| Galaxy Quest | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Dean Parisot |
| Screenplay by |
|
| Story by | David Howard |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Jerzy Zieliński |
| Edited by | Don Zimmerman |
| Music by | David Newman |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | DreamWorks Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 102 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $45 million |
| Box office | $90.7 million |
Galaxy Quest is a 1999 Americansatiricalscience fiction comedy film directed byDean Parisot and written by David Howard andRobert Gordon. It starsTim Allen,Sigourney Weaver,Alan Rickman,Tony Shalhoub,Sam Rockwell, andDaryl Mitchell. A parody and homage toscience-fiction films andseries, especiallyStar Trek andits fandom, the film depicts the cast of a fictional cult television series,Galaxy Quest, who are drawn into a real interstellar conflict by aliens who think the series is a documentary.
Galaxy Quest was a box office success and received positive reviews. It won theHugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and theNebula Award for Best Script, and was nominated for tenSaturn Awards, includingBest Science Fiction Film andBest Director,Best Actress for Weaver, andBest Supporting Actor for Rickman; Allen wonBest Actor.[2][3]
Galaxy Quest achievedcult status, especially fromStar Trek fans for its affectionate parody.[4][5][6] SeveralStar Trek cast and crew members praised the film. It was included inReader's Digest's list of the Top 100+ Funniest Movies of All Time in 2012, andStar Trek fans voted it the seventh-bestStar Trek film in 2013.[4][5][7][8][9]
The cast of the 1980s space-adventure seriesGalaxy Quest attendfan conventions and make trivial promotional appearances. Though the series' former star, Jason Nesmith, thrives on the attention, his co-stars Gwen DeMarco, Alexander Dane, Fred Kwan, and Tommy Webber resent him and the states of their careers. At a convention, a group calling themselves Thermians approaches Jason for help. Thinking they want him for a promotional appearance, he agrees. The next morning, when they pick him up, a hungover Jason does not grasp that the Thermians are actual aliens who have transported him to a working re-creation of theGalaxy Quest starship, the NSEAProtector. Jason believes he is on a set, and performs in character as he confronts the Thermians' enemy, Sarris, who demands the "Omega 13", a secret super weapon with unknown capabilities mentioned in the show's finale, but never used on screen. Giving perfunctory orders, Jason manages to temporarily defeat Sarris.
After the grateful Thermians transport him back to Earth, Jason realizes the experience was real and attempts to convince the other cast members. When the Thermian Laliari seeks Jason's help again, the cast joins him, along with the conventionemcee, Guy, who had played anill-fated extra in one episode. Aboard theProtector, the cast learn that the Thermians, who possess no concept of fiction, believe the episodes ofGalaxy Quest are true "historical documents". Inspired by the crew's adventures, they have based their society on the virtues espoused by the show.
Sarris returns and demands the "Omega 13" device. He attacks theProtector again, and the ship barely escapes through a magnetic minefield. However, the ship's power source, aberyllium sphere, is severely damaged. The humans travel to a nearby planet and take a replacement sphere from ferocious, childlike alien miners. Jason is temporarily left behind and fends off a rock creature until Fred beams him up. On their return to theProtector, the crew discovers that Sarris has seized the ship. After Jason confesses they are just actors, Sarris forces him to explain the truth to the disillusioned Thermian leader, Mathesar. Sarris activates theProtector'sself-destruct mechanism and returns to his ship.
Jason and Gwen manage to abort the self-destruct sequence by following instructions from Brandon, the leader of a group ofGalaxy Quest superfans back on Earth. Meanwhile, Alexander leads a Thermian revolt against Sarris' forces and takes back control of theProtector. With renewed confidence, the crew challenges Sarris and draws his ship into the magnetic minefield, destroying it. As they return to Earth, Sarris, who escaped his ship's destruction, ambushes them on the bridge and fatally wounds several crew members. Jason activates the "Omega 13", which sends everyone 13 seconds back in time and gives Jason and Mathesar a chance to stun and disarm Sarris before the attack.
TheProtector's bridge separates from the main vessel to return the humans to Earth, while the main vessel carries the Thermians into interstellar space. TheProtector bridge crashes into aGalaxy Quest convention, and the dazed cast emerges to the applause of their fans. Sarris awakens and levels his gun at the cast, but Jason shoots and destroys him. The crowd assumes it was all a display of special effects and cheers wildly, and Jason, with newfound humility, invites his co-stars to share the stage with him while the crew basks in their newfound glory.
