starthinker is from the Seventh Galaxy of Light and Ingenuity.
[edit] Sirius Tau Star system
Sirius Tau Star system is home to the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, in the first novel, in which the anti-teleporationists' poem recommends that you "See Tau before you're dead". A party of Young Conservatives from Sirius B visit Millyways in the second novel.
[edit] Slim's Throat Emporium
One of the drinking establishments where very well-mixed Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters are served to customers. Ford Prefect and Hotblack Desiato were patrons at least once before the success of Disaster Area.
[edit] Soulianis
See Rahm.
[edit] Squornshellous
Squornshellous is a four-star system 27 light-years from earth.
Squornshellous Alpha The first planet in from the four-star system Squornshellous, it is very cold and inhabited by giant, burrowing mattresses that spit acid.
Squornshellous Beta Two planets in from Squornshellous Zeta, it is inhabited by square cushions whom enjoy being rubbed up against, especially with people's shoulders. Unlike Squornshellous Zeta, it has desert terrain rather than swamps.
Squornshellous Delta The second planet in between Squornshellous Zeta and Beta, it is inhabited by flying pillows--there is no solid ground but only infinite clouds.
Squornshellous Gamma Squornshellous Gamma is a quite, hot, bumpy little planet, with a thick, dense atmosphere. Probably the worst place to crash, because communication to other planets is impossible, due to the thick atmosphere, and the rain is solid. The 12' by 9' cushions have only a five-second memory--they'll ask you who you are first, then who they are next, and, needless to say, most people die of annoyance within an hour.
Squornshellous Zeta Dimly illuminated and very very swamp-intensive, Squornshellous Zeta is the source of almost all the Galaxy's mattresses. Said mattresses (all of which are called Zem) spend most of their time flolloping, globbering, volluing, and vooning. Said activities make the planet a favourite destination of etymologists. The Zem themselves remain a foot tall, until they are freeze-dryed and cleaned, and made into mattress-size corpses (which are promptly used as matresses). It is a process which, strangely enough, they don't seem to mind at all.
Marvin the Paranoid Android was invited to the planet to give a speech marking the opening of a giant new bridge intended to revive the economy of the Squornshellous System, said bridge also costing the total sum of the economy of the entire planet to create and the whole ceremony ended in tears. Marvin was plugged into the bridge and the whole cyberstructure instantly folded itself up and collapsed (presumably after being directly exposed to Marvin's chronically depressed view of the Universe). Marvin was left stranded in the swamp with only the mattresses to talk to, until robots from Krikkit stole his leg, and then the rest of him.
[edit] Stegbartle Major
Stegbartle Major is a planet, in the final novel, where the Greater Drubbered Wintwock is no longer found.
[edit] Stavromula Beta
In Life, the Universe and Everything, Arthur Dent is told by Agrajag, that he (Agrajag) was killed yet again when Arthur visits this planet and someone attempts to assassinate him (Arthur). However, Agrajag discovered that Arthur hadn't been there yet, and despite the time paradox that would be created, Agrajag decided to attempt to kill Arthur anyway. When this failed, Arthur decided that "logically, he could not die until he had been to Stavromula Beta" (Mostly Harmless, US edition, pg. 106). By the end of Mostly Harmless, many of the major characters discovered themselves in a club called "Beta" (being the second club owned by a character named Stavro Mueller). An attempt is made on Arthur's life, but he ducked and the bullet hit the human incarnation of Agrajag. Arthur realized that Agrajag meant this club, not a planet, and that he could now be killed. Then the Vogons, with the help of their new Guide and the Grebulons, finally destroy all parallel versions of the Earth.
[edit] Stepney
Stepney is the final resting place, the Guide says, of the chef who dies forgotten and alone among his cats in a back stair who memorial is those platic pins in the shape of a chef's hat found in pub sausages. In So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish.
[edit] Striterax
Striterax is the home world of the insanely aggressive Silastic Armorfiends. In So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish. A world ravaged by the insatiable combatitaveness of its sentient inhabitants, who abandoned the surface long ago and migrated into underground bunkers. Said Armorfiends have since blown themselves up, presumably taking the planet with them.
[edit] Stug
Stug is the home planet of Strenuous Garfighters, from So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish.
[edit] Taunton
In So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish Arthur and Fenchurch have a drink in a pub in Taunton (Somerset, England), and where Arthur wins a raffle and later spends time routing though the bins.
[edit] Traal
Traal is home to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast, and because of its inclusion in the Guide, an infamous court case about the literal interpretation of the entry (it said "beasts often make a very good meal for visiting tourists") and a place where protection can be sought by wrapping a towel around the eyes. From the second novel.
