The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: Episode 1 (Summary)

Episode First Aired: 05-01-1981

Episode one of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy begins on a beautiful sunny Summer’s day—a Thursday to be exact—on the planet earth, but Arthur Dent has a problem. The Council are building a bypass and his cottage is in the way so it has to go.

As you can imagine, Arthur is not happy about the situation. Unfortunately, the whole thing is a done deal and the first time he heard about it was the previous day when someone came knocking on his door and announced that they had come to demolish his home.

As it turns out Arthur has bigger problems. The whole world has bigger problems because a Vogon Constructor Fleet is orbiting the planet and preparing to destroy the Earth to make way for a hyperspace express route.

Fortunately for Arthur, his Friend Ford Prefect has picked up the Vogon’s transmissions and rushes over to Arthur’s house to save him. Arthur is lying in front of a bulldozer at the time and doing his best to save his home, but Ford manages to persuade him to accompany him to the local pub.

When they get there, Ford tells Arthur the world is about to end. Arthur, who is still wearing his dressing gown, seems less than convinced. However, when the lead vessel of the Vogan fleet appears in the sky overhead he has little choice but to accept the truth of Ford’s words.

Fortunately, Ford has a nifty, little gadget with him that activates a matter transference beam and he uses it to hitch a lift on the Vogon ship.

Once onboard the ship—and not a moment too soon because the world has just been demolished—Arthur is still confused about his situation and so Ford gives him a copy of the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy and tells him that it will tell him everything that he need to know.

Ford may have saved Arthur from being destroyed along with the rest of the human race, but is might be a case of being out of the chip pan and into the fire because the Vogon Captain is aware that he has some hitchhikers onboard. He is none to happy about it and announces over the intercom system that he has sent out a search party. When he finds the intruders he will throw them out of the airlock and, if they are very lucky, he will read them some of his poetry first. This a very bad situation for Arthur and Ford to be in because Vogon poetry is some of the worst in the universe.

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