Galaxy Quest

**Galaxy Quest** was a television series created by Frank Ross that ran from 1979 to 1982. The series told the stories of the Interplanetary adventures of the Protector across the far reaches of the universe. The franchise has had a lasting impact on both science fiction and popular culture.

Producer: David X. Machina

## History

The original variation of Galaxy Quest featured the same cast and characters, but had a western setting and was called **West Quest** the pilot was filmed but studio researchers insisted that westerns were no longer popular. The show was then re-imagined as a naval drama called **Navy Quest**. However the studio was going into bankruptcy and they couldn't afford the high budget needed for a naval drama, but there was a significant number of props laying around from an older space movie, thus Galaxy Quest was born.

This series ran for four seasons, and there were 92 episodes that were each an hour long. The series was cancelled after the airing of episode 92, ending on a cliffhanger. Episode 92 was never put into syndication and was nearly lost.

## Cast

* Jason Nesmith as Commander Peter Quincy Taggart
* Alexander Dane as Dr. Lazarus
* Gwen Demarco as Tawny Madison
* Fred Kwan as Tech Sergeant Chen
* Tommy Webber as Laredo
* Guy Fleegman as Crewman #6

## Notable Episodes

**Episode 1: Blue Winds of the Moon**

This episode was the pilot for the series, and was filmed after the pilot for West Quest. This marks the first time that "By Grabthars Hammer" is spoken on screen. "By Grabthars Hammer" was originally "by Thor's hammer." but the owners of the Thor Baby Food Company of Trenton, New Guernsey threatened to sue. The line was later dubbed over by Alexander Dane saying Grabther.

**Episode 2: The Mystery of Stasis**

In this exciting second episode, the planet Stasis suddenly deviates from its orbit and is set to collide with the Ugonian asteroid belt (and apparently a planet within the belt). In a race to evacuate all life forms from the planet, the NSEA Protector is caught in a meteor shower from the outer ring of the asteroid belt.

Disabled, they are forced to land on the planet for repairs where they find themselves in a planetary aura that compels them to tell only the truth. The Planet's society considers any talk of aliens blapshemy and our Heroes immediately come under fire. The crew must find a way to overcome the aura and the problems that it causes, make the necessary repairs and escape the planet before it is destroyed in the asteroid belt.

Dr. Lazarus was absent from this episode, he was written out of the script to increase focus more clearly on the drama of Peter Quincy Taggart's conflict involving the truth aura. Lazarus's actor, Anthony Dane did not expect the show to take off(and it wouldn't quite yet), Dane would appear in 88 of the 92 episodes.

**Episode 5: Brain and Brain**

**Episode 6: Assignment, Targathia**

This episode appears to be the first appearance of the Targathians.

**Episode 12: The Pupae Farm**

A mega space wasp captures the Protector and flies it to its home world nest. There it buries the ship and lays a multitude of eggs on the hull. Not wanting to become insect food, the Commander and crew device a way to kill the deadly insect and destroy its rapidly developing spawn.

This episode mentioned, or at least touches upon Commander Taggart's history as a navigator about the NSEA Explorer, and how he was promoted to commander after he saved the entire Explorer crew in a deadly encounter with the asteroid beast of Numbus 9. At the time nobody realized the creature was actually a small child looking for his pet comet.

**Episode 13: The Bivrakium Element**

The episode begins with Commander Taggart bravely standing his ground against an alien army on the planet Peraxis 5, saving the life of his closest friend and advisor, Dr. Lazarus. As the smoke settles the episode takes a Rashomon-like turn with Dr. Lazarus, Commander Taggart, Lt. Madison, and Tech Sergeant Chen telling a court martial how they got engaged in battle with the aliens.

This episode marks the first appearance of the Surface Pod in the series. The surface pod did not appear in the first few episodes because the cash-strapped studio simply couldn't afford to build the little ship for filming. That changed during when the Galactic: Ice Cream company offered to build the pod in exchange for the rights to use the design in a fleet of ice cream trucks. Not only did the show get a beautiful surface pod, but the cast and the crew got an unlimited supply of Galactic Ice Cream.

The full-sized surface pod prop was originally built as a large booster section, and a small cockpit module. Just before the first use the prop was trucked to the Vasquez Rocks, the filming location for Episode 13, a sudden gust of wind tore the entire booster from the flatbed, shattering it onto the roadside.