Sometime later,Galaxy Quest is revived as a sequel series,Galaxy Quest: The Journey Continues, with the cast reprising their roles alongside Guy and Laliari as new cast members.
The originalspec script by David Howard was titledCaptain Starshine.[11] Howard stated he got the idea while at anIMAX presentation, where one of the trailers for an upcoming "Americans in Space" film was narrated byLeonard Nimoy, a leading actor fromStar Trek. The trailer got Howard thinking about how the otherStar Trek actors had become pigeonholed in these roles since the cancellation ofStar Trek, and he then came up with the idea of "What if there were real aliens involved?" From there, he considered that the rest of his script, "in a lot of ways, just wrote itself, because it just seemed so self-evident once the idea was there".[12]
ProducerMark Johnson, who had a first-look deal withDreamWorks, did not like Howard's script but was fascinated with its concept of space aliens who misconstrue old episodes of a television series as reality. Johnson purchased the script and had Bob Gordon use the concept to createGalaxy Quest.[11] A fan ofStar Trek, Gordon was hesitant, believingGalaxy Quest "could be a great idea or it could be a terrible idea" and initially turned it down. Gordon, who did not readCaptain Starshine until after the film was completed, started from the premise of washed-up actors from a sci-fi series involved with real extraterrestrials.[11] Gordon's initial drafts added elements of humor to Howard's script, such as theProtector scraping the walls of the space dock when Webber pilots the real ship for the first time. The scene with the "Chompers" leading into the Omega 13 came from Gordon's viewing of the horror filmEvent Horizon, which featured a rotating tunnel lined with sharp blades leading into the ship's engine room.[13] Gordon became more confident when he completed the scene where Nesmith confesses to the Thermians, which he felt he nailed.[11] He submitted his first draft to DreamWorks in 1998, and it was immediately green-lit.[11]
Johnson wantedDean Parisot to direct. Parisot had directed another film Johnson produced,Home Fries. However, DreamWorks favoredHarold Ramis because of his experience and hired him in November 1998.[14] Ramis wantedAlec Baldwin for the lead role, but Baldwin turned it down.Steve Martin andKevin Kline were also considered, but Kline turned it down for family reasons. Ramis did not agree with the casting of Tim Allen as Jason Nesmith and left the project in February 1999. Parisot took over as director within three weeks.[11] Allen said that the version of the film pitched to him by Ramis andJeffrey Katzenberg felt more likeSpaceballs, and that they wanted an action star to do comedy rather than a comedian to do an action film.[15] Sigourney Weaver, who had worked with Ramis onGhostbusters, said that he also wanted actors who had not appeared in science-fiction roles before, a choice she thought odd since veterans of the genre would know what was humorous.[15] After seeing the film, Ramis said he was impressed with Allen's performance.[11] Johnson named the main villain after film criticAndrew Sarris, while admitting he also considered "Haskell" afterMolly Haskell, who was married to Sarris. Once Sarris discovered this, he mocked "This guy wants to insult me? Oh, boohoo. As long as they spelled my name right, I'm okay."[16]
Following Parisot's assignment as director, Allen was quickly cast as Nesmith,[15] and had to choose betweenGalaxy Quest andBicentennial Man. TheBicentennial Man role went toRobin Williams.[9][6] Allen said he was a big sci-fi fan and had hoped the role would launch a second part of his career as a sci-fi actor.[6][15] Some of Allen's sci-fi knowledge was put to use during production: for example, when the crew is about to land on an alien planet, Allen brought up the issue of a breathable atmosphere with Johnson and Parisot; this became dialogue for Fleegman and Kwan in the movie.[15] About his role, Allen said he based his performance more onYul Brynner'sRamesses II from the 1956The Ten Commandments, and less onWilliam Shatner asCaptain James Kirk fromStar Trek.[6]
Alan Rickman was selected to be Alexander Dane, who played the alien Dr. Lazarus. Rickman had been interested in the part not so much for the sci-fi elements, but because of the humor. He said "I love comedy almost more than anything. This really is one of the funniest scripts I've read," and that "actors are probably the only professionals who send themselves up. We actually have a sense of humor about ourselves."[17] While the original script made Dane aceremonial knight, Rickman suggested the title would be too much for the character, and this was dropped, though he remained listed as "Sir Alex Dane" in the credits.[6][9] Rickman also provided input into theprosthetic piece that Dane would use to play Lazarus, saying "it was important for it to be good enough to convince the aliens who believe we're the real thing, but also cheesy enough to imagine that it was something he applied himself".