Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" - Part 3 Quiz

Answer: an abacus

Reg is old-fashioned. He claims he wouldn't use the time machine at all if he could get the hang of the video recorder.

Answer: Richard's break-in of Susan's apartment

Richard has second thoughts about a message he'd left on Susan's answering machine. He breaks into her apartment to steal the tape, but at the last minute comes to his senses and leaves the tape behind. In reality, the alien is testing him, to see if he'll go against his nature. The fact that he doesn't go through with it proves him to be an unsuitable host.

Answer: Michael Wenton-Weaks

Michael's self-esteem is low after losing his job as editor of "Fathom" magazine, making him the perfect host - which he proves by killing the man who replaced him as editor.

Answer: a dodo

The time machine takes them to the island of Mauritius in 1676, where Richard feeds nuts to the bird. Even then, there were only three dodos left in existence - they would be extinct within four years. The dodo doesn't really figure in the plot, but author Douglas Adams was a dedicated conservationist and animal-rights advocate, and used it as an illustration of the plight of endangered species.

Answer: to prevent the accident that killed him and his crewmates

The ghost says he has suffered billions of years of loneliness and guilt. He has possessed "the perfect host" in order to travel back in time and make the proper repairs to his ship to avert the catastrophic explosion, so that he and his mates can return to their still-orbiting mothership and continue their search for a new home.

Answer: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The alien ghost reveals that he had known Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and had invaded his body and told him his story while the poet was under the influence of the drug laudanum. The "Ancient Mariner" was Coleridge's somewhat garbled re-telling of that story, and the second verse of his poem "Kublai Khan" contained disguised instructions for repairing the spaceship.

Answer: the human race will cease to exist

Dirk realizes that the explosion that destroyed the alien ship billions of years ago also sparked the formation of life on Earth. If the explosion is prevented, mankind as we know it will never exist.

Answer: music

Reg slips into his time machine, returns to the mothership, and transcribes some of the beautiful music heard on the ship. He then (presumably) stops off long enough to give the music to Johannes Sebastian Bach, a composer who had never been heard of before their journey, but whom they find to be quite famous upon their return - an indication that the novel's slightly different "reality" has been moved a step closer to our own.

Answer: Porlock

In real life, there is no second verse to Coleridge's "Kublai Khan". The poet claimed that the work was inspired by a dream. After writing the first part he was interrupted by a visit from a "person from Porlock" who distracted him - the dream faded from his memory and the poem was never completed.

Here we learn that the "person from Porlock" was actually Dirk. By preventing the completion of the poem, he deprives the possessed Michael of information needed to prevent the explosion - and again resolves a subtle difference between the alternate reality of the beginning of the novel and our own known history.

Answer: no charge

This bill was sent to Mrs. Sauskind, whose missing cat had been the subject of one of Dirk's ongoing investigations.