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Galaxy Quest

Galaxy Quest is a 1999 American science fiction comedy film directed by Dean Parisot and written by David Howard and Robert Gordon. A parody of and homage to science-fiction films and series, especially Star Trek and its fandom, the film depicts the cast of a fictional cult television series, Galaxy Quest, who are drawn into a real interstellar conflict by actual aliens who think the series is an accurate documentary. It stars Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, and Daryl Mitchell. The film was a modest box office success and positively received by critics: It won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Nebula Award for Best Script. It was also nominated for 10 Saturn Awards, including Best Science Fiction Film and Best Director for Parisot, Best Actress for Weaver, and Best Supporting Actor for Rickman, with Allen winning Best Actor.

Galaxy Quest eventually achieved cult status, especially from Star Trek fans for its affectionate parody, but also from more mainstream audiences as a comedy film in its own right.

Several Star Trek cast and crew members praised the film. It was included in Reader's Digest's list of the Top 100+ Funniest Movies of All Time in 2012, and Star Trek fans voted it the seventh best Star Trek film of all time in 2013.

Plot
The cast of the 1980s space-adventure series Galaxy Quest attend fan conventions and make trivial promotional appearances. Though the series' former star, Jason Nesmith, thrives on the attention, his co-stars—Gwen, Alexander, Fred, and Tommy—resent him and the states of their careers. At a convention, a group calling themselves Thermians approaches Jason for help. Thinking they want him for a promotional appearance, he agrees. The next morning, when they pick him up, Jason is hung over and does not grasp that the Thermians are aliens who have transported him to a working re-creation of the Galaxy Quest starship, the NSEA Protector. Jason believes he is on a set, and performs in character as he confronts the Thermians' enemy, Sarris, who demands the "Omega 13", a secret super weapon with unknown capabilities mentioned in the show's finale. Giving perfunctory orders, Jason manages to temporarily defeat Sarris.

After the grateful Thermians transport him back to Earth, Jason realizes the experience was real and attempts to convince the other cast members. When the Thermian Laliari seeks Jason's help again, the cast join him, along with the convention emcee, Guy, who had played an ill-fated redshirt in one episode. Aboard the Protector, the cast learn that the Thermians, who possess no concept of fiction, believe the episodes of Galaxy Quest are true "historical documents". Inspired by the crew's adventures, they have based their society on the virtues espoused by the show.

Sarris returns, demands the "Omega 13" device and attacks the Protector again, and the ship barely escapes through a magnetic minefield. However, the ship's power source, a beryllium sphere, is severely damaged. The humans travel to a nearby planet and take a replacement sphere from ferocious, childlike aliens. On their return to the Protector, they discover that Sarris has seized the ship. After Jason confesses they are just actors, Sarris forces him to explain the truth to the disillusioned Thermian leader, Mathesar. Sarris activates the Protector's self-destruct mechanism and returns to his ship.

Communicating with Brandon, a Galaxy Quest super fan on Earth and his network of friends with intimate knowledge of the show, Jason and Gwen abort the self-destruct sequence. Meanwhile, Alexander leads the Thermians against Sarris' forces and takes back control of the Protector. With renewed confidence, the crew challenges Sarris and draws his ship into the magnetic minefield, destroying it.

As they return to Earth, Sarris, who escaped his ship's destruction, ambushes them on the bridge and fatally wounds several crew members. Jason activates the "Omega 13", which sends everyone 13 seconds back in time and gives Jason and Mathesar a chance to disarm Sarris before the attack.

The Protector's bridge separates from the main vessel to land the humans on Earth, while the main vessel carries the Thermians into interstellar space. The Protector bridge crashes into a Galaxy Quest convention and the dazed cast emerge to the cheers of their fans. Sarris reappears, but Jason shoots and destroys him. The crowd assumes it was a display of special effects and the cast basks in the adoration of their fans.

Sometime later, Galaxy Quest is revived as a sequel series, Galaxy Quest: The Journey Continues, with the cast reprising their roles alongside Guy and Laliari as new cast members.

Cast

 * Tim Allen as Jason Nesmith, who played Commander Peter Quincy Taggart, the commander of the NSEA Protector and main character of the series. Initially, a rather smug ham actor, thriving on his attention within the fandom, but more interested in partying than keeping his schedules.
 * Sigourney Weaver as Gwen DeMarco, who played Lieutenant Tawny Madison, the ship's communications officer and the only officer aboard who can give orders to the ship's computer. She resents how she was more of a sex-object than a character on the show.
 * Alan Rickman as Alexander Dane, who played Dr. Lazarus, the ship's science officer and a member of the Mak'tar, an alien species known for their super intelligence and psionic powers. As a Shakesperean actor, he's the most resentful of his character, and his catchphrase.
 * Tony Shalhoub as Fred Kwan, who played Tech Sergeant Chen, the ship's chief engineer. He ends up in a relationship with Laliari at the end.
 * Sam Rockwell as Guy Fleegman, the cast's handler at conventions, who also played a "redshirt" (a short-lived minor character) in a single episode, simply referred to as "Crewman #6" (In the revival at the end of the film, he gains a part as Security Chief "Roc" Ingersol.)
 * Daryl Mitchell as Tommy Webber, who played Lieutenant Laredo, a precocious child pilot
 * Corbin Bleu as a younger Laredo during the "original" TV series

