GITS Script Reading and Analysis Series: “Galaxy Quest” — Characters

This week we are analyzing the screenplay for the 1999 science fiction comedy Galaxy Quest, story by David Howard, screenplay by David Howard and Robert Gordon.

You can download the script here.

Here is a scene from the movie:

http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=wuvyU

Today we discuss the script’s characters. Here is a list of the most prominent ones:

Jason Nesmith [Tim Allen]

Gwen DeMarco [Sigourney Weaver]

Alexander Dane [Alan Rickman]

Fred Kwan [Tony Shalhoub]

Guy Fleegman [Sam Rockwell]

Tommy Webber [Daryl Mitchell]

Brandon [Justin Long]

Dusty

Betzalar

Neru

Teb

Laliari

Sarris

Quellek

What’s your take on these characters? What narrative functions do they provide? Want to take a crack at their archetypes: Protagonist, Nemesis, Attractor, Mentor, Trickster?

See you in comments!

SPECIAL NOTE: TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT FOR THE TWEET-CAST!!!

At precisely 8PM Pacific [U.S.] tonight, you are invited to push play on whatever device you have to watch the movie Galaxy Quest in real time with a host of others, all of us commenting on Twitter. We will record the Tweet-Cast to make it available as a transcript for later review. The transcript for the Michael Clayton event, which you can see here, has been accessed by hundreds of users.

As a special treat, professional screenwriters Tom Benedek, F. Scott Frazier, and John Gary will be participating in the Tweet-Cast, breaking down the movie as it plays. Hopefully we can wrangle a few more to join the fun, a nice opportunity for you to intersect with some pros.

The Twitter hashtag for the Tweet-Cast on Wednesday: #gquest.

NOTE: This series is for educational purposes only!

For Part 1 of this week’s series, go here.

For Part 2 focusing on structure, go here.