Arthur Dent - Arthur's "Death"

Arthur's "Death"

Arthur dies in the fifth installment of the book series, Mostly Harmless, in a club called Beta (owned by Stavro Mueller) when the Earth and all its duplicates are simultaneously destroyed by the Grebulons. Adams frequently expressed his disdain for this ending in retrospect, claiming that it was too depressing and came about as the result of him having a bad year.

In And Another Thing..., written by Eoin Colfer, Arthur was put into a dream sequence and then frozen in time by the Guide Mk.2. The Guide's batteries soon run out, however, so all the main characters are re-awakened on the exploding Earth, at the exact point where Mostly Harmless left off. Zaphod then rescues them in the Heart of Gold. All alternative Arthurs are killed though, and Arthur is later left stranded on a beach planet about to be destroyed by Vogons.

In the radio series, Arthur is saved by the Babel Fish, which can teleport itself, along with its carrier, out of danger. Arthur and the others who died in the books are instead teleported by their Babel Fish to somewhere safer than Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha. This is also used in Trillian's dream sequence, as the reason for their escape.