 * Enrico Colantoni as Mathesar, the leader of the Thermians
 * Robin Sachs as Roth'h'ar Sarris, the general leading the reptilian humanoids who seek to destroy the Thermians
 * Patrick Breen as Quellek, a Thermian who forms a bond with Alexander Dane
 * Missi Pyle as Laliari, a Thermian and love interest for Fred (In the revival at the end of the film, she goes under the name of Jane Doe, playing a character called "Laliari".)
 * Jed Rees as Teb, a Thermian and Mathesar's second-in-command
 * Justin Long as Brandon, a dedicated fan of Galaxy Quest (Long's film debut)
 * Jeremy Howard as Kyle, Brandon's friend
 * Kaitlin Cullum as Katelyn, Brandon's friend
 * Jonathan Feyer as Hollister, Brandon's friend
 * Heidi Swedberg as Brandon's mom
 * Wayne Péré as Lathe, Sarris's second-in-command
 * Samuel Lloyd as Neru, a Thermian
 * Rainn Wilson as Lahnk, a Thermian (Wilson's film debut)
 * Joe Frank as the voice of the Protector computer

Development
The original spec script by David Howard was titled Captain Starshine. Howard stated he got the idea while at an IMAX presentation, where one of the trailers for an upcoming "Americans in Space" film was narrated by Leonard Nimoy, a leading actor from Star Trek. The trailer got Howard thinking about how the other Star Trek actors had become pigeonholed in these roles since the cancellation of Star Trek, and he then came up with the idea of what if there were real aliens involved. From there, he considered that the rest of his script, "in a lot of ways, just wrote itself, because it just seemed so self-evident once the idea was there".

Producer Mark Johnson, who had a first-look deal with DreamWorks, did not like Howard's script but was still fascinated with its concept of space aliens who misconstrue old episodes of a television series as reality. Johnson purchased the script and had Bob Gordon use the concept to create Galaxy Quest. A fan of Star Trek, Gordon was hesitant, believing Galaxy Quest "could be a great idea or it could be a terrible idea" and initially turned it down. Gordon, who did not read Captain Starshine until after the film was completed, started from the premise of washed-up actors from a sci-fi series involved with real extraterrestrials. Gordon's initial drafts added elements of humor to Howard's script, such as the Protector scraping the walls of the space dock when Webber pilots the real ship for the first time. Gordon became more confident in his script when he completed the scene where Nesmith confesses to the Thermians, which he felt he nailed. He submitted his first draft to DreamWorks in 1998, and it was immediately green-lit.

Mark Johnson wanted Dean Parisot to direct; Parisot had directed another film Johnson produced, Home Fries. However, DreamWorks favored Harold Ramis because of his prior experience and hired him in November 1998. Ramis wanted Alec Baldwin for the lead role, but Baldwin turned it down. Steve Martin and Kevin Kline were also considered, but Kline turned it down for family reasons. Ramis did not agree with the casting of Tim Allen as Jason Nesmith and left the project in February 1999. Parisot took over as director within three weeks. Allen said that the version of the film pitched to him by Ramis and Katzenberg felt more like Spaceballs, and that they wanted an action star to do comedy rather than a comedian to do an action film. Sigourney Weaver, who had previously worked with Ramis on Ghostbusters, said that he also wanted actors who had not appeared in science-fiction roles before, a choice she thought odd since veterans of the genre would know what was humorous. After seeing the film, Ramis said he was ultimately impressed with Allen's performance. Johnson named the main villain after film critic Andrew Sarris, while admitting he also considered 'Haskell' after Sarris's wife Molly Haskell. Once Sarris discovered, he mocked "This guy wants to insult me? Oh, boohoo. As long as they spelled my name right, I'm okay."

Casting
Following Parisot's assignment as director, Allen was quickly cast as Nesmith, and had to choose between Galaxy Quest and Bicentennial Man. The Bicentennial Man role went to Robin Williams. Allen said he was a big sci-fi fan and had hoped the role would launch a second part of his career as a sci-fi actor. Some of Allen's sci-fi knowledge was put to use during production: for example, when the crew is about to land on an alien planet, Allen brought up the issue of a breathable atmosphere with Johnson and Parisot; this became dialogue for Fleegman and Kwan in the movie. About his role, Allen said he based his performance more on Yul Brynner's Ramesses II from the 1956 The Ten Commandments, and less on William Shatner as Captain James Kirk from Star Trek.

Alan Rickman was selected to be Alexander Dane, who played the alien Dr. Lazarus. Rickman had been interested in the part not so much for the sci-fi elements, but because of the humor. He said "I love comedy almost more than anything. This really is one of the funniest scripts I've read," and that "actors are probably the only professionals who send themselves up. We actually have a sense of humor about ourselves." While the original script made Dane a ceremonial knight, Rickman suggested the title would be too much for the character, and this was dropped, though he remained listed as "Sir Alex Dane" in the credits. Rickman also provided input into the prosthetic piece that Dane would use to play Lazarus, saying "it was important for it to be good enough to convince the aliens who believe we're the real thing, but also cheesy enough to imagine that it was something he applied himself". Rickman's sense of drama came into play during initial reads and script revisions. Rockwell said that Rickman "was very instrumental in making sure the script hit the dramatic notes, and everything had a strong logic and reason behind it". The scene where Dane, as Dr. Lazarus, gives a final, powerfully emotional speech to Quellek, played by Patrick Breen, utilized Rickman's sense of drama, according to Rockwell. Rickman was initially annoyed with Allen's excitement over his role, but eventually the whole cast bonded over the film. Dr. Lazarus' catchphrase, "By Grabthar's Hammer", was written as a temp line in Gordon's script; Gordon planned to replace "Grabthar" with something less comical, but the line stuck as the production crew started using it around their offices and had it printed on t-shirts.