Only the cockpit remained, with no time or money to rebuild the wrecked section before filming the next day. Direct April Winter decided on the spot that the surface pod didn;t need a booster. Instead declared the pod was equipped with a "Hyperpulse thruster system" that happened to be small enough to fit under the pilots chair.

**Episode 15: Mists of Delos 5.**

"*Crewman Madison, the mist of this strange planet is filling my head with such thoughts.*"
―Commander Peter Quincy Taggart
The crew of the Protector arrives at Delos 5 after another NSEA ship, the Trojan, is inexplicably moored on the surface of the planet. Soon after their arrival, crew members of the Protector start experiencing sudden passionate urges triggered by the sweet mist that mysteriously blankets the planet without warning.
Just as quickly, the mist dissipates leaving many crew members in compromising situations. The Commander quickly realizes that the planet's passion-mist led to the grounding of the Trojan and the disappearance of its crew. While trying to avoid the same fate, Taggart is suddenly overcome with passion towards Lt. Madison. As they fall into each others arms and vanish into the mist, Taggart realizes that he can only save his crew by conquering his untamed libido. Showing tremendous strength Taggart overcomes Lt. Madison's flirtations and directs his ship away from the salacious planet.

This episode is often considered by fans to be one of Galaxy Quests finest hours, although some find the re-use of the protector sets to represent a ship exactly like the protector to be an unacceptable cost-cutting measure.
**Episode 16: The Quasar Dilemma**
When a deadly blast of radiation cripples the NSEA Protector, Commander Taggart is forced to choose between saving his crew and his promise to rescue a tribe of Mutant Space Slugs near the Galileo Quasar. At some point something called "a sentient" takes control of ship.

Time Knots were first mentioned in this episode, but they were not seen until Episode 92 - The Omega Crisis. Mostly because it took that long for the writers to decide what they really did.

**Episode 17: The Lights of Aldea**
Living energy crystals will kill Commander Taggart unless Dr. Lazarus can decode the shocking secret hidden in their light spectrum. But there's a catch, Lazarus is suffering from the Tev'Meck flu, which has made him color blind.
**Episode 19: The Omega Mutiny**
At some point in the episode a reactor fused, Tech Sergeant Chen used an element from Leopold Six to fix the quantum rockets.
Later at a convention, Fred Kwan was asked a technical question from a fan concerning the name of the element, and the blue sheath it was encased in. Fred Kwan professionally with no hesitation made up a name for the element Bivrakium, not knowing or forgetting that such an element already existed, and the blue sheath calling it a "bi-thermal Krevlite housing". This has since became Galaxy Quest Canon via companion novels.
**Episode 22: Requiem of the Martians**
The mythical Dust Giant of Phobos turns out to be all-too-real when the Protector tries to save the last survivor of an ancient race from the red planet, now Commander Taggart must conquer his allergies to face the angry Dust Giant in mortal combat. At some point, the creature's eyes are attacked. This episode is known to feature a sort of technology called "the tractor containment field."
**Episode 23: Grabthar's Hammer**
**Episode 24: The Nascent Nebula**
**Episode 26: The Doomsday Equation**
Involves the Terrakian people, and their Slave Girls. The Terrakian people are well known for the beautiful slave girls that appear to occupy the lowest rung on the planets social ladder. In fact, the "slave" girls occupy the highest rung, controlling not only the planet's government, but commerce, and military policy.
**Episode 31: The Kreemorian Strikes Back**
First appearance of the Kreemorian Fangor Beast, unknown what role it played in the episode. The Kreemorian Fangor Beast was designed by GQ's award-winning makeup artist Dorothy B. Douglas. who was inspired by a pizza that was being delivered to her shop, only to be splattered against the windshield of the delivery van when the driver slammed on the brakes.
**Episode 37: The Adonis Factor**
Involves a tauren pleasure ship. It seems that the Thermians modeled Gwen Demarcos quarters on the Protector II based on a tauran pleasure ship (which may indicate that her character Tawny Madison was at the very least fond of their ship, and possibly had her quarters modeled after the ship).
**Episode 38: The Planet of Dr.Garbadian**
In this classic episode the Commander and crew of the NSEA Protector encounter a small planet hidden behind a un-named double-star nebula. Dr. Garbanian, the inhabitant of the planet, is an amiable enough host, until the nature of his experiments is revealed: Garbanian believes the universe is intended to be populated by one type of being which is a hybrid of all other beings. To accelerate the process he has developed a Gamma-Microcoagulant Ray that can transform whole planets in one swoop. Fortunately the Commander and the crew foil his plans and arrest the doctor.

