Minor characters from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

There are many minor characters in the various versions of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. In fact, defining a major character is rather difficult. If the major characters are those the plot focuses on, they are Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Marvin and Trillian, with the possible inclusion of Slartibartfast, Prostentic Vogon Jeltz, Random Dent and Fenchurch. If they are defined as characters appearing in all the books, they are only Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent. In this case, the definition of major characters will be those in the series with major plot significance not appearing on this list.

Frankie and Benjy mouse

Frankie and Benjy are the mice that Arthur (et al.) encounter on Magrathea. Frankie and Benjy wish to extract the final readout data from Arthur's brain to get the ultimate question to Life, the Universe, and Everything. Frankie and Benjy are, after all, part of the pan-dimensional race that created the Earth as a supercomputer successor to Deep Thought in order to find out the question to which the answer was 42.

Related Topics:
Magrathea - The ultimate question to Life, the Universe, and Everything - Supercomputer - Deep Thought - 42

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In the first version, the radio series, they offered Arthur and Trillian a large amount of money if they could tell them what the Question is. In later versions this was changed - unfortunately for Arthur, they claim the only way to do this is to remove his brain and prepare it, apparently by dicing it. They promise to replace it with a simple computer brain, which, suggested Zaphod, would only have to say things like "What?" and "Can I have a cup of tea?". Arthur objects to this, and escapes with the help of his friends.

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In the movie, they are in fact the manifestations of Lunkwill and Fook, the pan-dimensional beings who designed and built Deep Thought, and were squashed flat by Arthur Dent when they attempted to treat his brain.

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Appear in:

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• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

On radio, David Tate played Benjy Mouse and Peter Hawkins Frankie Mouse. They appeared in Fit the Fourth. They also appeared in Episode Four of the TV series, where they were voiced by David Tate and Stephen Moore.

Related Topics:
David Tate - Peter Hawkins - Fit the Fourth - Episode Four

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