In the tumultuous and confusing clusterfuckery of life, it can be nice to have a few constants to cling to. The sun rising in the east, the steady grumbling about how things were better “in the past,” the assertion that Galaxy Quest will someday be more than just a fondly remembered one-off Star Trek parody film. Such was the eternal cycle indulged in by star Sigourney Weaver this week, as she told Collider that plans for a Galaxy Quest sequel TV series, once thought scuppered by the death of Alan Rickman, are once more on the move.
Weaver was talking about her upcoming film My Salinger Year, when the topic of the crew of the NSEA Protector once again came up, as it so frequently does among people for whom one Galaxy Quest was somehow not enough. Weaver noted that plans for a Galaxy Quest sequel film were scotched years ago after screenwriter Bob Gordon was irritated by the way Dreamworks reshaped the original film into a children’s movie, but that hopes for a TV continuation are still going strong:
The movie was so witty, and when they released it, DreamWorks cut a lot of the wittiest scenes because they wanted to put it out as a children’s movie at Christmas. I think that was disappointing for everybody, so he decided not to let them have the second one. However, it was about four years ago, Bob and (producer) Mark Johnson and the whole group, started to develop a series. We lost the wonderful Alan [Rickman] unexpectedly, so that was put in mothballs, but I think they are finally now reviving it.
All of which is still, obviously, pretty vague, but what is Galaxy Quest about, if not the vague hope that the future will hold brave new promise for old and, frankly, exhausted ideas? Weaver is, at least, effusive, even as she acknowledges what losing Rickman might mean for the chemistry of the show’s cast:
It will be the story of the old ancient Galaxy Questers being brought into this series with another young cast. I haven’t read them, so I don’t know the details, but I think that everyone in Galaxy Quest would love to participate because it was such a wonderful experience for us. How they will find someone to play Alan’s part, don’t know, but I think that they have a very good idea of who to do it. He’s irreplaceable, eternally. I think there may be good news on that front, but I haven’t heard about it in these six months, so when it’s gonna happen, I’m not sure.
It’s not 100 percent clear whether Weaver is talking about the same Galaxy Quest TV series that Paul Scheer has been working on for a few years now, and which was supposedly heading toward Amazon circa 2015 before the project reportedly got put on the back-burner. [Reply]
Galaxy Quest worked because much like Austin Powers was to James Bond, Galaxy Quest was a parody of the original Star Trek.
I just don't see it working as a TV series, which is probably why after nearly 22 years, there's been no sequel or series that made it past the "developmental" phase. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud: Galaxy Quest worked because much like Austin Powers was to James Bond, Galaxy Quest was a parody of the original Star Trek.
I just don't see it working as a TV series, which is probably why after nearly 22 years, there's been no sequel or series that made it past the "developmental" phase.
Yeah, that's my initial reaction. I loved the movie, but I don't see how you transform it into a TV series. The movie mined 90 percent of the possible jokes. The only way a TV series would work is if you took the characters and then went a different direction in terms of plot, in which case it's not really the same creature. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud: Galaxy Quest worked because much like Austin Powers was to James Bond, Galaxy Quest was a parody of the original Star Trek.
I just don't see it working as a TV series, which is probably why after nearly 22 years, there's been no sequel or series that made it past the "developmental" phase.
It really is a great flick. Almost by accident. It had sort of a troubled production history. [Reply]
As I think about it, I guess the opening for the series is that they're now known as a space crew, so they could get called upon by other civilizations. But at that point I think it ceases to be a spoof and becomes its own scifi show.
I think the opening of a series would have to be the crew at a convention of aliens signing autographs for a menagerie of different creatures. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud: Galaxy Quest worked because much like Austin Powers was to James Bond, Galaxy Quest was a parody of the original Star Trek.
I just don't see it working as a TV series, which is probably why after nearly 22 years, there's been no sequel or series that made it past the "developmental" phase.
Isn't McFarlane already doing to meh results? [Reply]
Please no. Please don't ruin the cheeky perfection of Galaxy Quest dumping on Star Trek and all its fans in the one shot movie by trying to build on our memories of it. [Reply]
