Today is Towel Day, the annual rememberance of Douglas Adams and his Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in its multiple incarnations. Because I certainly know where my towel is, I finally managed to translate and improve my original article about the original 1981 television series, which was based not on the books, but actually on the radio series. It might be corny and low-budget over thirty years later, but next to the radio play and the 2005 movie, it remains simply the best and most original incarnation of Douglas Adams’ story until today. Watch the earth get blown up with Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect making a narrow escape! Vogon poetry reading! Space battles! Two-headed presidents on the run from the law! Listen to Marvin, the depressed robot argue with a smug talking door! All lovingly restored with many interesting extras on DVD from the BBC and even though the release is already twelve years old, it’s still the best way to watch the series. Read all about the beginnings of the Hitchhiker’s Guide and the creation of the radio play and television series in today’s article.

Continue to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Review »
Bonus Youtube Link: Douglas Adams on the South Bank Show »
Bonus Youtube Douglas Adams Playlist » from my Towel Day posting on the other blog.

I have not written anythingabout the new incarnation of Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson here, because I am technically not allowed to watch it yet from Germany. What I can carefully say is that I have been able to see a couple of episodes and it’s really great, but different than Carl Sagan’s original series from 1980. I was somewhat reluctant to announce the North American home video release coming on June 10th  because Amazon.com had initially listed disappointingly high prices, but at the moment you can get the DVD for $24.99 and the Blu-Ray for $29.99, which is really reasonable for a 4-disc set. The release actually comes just two days after the broadcast of the final episode and according to The Digital Bits, there are some cool extras like a making-of documentary, archive material about Carl Sagan and even an audio commentary on the first episode, so these are definitively worth buying even if you have seen the series previously on television!

Who is the better Sherlock Holmes? In the 1980s, two of the four full-length novels by Arthur Conan Doyle about the victorian master detective were adapted in two very different ways, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. The Sign of Four was one of the two stories which had been filmed both with Ian Richardson in 1983 and with Jeremy Brett in 1987 – the latter was made for the 100th anniversary of the first short story publication, while the former actually preceded the Granada series. The fascinating story of both movies and how they are related to each other is part of today’s double review, which is actually more about the movies themselves than the admittedly not very exciting, but still absolutely watchable DVD releases. Both articles are improved and expanded from my previous German versions.

Continue to The Sign of Four (Jeremy Brett) »
Continue to The Sign of Four (Ian Richardson) »

Is Sherlock Holmes still fit for modern television? This was the question in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Granada continued to produce its amazing adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels with the brilliant Jeremy Brett in the title role. Despite several problems including the failing health of the lead actor, the last twelve episodes with the collective titles The Case-Book and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes brought the adventures of the master detective magnificently to life and although they could not quite reach the brilliance of the earlier episodes, they were a wonderful finale to series. In Germany, these last episodes had never been broadcast on television until 2009, when Koch Media had commissioned a German dub and finally released them on DVD four years after the previous boxset. Today’s review is based on my earlier German article about the Koch Media boxset, but also concludes the three-part collection of posts about the series itself, which will be followed with more detailed reviews about the Granada feature films soon.

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