The Primary Phase
Fit the First
As the episode opens Arthur Dent is attempting to prevent the local council from bulldozing his house to make way for a bypass. Dent's friend, Ford Prefect, arrives and demands the he accompany him to the pub. There, Ford explains that he is not from Guildford as he had claimed, but from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse, and that the world is about to end. While Arthur continues to fret over the fate of his house, a fleet of Vogon Constructor Ships arrives and announce that they are to demolish the Earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass. In the ensuing panic, Ford hitches a lift on one of the ships, taking Arthur with him, just moments before the Earth is destroyed. On board the Vogon Ship, Ford explains that he was a field researcher for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He introduces Arthur to the book, and to the babel fish, which allows him to understand anything said to him in any language - including the Vogon announcement which tells them that they have been detected. They are captured and brought before the Vogon Captain, who reads his poetry at them, and threatens to throw them into space if they do not give him their opinion on it.
Fit the Second
Arthur attempts to flatter the Vogon Captain, hoping to avoid execution, but he decides to throw them off the ship anyway. Ford attempts to persuade the Vogon guard that there are more fulfilling activities than throwing people into space, but the guard insists that 'resistance is useless'. Improbably, they are rescued by a starship 29 seconds after being thrown into space. They discover that this is the Starship Heart of Gold, which is powered by the new 'infinite improbability drive'. Ford and Arthur are met by Marvin, the manically-depressed robot, who takes them to the bridge, where they discover that the ship has been stolen by Ford's semi-cousin, and President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox. They also meet 'Trillian' (Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur had met at a party in Islington, and had been on the point of asking out before they were interrupted by Zaphod. Eddie the shipboard computer announces that the are moving into orbit around the legendary planet of Magrathea.
Fit the Third
Magrathea is a planet that had once manufactured custom-designed planets for rich businessmen. Due to its immense success, it became the richest planet in the galaxy and the galactic economy collapsed. Ford refuses to believe that the legendary planet exists. However, Zaphod insists on proceeding, and the ship triggers an automated recorded message from the Commercial Council of Magrathea, which notes that the planet is currently closed for business, and asks them to leave. When they continue on, a second message announces that nuclear missiles have been launched against the ship. Disaster is averted when Arthur activates the Infinite Improbability Drive and the missiles are turned into a bowl of petunias and a surprised-looking whale. Trillian exclaims that her white mice (that she had brought from the Earth) have escaped. On the surface, Zaphod, Trillian and Ford enter a tunnel, leaving Arthur and Marvin on the surface. A being named Slartibartfast appears, and takes Arthur into the interior of the planet. He tells Arthur that Magrathea has awakened to fulfill a special commission, and Arthur is horrified to see that the planet they are building is the Earth. Slartibartfast explains that this is 'the Earth Mark 2', the original having been destroyed five minutes too early, to the fury of the mice.
Fit the Fourth
Slartibartfast explains that mice are really "the protrusions into our dimension of vast hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings", and that they commissioned the Earth. These beings had constructed a great computer, called Deep Thought, to answer the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. After seven million years, Deep Thought announced that the Ultimate Answer is 42. He cannot, however, tell them the Ultimate Question, so he helps them design a second computer, which is named "Earth". This computer was built by the Magratheans, but the Vogons destroyed it five minutes before it was due to complete its programme. Arthur is reunited with Zaphod, Ford and Trillian, who had been discussing a proposal with the mice. The mice believe that as last-generation products of the computer matrix, Arthur and Trillian should be in an ideal position to find out the Question. The negotiations are interrupted by the arrival of a Galactic Police ship, pursuing Zaphod for his theft of the Heart of Gold. With the police shooting at them, Arthur, Ford, Trillian and Zaphod take refuge behind a computer bank, which, bombarded by the energy from the firing, explodes.
Fit the Fifth
After the computer bank explodes, Arthur, Ford, Trillian and Zaphod assume that they must be in the afterlife. However, it becomes clear that they have in fact arrived at Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Their dinner is interrupted by a telephone call from Marvin. They learn that the Restaurant was constructed on the ruins of Magrathea: Marvin has been on the planet ever since Arthur left with Slartibartfast. The four go down to the car park to meet him. Ford and Zaphod are transfixed by the spaceships in the carpark, in particular on which is totally black, and totally frictionless. Stuck without the Heart of Gold, they decide to steal it. However, once they have taken off, they discover that they cannot deflect the ship from its autopilot. They debate the Ultimate Question, and Marvin mentions that he can read it in Arthur's brainwave patterns. Before he can reveal what it is, however, the ship's controls light up suddenly as it comes out of hyperspace. They realise that they have emerged outside the galaxy, as the flag ship of an intergalactic battle fleet.
Fit the Sixth
Our heroes discover that the ship they have stolen belongs to the Haggunenon, a race of xenophobic shape-shifters. They then realise that the Admiral of the fleet is still on board: it has become a carbon copy of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal. The group split up: Arthur and Ford manage to take off in an escape capsule, but Zaphod and Trillian and Marvin are all eaten by the Admiral. Arthur presses a button which teleports him and Ford to a strange ship. They discover that this is "Golgafrincham Ark Fleet, Ship B", and that it is filled with frozen people, marked as telephone sanitizers, hairdressers, and advertising account executives. They are discovered and taken to the Captain, who tells them that the ship is part of a fleet that set out to colonize another planet, because their original planet was "doomed". It becomes apparent that the stories of impending doom were invented to dispose of this unwanted segment of the population, and that the other ships were never launched. They crash land on a planet, which Ford and Arthur discover is pre-historic Earth. They also discover that their arrival has affected the Earth's development - the native cave-men are dying out. Arthur attempts to teach the cave-men Scrabble; when one spells out "FORTY TWO" on the scrabble board, Ford and Arthur attempt to use the technique of randomly choosing scrabble letters to discover the question in Arthur's brainwave patterns, realising that the arrival of the Golgafrinchans has probably upset the programme. When Arthur spells out "WHAT DO YOU GET IF YOU MULTIPLY SIX BY NINE", the two sadly rejoin the colonisers, whom they now realise will become 'the human race'.