Weaver had loved the script since her first read when Ramis was the director, stating "that great sort of Wizard of Oz story of these people feeling so incomplete in the beginning, and then during the course of this adventure, they come out almost like the heroes they pretended to be in the first place". She particularly loved the part of Madison: "to me she was what a lot of women feel like, including myself, in a Hollywood situation." In addition, she had long wanted to work with both Allen and Rickman. Once Parisot replaced Ramis, Weaver lobbied Parisot to cast her, insisting that Madison needed to be blonde and have large breasts to capture the humor of a sci-fi production. She admitted she was surprised when she actually got the role. Weaver said that this role, given some of her personal insecurities, was closer to "telling the truth about myself and science fiction" compared to her performance as Ripley in the Alien films. She wore a blonde wig (which she kept after production) and an enhanced bosom, which many of the crew said gave Weaver a totally new personality. Weaver often left the set in costume and returned to her hotel to admire herself, saying that she "loved being a starlet".

Tony Shalhoub originally auditioned for Guy Fleegman until Sam Rockwell won the role. Shalhoub was then cast as Fred Kwan and worked with Parisot to develop the character. Kwan was loosely based on David Carradine, who was a non-Asian in an Asian role in the television series Kung Fu. Additionally, it was rumored that Carradine frequently acted while under the influence of drugs. Although Shalhoub could not overtly portray a "stoner" in a PG-13 film, he insisted that Kwan should always be shown eating to subtly reference the stoner stereotype.

Rockwell, who wanted to develop a more serious dramatic acting career, initially considered declining the role after he was cast. He eventually recognized that several successful dramatic actors had done comedy roles early on, and Rockwell's friend Kevin Spacey persuaded him to take the part. He was the last of the main actors to be cast. Rockwell fashioned Fleegman after cowardly characters from other films, such as John Turturro's Bernie in Miller's Crossing, Bill Paxton's Private Hudson in Aliens, and Michael Keaton's "Blaze" in Night Shift. Rockwell drank a lot of coffee before certain scenes to help create the over-excitement and jitters associated with the character. Rockwell's character's name, Guy Fleegman, is a homage to Guy Vardaman, a little-known actor who worked extensively on Star Trek either as a stand-in or in bit roles. Rockwell and Shalhoub improvised some dialog to contrast Fleegman as an alarmist while Kwan was always nonchalant.

Daryl Mitchell had worked with Parisot on Home Fries, and Parisot felt he was the perfect choice to play Webber. David Alan Grier was the second choice for Webber.

Justin Long was cast as Brandon, and it was Long's first feature-film role. Long had just completed a pilot for a television show under casting director Bonnie Zane, who suggested Long to her sister Debra Zane, the casting director for Galaxy Quest. Long said he was nervous auditioning as an unknown actor at the time, competing against Kieran Culkin, Eddie Kaye Thomas, and Tom Everett Scott. Parisot had given Long a copy of Trekkies, a film about the Star Trek fandom, to help prepare for the character. Long based his character on a combination of Philip Seymour Hoffman's Scotty J. from Boogie Nights and the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons. Paul Rudd auditioned for a role.

One of the first "Thermians" to audition was Enrico Colantoni. Colantoni loved the script and spent time before his audition developing the behavior he thought the Thermians should have. Parisot said that at the end of Colantoni's read, the actor offered a possible voice for the Thermians. Parisot immediately loved the voice and used it to establish the nature of the Thermians for the rest of the casting process. Colantoni led how the Thermians would act, which he called "happy Jehovah's Witnesses" taking everything in with "love and acceptance". Other actors cast as Thermians included Jed Rees and Rainn Wilson (his feature-film debut). According to Debra Zane, they had "a difficult time finding an actress to play a Thermian. Ultimately, Zane was so impressed with Missi Pyle's audition that she sent the casting tape directly to Parisot, with a note stating "If this is not Laliari, I will resign from the CSA." Steven Spielberg, also impressed by Pyle, asked for Laliari's role to be expanded, which developed into the romance with Kwan. Jennifer Coolidge was the second choice for the role.

Actors cast as Thermians went to "alien school" to learn how to move and talk, since they were "basically giant calamari hiding in human shape", according to Parisot. The walk was inspired by how the marionettes were articulated in the series Fireball XL5. Other idiosyncrasies were developed by the actors during this training, and several of their lines came out of improvisations. Wilson's role as Lahnk was to have been larger in the film, but the actor was double-booked for an NBC pilot in New York City. He received a crash course on how to act like a Thermian from Colantoni, Rees, and Pyle, but still was nervous around the A-list actors leading the cast. Wilson said that a deleted scene involving Lahnk, released with the film's home media, was wisely cut given how nervous he was, flubbing his lines several times.

