List of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy characters


The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a 1978 radio comedy, it was later adapted to other formats, including novels, stage shows, comic books, a 1981 TV series, a 1984 text adventure game, and 2005 feature film. The various versions follow the same basic plot. However, in many places, they are mutually contradictory, as Adams rewrote the story substantially for each new adaptation. Throughout all versions, the series follows the adventures of Arthur Dent and his interactions with Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Marvin the Paranoid Android, and Trillian.

Main characters

Arthur Dent

, accompanied by Ford Prefect, barely escapes the Earth's destruction when it is demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Arthur spends the next several years, still wearing his dressing gown, helplessly launched from crisis to crisis while trying to straighten out his lifestyle. He rather enjoys tea, but seems to have trouble obtaining it in the far reaches of the galaxy. In time, he learns how to fly and carves a niche for himself as a sandwich maker. He is also worried about "everything."

Ford Prefect

is Arthur Dent's friend. He rescued Dent when the Earth is unexpectedly demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass at the start of the story. Although his heart is in the right place and he is shown to be highly intelligent, resourceful, and even brave, Ford is essentially a dilettante when it comes to causes such as the search for the question to the ultimate answer of "life, the universe, and everything." Ford takes a more existential view of the universe, sometimes bordering on joyful nihilism. He is eccentric and broad-minded – no doubt due to his vast experience of roughing it around the galaxy – and has an off-key and often very dark sense of humour.

Zaphod Beeblebrox

is a "semi-half-cousin" of Ford Prefect. He is hedonistic and irresponsible, narcissistic, and often extremely insensitive to the feelings of those around him. Zaphod invented the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. Zaphod wears unique clothing that contains a mixture of bright and contrasting colours to make him stand out and be the centre of attention wherever he goes. He was voted "Worst Dressed Sentient Being in the Known Universe" seven consecutive times. He's been described as "the best Bang since the Big One" by Eccentrica Gallumbits, and as "one hoopy frood" by others. He was briefly the President of the Galaxy and is the only man to have survived the Total Perspective Vortex.

Marvin the Paranoid Android

is the ship's robot aboard the starship Heart of Gold. Built as one of many failed prototypes of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation's GPP technology, Marvin is afflicted with severe depression and boredom, in part because he has a "brain the size of a planet" which he is seldom, if ever, given the chance to use. Indeed, the true horror of Marvin's existence is that no task he could be given would occupy even the tiniest fraction of his vast intellect. Marvin claims he is 50,000 times more intelligent than a human.

Trillian

is a mathematician and astrophysicist whom Arthur Dent attempted to talk to at a party in Islington. Zaphod Beeblebrox gate-crashed said party and Trillian left the planet along with him. She and Arthur next meet six months later on the spaceship Heart of Gold, shortly after the Earth had been destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass.

Slartibartfast

is a Magrathean, and a designer of planets. His favourite part of the job is creating coastlines, the most notable of which are the fjords found on the coast of Norway on planet Earth, for which he won an award. When Earth Mk. II is being made, Slartibartfast is assigned to the continent of Africa. He is unhappy about this because he has begun "doing it with fjords again", but has been told by his superiors that they are "not equatorial enough". In relation to this, he expresses the view that he would "far rather be happy than right any day." By the third novel, he has joined the Campaign for Real Time and convinces the main characters to join him to attempting to save the Galaxy from murderous robots.

