Galaxy Quest (1999) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

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Boldly going where others have gone before.

Galaxy Quest is a love letter of sorts to the sci-fi community, especially Star Trek and its fans. It creates an extension of the world we know, intersecting it with the fantastical world of space adventure shows. It is also the 200th and final Sci-Fi Saturdays article for the time being.

First Impressions

The trailer for this film depicts a group of actors from a Star Trek-like show being abducted by real aliens who believe they are actual space explorers and can help them defeat their enemy. It appears to be a comedic take on the space voyage format with Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Alan Rickman. They must fight a series of hazards including a giant rock monster, small aliens with a mouthful of teeth, and a grinch-looking lizard alien wearing an eye patch. Take a Galaxy Quest with Sci-Fi Saturdays this week.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

At the Galaxy Quest Convention 18 in Los Angeles, the cast of the space show from the late-70s and early-80s gathers backstage, perturbed that actor Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen) is late again for their appearance. He arrives, unaware of his actions toward his fellow actors. They are introduced to the excited fans of the show, called “Questerians,” by Guy (Sam Rockwell), who had also appeared as an ill-fated crewmember once on the show. The fans cheer for Gwen DeMarco (Sigourney Weaver) as communications officer Lt Tawny Madison, Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman) as science officer and alien Dr. Lazarus, Fred Kwan (Tony Shaloub) as engineer Tech Sergeant Chen, and Tommy Weber (Daryl Mitchell) as the adult incarnation of child-prodigy and pilot Lt Laredo.

Jason is approached by three strange aliens, the Thermians, led by Mathesar (Enrico Colantoni), who Jason mistakes for fans in costumes. They ask him to help save them from the advances of alien warlord Sarris (Robin Sachs). Thinking it’s just another cameo appearance in a fan-film, Jason agrees and is beamed up to a real Galaxy Quest ship, the NSEA Protector. Still hung over from his party the night before, Jason believes it’s just a really amazing film set. He orders all weapons to be fired on Sarris’ ship, and is then returned home in a jelly-infused casing. His return trip convinces him that the encounter was real, shocking him.

Jason visits his fellow actors during another personal appearance where they cut the ribbon for the opening of a local tech superstore. He explains that he was taken aboard a real spaceship, which they think is just a drunken rant, until the Thermians return taking him and his “crew,” including Guy onto their ship. The aliens believe that the television broadcasts they have picked up from Earth are historical documents, and use the Galaxy Quest TV show to remodel their society, including building a functioning NSEA Protector. The cast is shocked by the reveal, but has little time to figure things out, as Sarris survived Jason’s previous attack and returns.

Sarris, the green bug-like alien, wants the Omega-13 device, a weapon that was introduced on the cliffhanger final episode of the TV show. Jason and the other cast members admit they don’t know what it actually does, since it was never written into their scripts. Sarris attacks, damaging their beryllium sphere, which powers the ship. The humans take a shuttle down to the rocky planet to find a replacement, which happens to be guarded by dozens of small child-like aliens with mouthfuls of razor sharp teeth. Everyone gets away except Jason who is grabbed by the aliens and chased by a rock monster. Fred manages to use the digital conveyor to beam him back to the ship.

Upon return they discover that Sarris has captured the ship and is torturing Mathesar. The alien warlord understands that the humans are actors, but the Thermians cannot fathom the concept. Sarris forces Jason to explain the deceit to Mathesar under threat of death, which disappoints the Thermian. The humans escape being ejected into space, and use one of the Thermian communication devices to contact Brandon (Justin Long), a fan of the show on Earth. Brandon and his fellow fans, with their detailed knowledge of the show, help Jason and Gwen navigate the ship to stop the self-destruct mechanism that Sarris has activated.

Jason takes command of the Protector and manages to destroy Sarris’ ship. He then offers command to Mathesar, who he thinks would make a fine commander. Fred arrives on the bridge and kills a number of the humans and Thermians. He is really Sarris in disguise, having beamed aboard at the last second. Jason activates the Omega-13 device, which sends him back in time 13 seconds so he can stop the alien. The humans part ways with the Thermians by separating the ship into two parts. The command module crashes into Convention Center hosting the Galaxy Quest Con and the actors emerge, followed by a still-alive Sarris. Jason blasts the alien with a laser gun, and the fans go nuts–believing it’s all an elaborate scene. Jason and his co-stars all take a bow. The film ends with a preview of the new Galaxy Quest show, Galaxy Quest: The Journey Continues.

“Never give up. Never surrender.” – Jason Nesmith

History in the Making

Galaxy Quest was the final sci-fi film released in the 1990s, being a Christmas Day release. It is also the 200th article for Sci-Fi Saturdays, being the end of a long run of reviews of films from 1950 through the 1990s. It’s an interesting film that showcases how far sci-fi film (and television) has come in 50 years. Not only is it a satire and tribute to the iconic sci-fi franchise Star Trek, it also creates meta-commentary on fan culture, while bridging the worlds of fantasy and reality. Envisioned as a “what if” experiment by writer David Howard, the film was apparently going to be more like Spaceballs in terms of its tone. Making an outright parody of Star Trek wasn’t what Dreamworks decided they wanted, and as the comedic cast was assembled, they decided that the tone would change.

