Talk:Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

message: I have corrected the reference which said Professor Chronotis' longevity as being due to his "eccentric time machine".  Chronotis is the one who is eccentric, not his time machine (I haven't seen it for years, but at one point I swear he says he's trying to have undergraduates "banned" from his College).  My restoration is relevant inasmuch as it shows Adams's humour.  That being said, I do wonder how much of the two Who stories needs to be described here.  Any thoughts?  ZarhanFastfire (talk) 03:38, 19 April 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Origins in ''Doctor Who''

message: Is it at all possible to get some figures as to how well this, as well as it's sequel, sold? Especially compared to The Guide? I've never had a clue as to how popular this was in relativity and can't imagine how to get such numbers myself.
:Probably your only choices would be to contact the publishers (William Heinemann in the UK, and Pocket Books/Simon and Shuster in the US) and ask for figures. Another possibility would be to contact Nielsen Bookdata, http://www.nielsenbookdata.co.uk/nbd/index.asp - but be prepared to pay for figures received from the latter service. There are also ways to track Amazon's sales data, including the book's Amazon rank.... --JohnDBuell 12:01, 12 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  How many it sold 

message: Wasn't the weird calculator that Dirk bought called the I Ching? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Deathgecko (talk • contribs).
:Yes, but that was in the second book. --JohnDBuell 22:19, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Oops, sorry. I knew that. --ArtifexCrastinus 18:31, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Calculator

message: I've removed many of the extraneous links (to words like "cat," "bathroom," and so on, and will get to the layout in a week or so unless someone beats me to it.
Fabulous Creature 17:21, 10 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Removed links to common words

message: What were these instructions? The book certainly doesn't say, other than that the ghost will never be able to end his torment and destroy life without them. Kubla Khan would also not be of much help here, as our version contains no instructions.
Clearly the plan involved going forward in time to change Kubla Khan before Wenton-Weakes went back 4 billion years in the past. But what he needed in Coleridge is purposely vague. Did Adams ever mention anything more specific? Right now we have two competing hypotheses. 1) That Kubla Khan was used to control Wenton-Weakes or any possible future host or 2) That the instructions for averting the disaster were in Kubla Khan, and Weakes wouldn't be able to change the past, by averting the launch and properly fixing the lander, without them. Is there any definitive proof for either of the hypotheses. 67.85.254.111 00:59, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It's a joke that you don't get to find out.  They go back and interrupt the poet in mid-flow so he can't recall all of his dream in the changed time-line at the end of the story (ie, our reality).  It's not just the instructions that get erased, but also the reading at the collage that Richard and Reg have heard which is just referred to in passing.  It's Douglas having a good old joke on the reader.  BRIANTIST  (talk) 18:33, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Instructions in Kubla Khan

message: In the article it says 
"o make an 18 x 30 minute adaptation of Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently books. It will run over 3 series of 6 episodes and will begin in October of 2007"
There are only two completed books, which are this book and Long Dark.  The Salmon of Doubt is unfinished.  The press release  makes clear that there is a "first series of six 30-minute episodes" but I thought that "and we've finished the last book too!!!!" would be an important element of a Press Release? Otherwise the page needs some trimming.  BRIANTIST  (talk) 18:38, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: New BBC Adaptation

message: I got the impression that they prevented the sofa from getting stuck at the end, rather than causing it to get stuck, because if they'd caused the sofa to get stuck then that contradicts the entire rest of the book. The novel shows examples of changing the past, and alternate timelines - but if they caused the sofa to get stuck then that'd mean they were destined to time-travel and change the past... well, you get it. It's a contradiction. 
Of course, if they prevented the sofa from getting stuck then it leaves unexplained how the sofa got stuck in the first place.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.239.97.10 (talk) 02:26, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  The sofa 

message: seems to me that the synopsis discusses mcduff erasing susan's answering machine to erase possible implicating evidence of his involvement in way's murder. however, in the book i have read (far too many times by now), he has no idea way is even murdered by then, and decided to erase his voice because he promised to take susan out the following weekend, when in fact (due to work concerns) he could not. am i incorrect in this? --Snideology (talk) 19:53, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: There is more misleading stuff in this synopsis. i cannot remember anything in the book suggesting that Reg saved the aliens "a millisecond before the explosion" and sent them into the future. And I have read the "flare of light in the night sky" being interpreted as the ship being blown up, not it departing, which is why Reg says "sorry, Richard". I fear there is a lot of personal interpretation in this synopsis, which might be up for debate. 2A02:8071:884:B300:25F6:F018:3F78:ABF (talk) 11:50, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Misleading Plot Synopsis? 

