The 1999 sci-fi comedy movie Galaxy Quest was a loving spoof of Star Trek and Trek fandom. It even shows up on some “best of Star Trek” lists. Now Star Trek’s Simon Pegg is the latest tasked at a Galaxy Quest follow-up.
Simon Pegg gives reviving Galaxy Quest a try
Since 1999 there have been a number of attempts to develop some kind of follow-up to Galaxy Quest. And in a new interview, Emmy-winning writer/producer Georgia Pritchett revealed to the UK’s Times she is working on a television spinoff, with Simon Pegg.
The article contained no other details about the project. The latest news regarding a Galaxy Quest series was one in development at Amazon which would bring back members of the original cast. A number of writers had been attached to that project, including Paul Scheer who in 2018 told The Wrap it had been put on hold. According to Scheer, his version would have the original cast interacting with the new cast, a storyline he said was inspired by the 2009 movie Star Trek featuring a new cast.
In March of this year, Sigourney Weaver told Collider that the project had been “in mothballs” in the years following the 2016 passing of Alan Rickman, however, she also indicated new activity, saying “I think they are finally now reviving it.” It’s not clear if the current project involving Pritchett and Pegg is related in any way to the one worked on by Scheer or mentioned by Weaver, however she said it was a “story of the old ancient Galaxy Questers being brought into this series with another young cast.” Galaxy Quest star Tim Allen has also discussed reprising his role as Commander Taggert. Earlier this year he talked to EW about a possible sequel to the film.
In addition to playing Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the three Kelvin Universe Star Trek films produced by J.J. Abrams, Simon Pegg has extensive writing credits in comedy and genre on both film and television, including co-writing 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. Pritchett has an impressive resume garnering a number of awards and nominations, including the critically-acclaimed shows Veep, and Succession. She also has some sci-fi comedy television experience, working with Armando Iannucci on HBO’s Avenue 5.
With many starts and stops over the years, it’s hard to say if this latest attempt to bring back Galaxy Quest will take off. However, Pegg seems to be a perfect fit for the project, and Pritchett being involved indicates this is a serious effort. So, never give up, never surrender.
Keep up with other sci-fi news at TrekMovie.com.
Galaxy Quest was a classic! The trouble with Simon Pegg sticking his nose into it, he might just muck it up. If Pegg was only half as good as he THINKS he is, then you might have something.
That is quite an insult for a guy who has turned in pretty much decent to great material on and behind the scenes. Is there some Trumpian meglomania with Pegg that I haven’t heard about?
Pegg co-wrote Star Trek Beyond, and when some fans pointed out that the film was mediocre at best, Pegg went ballistic on them. His arrogant self-absorbed ego is similar to that of a certain writer/ producer who pops in here from time to time. Both men show signs of being vindictive insecure little pr***s.
Final warning for trolling. Locked
Amazing. What a juvenile troll. I’m surprised they’ve allowed this excuse for a meaningful comment.
im guessing youd have preferred Orcis ST3? i know i would!
imagine if GQ had starred TOS cast
That’s about as likely as Shatner allowing Ellison’s original CITY script to be shot w/o revision. But yeah, it would have been fun, as would a TOS cast commentary.
its crazy how much ST09 seemed to take from GQ – from the botched spacedock scene, Neros Sarris’ style ship, Kirks KM test/Tim Allen initial dealing with Sarris, the ‘bigger fish’ moment on the planet, the emergency beam up, scotty in the pipes/the there for no reason chompers, Quinto/Rickman constantly pissed off, signpost redshirt, the time travel orb mcguffin. the silver plate handphasers and the phaser fights etc were more like GQ than Trek
Agreed. Especially the water pipes were 110% GQ… But then, I loved GQ so much back in the day I didn’t bother about any of that…
The opening scene of Beyond was also pure GQ…
I never noticed that! Although in fairness, some of those are Trek cliches parodied by GQ.
Nope. GQ claimed those were Trek cliches while most of them hadn’t been. The Omega 13 countdown yes, the rest, not so much… But the KT took GQ literally, which I loved because I think those overdone plot devices deserve to part of actual Trek .-)
Tim Allen, Enrico Colatoni, Sigourney Weaver and Justin Long to me are required castmembers if this is gonna work.