Considered a minor classic, best known for the filmmakers' use of an abandoned brewery in Glendale for the alien fortress of Dr. Garbanian.

**Episode 39: The Targathian Syndrome**

The second appearence of the Targathians, since their appearance in Assignment, Targathia.

A favorite among many casual fans, mostly because of Commander Taggart's stirring speech in the final scene. Nevertheless serious Questarians tend to downgrade "The Targathian syndrome" because of serious continuity errors in the opening battle, For example, Laredo mentions the previous encounter with the Targathians, as seen in episode 6 despite the fact that Tommy Webber did not join the Galaxy Quest cast until the seventh episode, and was not even in episode 6.

**Episode 40: For the Moon is Hollow**

AKA the episode with Moon princess T'prang. Actress/model Amber Joie was cast as the exotic moon princess in this episode. She knew, of course, that she would have to be covered head-to-toe in bright purple makeup for the alien role. What she didn't know was the she would be unable to wash off the waterproof dye. This forced her to wear that infamous purple veil the following week when she walked the red carpet at the American Broadcast awards, triggering a brief fad among pre-teen girls.

**Episode 45: The Dark Side of D'Kerivan**

Episode 51: The Ice Being Cometh

**Episode 55: Lazarus, Lazarus**

**Episode 62: Yesterday's Protector**

A time travel episode in which a previous incarnation of the Protector is brought forward in time, altering history in the process and creating a new timeline. The main Protector crew must work to send the Past Protector back in time, as they must be killed in order for history to be set back on the right track.

During the filming of this episode, Jason Nesmith decided to hide Alexander Dane's bicycle in the soundstage rafters. Alexander responded with a hilarious prank of his own, having Jason's Car towed away and recycled into coat hangers.

**Episode 67: Planet of the Kronthaxx**

The Kronthaxx unleash a terrifying Asteroid Squid.

The terrifying asteroid squid unleashed by the Kronthaxx gave nightmares to many young Questarians. Even child star Tommy Webber, who played laredo, admits "it was too scary for me to watch when I was a kid" and also commenting "I still cover my eyes whenever that space squid is on screen".

**Episode 73: A wrinkle in Space**

This was the episode to feature the infamous "Chompers".

The terrifying chompers near the engine room were in fact the product of a severe case of writers block. Midway through writing the episode, writer producer Frank Rose simply ran out of ideas, but he still had half of the story to finish. with the script he needed for shooting the next day Rose was desperate, instead of attempting to solve the story's crisis he quickly wrote a dramatic fight scene in a chamber called, for no particular reason, the "resonance mass dampener." The noisy giszmo made no discernable engineering sense on a quantum-powered spaceship, but they made for a very exciting scene. Frank Rose was once again hailed as a genius.

**Episode 75: Platypus Planet**

Trapped on a distant world with a hostile space platypus, Dr. Lazarus must devise a way to defend himself using only primitive power tools.

The notorious space platypus in this episode was a rejected costume originally made for a commercial for a fast-food restaurant chain, which deemed the platypus to be too scary for little children so instead a vampire was used in the commercial.

**Episode 81: Assault on Voltrex III**

Commander Taggart and his crew must prevent an evil Voltrexi scientist from using a freeze-ray to murder a family of living volcanoes.

The dramatic fire battle in the voltrex mountains and heart-wrenching scenes with the mother volcano make episode 81 a fan favorite, despite some shaky special effects work with fred's hologram which looks suspiciously like a cheeleaders pom-pom, filmed out of focus.

It is in this episode that Guy Fleegman's character is killed within the first five minutes by a Lava Monster.

**Episode 86: Loner on a Lonely Planet**

**Episode 92: The Omega Crisis**

The 2 hour season finale, at the conclusion the Protector exists a Time Knot and is surrounded by enemy ships. the captain decides to activate The Omega 13, a long built up secret weapon in the Protector's arsenal, which activating could spell dangerous consequences.

