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Dirk Gently Quizzes, Trivia and Puzzles
Dirk Gently Quizzes, Trivia

Dirk Gently Trivia

Dirk Gently Trivia Quizzes

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"Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" are the works in this series, originally inspired by Adams's work on some episodes of the television series "Doctor Who". A third book, "The Salmon of Doubt", was incomplete at the time of his death; what he had written for it was included in the posthumous collection "The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time".
8 Dirk Gently quizzes and 100 Dirk Gently trivia questions.
1.
  Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" - Part Two   great trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
The second of three quizzes about the novel "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency". This one's a little tougher than the first. It deals more with actual plot points, and contains spoilers.
Average, 10 Qns, Fasolt, Nov 25 10
Average
Fasolt
607 plays
2.
  Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" - Part 3   top quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
A tough final quiz about the last few chapters of Douglas Adams' novel "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency", in which our hero solves the mystery and saves the world through the "interconnectedness of all things". Beware - spoilers!
Average, 10 Qns, Fasolt, Nov 25 10
Average
Fasolt
546 plays
3.
  Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" - Part One   top quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
The first of three quizzes about one of Douglas Adams' less-appreciated works - "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" - described by the author as "A thumping good detective-ghost-horror-whodunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy epic".
Average, 10 Qns, fasolt, Nov 25 10
Average
fasolt
707 plays
4.
  "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Ch. 3 & 4    
Multiple Choice
 15 Qns
The third installment in a long-overdue series of quizzes.
Average, 15 Qns, ubermom, Feb 05 11
Average
ubermom
448 plays
5.
  "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Chapter 5    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Number 4 in a long-overdue series on this delightful book.
Average, 10 Qns, ubermom, May 12 19
Average
ubermom
May 12 19
386 plays
6.
  "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Chapter 1    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
It's about time there was a quiz devoted entirely to "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul". This book is so pithy it's worth a quiz a chapter. Here's the first!
Average, 10 Qns, ubermom, Nov 25 10
Average
ubermom
497 plays
7.
  "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Chapter 2    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
The second installment of a long-overdue series of quizzes on the delightful Douglas Adams book.
Tough, 10 Qns, ubermom, Nov 25 10
Tough
ubermom
446 plays
8.
  Dirk Gently's Holistic Quiz   popular trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 25 Qns
This quiz is about 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' and 'The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul', the two Dirk Gently books by Douglas Adams, author of the 'Hitchhiker's' Trilogy. Enjoy!
Tough, 25 Qns, jaeryn, Nov 25 10
Tough
jaeryn
1525 plays
trivia question Quick Question
The big Nordic man's eyes were large and blue, and also what?

From Quiz ""The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Chapter 1"





Dirk Gently Trivia Questions
1. By what device is Reg's time machine controlled?

From Quiz Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" - Part 3

Answer: an abacus

Reg is old-fashioned. He claims he wouldn't use the time machine at all if he could get the hang of the video recorder.

2. What word does Dirk claim "is not in my dictionary"?

From Quiz Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" - Part Two

Answer: impossible

To prove his point, Dirk produces his dictionary from a desk drawer. Indeed all the pages between "herring" and "marmalade" are missing from the book.

3. By what name was Dirk Gently known during his days as a student?

From Quiz Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" - Part One

Answer: Svlad Cjelli

It would be a stretch to say that Svlad Cjelli is Dirk's REAL name - we only know that it's the name he used when Richard knew him at St. Cedd's College.

4. Chapter 4 ended with Dirk Gently's arrival at Lupton Road. Why was he going to Lupton Road?

From Quiz "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Chapter 5

Answer: To meet his client

Dirk was five hours late to meet with his one and only client, Geoff Anstey.

