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Amazon Developing TV Series Based On Galaxy Quest
An anonymous reader writes: Entertainment Weekly reports that Amazon Studios is developing a TV show based on Galaxy Quest, the 1999 film that parodied classic sci-fi shows like Star Trek. In the movie, actors for a Trek-like show were conscripted by real aliens to help run a starship and negotiate peace with a mortal enemy. The actors had no idea what to do, of course, and ended up getting help from the most rabid fans of their show. The new TV show is still in early stages of development. It's unlikely that the original Galaxy Quest cast will return — it starred Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, and Sam Rockwell, to name a few. However, several important members of the production crew will return: "The film's co-writer Robert Gordon will pen the script and executive produce the pilot. The film's director Dean Parisot will direct and executive produce. And executive producers Mark Johnson and Melissa Bernstein are on board as well." The show is a ways off, yet — they haven't even been greenlit for a pilot episode — but it'd be a welcome addition to today's sci-fi TV offerings
But will it be another Stargate or Logan's Run? Sometimes a good idea can be spread too thinly.
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"By Grabthar's Hammer, we live to tell the tale..."
The idea behind Galaxy Quest was really neat for a single story. The problem with doing a series that way is that after an episode or two, it will necessarily just devolve into the bad Trek clone the movie was parodying. Voyager had the same problem. They set up this neat twist with mortal enemies forced to work together on the same ship to survive, but then once the pilot was over they were all chummy (because the fundamental survival problem was still there), and the rest of the run it became just another Trek TOS clone.
I can see two good ways out of this:
Way 1: Don't resolve the main plot in the pilot. Basically, they'd need to stretch the entire move out over a 3-5 season arc, more like Babylon-5 than like Trek. A lot of modern shows are doing this. The only issue is that it tends to make the series feel really slow and boring if you don't throw some other little things in there to resolve. There's only so much foreplay a guy will sit through...
Way 2: This time, take a writer with them. An actor playing a writer, I mean. Someone to think up the silly resolutions (like the stuff that TNG always had Wesley do). So every week the "writer" would have to think up a new ridiculous way to get everyone out of the latest pickle. After all, it was really the writers who thought up the BS resolutions that made Galaxy Quest (OK, Trek) so silly. There's probably enough silly kinds of SF plot devices to parody that you could get a good two or three seasons out of it.
I actually thought the movie was a pretty good one, probably the best movie outside of the Toy Story films that Tim Allen has been involved in. He played a great Bill Shatner, vain and obnoxious, and of course Rickman and Weaver were pitch perfect as versions of Spock and Uruha. It was much about gently mocking Treckies as it was about mocking the actors. It was a mild, good-natured bit of satire that I've watched a couple of times since it came out and have enjoyed.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
The sad part was that Galaxy Quest was marketed to kids instead of a parody of, or homage to, Star Trek (TOS in particular) and its adult fan base. Thus, didn't do as well at the box office as it should have. Note: I've seen ST:TOS in original network first run and have been a fan of all forms of the show since (and I'm a huge fan of Babylon 5 as well).
Galaxy Quest had a great mix of comedy, parody, character development, and heroism as well as some classic sci-fi elements. It's one of the first works that was respectful to the sci-fi genre without taking itself too seriously.
If done carefully, the series could work. In TOS, there were a number of plot holes (e.g. in "Balance of Terror", Spock hitting a button that causes a beeper to go off, alerting the Romulan ship--this ignores the fact that sound doesn't travel in a vacuum). In ST:TNG, they got around things with the "exotic particle/ray of the week" approach.
For example, "cross phased polartronide delta particles", CPPDP for short. They threaten to rupture space/time, etc.
The new series could work because maybe the ship has something that could combat CPPDP but they'd have to explore the ship to find it. Then, they'd have to figure out how to operate it. Plenty of opportunity for comedy. Plenty of opportunity for traditional Star Trek plots, just presented in a lighter vein.
In TOS, the "A Taste Of Armageddon", the planet fights its wars with computers and herds casualties into suicide stations. Everybody took this so seriously (Kirk, Spock, the aliens, and Ambassador Fox). Nobody ever said "How silly that is".
How about having a smart-mouthed android that says: "Completely logical. Our ship's sensors have determined 99.44% of your population is composed of genetic defectives" (like the robot in "Lost in Space" saying "Dr. Smith is a quack").
Further, the android is programmed to abide by Azimov's robot principles. But, the android is constantly trying to break that programming so he can kill the rest of the crew (e.g. Like Klinger doing outrageous/funny things to win him a section 8 discharge in "Mash").
The ship, internally, could be much larger than the outside (Think: Tardis). In Stargate, they were always discovering new stuff left behind by the "ancients".
If the interior of the ship were large enough, it could have a ST:DS9 "promenade". In Babylon 5, there was the "zocalo". Plenty of room for a shady character like Quark, Harry Mudd, etc. In B5, it wasn't all equal. They had levels that were little more than tent cities, with the denizens living in poverty.
How about "breaking the fourth wall" and speaking directly to the audience. This was done by George Burns in "Burns & Allen" [and "Wendy and Me"]. It was also done in "She Spies". Let the android do it, functioning as narrator: "Android's log: The ship is headed to Omicron Burpo Five to initiate trade negotiations. I, however, have determined that the Omicron Burpo system has large amounts of Kyratron radiation and that if I'm able to collect enough of it, I'll be able to break my Azimov programming and finally kill the crew".
Oh, yeah. How about a character like Jonathan Harris' "Dr Smith" in "Lost in Space", who is just as cowardly. Or, like Colonel Klink from "Hogan's Heroes".
Or, maybe there's the lovable ship's cook (like Neelix in ST:Voyager), but who is inept. Food poisoning after his meals, etc. The crew has to find ever more clever ways to disguise the fact that they're not eating his food anymore, lest it hurt his feelings.
Because the ship is so big [internally], it could have a passenger liner section (Think: Love Boat). ST had a number of episodes around transporting diplomatic personnel to peace conferences. A passenger orders a vegan meal. Gets a vegetarian meal. But, the passenger really wanted "sauteed kremloks" served as they do in Vega star system.
Do a main plot each week, just like Star Trek, albeit a little more tongue-in-cheek. Add more sarcastic stuff in smaller side plots and characters. This was the form for a lot of episodes of the Mash series, which carefully balanced serious subjects with comedy.
In short, Galaxy Quest as a series, has the potential to be just about anything.
Like a good neighbor, fsck is there