'Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary' Celebrates a Beloved, Transcendent Sci-Fi Action Comedy Classic

I’ve been making annual “top 20 movies” lists for a couple of years now (and “top 10 movies” lists in the years prior that), but I still haven’t given much thought about what my definite top 20 favorite movies of all time are.  However, a strong contender for a slot is Galaxy Quest.

I saw it for the first time in HBO as a kid, at a time when it took a movie a couple of years after its theatrical release before it ever got to air on cable.  That first viewing blew me away, and I sought its schedule so I could re-watch it during its run in HBO.  I wasn’t – and still am not – a legit die-hard fan of Star Trek, the franchise it was referencing, but it made quite an impression on me nonetheless.  Prior to seeing it, I never knew such a movie existed, and it baffled me why wasn’t it a more popular movie than it was when it was obviously remarkable.  Back then, the film wasn’t really celebrated by pop culture as much as it is in the present.  Nowadays, it’s a revered classic – as it rightfully should be.

To commemorate its 20^th anniversary, the people at Screen Junkies – the Youtube channel known for the hit show Honest Trailers – produced a documentary film called Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary (which, for the record, is the only documentary film of 2019 that I’ve sought and watched).  Featuring interviews from the cast, production team, fans, and the current film/movie creators who had been inspired by Galaxy Quest, it shares behind-the-scenes insights and anecdotes of the movie’s production and creative processes, analyses of its impact and relevance on geekdom, and earnest tributes to the late Alan Rickman, who played arguably the best character in the movie, Alexander Dane – who, by the way, is also my personal favorite among all of the iconic characters that Rickman had played in film.

As a fan, it was nice to learn some trivia and hear some worthwhile commentaries about Galaxy Quest.  But, to be honest, I feel that Never Surrender doesn’t offer anything earth-shatteringly new.  In general, it simply reiterates what’s already understood about it, and what its place in pop culture is.  It doesn’t necessarily make you appreciate the movie more than you already do.

Basically, Never Surrender is just a celebration of what’s already available.  But that by itself is totally fine.  It doesn’t make the documentary unnecessary at all.  On the contrary, that’s already ample reason to delight fans thoroughly.