QUICK TAKES - Oct. 9, 2009

Don’t panic, but “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” is back with a sixth installment of the absurd, intergalactic and increasingly inaccurately named “trilogy.”

Its creator, Douglas Adams, had always intended a follow-up to the fifth book, which he felt was an unnecessarily bleak ending to the comic, cosmic tales of Arthur Dent, but he died in 2001 before he could write it.

To coincide with the 30th anniversary of the publication of the original “Hitchhiker’s Guide,” Irish author Eoin Colfer was asked to produce the first authorized sequel to the Adams classics, and his novel hits the shelves on Monday. “And Another Thing . . .” brings Dent, alien friend Ford Prefect and two-headed Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox back from the dead for more madcap adventures in outer space.

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” started life as a British radio series in 1978 before being turned into five bestselling novels that sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. It has also been adapted for television, the stage and the big screen.