Galaxy Quest: A Novel

by Terry Bisson

Twenty years after the end of the "Galaxy Quest" television series, the cast members are mistaken for real space explorers by a group of aliens, and are whisked off into outer space to save them from obliteration

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Humor, Media Tie In, Fantasy

169 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

About the author

Terry Ballantine Bisson was an American science fiction and fantasy author best known for his short stories, including "Bears Discover Fire" (1990), which which won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, as well as They're Made Out of Meat (1991), which has been adapted for video often.

Adapted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Lolly's Library · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad. The author obviously didn't work from the finished, shooting script as the novel had characters saying and doing things which weren't in the movie. Not in an expanding-the-scene sort of way--same scenes, just different actions and dialogue. It's a fun read, though, especially if you're like me and have seen the movie several times; as you read, you re-live the movie in your head.

Edit of 7/17/2013: This past week, I just reread this book--accidentally, as it turns out I'd forgotten that I'd already read it, which says a lot more about the contents of the book than any review could. This isn't the worst script-to-novel adaptation I've read, but it certainly isn't the best either. Granted, an author working with script novelizations doesn't have a lot of leeway when it comes to the story, but I do expect a little bit of fleshing out, a little bit extra to the story rather than someone simply taking the lines in a script and forming them into paragraphs and chapters. However, as I pointed out in my earlier review, reading the book is very much like watching the movie: you can see Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shalhoub, and Alan Rickman running around as their characters, even with there being scenes in the book that were either dropped from the film or filmed but left on the cutting room floor.

[Sean Randall · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely fantastic film, this seemed to be a very good write-up. As a big Trek person, I could not fail to appreciate the genius here.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Catchy plot - I found it refreshing to read, next to Tom Robbins with his demanding books. It's a breeze to read, having fun all the way. However, there is not much more to it than the Action-Filled plot.

[Mikal Lambert · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent movie, I've watched it perhaps 50 times. And when I found this novel adaptation of the movie screenplay, I had to have it -- and it was pretty good, following the movie and adding just a few fill-in conversations and scenes (some of which were actually deleted scenes for the movie).

[Ian Banks · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s baffling that Bisson, who was a very adept handler of comedy in his stories, manages to fumble the mix of comedy and drama in this novelisation. However, there is so much else that is wonderful here that it scarcely bears mentioning. The characters are very clearly laid out and described on the page and there’s a lovely sense of setting you get from just a few carefully set out words, something that a writer less knowledgeable about the genre might have missed. And, of course, it’s worth the price of admission for getting Gwen/Tawny’s f-bomb which was dropped from the final film.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dropped a star because of annoying linguistic tics of the author that, thankfully, were not found much in the second half of the book, but were far too frequent in the front half. I did enjoy some of the slight changes from the movie.

[Mahesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both this book and movie are effing epic... Loved them!!

[Jordan B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much here that’s not in the movie but damn, it’s my favorite movie 😍

[Pappy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novelization was pretty good and as far as I can remember from watching the movie it was quite accurate. I did enjoy it very much.

[Curtiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book version of the popular movie "Galaxy Quest" and is reasonably faithful to that very entertaining movie.

"A group of has been TV performers cash-in on their past glory by attendings Sci-Fi Conventions and signing memorabilia for their still enthusiastic fans. A fond tribute to the Star Trek phenomenon - that is until real aliens from Thermia, who have mistaken the TV show's episodes for reality (referring to them as the 'Historical Documents'), appear at a convention to ask the former crew of the N.S.E.P. Protector for help against a malignant enemy named Saris, who has already wiped out the rest of the Thermians' squid-like species.

The ensuing complications derive from the Thermians' awesome literal-mindedness, and from their incorporation of every single aspect of the Protector's design whether it mde any sense or not, because that's what had been aired and interpreted by them as "Historical Documents."

As tag-along cast member/fan, Guy Fleegmann, who had once appeared on the show as an extra in red who had been killed (a comment on Star Trek's 'redshirt phenomenon'), comments when Captain Peter Quincy Taggert proposed walking right into a scene without scanning first, "Did you guys ever *watch* the show?" Later on Guy has an anxiety attack because he's just a red shirt extra and doomed to be killed, at which point Engineering Tech Sgt. Chen, one of the regular cast, suggests "Maybe - you're the plucky comedy relief. Did you ever think of that?"

Needless to say, the cast and crew manage to save the day, with technical help supplied by a group of die-hard, ultra-nerd Galaxy Quest fans, and then return to Earth just in time for the last day of the convention. Their arrival creates such a splash that the series is re-born with Guy the former extra as the ship's new Security Chief 'Rock' Ingersol, and with one of the female Termian's as a new crewmember as well.

A very enjoyable romp with a fun group of surrogates for the cast and fans of Star Trek."

[MB Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quick, fun read. Not much more than than a rehash of the movie, although there was one interesting scenelet early on that I don't remember from the movie.

I was a little disappointed, as I was expecting a bit more from Terry Bisson.

Mainly it made me want to watch the movie again. Which is not a bad thing...

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not nearly as good as the movie, but still ok. This is one of the few movie-books I don't recommend if you enjoyed the movie.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've seen the movie you don't need to read this. This is a novelization that adds absolutely nothing new.