Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV Series)

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Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. Created by Max Landis; based on Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams. TV Series 2016-17, 18 episodes BBC America et al., production / BBC America and Netflix, distribution (see IMDb for details). Samuel Barnett, Elijah Wood, Hannah Marks, Fiona Dourif, featured players.

SF/F philosophical comedy. First season episodes "Rogue Wall Enthusiasts" (1.3) and "Watkin" (1.4) introduce a machine or device, late Steampunk or Industrial in appearance, that can transfer souls between humans and other mammals, a device used by "The Men of the Machine." Inadvertently on the part of the inventor, the device functions as a time machine. Note also early in the series visual and plot allusions to Nikola Tesla and the issue of providing electrical power to communities, perhaps unlimited power. Note in these two episodes the motif of descent into a dangerous underground that's a mundane version of a mythic or legendary labyrinth, except with movie serial-style moving walls that can crush the lead characters — and a good deal of light and electricity. Readers of Ursula K. Le Guin's The Tombs of Atuan (1970/71) might legitimately see a witty comic variation on the Archmage Ged in the Atuan Undertomb, lighting it with a mage's magic staff — in Dirk and his semi-willing Assistant Todd Brotzman holding what's called an "Everbulb" and, explicitly, a "magic lightbulb," although "It probably [… uses electricity] in the human body to power itself."

Later in the first season, note "a figure in clockwork armor," who turns out to be another time traveller (Episode 7, "Weaponized Soul," 3 Dec. 2016). The armor outfit also suggests SCUBA gear and displays a noticeable Victorian spring as well as medieval helmet and chain mail. "Weaponized Soul" is central for clarifying that "The Unlimited Energy Device" is "the Soul Exchanger," which is also "The Time Machine" (capitalization from subtitles on DVD): one 1880s device with three implausible functions.

Rich Erlich, Initial Compiler, 16Jan18f.