[6] Rickman's sense of drama came into play during initial reads and script revisions. Rockwell said that Rickman "was very instrumental in making sure the script hit the dramatic notes, and everything had a strong logic and reason behind it".[15] The scene where Dane, as Dr. Lazarus, gives a final, powerfully emotional speech to Quellek, played byPatrick Breen, used Rickman's sense of drama, according to Rockwell.[15] Rickman was initially annoyed with Allen's excitement over his role,[6] but eventually the whole cast bonded over the film.[15] Dr. Lazarus' catchphrase, "By Grabthar's Hammer", was written as a temp line in Gordon's script; Gordon planned to replace "Grabthar" with something less comical, but the line stuck as the production crew started using it around their offices and had it printed on t-shirts.[11]
Weaver had loved the script since her first read when Ramis was the director, stating "that great sort ofWizard of Oz story of these people feeling so incomplete in the beginning, and then during the course of this adventure, they come out almost like the heroes they pretended to be in the first place".[9] She particularly loved the part of Madison: "to me she was what a lot of women feel like, including myself, in a Hollywood situation."[15] In addition, she had long wanted to work with both Allen and Rickman.[6] Once Parisot replaced Ramis, Weaver lobbied Parisot to cast her, insisting that Madison needed to be blonde and have large breasts to capture the humor of a sci-fi production.[15] She was surprised when she got the role.[6] Weaver said that this role, given some of her personal insecurities, was closer to "telling the truth about myself and science fiction" compared to her performance as Ripley in theAlien films.[15] She wore a blonde wig (which she kept after production) and an enhanced bosom, which many of the crew said gave Weaver a new personality. Weaver often left the set in costume and returned to her hotel to admire herself, saying that she "loved being a starlet".[11]
Tony Shalhoub originally auditioned for Guy Fleegman untilSam Rockwell was cast. Shalhoub was cast as Fred Kwan[6] and worked with Parisot to develop the character. Kwan was loosely based onDavid Carradine, who was a non-Asian in an Asian role in the television seriesKung Fu. Additionally, it was rumored that Carradine frequently acted whileunder the influence of drugs. Although Shalhoub could not overtly portray a "stoner" in a PG-13 film, he insisted that Kwan should always be shown eating to subtly reference the stoner stereotype.[11]
Rockwell, who wanted to develop a more serious dramatic acting career, initially considered declining the role after he was cast. He eventually recognized that several successful dramatic actors had done comedy roles early on, and his friendKevin Spacey persuaded him to take the part.[11][15] He was the last of the main actors to be cast.[15] Rockwell fashioned Fleegman after cowardly characters from other films, such asJohn Turturro's Bernie inMiller's Crossing,Bill Paxton's Private Hudson inAliens, andMichael Keaton's "Blaze" inNight Shift. Rockwell drank a lot of coffee before certain scenes to help create the over-excitement and jitters associated with the character.[11] Rockwell's character's name, Guy Fleegman, is a homage to Guy Vardaman, a little-known actor who worked extensively onStar Trek either as astand-in or in bit roles.[6] Rockwell and Shalhoub improvised some dialog to contrast Fleegman as an alarmist while Kwan was always nonchalant.[15]Daryl Mitchell had worked with Parisot onHome Fries, and Parisot felt he was the perfect choice to play Webber.[15]David Alan Grier was the second choice.[11]
Justin Long was cast as Brandon, and it was Long's first feature-film role.[9] Long had just completed a pilot for a television show under casting director Bonnie Zane, who suggested Long to her sisterDebra Zane, the casting director forGalaxy Quest.[15] Long said he was nervous auditioning as an unknown actor at the time, competing againstKieran Culkin,Eddie Kaye Thomas, andTom Everett Scott.[9] Parisot had given Long a copy ofTrekkies, a film about theStar Trek fandom, to help prepare for the character.[15] Long based his character on a combination ofPhilip Seymour Hoffman's Scotty J. fromBoogie Nights and theComic Book Guy fromThe Simpsons.[11]Paul Rudd auditioned for a role.[11]
One of the first "Thermians" to audition wasEnrico Colantoni. Colantoni loved the script and spent time before his audition developing the behavior he thought the Thermians should have.[15] Parisot said that at the end of Colantoni's read, the actor offered a possible voice for the Thermians. Parisot immediately loved the voice and used it to establish the nature of the Thermians for the rest of the casting process.[18] Colantoni led how the Thermians would act, which he called "happy Jehovah's Witnesses" taking everything in with "love and acceptance".[17] Other actors cast as Thermians includedJed Rees andRainn Wilson (his feature-film debut). According to Debra Zane, they had "a difficult time finding an actress to play a Thermian. Ultimately, Zane was so impressed withMissi Pyle's audition that she sent the casting tape directly to Parisot, with a note stating "If this is not Laliari, I will resign from theCSA."[6]Steven Spielberg, also impressed by Pyle, asked for Laliari's role to be expanded, which developed into the romance with Kwan.[6][9]Jennifer Coolidge was the second choice for the role.[11]
