Never Give Up, Never Surrender: 20 Years of Galaxy Quest
In 2019, watching a fascinating sci-fi film or series is as easy as firing up your smart TV or cell phone. But I came of age during an era in which a family was lucky to have one television set that could tune in three channels, which is why I really had to celebrate the few times I could click over to a science fiction program as well-produced and provocative as Star Trek. Cheesy as it was at times, it was a show with something to say about both the world around us and the future we were warping toward, and it influenced a whole generation of creators who would go on to make their own visions of humanity’s next generations.
Galaxy Quest (Br)
Blu-ray $16.99
Galaxy Quest (Br)
Blu-ray $16.99
Love for classic Trek soaks from every pore of the 1999 film Galaxy Quest, an action comedy about the down-on-their-luck cast of a long-cancelled sci-fi series not unlike Star Trek who are abducted by a group of aliens who have mistakenly taken their show as gospel; these aliens hope to use lessons gleaned from the “historical documents” to defeat an intergalactic warlord hunting them to extinction. It has not entirely jokingly been called one of the best Star Trek films ever, and certainly it gets what makes that franchise tick, even as it lovingly sends up its conventions and fandom.
Love for classic Trek soaks from every pore of the 1999 film Galaxy Quest, an action comedy about the down-on-their-luck cast of a long-cancelled sci-fi series not unlike Star Trek who are abducted by a group of aliens who have mistakenly taken their show as gospel; these aliens hope to use lessons gleaned from the “historical documents” to defeat an intergalactic warlord hunting them to extinction. It has not entirely jokingly been called one of the best Star Trek films ever, and certainly it gets what makes that franchise tick, even as it lovingly sends up its conventions and fandom.
And, impossibly, it hasn’t aged a day in the decades since it was released.
Yes, Galaxy Quest is somehow 20 years old, which is more time than passed between the end of Star Trek and the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I have watched it often across those years, and it never loses its bite, or its heart.
It opens on the stars of the titular sci-fi cult hit, which doesn’t appear to have enjoyed the renaissance Trek did in our universe (it’s an open question whether both shows coexist in this alternate present-history, but I’d wager no) as they appear at a fan convention, 17 years after their show ended. Tim Allen stars as actor Jason Nesmith, who played the Kirkian Commander Peter Quincy Taggart on the show, and is every bit the boorish blowhard in real life, despite his fallen star. Alan Rickman is Sir Alexander Dane, a British actor serious about his craft, who resents his years in the latex skull makeup that turned him into the science office Dr. Lazarus but is too hard-up to do anything about it. The other members of the bridge crew, including Tony Shalhoub’s Fred Kwan/Tech Sgt. Chen and a pitch-perfect Sigourney Weaver as Gwen DeMarco, who bemoans the emphasis the show placed on her character Lt. Tawny Madison’s cleavage, are just as disillusioned. And then there’s Sam Rockwell’s Guy Fleegman, an actor who only appeared in one episode as “Crewman #6” and was killed before the first commercial. He’s just happy to be on the show.
We get just enough of these actors at their lowest points before the adventure kicks in; going too hard into their post-career blues would start to feel dismissive of the SF fandom that kept the lights on in the years Trek was off the air. Generally, the film walks a fine line between loving homage and sly satire; when Jason Nesmith is first approached by the aliens in full Galaxy Quest regalia, he assumes they are overzealous fans, but treats them more or less with respect. It’s a brilliant conceit—a tip of the hat to the way an entertainment like Galaxy Quest can seem, for the true fan, to exist outside the confines of a TV show.
Nesmith is spirited away to the aliens’ ship—a screen-accurate recreation of the show’s NSEA Protector—and discovers the wider galaxy that awaits him. We, as fans, totally understand why his first inclination is to rocket back to Earth to round up the rest of the crew. For him as much as for the fans, his mission within the TV series was something more than just an acting job. His former co-workers prove just as enthusiastic, once they are convinced Jason isn’t drunk or nuts, and they all enjoy reliving their glory days—until the twist arrives in the form of that bloodthirsty warlord, who warps onto the scene and does his best to destroy the Protector (thus eliminating the last survivors of the alien race, who have gone all-in on the group of losers they think are the best space explorers in the galaxy).