Minor characters

Agrajag

Agrajag is a tragic and piteous creature who is continually reincarnated and subsequently killed, each time unknowingly, by Arthur Dent. Agrajag is first identified in ; however, it is revealed that several of Arthur's encounters in the first and second novels were with previous incarnations of Agrajag. The first occurs in, when a bowl of petunias is yanked into existence miles above the planet Magrathea in place of one of the missiles targeting the Heart of Gold after its Improbability Drive is used, and begins falling, having only time to think "Oh, no, not again" before crashing to the ground. The Guide states that "many had speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that, we should know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now". The reason behind the bowl's lament is revealed in, when Agrajag identifies the bowl of petunias as one of his prior incarnations, and tells Arthur that he had seen his face in a spaceship window as he fell to his doom. In another incarnation, Agrajag was a rabbit on prehistoric Earth who was killed by Arthur for breakfast and whose skin was fashioned into the pouch Arthur is still carrying, which is then used to swat a fly who also happened to be Agrajag. In yet another, near the beginning of, Agrajag is an old man who dies of a heart attack after seeing Arthur and Ford materialise, seated on a Chesterfield sofa, in the midst of a match at Lord's Cricket Ground.
In due course, Agrajag harbors a fervent desire for vengeance against Arthur Dent, scheming to redirect his teleportation to a Cathedral of Hate. However, in the midst of articulating his animosity towards Arthur, Agrajag references an incident at "Stavromula Beta" where Arthur inadvertently evaded an assassin's bullet, causing Agrajag's demise. Perplexed by this mention of a place he's never visited, Arthur remains oblivious to Agrajag's grievances, leading Agrajag to realize his premature timing in bringing Arthur to the cathedral. Despite this revelation, Agrajag still attempts to eliminate Arthur, only to meet his demise once again at Arthur's hands while the latter defends himself. In a final act of defiance, Agrajag sets off explosives meant to dispatch Arthur; however, this triggers a colossal rockfall. Miraculously, Arthur emerges unscathed from the debris.
For the next few years, Arthur travels the universe, secure in his knowledge that, no matter what happens, he cannot die at least until after he survives his assassination attempt at Stavromula Beta. In, Arthur's daughter Random Frequent Flyer Dent holds him hostage in a London club. When she fires her weapon, Arthur dodges, causing the bolt to pass over his head and hit the man standing behind him. Earlier, the victim had dropped a book of matches which revealed the owner of the nightclub to be Stavro Mueller, and the name of the club to be Beta. Thus, what Arthur believed to be the name of a planet was the name of the nightclub, and Agrajag has died once again. Because of this, Arthur is now able to die as well, which, thanks to the Grebulons, he does a few seconds later.
In, Douglas Adams plays Agrajag, having recorded the part for an audiobook version of. Producer Dirk Maggs added a suitable voice treatment, and Simon Jones as Arthur Dent recorded his lines opposite the pre-recorded Adams. Adams was thus able to "reincarnate" to participate in the new series.
At the end of, Arthur Dent's extreme bad luck in life coupled with cosmic balance mean that as he materialises on a planet shortly before Vogons are due to destroy it, Agrajag wakes up from a coma after six months having won the lottery and been recognised by a long lost love whilst on "Celebrity Coma". This event presumably leads to cosmic balance ruining his other lives for the benefit of Arthur Dent.
Agrajag makes a brief appearance in his bowl of petunias form in the 2005 film; the moment he and the sperm whale were called into existence being portrayed exactly as it was in the first book.
In the 2017 second season of the television adaptation of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency a dog is named Agrajag with expected consequences.

Mrs Alice Beeblebrox

Alice Beeblebrox is Zaphod's favourite mother, lives at 108 Astral Crescent, Zoovroozlechester, Betelgeuse V, and guards the true story of Zaphod's visit to the Frogstar, waiting for "the right price." She is referenced in.

The Allitnils

As their names were written to suggest, every Allitnil is an anti-clone of a Lintilla. They were created by the cloning company to eliminate the billions of cloned Lintillas flooding out of a malfunctioning cloning machine. Being anti-clones, when an Allitnil comes into physical contact with a Lintilla, they both wink out of existence in a puff of unsmoke.
Along with Poodoo and Varntvar the Priest, three Allitnils arrived on Brontitall to get the three Lintillas there to "agree to cease to be". Two of the clones eliminate their corresponding Lintillas, but Arthur shoots the third Allitnil, so that one Lintilla survives.
Appearing only in, every one of the Allitnils is voiced by David Tate.
The Allitnils, like the Lintillas, do not appear in the novels or in the BBC television series.

Almighty Bob

The Almighty Bob is a deity worshipped by the people of Lamuella. Old Thrashbarg is one of the priests who worships Almighty Bob; however, Thrashbarg is often ignored by the villagers of Lamuella. The Almighty Bob is mentioned multiple times in the fifth book,.

Anjie

Anjie was a woman, on the brink of retirement, on whose behalf a raffle was being held in order to buy her a kidney machine. An unnamed woman convinces Arthur Dent to buy raffle tickets while he and Fenchurch are in a railway pub, attempting to have lunch. Arthur won an album of bagpipe music.
She is referred to in