The HHGTTG: Radio Show: Question

[Crossroads Inc.]

Before I begin, I should say that the radio versions of The HHGTTG are in part pieced together from bits ive downloaded and received from friends, I do not currently have the full set which leads to the confusion I am about to lay out.

For those that listened to the original Radio show, the first Series follows the following path...

Earth gets blown up, Ford and Arthur meet up with Zaphod, Trillian and Marvin.
They land on the planet Megratheia, and after some informative interludes, are chased down by Galactic Police.
From there they end up at the Restaurant at the end of the Universe, and from THERE they escape in a black spaceship,
Ford and Arthur end up on prehistoric earth and Trillian, Zaphod and Marvin, are presumed dead.
Thus ends the first radio series.

From there, things get murky,

According to the various downloads I have, the next piece begins with Zaphod, alone, in a freighter on his way to Ursa Minor to meet with the publisher of HHGTTG. Marvin meets him there. for those that have listened it goes onto an adventure which leads to a planet that reach a Shoe event horizon (horrible thing) Zaphod, reunited with Ford, Arthur and Marvin, meets up with the publisher of the HHGTTG and travels to a planet where, supposedly, the ruler of the Universe lives. They talk, and Arthur and Ford in a fit leave.

Now, from HERE, I get a bit confused... Because in the NEXT radio show, it begins wiht the following...

Arthur and Ford are BACK on prehistoric earth and have been there for several Years, While Zaphod, now with Trillian, are on bored the Heart of Gold...

Where and What did I miss?

[Jonen C]

It's been a while since I listened to the whole thing, but yeah, I don't think you missed anything.

The first series is followed by the second series and then theres a bit of discontinuity (a decade gap in production will do that) before the third series starts up.
It works out best if you consider most of the second radio series some sort of alternate timeline.

EDIT: Wikipedia agrees "Arthur wakes up in a cave on pre-historic Earth (thus ignoring the events of the Secondary Phase)".

[Drooling Iguana]

I think the Secondary Phase stuff was written out as a hallucination by Zaphod (they mention something like that in the Quandary Phase.)

Esentially, there were originally two Phases. Then the first book was written and it was pretty much a straight adaptation of the first four episodes of the Primary Phase. The second book, on the other hand, took elements from all eight remaining episodes but mixed them all into a completely different order. Three more books followed this, ignoring the radio series for the most part and taking place in the continuity established by that second book. Then the author died. A few years later, the BBC decided to adapt those three books into a new radio series but as they were never intended to be a continuation of the original series things ended up in a bit of a mess.

[Crossroads Inc.]

That does actually make more sense... I re-listened to the first episode of the Tertiary Phase and Trillian mentioned that, After arriving at Ursa Minor, Zaphod suffered a double psychotic episode and went mad.

If Thats the case we can assume that PART of the secondary phase exists just in Zaphod arrive on a freighter, going down ot MegaDodo Publishing, and then after that, going mad or some sort, while Arthur and Ford remain on Earth.

[Sriad]

That does actually make more sense... I re-listened to the first episode of the Tertiary Phase and Trillian mentioned that, After arriving at Ursa Minor, Zaphod suffered a double psychotic episode and went mad.

If Thats the case we can assume that PART of the secondary phase exists just in Zaphod arrive on a freighter, going down ot MegaDodo Publishing, and then after that, going mad or some sort, while Arthur and Ford remain on Earth.

We could absolutely hold as unreliable anything that happens after Zaphod goes into the Total Perspective Vortex. Unfortunately, I still haven't listened to anything past phase 2, so I'm running on pure speculation.

[Patrick Degan]

In the radio series, Arthur loses his towel in a lava flow. The towel, of course, becomes fossilised and Eddie, the shipboard computer of The Heart Of Gold picks up on the piece of the destroyed Earth with the towel embedded in it while the ship is in improbability drive, and traces it back to when Ford and Arthur were. This was after Zaphod was put through the Total Perspective Vortex, which extrapolates the entire universe from a piece of fairy-cake and is designed as the ultimate torture, by showing the victim just how small he is in relation to the entire universe. Unfortunately for whomever commissioned the hit on Zaphod, his ego proved larger and after escaping he went on a two week bender in celebration and thus arrived quite drunk with a killer double-hangover.