By the great parrot of hades!

[learnedax]

Just watched The Pirate Planet, closing in on consumption of everything Douglas Adams wrote. I hadn't, despite katkt's best efforts, seen any of the Key to Time series before. Fun stuff. Also interesting for the primordial ideas DNA was fiddling with, many of which show up in more polished form in HHGG ("I'll never be cruel to an electron in a particle accelerator again!" springs to mind, and the abortive "what do you get out of this job?" riff with the guards). The dying-ruler-in-statis is only a throwaway bit in Hitchhiker's, but it's there. And of course Dirk Gently travels around with a guy who's quite close to being a time lord, though I'm given to understand that's adapted from a different, never completed Doctor Who story, Shada.

Comments

[yehoshua.livejournal.com]

...a different, never completed Doctor Who story, Shada.

The version they were shooting with Tom Baker in the '70s never was completed, but that doesn't mean the story isn't available somehow

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

The plotline of Dirk Gently is actually mainly from City of Death, although Shada is also a major part of it.

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Yes, I suppose you're right; I hadn't actually thought about that. Shada has the professor, I believe, and City of Death the villain, such as it is. Not that there aren't vast differences between either story and the final product.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

interesting for the primordial ideas DNA was fiddling with, many of which show up in more polished form in HHGG

I'm not so sure. At least (according to wikipedia) the first two bits you cite were from HHGG episodes aired in March/April 1978, and The Pirate Planet aired in September/October 1978. Given the different lead times for TV and radio, it's possible that they were written in the reverse order, I suppose, but by no means certain. DA was fond of referencing/reusing his own material, so the bits in TPP may just be him doing that.