message: In the Characters section the exam papers is said to be very coincidently duplicated, but my guess is that it's a prank from Reg. I'm thinking this is alluded to just after Dirk tells Reg that he broke his rule for the salt trick.  Richard realizes something and tells Reg never to follow Dirk next to the Cam river, I guess out of fear of being pushed/hypnotized to plunge into it in revenge of the prank whose consequences went way too far for Dirk. --SamuelThibault (talk) 00:32, 5 August 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  The exam: a prank? 

message: I'm not sure that the Salaxalan ghost switch from the Electric Monk to Richard in Reg's room. What is sure is that he is next to Richard in the car when the car "hits" Gordon's ghost, which is after Richard encountered the Monk carrying Gordon's body. I would rather think the switch happened at that time, after the Monk made various dumb things, the last (really last before just trying to ride a tree, then his horse) being to carry back the body to his home. --SamuelThibault (talk) 08:03, 5 August 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  When the Salaxalan ghost switched from the Electric Monk to Richard? 

message: Published by Pocket Books, (May 1988), . Looking at the article, just throwing this info in is no help. Someone may want to work it in (or not). PAV5150 (talk) 01:43, 3 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  US Paperback Information 

message: Should there be a separate linked page to this one off drama? 
Apart from the character names it bares little relation to the original book save the character of Dirk. I am not saying it was bad and should be dis-owned although I did find it disappointing it was not even an attempt at brining the original plot to the screen?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.154.113.158 (talk) 12:40, 17 December 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Possibly, but we would need some reliable sources that demonstrate that this adaption is notable on its own. Regards SoWhy 13:08, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

text: I think its affinities with the original novel are close enough to merit keeping it on this article as it stands. If not, we can note that this televised version has a different plot, in the lede. --TS 17:58, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

text: I think for now it should stay where it is. If the BBC shoots more episodes then we might consider moving the show to its own page, but for now it's close enough to the original work and thus the two should be kept together. --Chnt (talk) 20:17, 26 December 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I've split this off now, as there was plenty of external coverage and other details that I think justified a separate article. Is there any chance that the radio adaptation/s could have a split article as well? It's just the radio adaptation already has a large separate section with cast lists, etc, as well as a slightly confusing fanboyish "differences from the novel" section. It might be nice for this article to be mainly about the novel. Any thoughts? Bob talk 00:12, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

text: Ok, fair enough. If theres's enough material then the split for the radio and tv adaptations are justified.--Chnt (talk) 13:12, 7 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  TV - 'Adaptation' 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: When trotting down to where Reg has left his time machine, the monk notices some ancient rock painting, obviously done ages ago by a primitive tribe. The monk spends some time reflecting on this2A02:C7F:5205:C00:90EB:9BE1:16DD:AB56 (talk) 19:51, 6 July 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  The Monk and the Rock Painting 

message: I'd like to propose the removal of the final section, "Inconsistencies with ending". Douglas himself may not have been able to remember, but the plot does make sense, even if it is mildly convoluted.
The alien ghost was experiencing long periods of forgetfulness, and had to give the knowledge of how to get back to his ship, and fix it, to Coleridge, who wrote it into the second part of "Kubla Khan".
Using the time machine so that Dirk could interrupt Coleridge, thereby becoming the real-life person from porlock, the second part of the poem was forgotten, causing that information to be lost, and preventing the ghost from possessing Wenton-Weakes in the first place, and thus saving humanity.
The time machine stopped working because BT fixed the phone lines, and apparently it's impossible for both the time machine and the phones to work simultaneously. (Or, Chronotis was lying, and simply disabled it.) David G (talk) 07:19, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: I have now done so. David G (talk) 00:10, 25 March 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removal of "Inconsistencies" section.