Lintilla was a resourceful and good-looking woman selected to be cloned for use in the Brantisvogon escort service. She was cloned over five-hundred and seventy-eight thousand-million times, and Arthur Dent encountered three of her clones on the planet Brontitall.
Biography[]
While initially creating six clones of Lintilla, the machine used to clone her had a slight break down. The machine got stuck in a loop, and by the time one Lintilla clone had already been created, a half a clone had already been started. Therefore, the thing could not be shut off without technically committing murder and would thus go on creating Lintillas indefinitely.
This problem taxed the minds first of the cloning engineers, then of the clergy, then of the letters page of Siderial Record Straightener, and finally of the cloning machine company's lawyers. The lawyers experimented vainly with various ways of redefining murder, reevaluating it, and in the end even respelling it in the hope that no one would notice. Of course, they did, and in a final attempt to stem the tide of Lintillas, a group of Allitnils have been deployed:, anti-clones designed to eliminate the Lintillas in the most humane and legally defensible way possible.
In the radio series[]
After finding himself on the planet Brontitall, Arthur encountered a woman named Lintilla, who explained that she was an archaeologist who became stranded on the planet after her ship was disabled. She had her arm in a sling due to a pseudo-fracture, and also used a Crisis Inducer to put herself and Arthur under more pressure in order to act faster.
After this, Lintilla introduces Arthur to two of her "sisters", who are clones who are also named Lintilla, and explains just how many Lintillas exist in the Universe, much to Arthur's surprise. Just as the three Lintillas made the archeological discovery they were looking for, they, and Arthur, were captured by Hig Hurtenflurst, a Dolmansaxlil Shoe Corporation executive. They are rescued by Marvin, and continue to make their escape with the robot in tow.
As the five made their escape, they met a man named Poodoo, a priest named Varntvar, and three Allitnils (who they were not aware were anti-clones). Poodoo introduced the Allitnils to the Lintillas, who became immediately attracted to each other, and the priest was encouraged to perform a wedding ceremony for the three couples. Two of the couples kissed and were subsequently vanished into a puff of un-smoke, though Arthur stopped the final pair from kissing as he revealed that their marriage certificates are actually cloning machine company "Agreements to Cease to Be".
Poodoo and Varntvar are tied up and the final Allitnil is killed, leaving Marvin, Arthur and the remaining Lintilla to properly attempt their escape from the planet. After several events involving Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox and The Ruler of the Universe, Arthur escaped on the Heart of Gold with Lintilla and Marvin on board.
The Lintillas and their anti-clones only appear in the radio series, as the storyline they are involved in does not appear in the novels or television series.
Appearances[]
Radio[]
Secondary Phase[]
Notes and references[]
- Lintilla and her clones were voiced by Rula Lenska in the radio series.
- Lintilla and her clones do make a re-appearance of sorts on the Heart of Gold in an alternate ending to Fit the Twenty-Sixth of the radio series (which can only be heard on CD).
- The events of the Secondary Phase of the radio series were revealed to later be a hallucination that Zaphod Beeblebrox experienced, however it is unknown if all elements of that occurred were fake or not.