Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy is another science fiction radio drama, but that is essentially the only similarity it shares with War Of The Worlds. For a start, it has a theme tune, this is a great way to make people remember the drama. Theme tunes work well for TV drama publicity too. A narrative guides the drama along each episode and the listener is reliant on the narrator to let them know where the characters are and what is happening. The writers make fun of this classic element of radio drama by having the narrator tell listeners unimportant pieces of information and also going as far to say what the characters are about to say before they say it. The drama is based around a book entitled "Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy" and at frequent intervals, the drama cuts to an extract from the book, sometimes the characters refer to the book and sometimes they don't. The narrator and the voice of the book are the same voice, it's a confident voice that connotes that they know what they are talking about. So audiences can tell the difference, the voice from the book itself is slightly distorted where as the narrator is clear and played over the top of the action. Also, whenever the book/narrator speaks, a certain music track plays to add atmosphere. Sound effects are used effectively throughout, they are also used to set the mood of the scenes. In one scene when the characters are changing into animals and the story takes a turn for the pyschedelic, echo is added to the vocals and strange music is played. This gives the impression of disorientation. Classic radio drama elements are used too, such as the pause in dialogue to represent passing of time, and the dialogue taking place between two people at a time, occassionally moving to three in certain scenes. Another element used is the catch up read by the narrator at the beginning of the episode. Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy is a very entertaining listen, it has an engaging story and the voices and sound effects to match and boost the dialogue.