Galaxy Quest

Galaxy Quest is a 1999 motion picture written by David Howard, with additional screenplay work by Robert Gordon and directed by Dean Parisot, starring Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, and Tony Shalhoub. more...

The movie is about the washed-up stars of a 1978-1982 TV series called Galaxy Quest (a parody of the original series of Star Trek ) who find themselves in a real interplanetary adventure, thanks to some highly-intelligent extraterrestrials who, having no concept of fiction, believed the show to be "historical documents." Not knowing that all of the show's technology was imaginary, the aliens sought to emulate it, managing to actually create it exactly as shown on the show.

The movie won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in the year 2000, beating the four other nominees: Being John Malkovich, The Iron Giant, The Matrix, and The Sixth Sense.

Portions of the movie were filmed in Goblin Valley State Park, Utah, USA.

The DVD release of the film included an alternate audio track in which dialogue from the film is overdubbed with alien gibberish.

A sequel is reported to be in the works.

Galaxy Quest and Star Trek

The movie parodied everything from the technology of Star Trek to the Star Trek conventions. The parody is mostly friendly (some Star Trek fans refer to it good-humoredly as "the best Star Trek movie ever made"), and was widely appreciated by science fiction fans.

As an acknowledged homage to Star Trek, there are a variety of correspondences between the world of Galaxy Quest and the world of Star Trek. The television program within the film, Galaxy Quest, is set around the starship NSEA Protector, an instrument of the National Space Exploration Agency; thinly veiled replicas of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 and Starfleet, respectively.

A promotional website was set up by the film production company. It was intentionally designed to look like a poorly constructed fan website, with "screen captures" and poor HTML coding. This was a reference to the countless similar websites devoted to Star Trek.

Despite the overarching similarities to Star Trek, the film has more original dramatic and comedic merit than many spoof comedies, if it is to be considered one. For instance, Mel Brooks' Spaceballs, while a broad-hitting spoof of mostly Star Wars, with a few jabs at Star Trek, may deliver less to a viewer not already familiar with Star Wars. Conversely, most of the plot, themes, and subplots of Galaxy Quest can be followed and appreciated by those who know little to nothing about Star Trek, although Trekkies will usually either have a richer appreciation or a deeper dissatisfaction with the film, as a neutral response may be difficult to find in such circles.

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