GALAXY QUEST Coming to a Small Screen Near You?

Variety reports that Paramount Television is currently shopping around a TV version of the movie Galaxy Quest.  For the uninitiated, Galaxy Quest might only be funny to you if you not only love the old Star Trek series but also realize that from time to time it could be a little silly, and that the show’s fans can be at times a wee bit rabid.

The 1999 movie Galaxy Quest lovingly capitalized on both of those aspects of the Star Trek culture with infinitely quotable dialogue and strong comedic performances from an amazing cast that consisted of Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Sam Rockwell, Tony Shalhoub, and Justin Long.  The storyline revolves around the cast of a campy but beloved 1970s sci-fi TV series; the cast is inadvertently reunited at a Con by a real alien race that desperately needs their “skills.”

Robert Gordon, who co-wrote the DreamWorks feature with David Howard, is in negotiations to work on the TV adaptation, as are original director Dean Parisot and executive producers Mark Johnson and Melissa Bernstein. Since 1999 when Galaxy Quest was released, the showrunners have been working on Breaking Bad, Rectify and Better Call Saul, among others.

We’ll be watching this one closely as it develops; the challenge, of course, will be finding character actors with the same rapport and acting chops as their movie version equivalents, as well as finding enough material to keep the show fresh.  With dozens of years of Star Trek material to spoof, the latter issue may not be that difficult to resolve. Whichever way it goes, we’ll be there.

[Editor’s Note: at the Creation Star Trek convention in Las Vegas, 2013, Galaxy Quest was ranked as the 7th best Star Trek movie of the franchise.]