While many sci-fi films have dealt with the wish fulfillment of characters finally getting to take a trip into space (The Last Starfighter and Explorers being two excellent examples), this was the first movie to connect that premise into the larger pop-culture sci-fi phenomenon. Utilizing the idea that Galaxy Quest was a television show with its own fervent fanbase, and then having the actors of that show (rather than the fans) take part in the adventure was a twist on the trope. The fact that it also served to blatantly parallel elements of the Star Trek franchise was also a bonus.

Genre-fication

In terms of fans of sci-fi franchises, Star Trek fans are the oldest and possibly most maligned. Mocked as nerds, living in their parents’ basements, and being told to “get a life” by William Shatner on the infamous Saturday Night Live skit, the idea of a “sci-fi fan” conjures certain images with the general public. Galaxy Quest not only takes the ideas for its premise from previous science-fiction shows and films, but also merges the ideas of real world fan conventions, and the “nerdy” fan base into its world.

The film asks the question, what would happen if aliens actually believed the broadcasts coming from the televisions of Earth. Contact showed the opposite side of the equation, as the aliens sent back images from the first televised broadcast from the 1936 Olympics. But here, the Thermians pick a popular, and long-running sci-fi show to model their culture after. They recreate the spaceship and technology of the show in a way that would thrill many viewers of Galaxy Quest. They meet monsters and aliens that the crew would have met on the show, and the movie uses these moments to pay homage to the aliens and technology of Star Trek.

Galaxy Quest also parodies the real-world relationships and tropes that fans make fun with Star Trek as well. Jason, as Peter Quincy Taggart, plays a prima-donna type of actor, always needing to be in the forefront of the show, and in real life. This parody of William Shatner’s escapades as Captain Kirk, seems to hit close to home, at least as far as the stories from the set are concerned. The film also includes elements common to a variety of episodes from the original show, such as Jason losing his shirt in battle with an alien monster, something that happened to Kirk time and time again.

Societal Commentary

While primarily a comedy, Galaxy Quest doesn’t delve into some of the deeper and more philosophical questions that many other sci-fi films reviewed here get to. However, it still presents an important theme about ego and hubris. Jason is self-involved and basks in the adoration of the fans. He is an actor that pays little to no attention to the others around him, and makes enemies of co-stars at every turn. He learns the important lesson about teamwork and friendship from his cast-mates and the naive aliens that he chooses to help.

Part of Jason’s inflated ego seems to come from the loneliness or isolation that he feels. Jason is shown living alone and using alcohol to numb his pain. He uses his status as the Commander from Galaxy Quest to appear at conventions and work on fan films, but he doesn’t really appear to have done anything better with his life. All the actors from the show have been typecast as their characters; with Alexander being the most bitter about his character. As a trained Shakespearian actor, being associated with the alien Dr. Lazarus with his stupid catchphrase (“by Grabthar’s Hammer!”) is the lowest he could sink as an actor. Gwen has a similar issue, being known only for the size of her bosom, instead of her contributions as an actor. In this way, the elements of these fictional actors provide a meta-commentary on their own experiences as well as the experiences of similar types of sci-fi actors.

The Science in The Fiction

Galaxy Quest looks at futuristic technology in a unique and different way than any other film to date. Since the Thermians believed that the television episodes were real events, they modeled the creation of the ship and its systems off of what they could see, filling in the details in the same way that Brandon and his friends did. Both groups delved beyond the surface of this cheesy sci-fi show, in an attempt to understand how things really worked. The fans created blueprints and models of the systems, while the Thermians created them in real life.

In a way, this is very much how science-fiction has influenced the real world. Think about Dick Tracy’s radio watch, the communicators and other tech from Star Trek, or the designs of space stations from various stories. At one point all of these things were just fantastical elements to their respective shows. But viewers were inspired by the technology in a way that made these things a reality. Whether it’s cellular phones, robotic inventions, or medical tech, the worlds of science fiction offer inspiration and imagination for the scientists and designers of tomorrow.

The Final Frontier

Galaxy Quest leans heavily on the comedic chops of Tim Allen, Daryl Mitchell, and Sam Rockwell. They know how to overplay their characters for maximum laughs and impact. But the two actors known more for dramatic roles help to create a film that does not devolve into a mocking of sci-fi tropes. Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver provide another level of meta commentary to the film, with Rickman’s more serious background, and Weaver’s history as a tough sci-fi heroine. Apparently the producers wanted to avoid casting people who had been in sci-fi films previously, but Sigourney actually sought out the part, as did Rickman, seeing the fun and energy that the script offered.

That fun and energy, as well as the good-natured ribbing and respectful parody of Star Trek, has led Galaxy Quest to be touted as a favorite “Trek” film amongst fans. At one of the Star Trek conventions, it was even voted the 7th best Star Trek film, as the only non-franchise film included in the list. Up until the release of the television series The Orville, it was the only non-Trek media to be spoken of in such high regard. And there’s good reason for it, as the film takes itself seriously enough, never falling to the levels of making fun of its source material in a mean way. The cast all seems to be having fun as they act out their nascent space fantasies of appearing in Star Trek or Star Wars movies.

This will be the last installment of Sci-Fi Saturdays for a while, as the series goes on hiatus. After 200 articles and 50 years of films (1950-1999), I’ll be taking some time off to recuperate and plan out how to delve into the sci-fi films of the 21st Century. I hope you have enjoyed the content so far. If you want to revisit any films you might have missed, please check out this post of all 200 articles to date. It’s been interesting watching these films in order of release to see the influences, both filmic and societal, that have shaped the movies. Hopefully you have enjoyed the journey as well. Thanks for reading, and live long and prosper.

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