5. In chapter three, we finally encounter Dirk Gently. What was he doing when the chapter opened?

From Quiz "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Ch. 3 & 4

Answer: Sleeping

Dirk was quite inert, sleeping through the phone's insistent ringing, the delivery and collection of a harpsichord, and lively sirens on a nearby street. He was, as Adams says, "not fooling about when he climbed into bed of a night and turned off the light."

6. The PLO, IRA, Gas Board, and British Nuclear Fuels all attempt to take credit for the explosion with which Chapter 1 had just ended. To what is the explosion eventually attributed?

From Quiz "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Chapter 2

Answer: Nonlinear, catastrophic structural exasperation.

As one junior cabinet minister expressed it, "the check-in desk had just got 'fundamentally fed up with being where it was.'"

7. Complete the opening line: "It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression 'As pretty as ..."

From Quiz "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Chapter 1

Answer: an airport.

Since the book opens with an adventure in Heathrow -- arguably the ugliest airport in the world -- it's not surprising that Adams started with this comment.

8. What color did the Electric Monk believe everything to be?

From Quiz Dirk Gently's Holistic Quiz

Answer: pink

9. What poet's works (and the poet himself) figure prominently in the story?

From Quiz Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" - Part Two

Answer: Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Coleridge's poems "Kublai Khan" and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" are key to the plot - although in a somewhat different form than we know them.

10. As a student, Dirk tried to scam his classmates by making them believe he was psychic, then selling made-up exam answers. What went wrong with the plan?

From Quiz Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" - Part One

Answer: All the answers turned out to be right.

By constantly denying that he was clairvoyant, Dirk only made his classmates believe it all the more. He was as shocked as anyone when his made-up answers turned out not only to be right, but to be 100% exact, word-for-word duplicates of the originals.

11. Dirk was alarmed at the sight of three police cars and an ambulance on Lupton Road. What did Dirk do?

From Quiz "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Chapter 5

Answer: He barged on past them and up to the house.

Dirk successfully barged past the first policeman.

12. Who was NOT one of the people Adams said would be displeased with Dirk's home?

From Quiz "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Ch. 3 & 4

Answer: Princess Diana

Louis XIV "would have desired someone to pick up the socks, put the records away, and maybe burn the place down." Michelangelo "would have been distressed by its proportions". Hercules, upon examining the room, "would probably have returned half an hour later armed with a navigable river." Princess Diana's opinion, on the other hand, we will never know.

13. What did Reg find in his bathroom?

From Quiz Dirk Gently's Holistic Quiz

Answer: a horse

14. After several unsuccessful attempts, the alien spirit finds "the perfect host". Who is it?

From Quiz Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" - Part 3

Answer: Michael Wenton-Weaks

Michael's self-esteem is low after losing his job as editor of "Fathom" magazine, making him the perfect host - which he proves by killing the man who replaced him as editor.

15. During the banquet at St. Cedd's, what object does Reg cause to disappear, and reappear inside an antique Greek pot which had been found by a child?

From Quiz Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" - Part Two

Answer: a silver salt cellar

"A rather elaborate piece of business to achieve a very small result" - Although it seems to those at the banquet that he's gone only for a moment, Professor Chronotis actually travels 200 years back in time, finds the maker of the pot and talks him into baking the salt cellar inside the otherwise worthless pot, just to please the little girl who would eventually find it.

16. As a "Holistic Detective", Dirk believes in solving cases by "the interconnectedness of all things". What does his ad in the phone book claim as a specialty?

From Quiz Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" - Part One

Answer: missing cats and messy divorces

Indeed, when we first encounter Dirk in his office, he's dealing with three missing cats, and turning down a divorce case ("Sorry, not THAT messy").

17. A police officer told Dirk that he was wanted inside -- that in fact, somebody had been sent to look for him. Who had been sent to find Dirk?

From Quiz "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Chapter 5

Answer: Big Bob the Finder

You didn't want to get found by Big Bob the Finder. The policeman knew that Big Bob hadn't found Dirk, because Dirk looked reasonably well. People tended to show up looking "a bit wobbly" after Big Bob found them.