[edit] The Universe
According to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the universe has no imports (because it is impossible to import things into an infinite region), exports (ditto), art (the function of art is to hold a mirror up to nature, and there simply isn't a mirror big enough) or population (because its population, by definition, must be finite, and any finite number divided by infinity is zero).
[edit] Ursa Minor
Home to the great galactic publishing and media corporations.
[edit] Ursa Minor Alpha
An award at the Annual Ursa Minor Alpha Recreational Illusions Institute Awards Ceremony was actually a key to the slo-time envelope that locked away the planet of Kricket.
[edit] Ursa Minor Beta
The rich and sunny planet Ursa Minor Beta has the quite peculiar property that most of its surface consists of subtropic coastline. Even more peculiar, on this world it's always Saturday afternoon, just right before the beach bars close. Light City, the only city on Ursa Minor Beta, which can only be reached by plane, is the very place where the editorial offices of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reside. A further anomaly in Light City is that the Lalamatine district, just behind the beach, is the only place on the planet not to enjoy a perpetual Saturday afternoon. Instead it is always early evening, with cooling breezes - this is where the nightclubs are located.
According to The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe, when a popular magazine published an article stating in part, "When you're tired of Ursa Minor Beta, you're tired of life!" the suicide rate there quadrupled overnight.
[edit] Vassilian
The city of Vassilian on the planet of Golgafrincham is where the five princes jouney of the traditional long poems started from, in the second novel.
[edit] Viltvodle VI
Viltvodle VI is the home world of the small, blue, fifty-armed Jatravartids, who live in perpetual fear of what they refer to as "The Coming of the Great White Handkerchief." This is their cosmology's version of the end of the Universe, and can be explained by the fact that they believe that the Universe was sneezed out by a being called the Great Green Arkleseizure.
The Jatravartids are also unique because they were the first people in Universe who invented the spray deodorant before the wheel. In the movie, they seem to not have invented the wheel at all, as a square-wheeled bicycle can be seen in the foreground.
Other Galactic religions have sent missionaries to Viltvodle VI to attempt to convert the Jatravartids to whichever religion the specific missionary in question happens to be a follower of. The most notable of these missionaries is Humma Kavula (although in the movie, he seems to be preaching the Jatravartids' religion.)
In the movie, the guide describes a bit of this:
In the beginning, the universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move. Many races believe it was created by some sort of God, but the Jatravartid people of Viltvodle VI firmly believed that the entire universe was, in fact, sneezed out of the nose of a being called the Great Green Arkleseizure. The Jatravartids, who lived in perpetual fear of the time they called "The Coming of the Great White Handkerchief" were small, blue creatures with more than fifty arms each. They were unique in being the only race in history to have invented the aerosol deodorant before the wheel.
[edit] Vogsphere
This is the homeworld of the Vogons. In the books it is said to be long-abandoned, although in the movie it still seems to be a "thriving" (if the word can be used) administrative center. According to the movie, anyone standing on Vogsphere must be careful not to think, because the planet is infested with shovel-like creatures which leap up out of the ground and smack you in the face if you do so. These creatures, parasites which prey on free thought and punish original ideas, were conceived by Adams and apparently represent the physical embodiment of bureaucracy. It may be that the existence of such creatures on the Vogons' homeworld is the reason for their pathological hatred of independent thought, as survival on Vogsphere would entail avoiding such thinking. It is also home to the indigenous jewel-encrusted crabs and silky-coated gazelle-like creatures that the Vogons take such delight in tormenting and abusing.
The exterior shots of Vogsphere were filmed at Trefil Quarry, a few miles north of Tredegar in south Wales.
[edit] Voondon
Voondon is the home planet of the Holy Lunching Friars who were a great influence on the Guide's fourth editor, Lig Lury Jr. From the third novel.
[edit] Western Spiral Arm
In the radio series, the Western Spiral Arm reports that 'the wheel is uneconomical', and in its most unfashionable end the 'planet' Earth is found.
[edit] Xaxis
Home of the Xaxisian Giant Robot ship from So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish, Xaxis is at war when Ford Prefect suggests that Bournemouth may be nicer.
[edit] Ysdllodins
Ydsdllodins is the star system which, centuries ago, was the centre of the galactic insurance business. Its star went supernova almost immediately after the destruction of the Starship Titanic. Its name is an anagram of "Lloyds ins", a reference to the ancient insurance house Lloyds of London.
[edit] Zentalquabula
Zentalquabula is noted for its ancient alabastrum quarries. Large slabs of lustrous stone cut from these quarries were used to pave a terraced plaza between the towers of The Hitchhiker's Guide offices.
[edit] Zirzla
Xaxisia is fighting an automated war against Zirzla during So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish.
