"What the hell?" Arthur asked squeakily. There was a happy sigh from the door and Zaphod walked onto the bridge. "Why am I suddenly big and jolly and dressed in a red-and-white suit?" he questioned in a deep voice. There was a sound from a flurry of snow near the controls. "Uh… I think the Improbability Drive malfunctioned." The small green elf in a red hat that was, presumably, Arthur, squinted at it. "Trillian?" "Yes. What am I?" "You're snow." said Ford, drifting onto the bridge. "What I want to know is why am I glowing and perpetually drifting about a foot off the ground?" "I think you're an angel." Arthur said. "We all seem to be Christmas figures." the drifting snow said. "Well… Christmas symbols." it said, looking down at itself. "How are you looking down at yourself?" Zaphod asked. "I don't know, something to do with the malfunction." "Or the fact that whoever's writing us had to portray it somehow." Ford said. "Okay, but can we focus on the fact that it malfunctioned?" Arthur asked. "Computer, what happened?" Trillian asked. "Uh, I'm working on the problem now." said the computer cheerfully. "But it's Christmas now! Isn't that jolly?" "No, it's horrible. How am I supposed to get anything done like this? Not that you ever give me anything to do anyway." said a reindeer that had just arrived gloomily. Zaphod stared at it. "Marvin? Is that you, dude?" "Yes, it's your handy shipboard robot. Depressive and intelligent, never allowed to be handy, but apparently inherently handy anyway." "Cheer up, dude." "How can I cheer up when the universe is so horrible?" "I think I've figured out what the problem is, guys." the computer interrupted. "It's a malfunction in the core of the-" "Okay, okay, just fix it." Zaphod snapped. "These clothes are not cool, man." "Okay, fixing." A minute later, everyone popped back into his or her normal forms. "What was being snow like, Trillian?" Ford asked. "Cold." she replied. "And generally unpleasant."