Knowing Hollywood this will be a ‘reimagined’ version. In another word – crap.
It could follow the cast of Galaxy Quest: The Next Generation.
I think the idea is that the original actors are replaced with younger actors portraying the same characters (like Star Trek 2009). That’s a pretty good setup for comedy. For comparison, it would be more comical to see Shatner jealous with Pine playing Kirk than Shatner jealous with Stewart playing Picard.
Normally that term can be taken negatively. But in this case I think that is what a new Galaxy Quest would need to work. It’s got to be similar but different.
no rockwell?
Tony Shalhoub or bust!
Rockwell and Shalhoub are absolutely a must. But yeah Colatoni and the other Thermians too. The way they walk and talk will never not be funny.
I could take or leave Allen honestly. Its the only movie I’ve ever really liked him in and it’s not because of him.
YES!
People forget his work on classic UK sit com ‘spaced’, which launched him, nick frost and Edgar Wright.
Pegg has done some good work with dry humor. It may be a good fit for him
And I see LeVar Burton landed the Jeopardy gig. Good day for Trek alumni…
Can we have some original ideas please?
Can we have some original comments, please?
I didn’t see anyone comment as such before me on this article. So it’s original as far as this thread goes. Now get get your shine box.
Why was Nemesis not-so-good if ten is an even number? Because GQ threw off the numbering.
Or possibly because that urban legend is meaningless and wrong.
Ikr its a fun theory especially with GQ there seemingly righting the rest but really the odd/even urban legend should never have taken off after III was obviously a great Trek film (and was deemed so at the time, President Reagans opinion notwishstanding)
Yeah, III kind of throws things. I guess it just pales in between the awesomenesses that are II and IV.
III and IV threw that “even” theory out of whack.
I hope you are trying to say 3 is better than 4 because if you are I agree 100%.
It absolutely is better.
It’s just all in good fun man. No need to poo poo on it. I doubt anyone actually takes it that seriously. It’s just something fans have always joked about with each other.
And I’ve always been a fan of the Galaxy Quest “fix” for it myself.
Because the even numbered Trek film thing was proved false pretty early on.
A Galaxy Quest TV series? Yes, please! Hopefully, it would be produced by CBS Studios and/or Paramount Television Studios.
The movie was made by Dreamworks, which doesn’t have a TV studio. Dreamworks has been affiliated with Paramount and Disney in the past, but for the past five years has worked with Universal, which owns NBC. Dreamworks Animation is entirely a part of Universal, and Dreamworks itself is a division of Amblin (Spielberg).
But rights may be a bit more complicated because of that history. For example, the movie was released on DVD by Paramount, *after* their partnership ended.
So I guess it could go any way.
Pegg is in the unique position that he can tackle this via the autobiographical write-what-you-know approach! ^^
Is anyone aware that Alan Rickman has been dead for over 5 years now?
Yep, that is heavily featured in most coverage of all these sequel/spinoff discussions. And it is mentioned in this very article.
Whoosh for me!
Recast with Hugh Laurie?
Yes. Also, we are pleased to report that for the 46th year in a row, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is *still* dead.
I hope the fans are brought back in like the first movie. Especially Justin Long. Perhaps even more looks at fandom.
I adore Galaxy Quest, but I don’t think it will be well-served by being its own franchise. Why not just enjoy this one perfect thing? Even if the great Alan Rickman were still alive I’m not sure a followup would be needed, and with him gone…
Hear, hear! Not everything needs to be a franchise. I would love for GQ to stay singularly, uniquely awesome
I would give you an “upvoted for the name Blondie-Wan” if upvoting were permitted in this forum.
I agree honestly. Galaxy Quest is almost a perfect movie for me. It was lightning in the bottle at the time. No need to do more, especially now that Rickman is no longer with us.
That said, I’ll give it a chance if it happens.
Don’t they already have a TV show like this on Hulu?
I enjoyed the GQ movie very much, but honestly I don’t think GQ lends itself well to the TV series format. The premise is not something you can develop and keep finding new stories on. The movie covered all the territory there is to cover. But that’s only my opinion.
