daibhidc | Finally watched the Dirk Gently pilot

I wasn't at all sure about the first scene; Dirk not being overweight and wearing an absurd hat I could live with (in fact, I think Stephen Mangan's manic energy is an excellent choice), but actually getting paid? In the book, Dirk never makes any money out of anyone. This, he says, is the one factor that prevents Holistic Detection from being a method of conning old ladies. (But then, it seems TV!Dirk takes looking for cats more seriously than book!Dirk, who thinks of himself as supplying them with freedom.)[1]

Mostly, though, the original scenes were great. What bugged me were the scenes that were almost scenes from the book. I loved the recreation of the scene where Richard steals Susan's ~~answering machine tape~~ laptop; but the point of the scene in the original is the total irrationality of the act (someone was controlling Richard to stop Susan getting the message from Gordon), and that doesn't happen. Also, the Schrödinger's Cat story is made more ridiculous (Dirk wasn't just working with quantum phycisists, but with Schrödinger himself [1887-1961]), but the purpose of the story (to test Richard for irrationality) was lost. And I got a bit of Sibling Switch Squick from Susan/Gordon.

But the original story was great, and very Dirk Gently, if I stopped comparing characters other than Dirk to their novel counterparts. And I loved the more minor references to the book, like the notes about the Electric Monk and Coleridge on Dirk's whiteboard, or the newspaper headline about a horse being found in a bathroom. And the fridge subplot from Teatime pops up as well.

I'm quite pleased with myself for figuring out what happened to Henry, although I was assisted in this by making the assumption there had to be a time machine in the story somewhere, even if all the references to "Shada" had been carefully excised. I certainly hadn't worked out how it was all connected (sorry, interconnected) though.

So I really enjoyed it, although I hope the later ones spend less time trying to shoehorn in scenes from the books (although if they fit, that's another story).

[ETA: Okay, one moment of Fridge Logic: I don't know what make Gordon's mobile is, but I'm very impressed it can hold a charge for sixteen years...)

[1]On a similar note telly!Dirk's university career was apparently marred by claiming to be clairvoyent, charging for exam answers and being wrong, which to my mind is less interesting than claiming not to be clairvoyent, "reluctantly" taking money for exam results and being right -- thereby leading to everyone assuming he was a cheat, which they wouldn't have done if it was just enough to be believable but still explainable by chance. Part of Dirk's "thing" is that every prediction he makes comes true, but never to his benefit, and often to his disgust.