How far did Marvin fall?

This is a wonderful piece of animation by Nick Page, set to the audio from the original radio show of the Secondary Phase of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Only: there’s a problem, here. Marvin clearly says that he’s fallen “… 15 miles through the air and a further mile through solid rock”.

In the clip below, the Guide refers in passing to the fact that life is something that you can lose if falling from a cave thirteen miles above ground level:

A cave could be thirteen miles up

This reference is, of course, just an aside. It could, however, be considered to be a writer’s trick known as ‘foreshadowing’.

When Ford, Zaphod, Arthur and Marvin escape in the Heart of Gold from the pursuing vogon fleet on improbability drive, they arrive in a mysterious cave on Brontitall. Eddie, the shipboard computer, checks the altitude of the cave, to find that it is, coincidentally, thirteen miles above ground level:

Eddie confirms that the cave is thirteen miles up

Arthur falls from the cave, and is saved from certain death by landing on the back of a swutting enormous bird. The bird shows him that the ‘cave’ is actually a representation of the nutrimatic cup, and it is part of a statue of Arthur himself — one that is fifteen miles high:

The statue is fifteen miles high

Arthur, Ford and Zaphod have various adventures. Meanwhile, Marvin also fell from the ‘cave’ (which, as we’ve ascertained, is thirteen miles up) and ended up in the very deep, dark hole. However, even with his planet-sized brain, he gets it wrong by clearly claiming to have fallen fifteen miles through the air, which he cannot have done since he fell from the same place from which the others also fell, ie the cave (or ‘cup’):

Marvin gets it wrong!

I think somebody made a boo-boo. I agree, it’s not exactly earth-shattering, but it’s interesting, no? … well, it might be if you’re a Hitchhiker’s fan.

Speaking of which, Monday (25May2020) is Towel Day.

Do you know where your towel is?