What I’m thinking is that, seeing the success of The Orville, which is brilliantly written, acted and produced, TPTB are just trying to capitalize on that. Somebody is seeing the potential of making some money there and unfortunately this is what is driving this project. If the creative aspect of this is just an afterthought, it’s going to be like getting water from rocks.
It seems to me that a TV version of “Galaxy Quest” would kinda sorta compete directly with “The Orville.” I’m not necessarily saying that that would be justification for not watching the proposed series; it seems like such an obvious comment that I’m surprised the story didn’t mention it.
BTW, when TF is “The Orville” coming back?
If it was just a 6-8 episode limited streaming series it could work though, and not compete with the Orville.
Cast Adam Driver as Alexander Dane’s son? (I previously would’ve suggested Lawrence Fox as an even better fit for an on-screen son of Alan Rickman, but… yeah.)
Wouldn’t a British actor make more sense?
These days, that question is as nonsensical as asking, “Wouldn’t an American actor make more sense in the MAN OF STEEL movie or THE FLASH tv series?”
Uh… Grant Gustin *is* American, unless there’s another Flash series I wasn’t aware of.
Maybe a better question would be “Wouldn’t an American actor make more sense as Doctor Strange, so that Benedict Cumberbatch wouldn’t have do his impression of Hugh Laurie’s impression of an American accent?” ;)
Oops, my apologies. Thanks for catching that and providing another example. Must have confused him with, Stephen Amell. Well, they did swap roles in the Arrowverse, once.
But that just invites the old Canadian debate.
Should’ve gone with, SPIDER-MAN:FAR FROM HOME.
To answer your question, there was the 90s, THE FLASH, television series, but that, still, would have been no help to me.
I was just thinking about similarity of appearance & ability to inhabit the character… That’s why I previously favoured Lawrence Fox, very British himself, but he’s a bit too… controversial now.
Honestly I think this is worth a shot. Maybe the new version will work better than the feature film. However if the plan is still to run it on Amazon Prime then it’s unlikely I will see it.
People saying “But there’s already The Orville,” remember that Galaxy Quest’s premise is that a bunch of actors in real-world, present-day Earth discover that aliens have basically turned their fandom into a model for their civilization. That’s the source of the comedy. Regular people having to continue pretending to be actual space explorers. (“Did you guys never watch the actual show?”)
The Orville answers a different question: “What if The Next Generation was a sitcom / dramedy?” The setting is the actual future, with future humans aboard future starships. The comedy doesn’t come from a fish-out-of-water / fake-it-till-you-make-it setting, it comes from playing up the humor in trad sci-fi concepts / reworking TNG-esque storylines etc.
For me, I thought the question, THE ORVILLE, answered was, “What if THE NEXT GENERATION didn’t take itself quite so seriously?
This could be fantastic even without the movie cast, by making it like the new series was a reboot. It could go well either making it like the television show, so they’re just always characters in that universe, or inn the meta of making the television show, like the movie where they’re characters playing other characters. Then they could easily have the movie cast as guests or fillers or whatever.
I know I’ll probably get some pushback but I never really cared for GQ. It’s not the acting, the writing or the sfx. It’s the premise of it. Let’s take the piss out of Trek fans. I got teased enough, growing up a geek. I know this film was made with love and reverence but I just never cared for it. *ducks*
You were teased? I was mercilessly bullied both physically and verbally. So I think I have some idea what dark alley your thoughts went down to come to your conclusion.
I think it was around middle school when I got into philosophy, that I realized that if I let those jerks rob me of the ability to laugh at myself, that I’d be letting them do me serious damage.
So then I matured past middle age and GQ comes. The next morning, after seeing it in the theater, while shaving, a thought, similar to yours, flits across my mind and I let out a healthy guffaw. The thought that ANY of my bullies would have the talent to write a script that well-written was positively absurd. That they’d have the work ethic to thoroughly research my personal life experiences to mine them for laughs – even more so. Then, one final laugh on the realization that I have an ego – that I’d be so memorable.
Then I’d exit the bathroom with a spring in my step – “I have a healthy ego!”