Actors cast as Thermians went to "alien school" to learn how to move and talk, since they were "basically giant calamari hiding in human shape", according to Parisot.[18] The walk was inspired by how themarionettes were articulated in the seriesFireball XL5.[19] Other idiosyncrasies were developed by the actors during this training,[18] and several of their lines came out of improvisations.[19] Wilson's role as Lahnk was to have been larger in the film, but the actor was double-booked for an NBC pilot in New York City. He received a crash course on how to act like a Thermian from Colantoni, Rees, and Pyle, but still was nervous around the A-list actors leading the cast. Wilson said that a deleted scene involving Lahnk, released with the film's home media, was wisely cut given how nervous he was, flubbing his lines several times.[18]
Linda DeScenna,production designer of the film, was interested in the project because it would not have the same aesthetics as other 1990s science fiction films, and "it didn't have to be real, hi-tech and vacuformed".[6] DeScenna drew inspiration for the sets not only fromStar Trek, but also fromBuck Rogers,Battlestar Galactica, andLost in Space.[17] DeScenna had hoped to incorporate more essence of the reuse of props and set elements from these shows within the film, but the film didn't provide enough space for this.[17] She used color theming to help distinguish the key elements of the film, with steam blue for the Thermians and theProtector, while Saris and his species were made to be a green tone that stood out against that.[17] The design of the Thermian station was influenced by the works of artistRoger Dean, especially his cover art for theYes live albumYessongs (1973).[6]
The bulk of the film was shot in studios in Los Angeles. Scenes of the alien planet were filmed atGoblin Valley State Park inUtah.[6] At the time, access to the park was partly bydirt road; fees paid by the production company were used to upgrade the entire access road toasphalt pavement.[20] Other locations used in the film included theStahl House as Nesmith's home and theHollywood Palladium for the fan conventions.[21]
According to Weaver, Allen hectored her to sign a piece of the Nostromo, the spaceship fromAlien, in which she had starred; she ultimately did, writing "Stolen by Tim Allen; Love, Sigourney Weaver", which she claims upset him greatly.[6] During the period of filming, the entire cast attended a 20th-anniversary screening ofAlien. After filming wrapped, Weaver kept the wig she wore for the role.[9]
The film's visual effects were created byIndustrial Light & Magic (ILM) led byBill George. A challenge in the CGI was making distinctions between scenes that were to be from the 1980sGalaxy Quest show, which would have been done normally through practical effects, and the more realistic scenes for the contemporary actors.[17] Various practical effects were also used, such as the "piglizard" creature that the crew transports onto theProtector.[17]
After most production was done, Johnson said that DreamWorks was confused by the film, as it was not what they had expected from the script they greenlit, but pushed on post-production as they needed a film to compete withColumbia Pictures'Stuart Little.[15] The film originally received an"R" rating, according to Collins and Weaver,[22] before being recut to achieve a family-friendly rating. Shalhoub did not remember any darker version of the film.[23] Gordon had not planned to write a "family-friendly" film, and his initial script included mature scenes, such as DeMarco attempting to seduce aliens, and the crash of the escape pod into the convention hall decapitating several attendees.[11]
WhileGalaxy Quest was in post-production, Paramount releasedThe Rugrats Movie, which was a box-office success. DreamWorks at that point pushed to haveGalaxy Quest tailored for a younger audience to compete withRugrats.[24] According to the cast and crew,Galaxy Quest was re-edited to achieve a "PG" rating, requiring scenes to be cut that could have survived if a "PG-13" rating had been targeted instead.[11] In the "chompers" scene, DeMarco's line "Well, screw that!" wasdubbed over her original "Well, fuck that!"[11][6] Weaver stated she purposely made her dubbed line stand out as a form of protest from her original line.[15] Several scenes involving Dr. Lazarus were cut, as DreamWorks felt they were too kinky for the desired rating. One cut scene showed Dr. Lazarus' crew quarters on the Protector, which Allen called a "proctologist's dream and nightmare".[11][15] Other scenes were added to provide what DreamWorks felt was necessary continuity for the intended younger audience, such as showing the limo with Nesmith and the aliens "beaming up" from Earth.[24]
