What Galaxy Quest Gets Most Right About William Shatner’s Star Trek Run

December 23, 2024

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Everybody loves Jason Nesmith. At least, that’s what Jason Nesmith thinks. As the star of the long canceled sci-fi show, Galaxy Quest, Jason regularly enters to cheers from crowds of admirers, even if they’re really cheering for his character, Commander Peter Quincy Taggart of the NSEA Protector. But behind the closed door of a men’s […]

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Everybody loves Jason Nesmith. At least, that’s what Jason Nesmith thinks. As the star of the long canceled sci-fi show, Galaxy Quest, Jason regularly enters to cheers from crowds of admirers, even if they’re really cheering for his character, Commander Peter Quincy Taggart of the NSEA Protector. But behind the closed door of a men’s room stall, Nesmith learns the truth. In a convention hall bathroom, Jason overhears two guys mock their fellow attendees, the Galaxy Quest cast, and especially Nesmith. Actor Tim Allen lets the sadness mix with the dawning on his face, the first of many realizations that occur throughout the cult 1999 comedy classic, Galaxy Quest.

The bathroom conversation is also one of many moments in Galaxy Quest drawn from the actual lives of Star Trek cast members. According to a (possibly apocryphal) tale, the supremely confident William Shatner suffered a blow to the ego when he heard a couple of young men making fun of him and the cast of The Original Series at a convention. The scene in Galaxy Quest certainly plays on Shatner’s outsized sense of self-importance. But it works because it also has sympathy and admiration for Shatner, allowing Galaxy Quest to capture Trekkies’ complicated feelings about the man who made James T. Kirk the greatest captain in Federation history.

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Great Characters and Greater Egos

Nesmith’s bathroom revelation shouldn’t be that much of a shock, given the altercation that he has with co-star Alexander Dane. Portrayed by the great Alan Rickman, Dane resented his regal alien character Dr. Lazarus and had just finished ranting about his derailed dramatic career. Disgusted, Dane runs for the door, but Nesmith tries to stop him, calming his co-star by referring to themselves as old friends.

“Old friend?” retorts Dane. “You stole all my best lines, you cut me out of episode two entirely!” Those charges also stem from actual Star Trek history. As Leonard Nimoy’s character rose in popularity during TOS‘ original run, a jealous Shatner would rewrite scripts so that Kirk got lines originally intended for Spock.

Shatner’s script hijacking is one of many examples of his clashes with co-stars. Even as recently as 2022, Sulu’s actor George Takei called Shatner “a prima donna” during the filming of the show, claiming that although the rest of the cast enjoyed a strong camaraderie, “none of us” got along with the man who played their captain. “He was self-involved,” Takei told The Guardian. “He enjoyed being the center of attention. He wanted everyone to kowtow to him.”

Takei may be the most vocal of Shatner’s detractors but he was hardly alone. According to his book Boldly Go, Nichelle Nichols told Shatner that the others found him “cold and arrogant.” At the 2015 Steel City Con (via Hollywood in Toto), Walter Koenig claimed that the rest of the cast bonded “mostly because of our mutually grumbling of Mr. Shatner.” Shatner and Nimoy were and always shall be frenemies, but it got so bad during the filming of TOS that Gene Roddenberry had to order them to make peace. Shatner even famously turned his ire toward fans, as in a legendary Saturday Night Live sketch in which he orders Trekkies to “get a life!”

Galaxy Quest reflects Shatner’s attitude in his treatment of his castmates and fans. He emerges into the movie declaring “your captain is here!” without even acknowledging that he made everyone wait for an hour. When he thinks that the alien Mathesar is just a fan who wants to hire him for an engagement, Jason talks down to the dignitary and even rudely pokes his finger in a condescending way.

Furthermore, Jason is played by Tim Allen, an actor who also has a reputation for irritating others. Allen went from someone who was arrested for trafficking cocaine in 1978, when he was studying at Western Michigan University, to having the number one sitcom in Home Improvement, the number one movie with The Santa Clause, and the number one book with Don’t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man. So great was his rise that Western Michigan University conferred upon him an honorary degree (much to the chagrin of this writer, who had to earn his BA from WMU the usual way).

