Krikkit

Krikkit (pronounced the same way as "Cricket") is a fictional planet which appears in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series, predominantly within the third part of the "Trilogy of five", "Life, the Universe and Everything". The people of Krikkit, known as "Krikkiters" or "Krikkitmen", are the main antagonists in "Life, the Universe and Everything". The solar system of Krikkit consists of just the planet and its sun, inside a gigantic dust cloud. As a result, nothing else can be seen in the sky and the night sky is completely black. This resulted in the people of Krikkit believing that they were the only sentient beings in creation. When they discovered the universe, their reaction was to destroy it.

History

Early history

The planet Krikkit was partly created by a supercomputer called Hactar. Hactar was designed to create an ultimate weapon. This was known as the "Supernova bomb". When fired, it would connect the heart of every major sun with the heart of every other major sun, thus destroying the entire universe in one gigantic hyperspatial supernova. However, Hactar was so shocked by the idea that he deliberately put a flaw in the design, and it failed to work. The alien race that ordered the creation of the bomb, the super-aggressive Silastic Armorfiends of Striterax, then destroyed Hactar in anger. However, Hactar's consciousness survived and he was still able to create objects. [cite book|last=Adams|first=Douglas|authorlink=Douglas Adams|title=Life, the Universe and Everything|publisher=Pan Macmillan|date=1982|pages=144-147|isbn=0-330-26738-8]

Hactar then decided to fulfill his function of destroying the universe, as well as to get revenge by influencing the people of Krikkit, a planet on the very edge of the galaxy. The planet Krikkit and its sun were covered in a large dust cloud, which made it impossible to see anything in the sky at night and only the sun in the day. As a result, the people of Krikkit, the Krikkiters, believed that they were the only sentient beings in creation. The Krikkiters grew up believing that nothing could exist in the sky and therefore had no idea that the universe existed.

Then 10 billion years ago, Hactar then created a space ship which he crash landed on the surface of Krikkit. The people who spotted it were able to reverse engineer its technology and build their own almost exactly a year after the crash. The ship, "Krikkit One", is the space ship which commands the most astonishment of all space ships ever created, according to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" because, "It was a piece of near junk. It looked as if it had been knocked up in somebody's backyard, and this was in fact precisely where it had been knocked up." [Adams, p. 82] When "Krikkit One" first broke through the dust cloud, and the Krikkiters first discovered the universe, their reaction was, "It'll have to go." [Adams, p. 85]

The Krikkit Wars

As the idea of a universe did not fit into the world view of the Krikkiters, it was decided to destroy the universe and everyone in it. Overnight, the Krikkiters became paranoidly xenophobic and built war machines and robots in order to destroy the universe, in what became known as the Krikkit Wars. Their technology was given to them by Hactar.

As the galaxy had been enjoying a period of peace, it was unprepared for such a massive attack. Krikkit launched thousands of gigantic warships. Each ship seized material needed for building more fleets, then destroyed the world where they got the material from. Their main weapons were the Krikkit robots. These were white humanoid robots, in teams of 11, with rocket-pads on their shins and armed with battleclubs and ball-shaped bombs. The bombs were launched and primed by the battleclub hitting them. The bombs ranged from minor incendiary devices, to Maxi-Slorta Hypernuclear Devices, which could take out a major sun. [Adams, p. 87-88]

Krikkit lost the war, but it was devastating to the people of the galaxy. The wars lasted for two thousand years, during which two grillion people were killed. [Adams, p. 88-89] After the Krikkit War Crimes Trial, His High Judgmental Supremacy, Judiciary Pag, ordered that Krikkit should be locked in a envelope of Slo-Time, in which life would go along almost infinitely slowly and escape would be impossible. Once the universe ended naturally, the Slo-Time envelope would open and Krikkit would be the only planet in the entire universe. The only way to open the envelope would be to use a key to fit inside a lock on an asteroid orbiting the envelope. The key was in the shape of the Wikkit Gate, the symbol of the galaxy. [Adams, p. 90-91] However, one Krikkit warship was not locked inside the envelope. There was a brief battle, during which the robots on the ship tried to seize the key. However, the key and the space ship were blown into the space-time continuum. [Adams, p. 92]

After the wars

Over time, the Krikkit wars became embedded in the racial memory of every race in the universe. For example, beings in the higher dimensions play Brockian Ultra Cricket, described as, "A curious game which involved suddenly hitting people for no readily apparent reason and then running away." [cite book|last=Adams|first=Douglas|coauthors=Robbie Stamp|title=The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:Film Tie-in Edition|publisher=Pan Macmillan|date=2005|page=170|isbn=0-330-43798-4] In the case of the planet Earth, two events occurred. One event was that the sport of cricket was invented. However, this was seen as appallingly bad taste (albeit accidental) in the eyes of all the other races in the galaxy. This is one of the reasons why the Earth is shunned by most aliens. [Adams, p. 78] Another element is that part of the key, the Wooden Pillar of Nature, became a cricket stump, which later became The Ashes.