In theaters, the first 20 minutes of the film were presented in a 1.85:1aspect ratio (minus the opening showing clips from the TV show which were in 1.33:1), before changing to a wider 2.35:1 ratio when Nesmith looks out upon space as theProtector arrives at Thermia to maximize the effect on viewers.[9][6] However, this caused some problems with projectionists at movie theaters when showing the film as they had not opened up the screen curtains far enough for the wider aspect ratio. Projectionists had to be told at later showings to prepare for this transition. On the DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases, however, after the opening scene showing the TV clips, it goes directly from 1.33:1 to 2.35:1 and remains that way for the rest of the movie.[11]David Newman composed the score.
Before the release, a promotionalmockumentary video titledGalaxy Quest: 20th Anniversary, The Journey Continues, aired onE!, presenting theGalaxy Quest television series as an actual cult series, and the upcoming film as a documentary about the making of the series, presenting it in a similar way toStar Trek; it featured fake interviews of the series' cast (portrayed by the actors of the actual film), "Questerians", and critics.[9]
While these additional materials were made, DreamWorks devoted very little advertising to the film despite its placement near the Christmas season, which the cast and crew felt hurt the potential for the film.[15] Unlike most films where the second and ongoing weekend box office takes decline,Galaxy Quest saw rising numbers over the first several weekends, and DreamWorks'Jeffrey Katzenberg apologized directly to Parisot for failing to market the film properly.[15] Additionally, the primary trailer used for the film used a cut of the film before all the specific effects were complete, and Johnson felt that if the trailer had used the completed versions, it would have helped draw a larger audience.[15]
Galaxy Quest is an acknowledged homage toStar Trek; Parisot said "Part of the mission for me was to make a great'Star Trek' episode."[11] Gordon's original script was titledGalaxy Quest: The Motion Picture as a reference to thefirst featureStar Trek film, and elements such as departing the space dock and the malfunctioning transporters were further nods to the film.[11] The prefix of theProtector's registration number NTE-3120 ostensibly alludes to some sort of similarspace federation, but in reality stands for "Not The Enterprise", according to visual effects co-supervisor Bill George.[25][26] Parisot refuted claims that the rock monster that Nesmith battled was based on the rock monster that had been scripted forStar Trek V: The Final Frontier, but instead was more inspired by theGorn that Kirk faces in theStar Trek episode "Arena".[11] This homage also extended to the original marketing of the movie, including a promotional website[27] intentionally designed to look like a poorly constructed fan website, with "screen captures" and poorHTML coding.[28]
Other aspects of the film were homages to other seminal science fiction works. The Thermians' native planet, Klaatu Nebula, is a reference to the name of the alien visitor in the classicThe Day the Earth Stood Still (1951).[9] Quellek's line "I'm shot" was influenced by the same line from James Brolin's character inWestworld.[11] The blue creatures on the alien planet were based on similar creatures inBarbarella.[11] The "chompers" scene with Nesmith and DeMarco trying to reach the self-destruct abort button was inspired by a scene from the 1997 filmEvent Horizon involving whirring blades.[6] The effects for the Omega 13 activation were inspired by the ending scene fromBeneath the Planet of the Apes.[11]
In his review ofGalaxy Quest, James Berardinelli states that the movie shares the "same central conceit" with a short story byRuth Berman titled "Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited" published in the 1976 anthologyStar Trek: New Voyages in which William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy andDeForest Kelley are transported to the realEnterprise while filming an episode ofStar Trek and are pursued byKlingons.[29]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 90% of 132 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "Intelligent and humorous satire with an excellent cast -- no previous Trekkie knowledge needed to enjoy this one."[30]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 70 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[31]
