Arthur Dent
The first threat to the Vogons’ plans is the survival of Arthur Dent. Because Arthur was part of the experiment that was Earth, and because he was there till the last moment, Arthur has The Question encoded in his brain.
The mice want to get hold of Arthur’s brain in order to extract The Question:
| “In other words,” said Benji (a mouse), steering his curious little vehicle right over to Arthur, “there’s a good chance that the structure of the question is encoded in the structure of your brain – so we want to buy it off you…” |
However, the psychiatrists want Arthur eliminated by the Vogons to ensure that this can’t happen.
The dolphins
The second threat to the Vogon’s plans comes from the dolphins. As with the mice, dolphins are hyperintelligent aliens, who happen to like people. In the split second after its destruction, the dolphins bring the earth back a from a shadow dimension of alternative possibility:
| And then the fling of hope, the finding of a shadow Earth in the implications of enfolded time, submerged dimensions, the pull of parallels, the deep pull, the spin of will, the hurl and split of it, the flight. A new Earth pulled into replacement, the dolphins gone. |
The Vogon’s goal, in which they succeed, is to get Arthur back to Earth and then destroy the world once and for all.