All the reasons we’re pumped for the ‘Galaxy Quest’ TV series
Following in the footsteps of a hundred other movies turned TV shows, and TV shows turned into other TV shows, Galaxy Quest is on its way to the small screen. Paramount TV is looking to adapt the 1999 sci-fi spoof about struggling actors who accidentally end up in space, and there are a million reasons why this is the best thing that’s ever happened. Here are just a few of them.
Galaxy Quest is the parody to end all parodies
Galaxy Quest is a Star Trek spoof at its core, plain and simple. And Mel Brooks — king of all spoofs — once said that “you’ve got to know your genre, and you’ve got to love your genre, and you’ve got to salute it properly even though you’re making fun of it.” Galaxy Quest does this perfectly. It knows the Star Trek idea so well, it’s able to take every little thing we love about it, and create something all Trekkies/Trekkers/sci-fi enthusiasts know and love.
The premise is hilarious
A group of long forgotten TV actors accidentally get transported to space, where aliens have binge-watched their show a million times (calling it, “historical documents”) and think they’re the only ones who can save their race from elimination? Doesn’t exactly sound like the reunion episode they were hoping for. The actors are struggling with the characters they used to portray, and now they’re forced to relive them. Awful for them, great for us.
A+ All Star Cast
Tim Allen plays the ship’s cocky captain. Sigourney Weaver plays the ship’s token female who struggles with having SOMETHING, ANYTHING to do on the show. Alan Rickman plays the very serious thespian who feels this is all beneath him. Tony Shalhoub plays the ship’s mechanic, who falls in love with an alien! And Sam Rockwell plays a “redshirt” extra. There’s also Daryl Mitchell, Rainn Wilson, Missi Pyle and Enrico Colantoni.
The aliens believe TV is real
Ever wished you could live in your favorite TV show? The alien race, Thermians, have done that IRL. They’ve built an entire mock up of the spaceship based off of what they saw in the episodes. And then for the rest of the movie, everyone makes jokes about how they did all these things on TV already, and how they hated them once before, and now they hate them again. A self-aware movie that’s making fun of the TV show within the movie? Comedy gold, I tell you!
The fans are important
A big part of the movie focuses on the fans who loved TV’s Galaxy Quest. Now the movie was made back in 1999, before something like ComicCon was drawing thousands of attendees every single year. But even back then, the movie knew the importance of those die-hard fans who cosplayed, along with basically living and breathing every single episode. A tiny Justin Long (in his first movie role!) played one of these fans, who actually ends up saving the day in a big way — and in a Reddit AMA he said he’d do Galaxy Quest again “in a heart beat.” Now, how does he feel about TV??
Everything About Guy
I might be a little biased about this, because I’ve loved Sam Rockwell forever. But he plays the best TV show extra. He’s that disposable “redshirt” who gets killed off before the first commercial (in episode 81 of Galaxy Quest, he notes). So it’s a big deal for him to be hanging with the real crew, but he is also terrified that he’s going to be the first one to go since he doesn’t have a last name. That is totally something ripped from a Star Trek episode.
Guy actually created a notable character trope
“Plucky Comic Relief.” Basically, this means you can write a serious thesis paper about television characters, and cite Galaxy Quest.
J.J. Abrams loves it
Remember our new favorite person, J.J. Abrams? Before he was busy with the Star Wars movies, he directed the first two rebooted Star Trek movies. So he knows his Star Trek stuff. Abrams once called Galaxy Quest, “one of the best Star Trek movies ever made.”Meanwhile, Trekkies at a convention in 2013 ranked it #7 on a list of the best Star Trek movies, which is saying A LOT.
Patrick Stewart loves it
Captain Jean-Luc Picard has only nice things to say about it: “I had originally not wanted to see Galaxy Quest because I heard that it was making fun of Star Trek… And [then] I did, and of course I found it was brilliant. Brilliant. No one laughed louder or longer in the cinema than I did, but the idea that the ship was saved and all of our heroes in that movie were saved simply by the fact that there were fans who did understand the scientific principles on which the ship worked was absolutely wonderful. And it was both funny and also touching in that it paid tribute to the dedication of these fans.” BRB, crying.
The movie now imitates life
At the end of Galaxy Quest, the show is rebooted. Aw man, if we had known this back in 1999, the last 16 years would have flown by so much faster.
That catchphrase, tho
“Never give up, never surrender.” That’s what Allen’s commander says again and again on the TV show, and it begins to translate to their real life while trying to save the day. Soon, they’re all saying it to each other. Soon, we’re saying it to each other in real life situations like a battle cry. It surprisingly works.
Because this is the best thing ever
Galaxy Quest has achieved its rightful cult status. Details about the show are few and far between, but supposedly its original writer, Robert Gordon, may be returning to pen the TV series. Will it be about a TV show within a TV show? Will it have the same characters? Can Justin Long please star in it? Whatever it’s about, and whoever’s in it, by Grabthar’s hammer, I’m ready to binge-watch it.