Initially, all the humans can think about is saving themselves. But there is depth to these characters: inspired by the spirit of their old show, they turn out to be brave and resourceful, and come together as a team, saving the day and imbuing some meaning into the TV show’s clichés along the way. In the end, they even get to star in a reboot, Galaxy Quest: The Journey Continues.
Galaxy Quest [Original Soundtrack]
Vinyl LP
$25.26
$27.99
Galaxy Quest [Original Soundtrack]
Primary Artist David Newman
Vinyl LP
$25.26
$27.99
Galaxy Quest never got its own sequel or TV spinoff (though one was reportedly in the works before the untimely passing of Alan Rickman in 2016). Perhaps it’s for the best, because the movie is some kind of alchemy, and replicating it would take a lot more art than science. Certainly we can analyze why it works. All of the actors have some SFF bonafides, both before and since: Tim Allen is still going strong as Buzz Lightyear; Rickman is best known as Serevus Snape, but his character Alexander Dane reminds me more of his turn as the whining voice of the robot Marvin in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Sam Rockwell appeared in that same movie as Zaphod Beeblebrox and in the fine, far more more serious SF film Moon. Shalhoub was in a couple of the Men in Black movies. Ironically, Sigourney Weaver, the biggest sci-fi star of any of them thanks to Alien, almost didn’t make the casting cut because of her strong history in the genre. The producers originally wanted to cast someone who had never worked in SF for the Gwen DeMarco role, but she loved the script so much—and so wanted to work with Allen and Rickman—that she campaigned hard for the part.
Galaxy Quest never got its own sequel or TV spinoff (though one was reportedly in the works before the untimely passing of Alan Rickman in 2016). Perhaps it’s for the best, because the movie is some kind of alchemy, and replicating it would take a lot more art than science. Certainly we can analyze why it works. All of the actors have some SFF bonafides, both before and since: Tim Allen is still going strong as Buzz Lightyear; Rickman is best known as Serevus Snape, but his character Alexander Dane reminds me more of his turn as the whining voice of the robot Marvin in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Sam Rockwell appeared in that same movie as Zaphod Beeblebrox and in the fine, far more more serious SF film Moon. Shalhoub was in a couple of the Men in Black movies. Ironically, Sigourney Weaver, the biggest sci-fi star of any of them thanks to Alien, almost didn’t make the casting cut because of her strong history in the genre. The producers originally wanted to cast someone who had never worked in SF for the Gwen DeMarco role, but she loved the script so much—and so wanted to work with Allen and Rickman—that she campaigned hard for the part.
Director Dean Parisot hadn’t and hasn’t made anything else with half the visual invention (consider the scene where Nesmith first realizes he’s really in space; in theaters, at that moment, the frame widened to reveal more visual information at the left and right sides of the screen) or comedic energy, best exemplified by the climactic race-against-time during which the crew encounters a corridor of chomping metal… things only there because they were on the show, where they didn’t make any sense either. The script is filled with those sorts of affectionate pokes at genre tropes, and Parisot handles them with a gentle touch. The ripping never feels mean, but like something for Trek fans to nod knowingly at. Yes, this show can be kind of silly. We still love it.
Galaxy Quest was a financial success and got good reviews (even from Star Trek actors). It also won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Nebula Award for Best Script. (The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America seem to have conflicted feelings about scripts; the Best Script award was given in 1974-1978 and from 2000-2009, and since then shuffled off to into the “Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation,” where screenwriters are only part of the equation.) Its reputation has only grown in the years since, to the point where it is named alongside movies like Groundhog Day as a rare “perfect film.” Within its official anniversary approaching (it opened in theaters on Christmas Day 1999), screenings are being planned for a new documentary on its legacy, Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary.
I think the movie has endured because it is excellent, but I think it is more beloved than ever at 20 because geeky fandom is now bigger than ever; cosplay and conventions are now mainstream, and Star Trek is still going strong. Interest is strong enough that a reboot may yet take flight someday—though who can say in what form? (I wouldn’t mind seeing it join Groundhog Day on Broadway.) Maybe the Prometheus will return, more than twenty years after its last adventure. As Commander Taggart would say, “Never give up! Never surrender!”
Share your Galaxy Quest memories in the comments.