Filming
Linda DeScenna, production designer of the film, was interested in the project because it would not have the same aesthetics as other 1990s science fiction films, and "it didn't have to be real, hi-tech and vacuformed". DeScenna drew inspiration for the sets not only from Star Trek, but also from Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, and Lost in Space. DeScenna had hoped to incorporate more essence of the reuse of props and set elements from these shows within the film, but the film didn't provide enough space for this. She used color theming to help distinguish the key elements of the film, with steam blue for the Thermians and the Protector, while Saris and his species were made to be a green tone that stood out against that. The design of the Thermian station was influenced by the works of artist Roger Dean, especially his cover art for the Yes live album Yessongs (1973).

The bulk of the film was shot in studios in Los Angeles. Scenes of the alien planet were filmed at Goblin Valley State Park in Utah. At the time, access to the park was partly by dirt road; fees paid by the production company were used to upgrade the entire access road to asphalt pavement. Other locations used in the film included the Stahl House as Nesmith's home and the Hollywood Palladium for the fan conventions.

According to Weaver, Allen hectored her to sign a piece of the Nostromo, the spaceship from Alien, in which she had starred; she ultimately did, writing "Stolen by Tim Allen; Love, Sigourney Weaver", which she claims upset him greatly. During the period of filming, the entire cast attended a 20th-anniversary screening of Alien. After filming wrapped, Weaver kept the wig she wore for the role.

The film's visual effects were created by Industrial Light & Magic led by Bill George. A challenge in the CGI was making distinctions between scenes that were to be from the 1980s Galaxy Quest show, which would have been done normally through practical effects, and the more realistic scenes for the contemporary actors. Various practical effects were also used, such as the "piglizard" creature that the crew transports onto the Protector.

Post-production
After most production was done, Johnson said that DreamWorks was confused by the film, as it was not what they had expected from the script they greenlit, but pushed on post-production as they needed a film to go up against Columbia Pictures' Stuart Little. To that end, Dreamworks required cuts to earn the movie to a more family-friendly rating. The film originally received an "R" rating, according to Galaxy Quest producer Lindsey Collins and Weaver, before being recut. Shalhoub did not remember any darker version of the film. Gordon had not planned to write a "family friendly" film, and his initial script included mature scenes, such as DeMarco attempting to seduce aliens, and the crash of the escape pod into the convention hall decapitating several attendees.

While Galaxy Quest was in post-production, Paramount released The Rugrats Movie, which was a box-office success. DreamWorks at that point pushed to have Galaxy Quest tailored for a younger audience to compete with Rugrats. According to the cast and crew, Galaxy Quest was re-edited to achieve a "PG" rating, requiring scenes to be cut that could have survived if a "PG-13" rating had been targeted instead. In the "chompers" scene, DeMarco's line "Well, screw that!" was dubbed over her original "Well, fuck that!" Weaver stated she purposely made her dubbed line stand out as a form of protest from her original line. Several scenes involving Dr. Lazarus were cut, as DreamWorks felt they were too kinky for the desired rating. One cut scene showed Dr. Lazarus' crew quarters on the Protector, which Allen called a "proctologist's dream and nightmare". Other scenes were added to provide what the studio felt was necessary continuity for the intended younger audience, such as showing the limo with Nesmith and the aliens "beaming up" from Earth.

In theaters, the first 20 minutes of the film were presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio (minus the opening showing clips from the TV show which were in 1.33:1), before changing to a wider 2.35:1 ratio when Nesmith looks out upon space as the Protector arrives at Thermia to maximize the effect on viewers. However, this caused some problems with projectionists at movie theaters when showing the film as they had not opened up the screen curtains far enough for the wider aspect ratio. Projectionists had to be told at later showings to prepare for this transition. On all widescreen home video releases however, after the opening scene showing the TV clips, it goes directly from 1.33:1 to 2.35:1 and remains that way for the rest of the movie. David Newman composed the music score.

Promotion
Before the release of the movie, a promotional mockumentary video titled Galaxy Quest: 20th Anniversary, The Journey Continues, aired on E!, presenting the Galaxy Quest television series as an actual cult series, and the upcoming film as a documentary about the making of the series, presenting it in a similar way to Star Trek; it featured fake interviews of the series' cast (portrayed by the actors of the actual film), "Questerians", and critics.

While these additional materials were made, DreamWorks devoted very little advertising to the film despite its placement near the Christmas season, which the cast and crew felt hurt the potential for the film. Unlike most films where the second and ongoing weekend box office takes decline, Galaxy Quest saw rising numbers over the first several weekends, and DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg apologized directly to Parisot for failing to market the film properly. Additionally, the primary trailer used for the film used a cut of the film before all the specific effects were complete, and Johnson felt that if the trailer had used the completed versions, it would have helped draw a larger audience.

Relation to Star Trek and other science fiction works
Galaxy Quest is an acknowledged homage to Star Trek; Parisot said "Part of the mission for me was to make a great Star Trek episode." Gordon's original script was titled "Galaxy Quest: The Motion Picture" as a reference to the first feature Star Trek film, and elements such as departing the space dock and the malfunctioning transporters were further nods to the film. The prefix of the Protector's registration number NTE-3120 ostensibly alludes to some sort of similar space federation, but in reality stands for "Not The Enterprise", according to visual effects co-supervisor Bill George. Parisot refuted claims that the rock monster that Nesmith battled was based on the rock monster that had been scripted for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, but instead was more inspired by the Gorn that Kirk faces in the Star Trek episode "Arena".

