Just Follow the Script...

 

I recently watched a fun sci-fi movie from 1999.* Like all above average movies (7.3 on the IMDB rating scale), Galaxy Quest was entertaining, funny, and had some moderately interesting special effects. It also contained some unstated but profound lessons about how to live one's life: Find a good script. Follow it with all your heart, even if you are sometimes not certain you want to. Prepare to be amazed at what happens next...

Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, and Sigorney Weaver lead a cast of six main characters who are the washed up actors from a moderately popular fictional space adventure TV show called Galaxy Quest. (Think Star Trek.) The series has been off the air for a number of years, and the cast spend their time signing autographs for costumed fans, being forced to repeat iconic lines from the TV show at Comic-Con-type gatherings. They are bored, miserable, in conflict with one another, but take the gigs for the money they provide.

At one convention, they are approached by what appears to be a contingent of fans dressed as aliens. The group begs Tim Allen's character, Jason Neismith a.k.a. Commander Taggert, to help them in their fight against their nemesis. Jason, thinking it's just another role-playing sci-fi gig, goes along with them only to find himself on an exact replica of the TV show's space ship. However, this ship is real, and the costumed “fans” are a real race of aliens, the Thermians, who have based their space ship, as well as their entire present civilization, on what they refer to as the “historical documents” - mistaking the collection of all the transmissions of the old Galaxy Quest shows for documentaries.

Jason/Commander Taggert convinces the rest of the cast/crew to join him on the alien ship, and together they help the race of aliens defeat their enemy by being themselves – their written, scripted sci-fi character selves – which are far nobler and braver than the disappointed, washed up has-beens they had become.

The transition of the TV show crew from has-beens to heroes is a delightful lesson for all of us in how we have the potential to be our best selves if we can only find a script - a plan, a purpose - we can believe in and follow whole-heartedly. The Thermians seem to understand this better than the Galaxy Quest crew. When one of the crew expressed surprise that the Thermians know who the TV characters were, the Thermian responded:

I don't believe there is a man, woman or child on my planet who does not. In the years since we first received transmission of your historical documents we have studied every facet of your missions and strategies...In the past hundred years our society had fallen into disarray because our values had become scattered. But since the transmission we have modeled every aspect of our society from your example and it has saved us. Your courage and teamwork and friendship through adversity, in fact, all you see around has been taken from the lessons garnered from the historical documents.

There is someone for everyone to identify with in this movie:

- The superficial leading man, somewhat of a blowhard, finds his best self taking the risks and making the bold decisions only a space ship commander would be called on to make

- The attractive actress, cast for her cleavage, bemoaning the fact her only apparent duty is to repeat what the ship's computer is saying, discovers her faithful commitment to her simple task is vital

- The jaded Shakespearean actor cast as a Mr. Spock-like character becomes the wise, noble “alien” the Thermians assume him to be

- The child actor who grew up pretending to navigate the TV spaceship, now, as an adult, gets the scary thrill of really piloting a space ship

- The somewhat spacy actor playing the ship's engineer discovers all the lines he memorized actually have functional meaning in the running of the Thermian ship

- And – my favorite – an unknown actor, cast for a one-time bit part as an unnamed crew member, living in constant fear of the fate of most such characters – sudden death by some alien creature – manages to do heroic feats despite his fears and becomes an important member of the “crew”...

At this point in the blog, you might expect me to urge you to find the movie at the library or on Netflix and watch it. And you may do that if you'd like. I would prefer, however, to urge you to go out and find a good script, one you can follow with all your heart, even if you are not always certain you want to, one that will amaze you.  I highly recommend the one I follow, found in a contemporary edition of an ages-old Book. For centuries, many have followed this Script, finding their true written selves to be amazingly better than anything they could script for themselves. The Script has something for every person - the superficial blowhard, those who feel they are unimportant or valued for the wrong things, those who feel jaded with their present role in life, the young and learning, the spacey and clueless – and, yes, - even those of us who walk in constant fear we won't survive long enough to see the end of any story, much less a good one. And the best part about following this Script? The Script Writer is available for read-throughs 24/7...

What is the point of this story

What information pertains

The thought that life could be better

Is woven indelibly

Into our hearts

And our brains

- Paul Simon, Train in the Distance

*My daughter writes a blog for Netflix fans, Nothing to Watch. I found out about Galaxy Quest in her post “Movies for Thanksgiving Digestion”. https://medium.com/@clairemcfall