Douglas Adams Continuum (DAC)

I must recommed people look at the news thread.

I think this is really fantastic news! Obviously, however, it puts us in a bit of a position here. To summarise my thoughts, controversially, I think if this is really true (which it appears to be) then we should divert our attention to another radio project to be honest. More thoughts to come in the future. And discussions are open.

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See a pin; pick it up; and all that day, you'll have a pin.

Yes, I am myself a little confused as to what we should (or should not) do.

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Well what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today!

Umm.. well, uh... Doorhinge?

I'm at a loss really.

[speculation]Maybe we could write our own completely new show from scratch and do that instead![/speculation]

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Life... is like a grapefruit. It's orange and squishy, and has a few pips in it, and some folks have half a one for breakfast.

(I really don't understand why you all shouldn't just continue on as you have been ...)

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(... don't piss us off)

Well, chances are they'll finish it first, and it'll be far better than ours which will detract from the sence of achievement we'd feel. I'd quite like to finish the episode we're on though, so we dont just give up.

Well, pardon my bluntness, but I'd hope professionals who do this sort of thing for a living and have access to state of the art equipment and such would be able to pull of a 'better' production than you all. That said, do you think Dirk started out at the level he's at now? You all really seem to enjoy what you're doing. I say go for it and worry not of comparisons.

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(... don't piss us off)

I really kind of agree with skutterz on this. They would get done first and it would be better than ours. However, mg does have a point. We where here first and everyone (I hope) is enjoying themselves. So it wouldn't be that hard to blunder on regardless.

DipLCM mentioned moving on to another radio production. I think which one would be up for debate unless he had something specific in mind. If nothing does come to mind after collective thought on the subject, we could take the 'drama' out of doing something radio drama-like and do something radio-like. The Un/Official Douglas Adams Continuum Podcast perhaps, or something of the like?

Anyway, that was just a suggestion to get the ball rolling on ideas. I'm sure that would be quite hard to do and wouldnt appeal to everyone.

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Life... is like a grapefruit. It's orange and squishy, and has a few pips in it, and some folks have half a one for breakfast.

Not meaning to discourage you from completing the Dirk Gently project, but you should do what you love. What you are inspired to do. Don't worry about whether or not it will appeal to everyone. Just do it. And enjoy it for what it is ... then your audience will be sure to also.

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(... don't piss us off)

Absolutely. I fully agree. We should do whatever we want, I'm just giving other options. I was talking about it not appealing to those who are involved not the listeners.

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Life... is like a grapefruit. It's orange and squishy, and has a few pips in it, and some folks have half a one for breakfast.

I think it would be good to move our audio drama efforts elsewhere, since this is indeed being very fun. There seem to be a couple of options of where we could divert our attention. One of which is continuing with Young Zaphod Plays It Safe. However, there may very well be some better ideas floating around, some of which are being formulated at the moment. Watch this space.

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See a pin; pick it up; and all that day, you'll have a pin.

I can't believe you're thinking of giving up after coming so far. Your production is unique in the way it's being made, by a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs from around the world getting together. The Radio 4 series is being made by a profesional crew with professional actors, you can't seriously think you're in some kind of competition here??? Lot's of books and plays have had various enterpretations, your's will be one of them. Besides, there's a lot of Continuumers here who have been waiting to hear the finished production...

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Her mouth opened, her eyes patients, the variety of age and constitution as a pullets egg, with some gobbits of fat, and the heavy sand.

(... don't piss us off)

What Scratch said!

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vagabond
birds, any birds, anywhere, any time

I completely agree with Scratch and mg. We should by no means give up. We have our bloody own forum section so we should bloody well use it!

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Sir Humphrey: With Trident we could obliterate the whole of Eastern Europe.
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You can't be a successful dictator and design women's underclothing. - Bertram Wooster, The Code of the Woosters

Bloody right!

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Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
(Douglas Adams, "Last Chance to See")

I agree wholeheartidly that we should continue with the DG project.

The fact that they're making a 'real' version has benefits to our project as well - increased interest perhaps. Noone expects us to be anything other than completely out-classed by the official show so i feel no extra pressure to make our version comparable. We've already decided that we have limitations and that we're firmly producing an amateur show as much for the enjoyment of attempting to produce it as listening to it.

I for one would like you guys to continue as I recently enjoyed listening to the first part. Shame not to finish it.

I'm sure Dirk Maggs would encourage your ambitions.

However, there's probably a copyright question here, which perhaps ought to be addressed. Not really for me to say....

I think you should try and finish up your version of the Dirk series if possible. At least the first novel if not the second. (I don't know if you were planning on taking a shot at Salmon Of Doubt or not. If you were, that would be interesting to hear as well.)

The fact that Mr. Maggs is going to be making a radio series based on the Dirk Gently adventures is great news. However, once the initial joy faded, it saddened me slightly thinking that once he released the last episode of the Gently series, there would be no Douglas Adams novels left to be made for radio. Then I remembered Starship Titanic. Yes I know it's technically a Terry Jones novel, but it is based on Adams's computer game. It might be an interesting project for Maggs to tackle in the future, but since he's busy with Dirk Gently, maybe you guys could try your skills at that.

I've always thought that Piers Anthony's Xanth novels would make for an interesting radio series. Anthony is apparently a Hitchhiker fan because he recommended the series to readers in an Author's Note to one of the books. The Harry Potter novels would be a good basis for a radio series. It could include scenes that didn't make it into the movies because of time constrants. I don't know if you'd have to worry about Warner Bros. suing you or not. My guess is you could make the "fair use" argument as long as you aren't making a profit, but I'd look into it first.

Anyway, best of luck with the radio shows!

I'm going to agree with everyone who suggest you continue this project.

You've come so far and done so much to toss it all away now. See it through. You're not professionals? So what. Anything done out of love for the material is often better than the "official" versions. Beyond that, it gives you the experience of production and, often times, that can lead to bigger things. The folks who produce the Doctor Who audios at Big Finish didn't just happen on a license from the BBC. It was the quality of their work as fans that got them noticed.

And I'm sure Dirk would be the last person to tell you to stop. I've a feeling that he would encourage you to continue and finish.

So with that said... GET BACK TO WORK!

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This has been another random act of nonsense.

What do you mean 'you'? You're in it too - You're the teacup!

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(... don't piss us off)

LOL

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Life... is like a grapefruit. It's orange and squishy, and has a few pips in it, and some folks have half a one for breakfast.

I make one sexxxxxy tea mug.

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This has been another random act of nonsense.

Regarding this whole matter, I have sought the advice of Dirk Maggs himself. He has the following to say:

Isn't he just a complete sweetiepie?

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Before long now, I'll reach the age where farting will be an essential part of propulsion.
(...don't piss us off)

Indeed he is!

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Well what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today!

Absolutely!
So now I think we can say it with 100% certainity: we will carry on.

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Sir Humphrey: With Trident we could obliterate the whole of Eastern Europe.
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You can't be a successful dictator and design women's underclothing. - Bertram Wooster, The Code of the Woosters

Great words from the Dirk that's great to hear from him :-)

On that note also, Pirate John is going to hopefully get us some of the narrator lines quite soon so hopefully Episode Three should be done with in a much quicker time than it took to do the previous two :-)

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See a pin; pick it up; and all that day, you'll have a pin.

Yes.
He is.

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(... don't piss us off)

That put me in a good mood. It's not everyday I get a compliment from someone I admire.

I also think it might be interesting to do radio shows based on the Monk mystery novels, but NBC Universal might have a problem with it. I'm glad you guys have Dirk's blessing.