This homage also extended to the original marketing of the movie, including a promotional website intentionally designed to look like a poorly constructed fan website, with "screen captures" and poor HTML coding.

Other aspects of the film were homages to other seminal science fiction works. The Thermians' native planet, Klaatu Nebula, is a reference to the name of the alien visitor in the classic The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Quellek's line "I'm shot" was directly influenced by the same line from James Brolin's character in Westworld. The blue creatures on the alien planet were based on similar creatures in Barbarella. The "chompers" scene with Nesmith and DeMarco trying to reach the self-destruct abort button was inspired by a scene from the 1997 film Event Horizon involving whirring blades. The effects for the Omega 13 activation were inspired by the ending scene from Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

Critical response
Critics praised it both as a parody of Star Trek, and as a comedy film of its own. The New York Times's Lawrence Van Gelder called it "an amiable comedy that simultaneously manages to spoof these popular futuristic space adventures and replicate the very elements that have made them so durable". Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, praised the ability of the film to spoof the "illogic of the TV show". Amy Taubin of The Village Voice offered a lukewarm review, noting that "the many eight- to 11-year-olds in the audience seemed completely enthralled". Joe Leydon of Variety said that Galaxy Quest "remains light and bright as it races along, and never turns nasty or mean-spirited as it satirizes the cliches and cults of Star Trek".

Retrospective reviews for Galaxy Quest have been positive, as the film is considered to have held up over time. Esquire Matt Miller said in 2019 "the film absolutely holds up as one of the best sci-fi satires ever made—one that challenges our obsession with massive Hollywood franchises, the nature of fandom, and some of the more problematic cliches of the genre. But it does so with a self-aware empathy that makes it an enduring and lasting entry in not only science-fiction, but American film as a whole". Writer-director David Mamet, in his book Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business, included Galaxy Quest in a list of four "perfect" films, along with The Godfather, A Place in the Sun and Dodsworth.

Box office
Galaxy Quest grossed $71.6million in the United States and Canada, and $19.1million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $90.7million, double the original budget of $45million. It spent its first nine weeks in the Top 10 at the box office.

Impact and legacy
The film proved quite popular with Star Trek fans. At the 2013 Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas, Galaxy Quest received enough support in a Star Trek Film Ranking to be included with the twelve Star Trek films that had been released at the time on the voting ballot. The fans at the convention ranked it the seventh best Star Trek film.

Harold Ramis was originally supposed to direct the film but left following disagreements over the casting choices, notably Allen as the lead. Ramis was ultimately impressed with Allen's performance. Tim Allen later said he and William Shatner were "now friends because of this movie".

Galaxy Quest predicted the growth and influence of media fandom in the years after its release. While fandoms such as that for Star Trek existed at the time of the film, the size and scope presented by the fan conventions in the film had not been seen as much in 1999; since then, major fan conventions such as the San Diego Comic Con have become significant events that draw mainstream attention. The film also depicted fandoms using their numbers to influence production companies to revive cancelled works, such as with The Expanse, Veronica Mars, Arrested Development, and Twin Peaks. The film also captured some negative elements of modern fandom, such as leading actors continuously pestered by fans for intricate details of the work's fiction and other elements of the potentially toxic culture of online fan groups.

The novella Rabbit Remembered (2000) by John Updike mentions the character of Laliari from the film.

Reaction from Star Trek actors
Several actors who have had roles on various Star Trek television series and films have commented on Galaxy Quest in light of their own experiences with the franchise and its fandom.

"I had originally not wanted to see [Galaxy Quest] because I heard that it was making fun of Star Trek and then Jonathan Frakes rang me up and said 'You must not miss this movie! See it on a Saturday night in a full theatre.' And I did and of course I found it was brilliant. Brilliant. No one laughed louder or longer in the cinema than I did, but the idea that the ship was saved and all of our heroes in that movie were saved simply by the fact that there were fans who did understand the scientific principles on which the ship worked was absolutely wonderful. And it was both funny and also touching in that it paid tribute to the dedication of these fans."

"I've had flashbacks of Galaxy Quest at the many conventions I've gone to since the movie came out. I thought it was an absolute laugh-a-minute."

"I loved Galaxy Quest. I thought it was brilliant satire, not only of Trek, but of fandom in general. The only thing I wish they had done was cast me in it, and have me play a freaky fanboy who keeps screaming at the actor who played 'the kid' about how awful it was that there was a kid on the spaceship. Alas."

"Yes, I have seen Galaxy Quest and no, it's not really like that."

"I think it's a chillingly realistic documentary. [laughs] The details in it, I recognized every one of them. It is a powerful piece of documentary filmmaking. And I do believe that when we get kidnapped by aliens, it's going to be the genuine, true Star Trek fans who will save the day.... I was rolling in the aisles. And Tim Allen had that Shatner-esque swagger down pat. And I roared when the shirt came off, and Sigourney [Weaver] rolls her eyes and says, 'There goes that shirt again.'... How often did we hear that on the set? [Laughs]"

"I thought it was very funny, and I thought the audience that they portrayed was totally real, but the actors that they were pretending to be were totally unrecognizable. Certainly I don't know what Tim Allen was doing. He seemed to be the head of a group of actors, and for the life of me I was trying to understand who he was imitating. The only one I recognized was the girl playing Nichelle Nichols."

