The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a 1978 radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, it was later adapted to other formats, including novels, stage shows, comic books, a 1981 TV series, a 1984 text adventure game, and 2005 feature film.
The TIE fighter or Twin Ion Engine fighter is a series of fictional starfighters featured in the Star Wars universe. TIE fighters are depicted as fast, agile, yet fragile starfighters produced by Sienar Fleet Systems for the Galactic Empire and by Sienar-Jaemus Fleet Systems for the First Order and the Sith Eternal. TIE fighters and other TIE craft appear in Star Wars films, television shows, and throughout the Star Wars expanded universe. Several TIE fighter replicas and toys, as well as a TIE flight simulator, have been produced and sold by many companies.
The Big Read was a survey on books carried out by the BBC in the United Kingdom in 2003, where over three-quarters of a million votes were received from the British public to find the nation's best-loved novel. The year-long survey was the biggest single test of public reading taste to date, and culminated with several programmes hosted by celebrities, advocating their favourite books.
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), or Enterprise-D, to distinguish it from other vessels with the same name, is a starship in the Star Trek media franchise. Under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, it is the main setting of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) and the film Star Trek Generations (1994). It has also been depicted in various spinoffs, films, books, and licensed products.
Simon Jones is an English actor. He is best known for originating the role of Arthur Dent, protagonist of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He also played the role of Donald Shellhammer in Miracle on 34th Street (1994), appeared in Brideshead Revisited as Lord Brideshead, and as King George V in the film Downton Abbey.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy radio series primarily written by Douglas Adams. It was originally broadcast in the United Kingdom by BBC Radio 4 in 1978, and afterwards the BBC World Service, National Public Radio in the US and CBC Radio in Canada. The series was the first radio comedy programme to be produced in stereo, and was innovative in its use of music and sound effects, winning a number of awards.
Brian Johnson is a British designer and director of film and television special effects.
Geoffrey Hutchings was an English stage, film and television actor.
James Danforth is an American stop-motion animator, known for model-animation, matte painting, and for his work on When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970), a theme-sequel to Ray Harryhausen's One Million Years B.C. (1967). He later went on to work with Ray Harryhausen on the film Clash of the Titans (1981) to mainly do the animation of the winged horse Pegasus.
Terry Pratchett's Hogfather is a 2006 two-part British Christmas-themed fantasy comedy television miniseries adaptation of Hogfather by Terry Pratchett, produced by The Mob, and first broadcast on Sky1, and in High Definition on Sky1 HD, over Christmas 2006. First aired in two 1.5-hour episodes on 17 and 18 December 2006 at 20:00 UTC, it was the first live-action film adaptation of a Discworld novel. In 2007, the two episodes were rerun on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day respectively on Sky One and Sky1 HD.
(Also known as Designer's Guild or B.F.D.G. and can be seen after a member's name as a professional certification abbreviation)
Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic is a fantasy-comedy two-part British television adaptation of the bestselling novels The Colour of Magic (1983) and The Light Fantastic (1986) by Terry Pratchett. The fantasy film was produced for Sky1 by The Mob, a small British studio, starring David Jason, Sean Astin, Tim Curry, and Christopher Lee as the voice of Death. Vadim Jean both adapted the screenplay from Pratchett's original novels, and served as director.
Unseen Academicals is the 37th novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. The novel satirises football, and features Mustrum Ridcully setting up an Unseen University football team, with the Librarian in goal. It includes new details about "below stairs" life at the university. The book introduces several new characters, including Trevor Likely, a street urchin with a wonderful talent for kicking a tin can; Glenda Sugarbean, a maker of "jolly good" pies; Juliet Stollop, a dim but beautiful young woman who might just turn out to be the greatest fashion model there has ever been; and the mysterious Mr Nutt, a cultured, enigmatic, idealistic savant. According to the publisher, Transworld, the "on sale" date for the hardback was 1 October 2009 although the official publication date is 8 October 2009. Bookshop chain Borders included a small set of exclusive Discworld football cards with each book.
Mark Rappaport is an American special make-up effects artist.
Jim Henson's Creature Shop is a special/visual effects company founded in 1979 by puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. The company is based in Hollywood, California, United States.
Discworld is a comic fantasy book series written by the English author Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat planet balanced on the backs of four elephants which in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle. The series began in 1983 with The Colour of Magic and continued until the final novel The Shepherd's Crown, which was published in 2015, following Pratchett's death. The books frequently parody or take inspiration from classic works, usually fantasy or science fiction, as well as mythology, folklore and fairy tales, and often use them for satirical parallels with cultural, political and scientific issues.
Steve Gawley is a visual effects artist who was nominated at the 62nd Academy Awards in the category of Best Visual effects for his work on the film Back to the Future Part II. His nomination was shared with John Bell, Michael Lantieri and Ken Ralston.
Jonathan "Joe" Simon Bramley-Fenton is an English artist, designer, sculptor and illustrator, who works in monochrome using graphite, ink and acrylics on paper. He has worked on a number of feature films as a concept designer and sculptor, including The Brothers Grimm directed by Terry Gilliam and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy directed by Garth Jennings.
BB-8 is a droid character in the Star Wars franchise. He appeared in the three films of the sequel trilogy, Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). He also appeared as a major supporting character in the animated series Star Wars Resistance, appearing in the first 17 episodes of season 1, and in the 2023 short film Rogue Not Quite One. He is a BB astromech droid serving the Resistance, and is owned by Poe Dameron. Spherical with a free-moving domed head, BB-8 is portrayed by both a rod puppet and a remote-controlled robotic unit. The character has been well received by critics and fans, and has become one of the most beloved and recognizable characters of the Star Wars saga in recent years.
David Acord is an American sound editor and voice actor best known for his contribution as a supervising sound editor of the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Acord received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing and British Academy Film Award for Best Sound for his work on The Force Awakens, with fellow sound editor Matthew Wood. He also provided the voice of several characters in the film, including the stormtrooper FN-2199. Though the voice role is minimal, the character gained considerable attention on the Internet following the film's release. Acord also had minor voice roles as an Imperial Male PA and two stormtroopers on episodes of Star Wars Rebels. Acord also voiced Grogu for the Disney Plus series The Mandalorian. In 2015, Acord was one of the sound designers for Disney Infinity video game. In 2020, he received his second Academy Award nomination for Best Sound Editing for 2019 film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, shared with Matthew Wood.
