20 Things You Didn’t Know About Galaxy Quest
18. Star Trek May Have Homaged Galaxy Quest Right Back
Many Star Trek fans speculate that, given the popularity of Galaxy Quest in the science fiction community, creatives on the Star Trek franchise may have returned the favour by homaging the movie intended to homage them.
Star Trek: Enterprise’s third season introduced the inhabitants of the planet Xindus as antagonists, which had evolved six separate and radically different sentient species at a similar level of development. The reptilian species-variant, the Xindi-Reptilian, bear a suspicious resemblance to General Sarris, antagonist of Galaxy Quest, even down to the spiderleg-style antennae clustered atop the head.
J.J. Abrams, director of the 2009 Star Trek movie reboot, went one better: in the commentary for the movie, he admits, tongue in cheek, that Galaxy Quest is one of his favourite Trek movies, and that a scene where Kirk and Sulu are freefalling towards the planet Vulcan and are saved by Chekhov transporting them home is a direct homage to Fred Kwan’s similar save of Jason Nesmith in Galaxy Quest… just, naturally, gone one better.