The year 1999 was a much less cynical time in American pop culture. On television, The West Wing was still preaching a more civil vision of politics, while Stargate SG-1 imagined a world where scientists and soldiers worked together to explore a universe of infinite possibilities. In theaters, The Matrix echoed our collective, overblown Y2K fears in the most badass way possible, while Star Wars roared back into the zeitgeist with the promise of a bold new trilogy. (It didn’t exactly pan out, but back in 1999, we were ready to believe.) It was in this bright-eyed moment that one movie arrived to satirize geek culture in the gentlest way possible.
Released on Dec. 25, 1999, Galaxy Quest put a cap on the 20th century by lovingly skewering the previous few decades of science fiction (particularly Star Trek). While it came from a place of affection, with the gift of hindsight, it’s difficult not to see the film as an omen of Hollywood’s sharp turn toward cynicism in the decades to come — especially once you know some of the story ideas that didn’t make it into the final movie.
Galaxy Quest is also streaming for free right now on Tubi after landing on the platform earlier this month, making it the perfect time to revisit this sci-fi classic.
If you’ve never seen Galaxy Quest, please do yourself a favor and watch it immediately. But if, for some reason, you can’t (or you’ve seen it, but your memory of the plot is a bit murky), here’s a quick plot summary. The movie centers around a fictional, Star Trek-esque TV show called Galaxy Quest that was wildly popular in the 1980s. A decade later, the series is over, and the cast has failed to do much else with their careers, instead showing up at various fan conventions to sell autographs for money. Meanwhile, somewhere out in space, an alien race has been watching episodes of Galaxy Quest under the assumption that it’s a documentary. When their planet comes under attack, they summon the show’s cast, who must rise to the occasion and somehow save these aliens from destruction.
Galaxy Quest is a perfect mix of comedy and sci-fi. The humor of watching a bunch of washed-up actors try to bluff their way through alien encounters and spaceship battles is hilarious, but the action is also genuinely exciting at times. The stand-out cast, which includes Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shalhoub, and Sam Rockwell, all rise to the challenge. The chemistry between the group is palpable, and you really believe they’ve been co-workers and frenemies for years. (Rickman, who plays a Spock-like alien, displays a level of disdain for Allen’s swaggering Kirk-esque captain that rivals his performance as Severus Snape in Harry Potter).
Galaxy Quest is a family film with an undeniable PG rating. However, as revealed in MTV’s oral history (via Big Shiny Robot, the original has been lost to website updates), early ideas for the movie would have pushed it into R-rated territory.
“There’s talk about the so-called R-rated version of the film,” screenwriter Robert Gordon said. “When I originally wrote it, I wasn’t thinking about a family film, just what I wanted to see. So when the ship lands in the convention hall in the original draft, it decapitates a bunch of people. There was also stuff we shot where Sigourney tries to seduce some of the aliens. It was cut – and that’s why her shirt is ripped at the end. Also, the worst-dubbed ‘F-bomb’ ever.”
While it’s probably for the best that Galaxy Quest veered into more family-friendly fare, it’s fascinating to imagine a version of the film that mocked sci-fi pop culture a bit more brutally. A quarter of a decade later, the image of a spaceship decapitating a convention hall full of fans isn’t exactly shocking, but it does sound extremely fun to watch. Maybe the creative team can try that if plans for a spinoff show ever come to fruition.
Galaxy Quest is streaming now on Tubi.