Home video
The film was released by DreamWorks Home Entertainment on VHS and DVD on May 2, 2000. The DVD version included a 10-minute behind-the-scenes feature, cast and crew biographies and interviews, and deleted scenes. A special 10th anniversary deluxe edition was released on both DVD and Blu-ray by Paramount Home Entertainment on May 12, 2009; though they lacked the same features on the original DVD release, they included several new featurettes on the film's history, the cast, and the special effects used in the film's making, alongside the deleted scenes. For the film's 20th anniversary, a "Never Give Up, Never Surrender Edition" Blu-ray was released on November 5, 2019, featuring the same features as the 10th edition; a special SteelBook Best Buy exclusive was released on September 17, 2019.

Tie-in media
In November 1999, Galaxy Quest was novelized by science fiction writer Terry Bisson, who stayed very close to the plot of the film.

In 2008, IDW Publishing released a comic book sequel to the movie entitled Galaxy Quest: Global Warning. In January 2015, IDW launched an ongoing series set several years after the events of the film. In 2021, Eaglemoss Publications released a behind-the-scenes book entitled Galaxy Quest: The Inside Story.

Proposed sequel or television series
Talks of a sequel have been going on since the film's release in 1999, but only began gaining traction in 2014 when Allen mentioned that there was a script. Stars Weaver and Rockwell mentioned they were interested in returning. However, Colantoni has said he would prefer for there not to be a sequel, lest it tarnish the characters from the first film. He said, "to make something up, just because we love those characters, and turn it into a sequel—then it becomes the awful sequel".

In April 2015, Paramount Television, along with the movie's co-writer Gordon, director Parisot, and executive producers Johnson and Bernstein, announced they were looking to develop a television series based on Galaxy Quest. The move was considered in a similar vein as Paramount's revivals of Minority Report and School of Rock as television series. In August 2015, it was announced that Amazon Studios would be developing it.

In January 2016, after the unexpected death of Alan Rickman from pancreatic cancer, Tim Allen commented in The Hollywood Reporter about the franchise's chance of a revival:

"I'm not supposed to say anything—I'm speaking way out of turn here—but Galaxy Quest is really close to being resurrected in a very creative way. It's closer than I can tell you but I can't say more than that. The real kicker is that Alan now has to be left out. It's been a big shock on many levels."

Speaking to the Nerdist podcast in April 2016, Sam Rockwell revealed that the cast had been about ready to sign on for a follow-up with Amazon, but Rickman's death, together with Allen's television schedule, had proved to be obstacles. He also said he believed Rickman's death meant the project would never happen.

However, the plans were revived in August 2017, with the announcement that Paul Scheer would be writing the series. Speaking to /Film, Scheer said that in his first drafts submitted to Amazon in November 2017 he wanted to create a serialized adventure that starts where the film ends, but leads into the cultural shift in Star Trek that has occurred since 1999; he said "I really wanted to capture the difference between the original cast of Star Trek and the J. J. Abrams cast of Star Trek." To that end, Scheer's initial scripts called for two separate cast sets that would come together by the end of the first season of the show, though he did not confirm if this included any of the original film's cast.

Following the dismissal of Amy Powell as president of Paramount Television in July 2018, Scheer said the Galaxy Quest series had been put on hold while Paramount's management was being re-established, but anticipated the show would continue forward after that. He also said they were making the series to allow the introduction of new characters while extending the setting, similar to what Star Wars: The Force Awakens did for A New Hope.

Allen stated that a film sequel script is nearly ready to go as of January 2021. The script had been near completion for production by 2016 but with Rickman's death, it would have to undergo major rewrites as the core story focused on the relationship between Nesmith and Dane (Allen and Rickman's characters, respectively). A central plot element was to have the Protector and its crew affected by time dilation during space flight, which Allen considered a boon for the uncertain production of the film. While Allen said there were no immediate efforts for the sequel's production, he and the other cast and crew keep circulating the idea and believe it would be easy to restart the effort.

Georgia Pritchett stated in a June 2021 interview that she and Simon Pegg were working on developing a Galaxy Quest television series.

Paramount was stated to be in the early stages of a Galaxy Quest series in April 2023 for the Paramount+ streaming service, with production overseen by Johnson.

Documentary
Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary was produced by the web site Fandom in 2019 to celebrate the film's 20th anniversary. Titled after Captain Taggart's catchphrase "Never give up, never surrender!", it features interviews with the movie's cast and crew, including Allen, Weaver, Rockwell, Shalhoub, Long, Pyle, Wilson, and Mitchell, along with director Parisot and writer Gordon, as well as celebrities including Wil Wheaton, Brent Spiner, Greg Berlanti, Paul Scheer, and Damon Lindelof, who have spoken of their love for the film. Initially premiering to a limited audience at the October 2019 New York Comic Con, it subsequently had a limited theatrical showing at about 600 screens through Fathom Events on November 26, 2019, which included a screening of deleted scenes as well as the debut of Screen Junkies' "Honest Trailer" for Galaxy Quest. The film was made available on various digital media services for purchase in December 2019.

title: Galaxy Quest


text:
Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh (, ; ; originally ) was a hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology and the protagonist of the Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem written in Akkadian during the late 2nd millennium BC. He was possibly a historical king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk, who was posthumously deified. His rule probably would have taken place sometime in the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period, c. 2900 – 2350 BC, though he became a major figure in Sumerian legend during the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112).

