If you haven't read Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency, be warned this post will contain spoilers.
Dirk Gentley is one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors. Recently, after coming across websites that provide suggestions on 'what to read next after finishing a book', I had considered doing something similar for 'what to read after watching this show/movie.' Like Downton Abbey? Try reading Wodehouse. Like Dr. Who, read The Hitchhiker's Guide. I never thought to recommend Dirk Gentley, because Hitchhiker's Guide has more mass appeal. Which is ironic because…
Recently I was browsing a bookstore and stumbled on a new Douglas Adams book. Doctor Who: Shada, The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams, by Gareth Roberts (another Dr. Who writer). Most Whovians (I am not one except casually) know that Douglas Adams wrote for the original series. Of the 3 episodes, one did not air due to a writers' strike. It was later released on video with Tom Baker narrating to fill in the gaps of what didn't get filmed.
I am vaguely aware of other Dr. Who novels, particularly between the old and new series, that are not considered cannon. Then there is that new collection of short stories. This is different. This is a Tom Baker adventure, written by the man who conceived the babelfish as an actual episode meant to air, and revised, finished, and polished by another Dr. Who writer. Besides, how long has it been since the world had seen something new published that was written by Douglas Adams. These facts alone were exciting enough. But there was an additional surprise…
Douglas Adams, like many writers, recycles ideas in his various works. The true-life story of the biscuits made its way into HH2G. He also had plans to revise the third Dirk Gentley book, The Salmon of Doubt, into a sixth Hitchhiker's book. So it should come as no surprise that he had a hard time letting Shada go.
The Dirk Gentley books, as a series, are disjointed. The third is unfinished, the second is mythic (and doesn't seem to fit with anything else he wrote, IMHO), and the first has strange plot holes.
In the first book, understanding the plot requires a decent knowledge of Coleridge. (If Malcolm Reynolds can read a poem, you can too.) But the backstory and mechanics of how you get to the point of needing English Lit to understand the resolution was shrouded in mystery.
SPOILERS: There's this Cambridge professor and his flat is a time machine. He doesn't know how old he is, or how he ended up living in a time machine, or even how the machine works, exactly. He admits once that he "retired" to Cambridge, but that is about all he can remember.
So, sure there's a time machine with an impossibly old dude living in it, but that does't mean he's a Time Lord. There are, after all, lots of time travel stories, including Hitchhiker's Guide (i.e. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe). But Dirk Gentley isn't just another time travel story.
The professor's name is Chronotis. And he is a major character, and Time Lord, in Shada.
One of my favorite books is a Dr. Who spinoff and I didn't know.
Shada is great. Gareth Roberts captures Adams' voice in the way you wish Eoin Colfer had. The book is a cultural window to 1970s SciFi, without the bad special effects.
I'm only left with one question.
Is the Professor still in Cambridge?
Dirk Gentley is one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors. Recently, after coming across websites that provide suggestions on 'what to read next after finishing a book', I had considered doing something similar for 'what to read after watching this show/movie.' Like Downton Abbey? Try reading Wodehouse. Like Dr. Who, read The Hitchhiker's Guide. I never thought to recommend Dirk Gentley, because Hitchhiker's Guide has more mass appeal. Which is ironic because…
Recently I was browsing a bookstore and stumbled on a new Douglas Adams book. Doctor Who: Shada, The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams, by Gareth Roberts (another Dr. Who writer). Most Whovians (I am not one except casually) know that Douglas Adams wrote for the original series. Of the 3 episodes, one did not air due to a writers' strike. It was later released on video with Tom Baker narrating to fill in the gaps of what didn't get filmed.
I am vaguely aware of other Dr. Who novels, particularly between the old and new series, that are not considered cannon. Then there is that new collection of short stories. This is different. This is a Tom Baker adventure, written by the man who conceived the babelfish as an actual episode meant to air, and revised, finished, and polished by another Dr. Who writer. Besides, how long has it been since the world had seen something new published that was written by Douglas Adams. These facts alone were exciting enough. But there was an additional surprise…
Douglas Adams, like many writers, recycles ideas in his various works. The true-life story of the biscuits made its way into HH2G. He also had plans to revise the third Dirk Gentley book, The Salmon of Doubt, into a sixth Hitchhiker's book. So it should come as no surprise that he had a hard time letting Shada go.
The Dirk Gentley books, as a series, are disjointed. The third is unfinished, the second is mythic (and doesn't seem to fit with anything else he wrote, IMHO), and the first has strange plot holes.
In the first book, understanding the plot requires a decent knowledge of Coleridge. (If Malcolm Reynolds can read a poem, you can too.) But the backstory and mechanics of how you get to the point of needing English Lit to understand the resolution was shrouded in mystery.
SPOILERS: There's this Cambridge professor and his flat is a time machine. He doesn't know how old he is, or how he ended up living in a time machine, or even how the machine works, exactly. He admits once that he "retired" to Cambridge, but that is about all he can remember.
So, sure there's a time machine with an impossibly old dude living in it, but that does't mean he's a Time Lord. There are, after all, lots of time travel stories, including Hitchhiker's Guide (i.e. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe). But Dirk Gentley isn't just another time travel story.
The professor's name is Chronotis. And he is a major character, and Time Lord, in Shada.
One of my favorite books is a Dr. Who spinoff and I didn't know.
Shada is great. Gareth Roberts captures Adams' voice in the way you wish Eoin Colfer had. The book is a cultural window to 1970s SciFi, without the bad special effects.
I'm only left with one question.
Is the Professor still in Cambridge?
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