Galaxy Quest is a gem of a movie, and some would even argue that it’s the best Star Trek film that Star Trek never made. The story of a group of TV actors on a canceled sci-fi series being recruited by aliens to go on a real mission is consistently endearing even if you’ve never seen an episode of a sci-fi series, but it really nails the peculiarities and details of the genre in a loving way.
Several years ago, Amazon was looking to revive Galaxy Quest as a TV series, but then cast member Alan Rickman passed away unexpectedly, and so the series stopped moving forward. However, like the film’s most quotable line of “Never give up, never surrender,” it looks like plans for a revival of some kind are still happening at some level.
Christina Radish recently spoke to Galaxy Quest star Sigourney Weaver for her new movie My Salinger Year, and Weaver, after walking through how the film was altered for release to be more family-friendly and then the false start with the TV series, talked about where things stand now.
Related: Exclusive: Here’s What the 'Galaxy Quest' TV Show Would Have Been About
“They were in the middle of reviving it. First of all, there was another script. There was a sequel written by our writer, Bob Gordon. 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,” said Weaver.
“It will be the story of the old ancient Galaxy Questers being brought into this series with another young cast," she continued. "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.
That’s a nice sign of life for a new version of sorts for Galaxy Quest, although I personally always look at these revivals with a little bit of trepidation. Sometimes it’s best to leave well enough alone, but then again, Galaxy Quest will always be a classic. Maybe it’s time to return to the bridge of the NSEA Protector.