I was never bullied, sorry you had to go through the physical abuse. Fortunately, I was somewhat athletic, and was able to fend off any bullies. I used to look out for and protect the more meek amongst us. I’m 57. I’m not sure how old you are, but if we went to the same school and we were Trek fans? I’d have been there with you, to stand up to the bullies. Again, I have no issue with how the movie was made. The writing, casting and acting-ALL OF IT, was well done.
I didn’t care for the premise, that’s all. Even with TOS and the Trek movies, my favorite ones were where everything was on the line, or the crew was in mortal danger. ” We need warp speed in 3 minutes, or we’re all dead!” stuff. The 10 year old me enjoyed the Trouble With Tribbles. Now, I just smile when it comes on BBC America, and I turn the channel. I never dial it up on Par+ or Netflix. I watch Doomsday Machine or Balance Of Terror, The Enterprise Incident, etc.
If/when this GQ show gets made? I’ll watch it with an open mind. I won’t be the guy telling everybody how or why they should hate it, or that it’s not real GQ. My wife and I watch GQ once or twice a year, with friends. I get told all the reasons why they love it and all of them are valid. It’s just not my thing, premise wise.
Well, that you believe the premise is that of comedy bullies targetting Trek fans is where we disagree.
I am older than you and in that longer life I have only run across one admitted comedy bully writer, Robert Smigel, who freely admits he wrote his GET A LIFE skit for SNL with the premise that you would wrongly assign to GQ.
And in that, I would think we’d both agree, as I absolutely have no desire to see Smigel benefit or profit from taking his premise to a weekly series.
I didn’t say I thought the premise of GQ was to bully Trek fans. The words I used were “take the piss out of Trek fans.” I borrowed from some UK slang. Take the piss means to tease, make fun of, or dismiss them, altogether.
Does this quote from QG’s writer/creator support your premise?
”Oh yeah. People ask me if I’m a Trekkie, and I would say that I’m a Trekkie once removed. I love Star Trek, and I really loved The Next Generation. I had buddy who wanted to write an episode of it once, and we wrote this episode together that never went anywhere — but I got really hooked on it.
Right after I got married, I started watching it for research. It was on five days a week in syndication, so all of a sudden I’ve got this Star Trek habit¿watching it every night and my wife’s going, “Who’s this guy? What’s happened to my husband?” It’s really intended to be an homage. It’s kidding, but it’s kidding with respect — and that’s a tone in my draft that was maintained throughout.” – David Howard
Actually, it does support my premise. The writer just admitted it. He just admitted that he was kidding, (teasing,ribbing,taking the piss) only with respect for the fans and the source material. I’ve said as such. The film is well made, all around. I just didn’t like the premise (with as much respect intended and delivered in the final film) of kidding Trek fans. Look, I think I understand. You like GQ and it’s premise. I don’t care for it. I guess my question to you is- “Do you want to be happy or do you just NEED to be right?” You like GQ, and everybody else has to LIKE it as well? Anybody who doesn’t like GQ needs to be shown the error of their ways? You’re 10 feet tall and bulletproof behind your keyboard? Is it just that HARD, being you? Here, I’ll help. My not enjoying the film shouldn’t diminish your enjoyment of it.
I think our differences center on the words “respect” and “target”. You seem to regard aiming the mirror at Trek fans, which clearly includes the author himself, as an act of ultimate disrespect which no amount of respectful writing after the fact can mend because it triggers memories of how non-fans treated you in the past.
I just am able to enjoy GQ because it never triggered me in that Smigelesque way.
Your experience is your experience. There’s no right or wrong to it. I just don’t see the connection you try to draw between it and THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES? A lot of people can’t enjoy watching comedies a second time because knowing all the punchlines ahead of time makes it impossible to duplicate their first take. But what does that have to do with GQ’s premise?
Here, in the States, a tease is a passive/aggressive move with emphasis on aggressive. The taunter often escalates as the goal and thrill for them is to get a reaction from the taunted, i.e. it’s just another form of bullying. Once the bully gets a reaction they’ll often feign respectful kidding by saying “I was just teasing!”
Neither “make fun of” nor, especially, “dismiss them, altogether” sound very respectful, either.