![]() There are a whole lot of pages that state with great authority that "Well, as all the cool people know, Dirk Gently's was totally borrowed from 'Shada'." But no one seems to know why this is the case. If you saw "City of Death" and then read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, you definitely went "hey, that ending is right out of the Jagaroth episode! Poo! Poo!" Googling for detail about "Shada" and an analysis of similarities between the two works turns up little actual information. Having never seen "Shada" (the episode was never completed due to a strike), it's very hard to say what Adams' borrowed from this Doctor Who script. The episode even featured a funny cameo by John Cleese, who played an art critic. It was certainly one of the highest rated Doctor Who episodes, owing to a strike at ITV. However, Adams managed to sneak a lot of his humor into this one, including some rarely seen romantic moments between the Doctor and Romana. They feared he would turn it into an American-style sit com. Many at the BBC resented Adams' attempts at joking up Doctor Who. Many considered "City of Death", first aired in 1979, one of the best Doctor Who episodes ever made. Williams is solely responsible for " The Nightmare Fair". The only aired Doctor Who Adams wrote completely was " The Pirate Planet". "David Agnew" is also credited on the " The Invasion of Time" episode. Well, now we know the novelized treatment Adams intended. Apparently, Adams wrote the bulk of the script and refused to let anyone tackle the novel version. The writing credit is given to David Agnew, which was a pseudonym used by Douglas Adams when he co-wrote with Doctor Who script editor Graham Williams. Romana: If you made an omelet, I'd expect to find a pile of broken crockery, a cooker in flames, and an unconscious chef!Ĭuriously, of all the Doctor Who episodes ever made, "City of Death" was one of the few that never had a follow-on novelized version. The proto-Dirk Gently, Duggan (played by actor Tom Chadbon) had a penchant for hitting people and smashing bottles.ĭuggan: You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs! Doctor Who had to go back in time with a bumbling, oafish pulp-era detective named Duggan to make sure the ship blew up. If the Jagaroth ship did not explode, life on earth would never have developed. ![]() The energy from the explosion of the Jagaroth ship juiced up earth's amino acid soup and kick started life on earth. In this episode, the last of an alien race called the Jagaroth goes back in time to a primordial earth to stop the explosion of a Jagaroth ship. Regarding Adams' Borrowing from City of Death If you have previously enjoyed Douglas Adams, British comedies such as Red Dwarf, or Monty Python then this book will make for a most pleasant read.ĭirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency owes a lot to two Doctor Who episode Douglas Adams wrote for the BBC called " City of Death" and " Shada". All extreme aspects are sacrificed to the joy of humorists and the dismay of genre fans. The books whimsical nature is both its pleasure and its undoing. The world lacks hardcore technological components one would find in William Gibson’s Cyberpunk and the fantasy world as told around campfires nationwide during the summer far exceeds that of Adams. ![]() Meshing science fiction with a touch of fantasy this books belongs in neither genre. With a bevy of support characters portraying a farce of their real world counterparts, and some murder thrown in for good measure the book makes for excellent trans temporal light reading. Detective Svlad Cjelli, aka Dirk Gently (changed to disassociate himself from “past events”) unravels this beautifully. Richard, and the reader, unsurprisingly to Adams fans, find themselves brutally beaten down the rabbit’s hole through a series of events connecting the endangerment of the creation of Man with an unhappy horse and Richard’s stripping naked and jumping in a canal. Graduate, programmer for WayForward Technologies, keener on recursive algorithms and owner of an unmovable couch. From the campus of St Cedd’s College Adams introduces us to the unsuspecting, talented, Richard MacDuff. ![]() Writer Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series, master of British wit, brings to his reader a mystery that transcends the bounds of space, time, and common logic. Published: 1987 by William Heinenmann Ltd. Title: Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
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