History Main / DirkGently

* ChekhovsArmoury: Dirk isn't wrong--''everything'' that happens in these books is ultimately important.''[[DirkGently Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]]''. A poem, a conjuring trick, and a ''stuck couch'' in the first few chapters are all linked by the end. Also occurs in the weirdest way (it's Douglas Adams after all) in the sequel, ''The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul''. Needless to say, Norse Gods and a somewhat popular '''song''''' are involved in the apparent suicide by beheading of some dude. Also, Dirk's non-working fridge? That has something to do with it as well.\\
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The ''Dirk Gently'' books embody this trope really because they are all about the interconnectedness of everything. Chekov's Armoury isn't just a device Adams used, it's what he based the whole book on.

* GeniusBonus: If you have a solid knowledge of history, literature, music, hypothetical physics, and computer programming then you're in for a treat.

* {{Lostalgia}}: ''The Salmon of Doubt'' anthology features the beginning of a third book that was never written. And its style is so instantly familiar that it feels just like the other books. Then it stops. Just after Dirk has flown to America and encountered a truck carrying a rhinoceros to an unknown destination.

* MidnightOnTheFiringLine: Dirk isn't wrong--''everything'' that happens in these books is ultimately important.

* RecycledScript: DouglasAdams, who liked to recycle plot elements, based the first Dirk Gently book on two of his ''DoctorWho'' scripts: "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada Shada]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]". Knowing this helps explain one of the stranger assumptions in the first book: just ''why'' Professor Chronotis happens to be a centuries-old man who lives in a time machine. (It's because he's a retired [[DoctorWho Time Lord.]])

* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Deliberately invoked by Dirk at university. By carefully denying the most extraordinary things, he convinces his fellow students that he's a psychic, mystic, telepathic, clairvoyant, psychsoassic, vampire bat.

-->It was his own word and he vigorously denied it meant anything at all.

* TalkingInYourSleep

** It's a case of TakeOurWordForIt, as it's never explained in detail to the reader, but it involves a lot of [[NoodleAppliance Noodle Appliances]].

* TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch: One of the most contrived explanations for a "suicide" that has ever been committed to print. Admittedly this was to satisfy the [[{{Muggles}} police]], who were pointedly not interested in the idea that the victim had been killed by a goblin as part of a demonic contract ...

** YourMileageMayVary on this one, to put it mildly.

* FreezeFrameBonus / MythologyGag: In the BBC4 Adaption At one point on Dirk's Whiteboard/Wall there are Numerous References to The First Dirk Gently Novel.

* FreezeFrameBonus / MythologyGag: In the BBC4 Adaption At one point on Dirk's Whiteboard/Wall there are Numerous Mentions to The First Dirk Gently Novel.

** Apparently, Shada is canon in the Whoniverse, which makes [[spoiler: Reg]] an actual Time Lord, and puts Dirk Gently into the [[DoctorWho Doctor Who]] canon.

** Apparently, Shada is canon in the Whoniverse, which makes Reg an actual Time Lord, and puts Dirk Gently into the [[DoctorWho Doctor Who]] canon.

* PragmaticAdaptation: The BBC4 adaptation removes all of the ''Shada'' elements and tells a much simpler story without losing the spirit of the source material. With it being only one hour long, something was always going to have to go.

* ShoutOut: The BBC radio adaptions of the novels re-use several sound effects from ''[=~The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy~=]'', and include a reference to the Sirius Cybernetic Corporation.
* SiblingSwitchSquick: In the book, Gordon and Susan are siblings - in the TV adaptation, Gordon is Susan's ex.

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* FridgeBrilliance: If you actually think about what you're reading as you go through the books, expect a lot of these moments.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: Midway through the writing of the third book. After Adams's death, parts of the unfinished manuscript were published along with various other writings extracted from his Macintosh in ''The Salmon of Doubt''.

''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' and ''The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'' are the two books written by DouglasAdams (of ''[=~The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy~=]'' fame) starring the character DirkGently. A third novel under the working title ''{{The Salmon Of Doubt}}'' was in the works, but its publication was prevented by Adams' death.

[[caption-width-right:350:Without a doubt, the best time-traveling romantic detective ghost story ever written.]]

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Dirk_Gently_9079.jpg
[[caption-width:357:Without a doubt, the best time-traveling romantic detective ghost story ever written.]]

* {{Expy}}: Because of the first book's RecycledScript from "Shada", an abandoned ''DoctorWho'' episode.

* {{Expy}}: Because of the first book's RecycledScript from an unfilmed [[spoiler:DoctorWho]] episode.
** Unfilmed? It was "City of Death" with pieces of "Shada" (which, while unfinished, ''was'' partially filmed).

** Unfilmed? It was "City of Death."