The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy President; the depressed robot Marvin the Paranoid Android; and Trillian, formerly known as Tricia McMillan, a woman Arthur once met at a party in Islington and the only other human survivor of Earth's destruction thanks to Beeblebrox' intervention. The first radio series comes from a proposal called "The Ends of the Earth": six self-contained episodes, all ending with Earth's being destroyed in a different way. While writing the first episode, Adams realized that he needed someone on the planet who was an alien to provide some context, and that this alien needed a reason to be there. Adams finally settled
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (novel) of an encyclopedia. The book begins with city council workmen arriving at Arthur Dent's house. They wish to demolish his house in order to build a bypass. Arthur's best friend, Ford Prefect, arrives, warning him of the end of the world. Ford is revealed to be an alien who had come to Earth to research it for the titular "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", an enormous work providing information about every planet and place in the universe. The two head to a pub, where the locals question Ford's knowledge of the Apocalypse. An alien race, known as Vogons, show up