Home Improvement co-star Pamela Anderson claimed in her 2023 book Love, Pamela that Allen flashed her on set, and comedian Casey Wilson declared on the Bitch Sesh podcast that Allen was “fucking rude” while filming the Disney+ series The Santa Clauses. “Never made eye contact, never said anything. It was so uncomfortable,” she charged.

Maybe those shared difficulties help explain why Galaxy Quest gets the Shatner appeal so well.

Strongest At His Weakest

As recorded in the excellent behind the scenes documentary, Never Surrender, the Galaxy Quest script unlocked when writers Robert Gordon (who shares a screenplay credit with David Howard) and director Dean Parisot realize that Jason loves being the captain, even if it’s just pretend. Where the original story made him more of a bitter washout like Dane, the new version would make him glad to reprise his role at cons and, eventually, in outer space because it presents him at his best.

Thus there’s a vulnerability to Jason that makes him compelling, even when he’s being an arrogant jerk. Jason is tragic because he needs the very people to whom he condescends. He may act like he’s better than his co-stars Dane and Gwen DeMarco (Sigourney Weaver), or better than his biggest fan Mathesar (Enrico Colantoni), the Thermian who recruits Jason and the crew to fight real space battles against the warlord Sarris (Robin Sachs and some outstanding make-up effects from Bill George at ILM). But he needs them to be the person he wants to be: Commander Taggart.

Like most of his castmates, Shatner sometimes had a complicated relationship with Kirk, despite going on to successful projects such as T.J. Hooker and Boston Legal. But he still had clear pride in the captain, reprising the role for Star Trek: The Animated Series, the planned Star Trek: Phase II, and all the movies through 1994’s Generations. Shatner also undid Kirk’s death in Generations for a wonderfully unhinged set of novels and, to this day, grouches that J.J. Abrams brought Nimoy’s Spock back, but not his Kirk, in the reboot films.

That pride and natural bluster is evident onscreen in his every outing as Kirk. Sure, Shatner’s idiosyncratic line deliveries have long since become a punchline, but they’re effective nonetheless. Shatner believes so much in the truth of Kirk as a character that he gives every single word great weight. And more often than not, it’s fantastic. Every word of the “risk is our business” speech from the season two episode “Return to Tomorrow” deserves that weight. Our love for Spock justifies the long pause Kirk takes before finding the word “human” in the eulogy at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Moreover, for all of his bluster, Shatner has no problem playing the comedy of his character and being the butt of the joke. Just look at the reaction he has when Decker challenges Kirk in The Motion Picture. After telling Decker to mind his place, the newly-busted-down XO reminds the captain that it is a first officer’s job to check his superior officer. Shatner gives the moment space before Kirk responds, taking his time before allowing a proud smile, letting the audience realize that Kirk is indeed wrong here. “I stand corrected,” confesses Kirk.

In fact, all of the TOS movies are about how old and out of step Kirk is. Sure, Kirk begins Star Trek V, the one Shatner himself directed, free soloing El Capitan. But he still almost falls to his death after getting interrogated by a cool Spock in hoverboots. Whether or not he knows it about himself, Shatner knows that Kirk isn’t perfect, which only makes us love him more.

The Captain’s Confession

In Galaxy Quest, Jason has a moment of truth. In a fantastic bit of acting from Allen, Jason admits to Mathesar that he’s an actor and not the man he pretended to be. Seeing how his actions affect others changes Jason. He realizes he needs to be more like Taggart instead of Nesmith.

Now in his 90s, it’s unlikely that Shatner will have a similar come-to-Sha Ka Ree moment. But even if he doesn’t have a full turnaround, we still have his complex take on Captain Kirk, a man as open and vulnerable as he is stubborn and bloviating.

The post What Galaxy Quest Gets Most Right About William Shatner’s Star Trek Run appeared first on Den of Geek.