Critics praised it both as a parody ofStar Trek, and as acomedy film of its own.The New York Times'sLawrence Van Gelder called it "an amiable comedy that simultaneously manages to spoof these popular futuristic space adventures and replicate the very elements that have made them so durable".[32]Roger Ebert, writing for theChicago Sun-Times, praised the ability of the film to spoof the "illogic of the TV show".[33]Amy Taubin ofThe Village Voice offered a lukewarm review, noting that "the many eight- to 11-year-olds in the audience seemed completely enthralled".[34]Joe Leydon ofVariety said thatGalaxy Quest "remains light and bright as it races along, and never turns nasty or mean-spirited as it satirizes the cliches and cults ofStar Trek".[35]
Retrospective reviews forGalaxy Quest have been positive.Esquire's Matt Miller said in 2019 "the film absolutely holds up as one of the best sci-fi satires ever made—one that challenges our obsession with massive Hollywood franchises, the nature of fandom, and some of the more problematic cliches of the genre. But it does so with a self-aware empathy that makes it an enduring and lasting entry in not only science-fiction, but American film as a whole".[36] Writer-directorDavid Mamet, in his bookBambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business, includedGalaxy Quest in a list of four "perfect" films, along withThe Godfather,A Place in the Sun andDodsworth.[37] The film has been described by fans and critics as one of the bestStar Trek films, despite not being part of the franchise.[38][39][40][41]
Galaxy Quest grossed $71.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $19.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $90.7 million, double the original budget of $45 million.[42] It spent its first nine weeks in the Top 10 at the box office.[43]
| List of awards and nominations | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | |
| Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival | April 13, 2000 | Silver Scream Award | Dean Parisot | Won | |
| Artios Awards | November 1, 2000 | Best Casting for Feature Film, Comedy | Debra Zane | Nominated | |
| Blockbuster Entertainment Awards | May 9, 2000 | Favorite Actor – Comedy | Tim Allen | Nominated | |
| Favorite Actress – Comedy | Sigourney Weaver | Nominated | |||
| Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film | April 1, 2000 | Silver Raven for Best Screenplay | David Howard | Won | |
| Pegasus Audience Award | Dean Parisot | Won | |||
| Hochi Film Awards | December 27, 2001 | Best Foreign Language Film | Dean Parisot | Won | |
| Hugo Awards[2] | September 4, 2001 | Best Dramatic Presentation | Dean Parisot, David Howard andRobert Gordon | Won | |
| Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards | January 18, 2000 | Best Visual Effects | Bill George | Nominated | |
| Nebula Awards[3] | April 28, 2001 | Best Script | David Howard and Robert Gordon | Nominated | |
| Saturn Awards[citation needed] | June 6, 2000 | Best Science Fiction Film | Galaxy Quest | Nominated | |
| Best Director | Dean Parisot | Nominated | |||
| Best Actor | Tim Allen | Won | |||
| Best Actress | Sigourney Weaver | Nominated | |||
| Best Supporting Actor | Alan Rickman | Nominated | |||
| Best Performance by a Younger Actor | Justin Long | Nominated | |||
| Best Music | David Newman | Nominated | |||
| Best Costume | Albert Wolsky | Nominated | |||
| Best Make-up | Stan Winston,Hallie D'Amore andVe Neill | Nominated | |||
| Best Special Effects | Stan Winston, Bill George, Kim Bromley and Robert Stadd | Nominated | |||
| Teen Choice Awards[citation needed] | August 6, 2000 | Choice Movie – Comedy | Galaxy Quest | Nominated | |
The film proved popular withStar Trek fans. At the 2013 Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas,Galaxy Quest received enough support in aStar Trek Film Ranking to be included with the twelveStar Trek films that had been released at the time on the voting ballot. The fans at the convention ranked it the seventh-bestStar Trek film.[4][5] Tim Allen said he andWilliam Shatner were "now friends because of this movie".[11]
Galaxy Quest predicted the growth and influence of mediafandom in the years after its release. While fandoms such as that forStar Trek existed at the time of the film, the size and scope presented by the fan conventions in the film had not been seen as much in 1999; since then, major fan conventions such asSan Diego Comic-Con have become significant events that draw mainstream attention. The film also depicted fandoms using their numbers to influence production companies to revive cancelled works, such as withThe Expanse,Veronica Mars,Arrested Development, andTwin Peaks.[44] The film also captured some negative elements of modern fandom, such as leading actors continuously pestered by fans for intricate details of the work's fiction and other elements of the potentially toxic culture of online fan groups.[44][45] The novellaRabbit Remembered (2000) byJohn Updike mentions the character of Laliari from the film.[6]
Several actors who have had roles on variousStar Trek television series and films have commented onGalaxy Quest in light of their own experiences with the franchise and its fandom.
