There’s always talk about how Douglas Adams influenced Dr Who, and I’ve been thinking about that a lot for obvious reasons, but there’s less talk about how Dr Who influenced Douglas. But here’s the thing - he only seems to have seen one Dr Who story...
The Face of Evil. Everything Dr Whoey in Hitch-Hikers comes from that one story.
In ‘Face of Evil’ You have a computer creating a prehistoric society to make a point (Deep Thought) a society of rather fey characters who don’t know how to function in the real world (the B ark)...
The Doctor discovering to his surprise a statue of himself and entering said statue (Arthur Dent throwing the nutrimatic cup)...
And of course the biggest one, the wounded computer Hactar apologising to Trillian and Arthur at the End of ‘Life the Universe and Everything’ which is so similar to the Leela/Doctor/Xoanon exchange there’s no way it’s a coincidence.
So that’s my point. Douglas Adams was influenced by Doctor Who, but only that particular story. The end.
Thanks for the other suggestions everyone. I wasn’t seriously saying DNA only watched one story! Cricket and mice aside, it is striking, is it not, that the plots of both HHGTTG radio series and the plot of ‘Life the Universe and Everything’ are all the plot of ‘Face of Evil’.?
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