18. What lurked in Dirk's kitchen?

From Quiz "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Ch. 3 & 4

Answer: a refrigerator & a fridge & Dirk's refrigerator & Dirk's fridge & his refrigerator & his fridge & the refrigerator & the fridge & refrigerator & fridge

Dirk and his cleaning lady had a three-month silently waged battle, each trying to avoid being the first to open the refrigerator.

19. At first, Kate tried to help the large, Nordic man get aboard the flight to Oslo. But she learned something that made her give up. What?

From Quiz "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Chapter 1

Answer: He had no passport.

He indeed had no ticket when he approached the counter, but Kate bought one for him. It was only when he was thwarted by the lack of a passport that things got lively.

20. What is Dirk Gently's real name?

From Quiz Dirk Gently's Holistic Quiz

Answer: Svlad Cjelli

21. When Reg demonstrates his time machine to Dirk and Richard, what extinct animal do they encounter?

From Quiz Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" - Part 3

Answer: a dodo

The time machine takes them to the island of Mauritius in 1676, where Richard feeds nuts to the bird. Even then, there were only three dodos left in existence - they would be extinct within four years. The dodo doesn't really figure in the plot, but author Douglas Adams was a dedicated conservationist and animal-rights advocate, and used it as an illustration of the plight of endangered species.

22. Name the former editor of the unsuccessful "Fathom" Magazine who finds himself out of a job when his mother sells the magazine out from under him?

From Quiz Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" - Part Two

Answer: Michael Wenton-Weaks

Wealthy, spoiled Michael finds himself at loose ends when the magazine - his personal toy - is sold to Gordon Way and a new editor (Ross) is installed.

23. By what nickname is Urban Chronotis, Regius Professor of Chronology at St. Cedd's College, better known?

From Quiz Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" - Part One

Answer: Reg

In describing Reg, author Douglas Adams says his age is "on the older side of completely indeterminate" - a wonderful example of Adams' wordplay.

24. When Dirk finally stepped into the house, he noticed music coming from the basement. What was so odd about the music?

From Quiz "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Chapter 5

Answer: It kept repeating, like the needle on the record was stuck.

One line kept repeating: "Don't pick it up, pick it up, pick i-- Don't pick it up, pick it up, pick i--"

25. Who had recently left Dirk's employ?

From Quiz "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Ch. 3 & 4

Answer: His secretary

She had preferred monotony of pay over job satisfaction, according to Dirk. Dirk wanted to fire the cleaning lady, but couldn't because he owed her back wages and couldn't afford to pay her off.

26. The contents of the bedside bowl in Kate's hospital room contrast strongly later with the contents of a bedside bowl in another hospital room. What did Kate's bowl contain?

From Quiz "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Chapter 2

Answer: A single banana.

There was also a single banana in the bedside bowl of the large, Nordic man.

27. Why was Kate trying to get to Oslo, anyway?

From Quiz "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" -- Chapter 1

Answer: To meet a man.

She doubted, however, that Jean-Philippe would actually be there.

28. What monarch instituted the Regius Professorship of Chronology?

From Quiz Dirk Gently's Holistic Quiz

Answer: George III

29. Why does the alien ghost say he needs The Reg's time machine?

From Quiz Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" - Part 3

Answer: to prevent the accident that killed him and his crewmates

The ghost says he has suffered billions of years of loneliness and guilt. He has possessed "the perfect host" in order to travel back in time and make the proper repairs to his ship to avert the catastrophic explosion, so that he and his mates can return to their still-orbiting mothership and continue their search for a new home.

30. Where is Reg's time machine?

From Quiz Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" - Part Two

Answer: in his apartment

To be more accurate, his apartment IS the time machine. He usually makes a point of using the device simply to observe - he enjoys it more than television. He's been using the machine less and less in recent years, partly because it disrupts his telephone service.

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