I had originally not wanted to see [Galaxy Quest] because I heard that it was making fun ofStar Trek and thenJonathan Frakes rang me up and said "You must not miss this movie! See it on a Saturday night in a full theatre." And 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.
I've had flashbacks ofGalaxy Quest at the many conventions I've gone to since the movie came out. I thought it was an absolute laugh-a-minute.
I lovedGalaxy Quest. I thought it was brilliant satire, not only ofTrek, but of fandom in general. The only thing I wish they had done was cast me in it, and have me play a freaky fanboy who keeps screaming at the actor who played 'the kid' abouthow awful it was that there was a kid on the spaceship. Alas.
— Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher onTNG)[50]
Yes, I have seenGalaxy Quest and no, it's not really like that.
— Casey Biggs (Damar onDS9)[51]
I think it's a chillingly realistic documentary. [laughs] The details in it, I recognized every one of them. It is a powerful piece of documentary filmmaking. And I do believe that when we get kidnapped by aliens, it's going to be the genuine, trueStar Trek fans who will save the day. ... I was rolling in the aisles. And Tim Allen had that Shatner-esque swagger down pat. And I roared when the shirt came off, and Sigourney [Weaver] rolls her eyes and says, "There goes that shirt again." ... How often did we hear that on the set? [Laughs]
— George Takei (Hikaru Sulu onTOS)[8]
I thought it was very funny, and I thought the audience that they portrayed was totally real, but the actors that they were pretending to be were totally unrecognizable. Certainly I don't know what Tim Allen was doing. He seemed to be the head of a group of actors, and for the life of me I was trying to understand who he was imitating. The only one I recognized was the girl playing Nichelle Nichols.
The film was released byDreamWorks Home Entertainment onVHS andDVD on May 2, 2000. The DVD version included a 10-minute behind-the-scenes feature, cast and crew biographies and interviews, and deleted scenes. During February 2006,Viacom (now known asParamount Skydance) acquired the rights toGalaxy Quest and all other live-action films DreamWorks had released between 1997 and 2005, following its billion-dollar acquisition of the studio's live-action film and television assets.[53][54] This deal put the film under the same corporate umbrella as theStar Trek franchise, which has been produced byParamount Television andParamount Pictures. A special 10th anniversary deluxe edition was released on both DVD andBlu-ray byParamount Home Entertainment on May 12, 2009; though they lacked the same features on the original DVD release, they included several new featurettes on the film's history, the cast, and the special effects used in the film's making, alongside the deleted scenes.[55] For the film's 20th anniversary, a "Never Give Up, Never Surrender Edition" Blu-ray was released on November 5, 2019, featuring the same features as the 10th edition;[56] a special SteelBookBest Buy exclusive was released on September 17, 2019.[57] For the film's 25th anniversary, a4K Ultra HD Blu-ray edition was released on December 3, 2024, by Paramount Home Entertainment. This edition includes the bonus features from the 10th anniversary deluxe edition, as well as a new interview with director Dean Parisot. This edition is the first home video release to have the original theatrical aspect ratio changes.[58]
In November 1999,Galaxy Quest wasnovelized by science fiction writerTerry Bisson,[59] who stayed very close to the plot of the film.
