How Many Roads Must a Man Walk Down? Quiz

Answer: A small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse

From when he had first arrived on Earth fifteen years before, the non-ape descendant had tried hard to fit in. He claimed to be an out-of-work actor which worked well but he had made one mistake. His research had shown that 'Ford Prefect' would be a suitably inconspicuous name.

He did have a habit of gatecrashing university parties, getting drunk and making fun of astrophysicists, but he was generally regarded as a harmless eccentric.

Answer: Ford Prefect

Ford Prefect had, in the satchel that he carried about his neck, a Sub-Etha Sens-o-matic which advised him that the Vogon fleet was about to visit Earth. Ford was a roving researcher for "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and he had been stranded on the Earth for fifteen years, waiting for a spaceship to come and take him off.

Answer: To make way for a hyperspatial express route

After imparting this unpleasant news, the Vogon's PA admonished the panicked inhabitants telling them that they should not be surprised as the plans had been available in the planning department of Alpha Centauri for the past 50 years and it was too late to start complaining.

This was a similar experience to that which Arthur Dent had with his local council planning department who had the plans for demolishing his house, to make way for an expressway, hidden away in an inaccessible place and by the time he discovered them it was too late to object.

Answer: He had two heads

Arthur Dent pointed out that he only saw one when he met him at a party in Islington but, during his time on Earth, Zaphod had hidden his extra head in a covered bird cage. As Zaphod's great-grandfather also had two heads it might be that this was a feature of his species.

Answer: It was a language translator

Arthur's fish was a Babel fish and it acted as a translator of any form of language for its wearer. The "Hitchhiker's Guide" describes it as 'mindbogglingly useful'. Yahoo calls its translation program Babelfish.

Answer: Heart of Gold

President Zaphod was at the launching of the sleek new space ship. During the ceremony he threw a small Patalyso-Mayic on to the ground and, while the crowd stood frozen, he and Trillian, an Earth girl, made off in the fabulous vessel.

Answer: Mice

Slartibartfast, a planet designer, told the group from the Heart of Gold, which now included Arthur and Ford, that mice were not as they appeared to the people of Earth. What they saw was a protrusion into their dimension of vast hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings.

These beings had commissioned the building of the Earth, which was actually an immensely powerful computer designed to find the answer to the question of Life, the Universe and Everything.

Answer: Morose

Poor Marvin was chronically depressed. One of my favourite examples of this was where Ford found the Blagulon ship and the two police officers in it dead. Marvin was lying face down in the dust nearby. When asked what had happened he replied
"'Simple. I got very bored and depressed, so I went and plugged myself in to its external computer feed. I talked to the computer at great length and explained my view of the Universe to it.'
"'And what happened?' pressed Ford.
"'It committed suicide,' said Marvin and stalked off back to the Heart of Gold."

Answer: Deep Thought

Deep Thought worked for seven and a half million years to give the answer to the Ultimate Question as 42. The computer then told Loonquawl and Phouchg that what they really needed was to find exactly what the question was and it would take a greater computer to find the question. That computer would be called The Earth.

Answer: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Happily relaxing on the Heart of Gold, Zaphod was trying to bang his brain into shape by drinking Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters, Ford and Trillian were discussing philosophical matters while Arthur perused "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

He read that major civilisations go through three phases, How? Why? and Where? How can we eat? Why do we eat? Where shall we have lunch?

Zaphod interrupted Arthur's musing by asking if he was hungry and when he agreed that he was a little peckish, the President told him to hold tight as they were off to "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe".