Galaxy Quest · reception & legacy
1999 · Dean Parisot
How Galaxy Quest has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
A modest holiday-season performer in December 1999 that got warm reviews but middling box office — and has since been fully canonised, to the point where actual Star Trek fans voted it one of the greatest Star Trek films ever made.
What's debated
The perennial fan debate: does Galaxy Quest count as a Star Trek movie, and if so, is it better than most of the real ones?
Its footprint
"Never give up, never surrender!" and "By Grabthar's hammer" are permanent fixtures of nerd vocabulary, and the film is the standard reference point for any affectionate parody of fandom itself.
Where it stands
A beloved comfort-classic and rewatch staple — the rare parody that fans of the thing it's parodying claim as their own.