This was the final episode of the Galaxy Quest series, it was a two-hour cliffhanger that ended the fourth season. Alas "The Omega Crisis, Part 2", which would have been the premiere of the fifth season, was never made because the show was cancelled.

Because no concluding episode was filmed the episode was never included in the syndication run. The episode was lost for a long time until it was recovered by Travis Latke and shown at Galaxy Quest Convention 18.

### **Unmarked Episodes**

Several released Episodes were not given a production number and aired randomly. These include:

**The Two Lovers of Medusa**

Playing mediator between the warring Gdonks and the Ssazzbatts, Commander Taggart becomes the object of affection for each of the opposing female leaders. Unfortunately for the Commander both Gdonk and Ssazzbatt lovers dismember their mates after copulation. To save the universe from another cataclysmic war, as well as his well-worn fanny, Taggart has to make both females lose interest in him, escape from the planet Medusa in one piece, and still broker a peace accord.

**The Two Faces of Avsnoyl**

On the planet Avsnoyl, the crew encounters an amiable race of folks. Soon the Commander discovers that their new-found friends are merely after their stock of virrilium combustible. When the Protector refuses to give them their fuel, the Avsnoylians turn violent. At the end of the episode, in a terse, chess-like confrontation, the Commander must justify to NSEA Headquarters why he needed to obliterate such seemingly "benign" life-forms.

**The Pleasures of Tauran**

**The Hair Shirt**

After the NSEA Protector chases a Zatchzxy battle barge into a polluted worm hole, the crew of the ship find themselves plagued with accelerated hair growth. Fortunately Dr. Lazarus must find an antidote before the ship's drains clog for good.

**The Nixvowls Uprising**

In this most excellent episode, Gath'gor, Sarris and Ngh'f, three outlaws of the planet Nixvowls, unite to destroy the Protector. First, the evil trio challenges the Protector to a straight shoot-out around at the Megabuckle Asteroid Belt in the ATV-54 Nebula. The intense fighting catapults Ngh'f into a parallel universe, and seriously damages the Protector's plasma emitters.

To repair the damage, Capt. Taggart orders a Mark 11 departure from the area, with Gath'gor and Sarris in hot pursuit. Split-second maneuvering and near misses with passing comets has most of the Protector crew bouncing around the spaceship, but succeeds in slinging Sarris through a time knot, leaving only Gath'gor to fulfill their vow to destroy the Protector.

To recover from their space sickness, Taggart and Dr. Lazarus land on the anti-energy planet of Dezap, where anything electronic is useless. In a cave near a soothing waterfall, they are cornered by Gath'gor and some of his men. Gath'gor and Taggart get into epic hand-to-hand combat. They roll around until Taggart emerges victorious from underneath the waterfall with Gath'gor commander belt in his hands.

**A Crack in the Mirror**

The NSEA Protector butts into an impenetrable magnetic shield with reflective qualities. As the crew tries to figure how to penetrate the wall, there's a slight shift in magnetic alignment and Lt. Madison falls to the other side through a crack in the time-space continuum. As always, our good Commander must save Lt. Madison, by blasting through the shield, or traveling eons in the other direction to find her. He finds a crack in the mirror by facing his worst fear - the fear that though he has repeatedly shown valor in the line of duty, he will one day lack courage at a crucial moment.

**Parallax Premonition**

After tinkering with the molecular conveyor belt, Sgt. Chen notices Capt. Taggart and Lt. Madison strangely changed after they return from the distant Z'tara Planet. Taggart, unable to focus on running the ship, refers all questions to "his friend the monkey." Madison keeps falling asleep and mumbling incoherently. Dr. Lazarus, deeply disturbed by their cheerful stupidity, takes over command after Taggart suggests rewiring the ship for improved performance.

As their conditions worsen, Lazarus goes to Z'tara to investigate the source of their rapidly deteriorating condition. There he discovers ancient-looking duplicates of the entire Protector crew ready to be activated and sent back aboard. Dr. Lazarus avoids being supplanted by cloaking himself with a magneto-reflective shield and locates the real Capt. Taggart and Lt. Madison and returns with them onboard. Following is a hilarious scene in which Taggart and Madison battle and destroy their dull-witted duplicates while the duplicates spew out torrents of nonsense. The episode ends with Dr. Lazarus, on deck, sipping his new found favorite drink, the Martini.

This is considered the worst written episode in GQ history.