Week 14: Sci-fi Satire

With all of the dark themes and genres in science fiction and fantasy, there has to be a genre that pokes fun at the serious side of everything. And that is why I am glad that Science Fiction Satire/ Parodies exists. I think sci-fi is one of the greatest genres to parody because of how absolutely absurd it can be at times, especially when someone not familiar with the genre examines it. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a great example of taking the crazy sci-fi genre and making it even crazier, but something that I think really speaks to not only the people who create media for this genre, but to the fans as well is the movie Galaxy Quest.

The movie takes influences from the early Star Trek shows in almost all of its aspects from the crewmembers personalities to the setting itself. It follows the story of these once popular sci-fi show actors and throws them into this war between a violent alien race and a peaceful race that has been influenced and inspired by the TV show (that they think are history records) enough to fully recreate the ship and live by the captain’s motto. It makes fun of the common tropes like the disposable crewmembers that always die in episodes, or the fact that the bomb timer is always stopped just as it hits 1 second left.

By far my favorite thing about the movie though is how the fans are portrayed. Fans of sci-fi are often demonized and stereotyped as the basement dwelling, super-nerd that we’ve come to known from pop culture. But this movie shows that it’s from your love of this genre that you can accomplish great things. In the end it’s because these kids know so much about the old TV show that they can help the crew navigate the inner working of the ship and ultimately help them save the universe.

The movie is a satire of popular sci-fi shows like Star Trek but it succeeds because it not only pokes fun with the common tropes of the genre, but it recognizes that there are people who truly believe in these sci-fi heroes and rewards them for their love of these series. I personally think that it’s one of the most successful pieces of science fiction satire today.