FORD PREFECT (CHARACTER)

'Ford Prefect' is a fictional character in the radio series (and subsequent books, television series, and so on) ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' by the British author Douglas Adams. He is the only character other than the protagonist, Arthur Dent, to appear throughout the ''Hitchhiker's'' saga.

Contents

Biography

Name

First birth name

Portrayals

References

Biography

Ford is a good friend of the main character, an ordinary Earthman named Arthur Dent who has known him for several years and believes him to be "an out of work actor from the town of Guildford" in Surrey. However, Ford is actually an alien from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse, and had originally only come to Earth to do some research for an article he was writing on it for the ''Guide''.
Ford came to Earth for a week, and got stuck there for fifteen years, departing only when a fleet of Vogon constructor ships appear in the first episode, taking Arthur Dent with him. For the listener/reader/viewer, Ford is the source of much explanation of the weird universe that Arthur finds himself in; for example, the importance of knowing where your towel is, sticking a fish in your ear, and why the greatest cooks in the universe cook such bad food on Vogon spaceships. Ultimately, however, his personal mission is to find a nice party and get incredibly drunk.

Name

Although Ford had taken great care to blend into Earth society, he had "skimped a bit on his preparatory research", and thought that the name "Ford Prefect" would be "nicely inconspicuous". Adams later clarified in an interview that Ford "had simply mistaken the dominant life form". The Ford Prefect was, in fact, a line of inexpensive automobiles manufactured in the United Kingdom in the 1950s. This was expanded on somewhat in the film version, where Ford is nearly run over when trying to greet a car, an actual Ford Prefect. He is saved by Arthur and, in the film version of events at least, this is how the pair meet. The graphics in the TV series provide a similar explanation by listing director John Ford, psychic Arthur Ford, news reader Anna Ford, carmarker Henry Ford, the Ford Anglia car, the Ford Consul car and finally 'Ford Prefect'.
Adams later observed that this joke was lost on U.S. audiences who assumed it was a typing error for "perfect". In the French version, ''Le Guide Galactique'',^[1] Ford's name was changed to "Ford Escort". The joke is also now largely lost on younger audiences because of the disappearance of the Ford Prefect from frequent use. In the film adaptation, his last name was never actually stated on-screen, but it is given in the film's credits as "Prefect".
Prior art for Adams's satirical point – that humans attach such importance to automobiles that a visiting extra-terrestrial might reasonably mistake them for the planet's dominant life form – can be found in a widely reprinted article from ''The Rockefeller Institute Review'' titled ''Life on Earth (by a Martian)'' by Paul Weiss. The idea was also expounded by Carl Sagan, though this may have postdated Adams's creation of the character of Ford. The 1967 Oscar-nominated animated film ''What on Earth!'' from the National Film Board of Canada is based on this premise.

First birth name

In the novel, we are told that Ford's original name is "only pronounceable in an obscure Betelgeusian dialect" which was almost wiped out by the "Great Collapsing Hrung Disaster of Gal./Sid./Year 03758", a mysterious catastrophe which took place on the planet of Betelgeuse Seven and which Ford's father was the only man to survive. Ford never learned to pronounce his original name, which was a matter that caused his father to die of shame (which is still a major problem in some parts of the Universe). At school, he was nicknamed "Ix", which translates as "boy who is not able satisfactorily to explain what a Hrung is, nor why it should choose to collapse on Betelgeuse Seven".
Despite all this, his semi-cousin (they share three of the same mothers) Zaphod Beeblebrox calls him "Ford" the first time they are reunited (in all versions of the story except for the film, where Zaphod introduces him by saying "This is my semi-cousin, Ix...Excuse me, Ford"). Douglas Adams has explained this by indicating that, prior to visiting Earth, Ford went back in time and changed his name at birth to Ford Prefect; hence he has now always been called Ford.

Portrayals

In the original radio series and subsequent LP adaptation, Ford was played by Geoffrey McGivern. On television he was played by David Dixon, and in the film he was played by Mos Def.

References

1. Le Guide Galactique, Denoël, ISBN 978-2207249147