The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Primary and Secondary Phases

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series written by Douglas Adams was first broadcast in 1978 and was the first incarnation of his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy franchise. The terms Primary Phase and Secondary Phase describe the first two radio series of the tale, which consist of six episodes each.

The series followed the aimless wanderings of Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect and his book, the eponymous Guide. It introduced unfamiliar music, mind stretching concepts and the newest science mixed together with out of context parodies, unfeasibly rude names, 'semantic and philosophical jokes', compressed prose and 'groundbreaking deployment of sound effects and voice techniques'. By the time the sixth episode was broadcast, the show had become a cult. A Christmas special would follow, many repeats and a second series. The two original series were followed by three more in 2004 and 2005.

The following article is a list of episodes from the Primary and Secondary Phases. For information on its production, see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The first radio series was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March and April 1978. It was split into episodes, known as "Fits" (an archaic term for a section of a poem revived by Lewis Carroll for The Hunting of the Snark). The original series comprised Fit the First to Fit the Sixth. Fits the Fifth and Sixth were co-written by John Lloyd; subsequent versions of the story omit most of Lloyd's material.

The success of the series encouraged Adams to adapt it into a novel, which was based on the first four Fits and released in the second week of October 1979. A slightly contracted double LP re-recording of the first four Fits was released in the same year, followed by a single LP featuring a revised version of Fits the Fifth and Sixth and the second book, both in 1980.

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