Galaxy Quest: The Inside Story

An image of Jupiter flickered onto the cinema screen. A few seconds later, came a voice, solemn yet reassuringly familiar. Will we leave our home on Earth for other worlds? asked the voice.  The distances are vast. The voyage hazardous...
Sitting in the audience at the IMAX in Los Angeles was office temp and struggling writer David Howard. It was 1994, and Howard was in attendance to see a short film about the African Serengeti as research for a play he was working on. But it was the trailer for Americans in Space, a documentary about the US Space Program, that caught his attention. I said to myself, I know that voice... and tried to place it, Howard recalls. Then I realized, Oh, it s Leonard Nimoy. It made me think about how hopelessly typecast actors like that can be. Even when they don t appear on camera! It struck me as kind of funny and tragic in a way. I just started exploring what it must be like to be trapped in that sort of situation.

After mulling the idea over for a few days, Howard sat down to begin a script for a movie. The script was Captain Starshine. Five years later, it had undergone a metamorphosis to become Galaxy Quest.


Strange New Worlds

Like many Americans, Howard had grown up watching Star Trek in syndication as a kid in Tucson, Arizona. It was on dinnertime every night, and my sister and I would watch it over and over again, he remembers. I loved the show, though I like to describe myself as a Trekkie-once-removed because there are others like my sister  who were into it more than I was.

When Howard was 16, Gene Roddenberry came to speak at a local science fiction convention. I remember Roddenberry telling us how much the situation had changed since Star Trek had been cancelled. He had gone back to Paramount a number of times to try and get something new happening for several

Matt McAllister is the author of the book Ghostbusters: The Inside Story. He has written extensively for entertainment magazines, including Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, Dreamwatch, MyM, and The Dark Side, and is the former editor of Marvel Fact Files and Indiana Jones: The Official Magazine.

From the inside flap:

This in-depth guide to the much-loved science fiction comedy tells the story of how a high-concept idea grew into an effects-packed spectacular with an all-star cast at the top of their game.

The cast and crew, including Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Sam Rockwell, Dean Parisot, and Robert Gordon, recall the exhilarating experience of making the movie, while revealing how they navigated challenges that included a last-minute change of directors and a late drive to make the picture more family-friendly. Meanwhile, the talented artists at ILM and Stan Winston Studio disclose behind-the-scenes secrets about the movie s fantastic starships and monsters. The book also includes dozens of sketches, costume designs, and behind-the-scenes photos that highlight how key concepts evolved during the production process.