MGM-Dwarf!!

[Steve Harris]

Our van driver at work has just got back from the States and a visit to the MGM studios..

For reasons best known to himself he brought back this photo for me…

Whilst it may be from another show (possibly the Hitchhikers movie), it does look familiar. Dave is adamant that the tour guide told him it was from Red Dwarf which is why he took the photo for me!

Topic

[mick]

Bizzare! perhaps he misheard and it was just called ‘the red dwarf’ for obvious reasons.

[Baz]

That is indeed the escape pod from the Heart of Gold in the movie version of Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

[Steve Harris]

Exactly what the boy said when he saw the photo…

Not the sort of mistake a tour guide would make really, and Dave isn’t the kind of bloke to miss hear things, t’is odd…

[pfm]

It’s just wishful thinking on the guy’s part. That would be the Red Midget perhaps.

[Seb Patrick]

It does look strangely like Blue Midget from that angle, interestingly, but… yeah, it’s the Hogpod from That Douglas Adams Related Movie That Nobody But Me Seems To Like.

[TheLeen]

I thought I wasn’t going to like it so I didn’t watch it until I watched it and I liked it.
Sam Rockwell was brilliant :P

/me is out

[Ian Symes]

It does look strangely like Blue Midget from that angle, interestingly, but? yeah, it?s the Hogpod from That Douglas Adams Related Movie That Nobody But Me Seems To Like.

Wait… that movie was Douglas Adams-related? I’d never have guessed.

[Seb Patrick]

Oh, shut up, MJ Simpson.

[Mr Flibble]

I liked it as well.

I wonder why the pod is in MGM America when it was made by Disney in the UK?

[dennisthedoughnutboy]

Because that theme park is still trying to kid on that it’s a working movie studio, when it isn’t any more.

Basically, they just store old props there so people can ooh and aah at them.

And yes, I liked the film too, but it took me a couple of viewings to stop comparing Martin Freeman to Simon Jones before I did.

[Baz]

The pod was set up here at Freemasons’ Hall during the official launch party.

I did like the film, but I still prefer the old TV series.

[thomasaevans]

I always thought that design was like the front section of Starbug.

[John Hoare]

I did like the film, but I still prefer the old TV series.

The radio series is my favourite incarnation of HHGTTG… but the TV series comes second, way above the books. I love it – it’s just got a really lovely feeling to it. The last shot of the series, with Arthur and Ford walking away into the distance, tears me up every time.

Such a shame Douglas and the director Alan Bell didn’t get on, and so we didn’t get a second series…

[Pete Part Three]

Douglas Adams had brilliant ideas and wonderful prose but the stories themselves are a little meandering. I recently re-read The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and it is a bit of a mess. A nice mess, mind.

[Ben Paddon]

The guy can write dialogue and has a marvelous way with words and ideas, but his storytelling leaves a lot to be desired. Good reads, nevertheless.

[Phil]

>his storytelling leaves a lot to be desired.

In fairness the same could be said of Joyce, Pynchon and Melville. But, like those authors, Adams was writing books in which the story came second to the experience. A weakness on his part? Perhaps…but it was a weakness creatively handled.

[penny]

>And yes, I liked the film too, but it took me a couple of viewings to stop comparing Martin Freeman to Simon Jones before I did.

The film is ok, but Simon Jones is the better Arthur Dent. It was said that Douglas Adams based the character on Simon Jones and that he the only guy he felt could play the character.

Don’t you just miss Douglas Adams and Peter Jones.

[John Hoare]

Mitchell and Webb should have been Arthur and Ford. I know it’s been said a million times before, but it’s worth repeating again.

[Jonathan Capps]

The problem with Mitchell and Webb playing the roles is that we’d not get Arthur and Ford… we’d get Mitchell and Webb. It’s the same problem I see happening with Simon Pegg as Scotty – their performnces are just too grounded in their own personalities.

I don’t mind the film too much, but that’s probably because its got by far the best version of Trillian in it. Mmmm.

[Pete Part Three]

I found Zooey Deschanel quite annoying in it. She’s good in Elf though.

[Andrew]

> The problem with Mitchell and Webb playing the roles is that we?d not get Arthur and Ford? we?d get Mitchell and Webb. It?s the same problem I see happening with Simon Pegg as Scotty – their performnces are just too grounded in their own personalities.

I agree. I’d still like to have seen it that way, but the problems would be as you describe.

[Mr Flibble]

Certainly Mitchell and Webb would have been interesting. I can see what people mean. I really like the movie – although I admit that it grew on me. I went to a talker of it before it was out, and it was great being there with 250 other Hitchhikers fans. It got a round of applause (and waving of towels) at the end, so it couldn’t have been that hated!

[Seb Patrick]

Mitchell and Webb should have been Arthur and Ford. I know it?s been said a million times before, but it?s worth repeating again.

Pish posh. Jack Davenport and Richard E. Grant!

(but let’s not spoil that long-in-gestation NTS article… ;-) )

[John Hoare]

Yeah, I agree with the problem with Mitchell and Webb. But I also agree that it would still have been better than what they ended up with.

Mitchell as Arthur, and someone else as Ford would definitely have worked, though.

[Phil]

>Mitchell as Arthur, and someone else as Ford would definitely have worked, though.

I thought Martin Freeman was an absolutely stellar choice (and I still feel that way), but Mitchell would have been a great alternate choice.

Basically I think that Freeman played the role just fine and I had no complaints…but Mitchell would have made for a more entertaining Arthur.

Does Arthur HAVE to be entertaining? Well, no…not really…and Freeman handled him as a character rather than as a comic-facilitator. Mitchell, by default, would have brought more humor to the role, and it would have made the film feel a lot different.

I’m not saying better or worse. It just would have been a different experience, and I’m sure an interesting one.

[Author]

Replies