The other parts of the key took on different functions. The Gold Bail of Prosperity became the heart of the Infinite Improbability Drive of the space ship, the "Heart of Gold". The Perspex Pillar of Science and Reason became the Argabuthon Sceptre of Justice. The Steel Pillar of Strength and Pillar was used by Marvin the Paranoid Android as a false leg. The Silver Bail was turned into the "Rory Award for The Most Gratuitous Use Of The Word "Fuck" In A Serious Screenplay" (The word "Fuck" is sometimes changed to "Belgium" in American versions of the book). [Adams, p. 148] Over the next 10 billion years, Hactar tried to communicate with the people of Krikkit still. However, the Slo-Time envelope resulted in problems with communication.

Closer to the present day, the escaped Krikkit robots came out of the space-time continuum and stole the five parts of the key so that the Slo-Time envelope could be opened and the people of Krikkit freed. This resulted in the Krikkit robots destroying Lord's Cricket Ground and kidnapping both Zaphod Beeblebrox and Marvin. The Krikkit robots used Marvin's gigantic mind to program the Krikkit war computer. This plan backfired however as Marvin made all the other robots depressed, which resulted in them being too upset to kill Zaphod. [Adams, p. 168]

Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect and Slartibartfast tried to stop the Krikkit robots from regaining the key but failed. Afterwards, they and Trillian went to the surface of Krikkit in order to solve the problem. Trillian then talked to the people and discovered that the ordinary people of Krikkit had doubts about destroying the universe. She asked to be taken to the leader. The leaders of Krikkit live in the sky, where Hactar is stronger and therefore has a greater power. Trillian tells the elders that everything that has happened to Krikkit is because of Hactar. This includes the Krikkiters creating their own Supernova bomb. However, their bomb, like the original, is also a dud, due to the communication problems caused by the envelope. [Adams, p. 173] This finally results in the people of Krikkit stopping their campaign of violence.

Afterwards, Arthur and Trillian meet Hactar who tells them everything. Arthur then goes back in time with Ford to return The Ashes. While there, Arthur lives out his childhood dream of bowling at Lord's. He does so, but instead bowls a Supernova bomb at a Krikkit robot, forced to by Hactar. Luckily, he is so poor at cricket that he bowls a wide. Ford captures the bomb and Arthur destroys the robot with its own battleclub. [Adams, p. 184-185]

Later references

The planet Krikkit is referred to only a few times in Quandary and Quintessential Phases of the radio series. It is mentioned that Arthur was on it before returning to Earth. [cite episode|title=Fit the Nineteenth|series=The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|serieslink=The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Tertiary to Quintessential Phases|airdate=2005-05-03|season=4|number=1] It is later claimed by Zaphod that the Krikkit robots were part of a front by the Vogons for taking over "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and demolishing all the versions of Earth in all dimensions. [cite episode|title=Fit the Twenty-Fourth|series=The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|serieslink=The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Tertiary to Quintessential Phases|airdate=2005-06-07|season=5|number=2]

Origins

The creation of Krikkit originally comes from "Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen", a film treatment of the "Doctor Who" series. The treatment did not get far and was eventually scrapped. Elements of "Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen" were put into "Life, the Universe and Everything". [cite book|last=Webb|first=Nick|authorlink=Nick Webb (author)|title=Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography of Douglas Adams|publisher=Headline|date=2003-10-06|location=Chatham, Kent|pages=117|isbn=0-7553-1155-8] According to Nick Webb, the writer of Adams's official biography, he claimed that, "Douglas's view of the Krikkitmen would be similar to his view of people who resolutely decline to learn what science can tell us about the universe we inhabit." [Webb, p. 15]

References

*Adams, Douglas. "Life, the Universe and Everything". Basingstoke: Pan Macmillan, 1982. ISBN 0-330-26738-8.
*Webb, Nick. "Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography of Douglas Adams". Chatham, Kent: Headline. 2003. ISBN 0-7553-1155-8.

Notes