In 2008,IDW Publishing released a comic book sequel to the movie entitledGalaxy Quest: Global Warning. In January 2015, IDW launched a four-issue series set several years after the events of the film called"Galaxy Quest: The Journey Continues". In 2021, Eaglemoss Publications released a behind-the-scenes book entitledGalaxy Quest: The Inside Story.
Talks of a sequel have been going on since the film's release in 1999, but only began gaining traction in 2014 when Allen mentioned that there was a script. Stars Weaver and Rockwell mentioned they were interested in returning.[60] However, Colantoni has said he would prefer for there not to be a sequel, lest it tarnish the characters from the first film. He said, "to make something up, just because we love those characters, and turn it into a sequel—then it becomes the awful sequel".[61]
In April 2015, Paramount Television, along with the movie's co-writer Gordon, director Parisot, and executive producers Johnson and Bernstein, announced they were looking to develop a television series based onGalaxy Quest. The move was considered in a similar vein as Paramount's revivals ofMinority Report andSchool of Rock as television series.[62] In August 2015, it was announced thatAmazon Studios would be developing it.[63]
In January 2016, after the unexpected death ofAlan Rickman frompancreatic cancer, Tim Allen commented inThe Hollywood Reporter about the franchise's chance of a revival:
I'm not supposed to say anything—I'm speaking way out of turn here—butGalaxy Quest is really close to being resurrected in a very creative way. It's closer than I can tell you but I can't say more than that. The real kicker is that Alan now has to be left out. It's been a big shock on many levels.[64]
Speaking to theNerdist podcast in April 2016, Sam Rockwell revealed that the cast had been about ready to sign on for a follow-up withAmazon, but Rickman's death, together with Allen's television schedule, had proved to be obstacles. He also said he believed Rickman's death meant the project would never happen.[65]
However, the plans were revived in August 2017, with the announcement thatPaul Scheer would be writing the series.[66] Speaking to/Film, Scheer said that in his first drafts submitted to Amazon in November 2017 he wanted to create a serialized adventure that starts where the film ends, but leads into the cultural shift inStar Trek that has occurred since 1999; he said "I really wanted to capture the difference between the original cast ofStar Trek and theJ. J. Abrams cast ofStar Trek." To that end, Scheer's initial scripts called for two separate cast sets that would come together by the end of the first season of the show, though he did not confirm if this included any of the original film's cast.[67]
Following the dismissal of Amy Powell as president of Paramount Television in July 2018, Scheer said theGalaxy Quest series had been put on hold while Paramount's management was being re-established, but anticipated the show would continue forward after that. He also said they were making the series to allow the introduction of new characters while extending the setting, similar to whatStar Wars: The Force Awakens did forA New Hope.[68]
Allen stated that a film sequel script is nearly ready to go as of January 2021. The script had been near completion for production by 2016 but with Rickman's death, it would have to undergo major rewrites as the core story focused on the relationship between Nesmith and Dane (Allen and Rickman's characters, respectively). A central plot element was to have theProtector and its crew affected bytime dilation during space flight, which Allen considered a boon for the uncertain production of the film. While Allen said there were no immediate efforts for the sequel's production, he and the other cast and crew keep circulating the idea and believe it would be easy to restart the effort.[69]
Georgia Pritchett stated in a June 2021 interview that she andSimon Pegg were working on developing aGalaxy Quest television series.[70] Paramount was stated to be in the early stages of aGalaxy Quest series in April 2023 for theParamount+ streaming service, with production overseen by Johnson.[71]
Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary was produced by the web siteFandom in 2019 to celebrate the film's 20th anniversary. Titled after Captain Taggart's catchphrase "Never give up, never surrender!", it features interviews with the movie's cast and crew, including Allen, Weaver, Rockwell, Shalhoub, Long, Pyle, Wilson, and Mitchell, along with director Parisot and writer Gordon, as well as celebrities includingWil Wheaton,Brent Spiner,Greg Berlanti,Paul Scheer, andDamon Lindelof, who have spoken of their love for the film. Initially premiering to a limited audience at the October 2019New York Comic Con, it subsequently had a limited theatrical showing at about 600 screens throughFathom Events on November 26, 2019, which included a screening of deleted scenes as well as the debut ofScreen Junkies' "Honest Trailer" forGalaxy Quest.[72][73] The film was made available on various digital media services for purchase in December 2019.[74]
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