Episode 20 (Fit The Twentieth)
Arthur begins to settle back into his normal, Earthly life, but is preoccupied with finding the woman named “Fenny.” To his surprise, he manages to find her, learns her real name is Fenchurch, and even more surprisingly, she doesn’t think he’s completely mad when he insists on getting to know her better. Arthur is, however, driven to the brink of insanity when he manages to lose her telephone number. In deep space, trying to reach the miraculously restored Earth, Ford finds himself aboard a ship that’s plunging into an interstellar battle, something that may just interfere with his plans to find how and why the Earth has been miraculously restored.
written by Douglas Adams
adapted by Dirk Maggs from the novel “So Long And Thanks For All The Fish”
directed by Dirk Maggs
music by Paul “Wix” WickensCast: William Franklyn (The Voice of the Book), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), Geoffrey McGivern (Ford Prefect), Bill Paterson (Rob McKenna), Jane Horrocks (Fenchurch), June Whitfield (Raffle Woman), David Dixon (Ecological Man), Ann Bryson (BT Operator), Simon Greenall (Jim), Bryan Cobby (Speaking Clock), Geoffrey Perkins (Arthur’s BBC Boss)
Notes: Cast members David Dixon and Sandra Dickinson have appeared in another incarnation of the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy; in the short-lived TV series, they played the roles of, respectively, Ford and Trillian. Geoffrey Perkins’ cameo as the BBC Head of Light Entertainment isn’t too far removed from reality; one of the highlights of Perkins’ early career was producing the original radio episodes of Hitchhiker’s Guide with Douglas Adams.
Originally broadcast: May 10, 2005
Galanar, Tarkov and Frey’s crew are finally en route to Velyshaa, only someone has betrayed them to the Daleks, who will soon follow. The source of the plague is discovered to have been the Daleks all along, only their cure is merely a way to mutate the victims into a new army of Daleks. The Graxis Wardens find the evidence they need on Velyshaa to warn the Galactic Union of the Daleks’ plan, only their ship is destroyed before they can leave with that evidence. The human race may finally have the means to destroy the Daleks, only they’ll have to become equally ruthless - and perhaps, in the end, as inhuman as the Daleks themselves.
Commander Frey Saxton leads a charge against the Daleks, with hundreds of Graxis Wardens as her army and an armed but battered freighter at her disposal. During the attack on Skelanis VIII, Frey’s crew rescues Galanar, Elaria, and Tarkov from a waiting Dalek force. Once aboard Frey’s ship, however, Tarkov turns against his rescuers, believing that they work for the Daleks, until Frey manages to smooth things over and Tarkov agrees to lead the Graxis Wardens to Velyshaa. There, he believes, they will find the final telepathic imprint left by a man called Kalendorf who fought in the last great war against the Daleks, though what information he might have left behind 2,000 years ago is anybody’s guess. Something else that no one can even begin to guess it is the true nature of the cure that the Daleks are offering to the plague sweeping the galaxy.
Notes: One of the Daleks refers to a refueling station called Exxilon Gamma 9 - apparently despite the trouble they encountered on Exxilon during their final clash with the third Doctor, the Daleks prevailed against the planet’s many perils.
Galanar is told that he is a creation of the alternate Daleks who emerged from the Project Infinity dimensional rift two millennia ago. Genetically engineered to have abilities beyond normal humans, Galanar is one of the only experiments to survive. And it turns out that someone else on Skelanis VIII is another one of the surviving experiments, a woman named Elaria. Galanar also learns that the Daleks are trying to find the planet Velyshaa. With Elaria’s help, Galanar frees Tarkov - posing as a patient in the Daleks’ treatment center, and the only man alive who has been to Velyshaa and knows how to go back - and together they launch a desperate escape attempt.