Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (The) (1981)

This 1980s BBC production strongly resembles a classic Dr. Who series, but thanks to the wit and genius of author Douglas Adams, it's intelligent, inventive, whimsical, and frequently droll-funny if not chuckle-funny. The actors do yeomanlike work but will be memorable only to cult fans, though David Prowse has a brief scene as the bodyguard for the megarock (several orders of magnitude louder than an atomic blast) pop star Disaster Area, who is spending a year dead for tax purposes. If you are a fan of Douglas Adams, then by all means see this series. Even a newbie will chuckle at Marvin the depressed robot, the Babel fish, Vogon poetry, and so forth. Perhaps the best feature of this production is found in the excerpts from the Guide, especially the fine print displayed on the screen that is not narrated; if you can freeze frame and read this stuff, it's like an extra bonus feature. Or just read the books and be equally regaled all over again. Three stars.