Tales of Gilgamesh's legendary exploits are narrated in five surviving Sumerian poems. The earliest of these is likely "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld", in which Gilgamesh comes to the aid of the goddess Inanna and drives away the creatures infesting her huluppu tree. She gives him two unknown objects, a mikku and a pikku, which he loses. After Enkidu's death, his shade tells Gilgamesh about the bleak conditions in the Underworld. The poem Gilgamesh and Aga describes Gilgamesh's revolt against his overlord Aga of Kish. Other Sumerian poems relate Gilgamesh's defeat of the giant Huwawa and the Bull of Heaven, while a fifth, poorly preserved poem relates the account of his death and funeral.

In later Babylonian times, these stories were woven into a connected narrative. The standard Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh was composed by a scribe named Sîn-lēqi-unninni, probably during the Middle Babylonian Period (c. 1600), based on much older source material. In the epic, Gilgamesh is a demigod of superhuman strength who befriends the wild man Enkidu. Together, they embark on many journeys, most famously defeating Humbaba (Sumerian: Huwawa) and the Bull of Heaven, who is sent to attack them by Ishtar (Sumerian: Inanna) after Gilgamesh rejects her offer for him to become her consort. After Enkidu dies of a disease sent as punishment from the gods, Gilgamesh becomes afraid of his death and visits the sage Utnapishtim, the survivor of the Great Flood, hoping to find immortality. Gilgamesh repeatedly fails the trials set before him and returns home to Uruk, realizing that immortality is beyond his reach.

Most scholars agree that the Epic of Gilgamesh exerted substantial influence on the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems written in ancient Greek during the 8th century BC. The story of Gilgamesh's birth is described in an anecdote in On the Nature of Animals by the Greek writer Aelian (2nd century AD). Aelian relates that Gilgamesh's grandfather kept his mother under guard to prevent her from becoming pregnant, because an oracle had told him that his grandson would overthrow him. She became pregnant and the guards threw the child off a tower, but an eagle rescued him mid-fall and delivered him safely to an orchard, where the gardener raised him.

The Epic of Gilgamesh was rediscovered in the Library of Ashurbanipal in 1849. After being translated in the early 1870s, it caused widespread controversy due to similarities between portions of it and the Hebrew Bible. Gilgamesh remained mostly obscure until the mid-20th century, but, since the late 20th century, he has become an increasingly prominent figure in modern culture.

Name
The modern form "Gilgamesh" is a direct borrowing of the Akkadian, rendered as Gilgameš. The Assyrian form of the name derived from the earlier Sumerian form, Bilgames. It is generally concluded that the name itself translates as "the (kinsman) is a hero", though what type of "kinsman" was meant is a point of controversy. It is sometimes suggested that the Sumerian form of the name was pronounced Pabilgames, reading the component bilga as pabilga, a related term which described familial relations, however, this is not supported by epigraphic or phonological evidence.

Historical king
Most historians generally agree that Gilgamesh was a historical king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk, who probably ruled sometime during the early part of the Early Dynastic Period (c. 2900 – 2350 BC). Stephanie Dalley, a scholar of the ancient Near East, states that "precise dates cannot be given for the lifetime of Gilgamesh, but they are generally agreed to lie between 2800 and 2500 BC". An inscription, possibly belonging to a contemporary official under Gilgamesh, was discovered in the archaic texts at Ur; his name reads: "Gilgameš is the one whom Utu has selected". Aside from this the Tummal Inscription, a thirty-four-line historiographic text written during the reign of Ishbi-Erra (c. 1953), also mentions him. The inscription credits Gilgamesh with building the walls of Uruk. Lines eleven through fifteen of the inscription read: For a second time, the Tummal fell into ruin, Gilgamesh built the Numunburra of the House of Enlil. Ur-lugal, the son of Gilgamesh, Made the Tummal pre-eminent, Brought Ninlil to the Tummal. Gilgamesh is also connected to King Enmebaragesi of Kish, a known historical figure who may have lived near Gilgamesh's lifetime. Furthermore, he is listed as one of the kings of Uruk by the Sumerian King List. Fragments of an epic text found in Mê-Turan (modern Tell Haddad) relate that upon his death Gilgamesh was buried under the river bed, and the workmen of Uruk temporarily diverted the flow of the Euphrates for this purpose.

Sumerian poems
It is certain that, during the later Early Dynastic Period, Gilgamesh was worshiped as a god at various locations across Sumer. In the 21st century BC, King Utu-hengal of Uruk adopted Gilgamesh as his patron deity. The kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112) were especially fond of Gilgamesh, calling him their "divine brother" and "friend." King Shulgi of Ur (2029–1982 BC) declared himself the son of Lugalbanda and Ninsun and the brother of Gilgamesh. Over the centuries, there may have been a gradual accretion of stories about Gilgamesh, some possibly derived from the real lives of other historical figures, such as Gudea, the Second Dynasty ruler of Lagash (2144–2124 BC). Prayers inscribed on clay tablets address Gilgamesh as a judge of the dead in the Underworld.

"Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld"
During this period, a large number of myths and legends developed surrounding Gilgamesh. Five independent Sumerian poems have been discovered narrating his exploits. Gilgamesh's first appearance in literature is probably in the Sumerian poem "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld". The narrative begins with a huluppu tree—perhaps, according to the Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer, a willow, growing on the banks of the river Euphrates. The goddess Inanna moves the tree to her garden in Uruk with the intention to carve it into a throne once it is fully grown. The tree grows and matures, but the serpent "who knows no charm," the Anzû-bird, and Lilitu, a Mesopotamian demon, invade the tree, causing Inanna to cry with sorrow.

Gilgamesh, who in this story is portrayed as Inanna's brother, slays the serpent, causing the Anzû-bird and Lilitu to flee. Gilgamesh's companions chop down the tree and carve it into a bed and a throne for Inanna. The goddess responds by fashioning a pikku and a mikku (perhaps a drum and drumsticks) as a reward for Gilgamesh's heroism. But Gilgamesh loses the pikku and mikku and asks who will retrieve them. His servant Enkidu descends to the Underworld to find them, but he disobeys its strict laws and can never return. In the remaining dialog, Gilgamesh questions the shade of his lost comrade about the Underworld.

Subsequent poems
Gilgamesh and Agga describes Gilgamesh's successful revolt against his liege lord Agga, king of the city-state of Kish. Gilgamesh and Huwawa describes how Gilgamesh and his servant Enkidu, with the help of fifty volunteers from Uruk, defeat the monster Huwawa, an ogre appointed as guardian of the Cedar Forest by the ruling god Enlil.

In Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven, Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay the Bull of Heaven, who has been sent to attack them by the goddess Inanna. The details of this poem differ substantially from the corresponding episode in the later Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Sumerian poem, Inanna remains aloof from Gilgamesh, but in the Akkadian epic she asks him to become her consort. Also, while pressing her father An to give her the Bull of Heaven, in Sumerian Inanna threatens a deafening cry that will reach the earth, while in Akkadian she threatens to wake the dead to eat the living.

A poem known as The Death of Gilgamesh is poorly preserved, but appears to describe a major state funeral followed by the arrival of the deceased in the Underworld. The poem may have been misinterpreted, and may actually depict the death of Enkidu.

Epic of Gilgamesh
Eventually, according to Kramer (1963): "Gilgamesh became the hero par excellence of the ancient world—an adventurous, brave, but tragic figure symbolizing man's vain but endless drive for fame, glory, and immortality."By the Old Babylonian Period (c. 1830), stories of Gilgamesh's legendary exploits had been woven into one or several long epics. The Epic of Gilgamesh, the most complete account of Gilgamesh's adventures, was composed in Akkadian during the Middle Babylonian Period (c. 1600 – c.  1155 BC) by a scribe named Sîn-lēqi-unninni. The most complete surviving version of the Epic of Gilgamesh is recorded on a set of twelve clay tablets dating to the seventh century BC, found in the Library of Ashurbanipal in the Assyrian capital of Nineveh, with many pieces missing or damaged. Some scholars and translators choose to supplement the missing parts with material from the earlier Sumerian poems or from other versions of the epic found at other sites throughout the Near East.

In the epic, Gilgamesh is introduced as "two thirds divine and one third mortal." At the beginning of the poem, Gilgamesh is described as a brutal, oppressive ruler. This is usually interpreted to mean either forced labor or sexual exploitation. As punishment for his cruelty, the god Anu creates the wild man Enkidu. After being tamed by a prostitute named Shamhat, Enkidu journeys to Uruk to confront Gilgamesh. In the second tablet, the two men wrestle and though Gilgamesh wins in the end, he is so impressed by his opponent's strength and tenacity that they become close friends. In the earlier Sumerian texts, Enkidu is Gilgamesh's servant, but, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, they are companions of equal standing.

In tablets III through IV, Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel to the Cedar Forest, which is guarded by Humbaba (the Akkadian name for Huwawa). The heroes cross the seven mountains to the Cedar Forest, where they begin chopping down trees. Confronted by Humbaba, Gilgamesh panics and prays to Shamash (the East Semitic name for Utu), who blows eight winds in Humbaba's eyes, blinding him. Humbaba begs for mercy, but the heroes decapitate him. Tablet VI begins with Gilgamesh returning to Uruk, where Ishtar (the Akkadian name for Inanna) comes to him and demands him as her consort. Gilgamesh rejects her, reproaching her mistreatment of all her former lovers.

In revenge, Ishtar goes to her father Anu and demands that he give her the Bull of Heaven, which she sends to attack Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the Bull and offer its heart to Shamash. While Gilgamesh and Enkidu are resting, Ishtar stands up on the walls of Uruk and curses Gilgamesh. Enkidu tears off the Bull's right thigh and throws it in Ishtar's face, saying, "If I could lay my hands on you, it is this I should do to you, and lash your entrails to your side." Ishtar calls together "the crimped courtesans, prostitutes and harlots" and orders them to mourn for the Bull of Heaven. Meanwhile, Gilgamesh holds a celebration over the Bull's defeat.

Tablet VII begins with Enkidu recounting a dream in which he saw Anu, Ea, and Shamash declare that either Gilgamesh or Enkidu must die to avenge the Bull of Heaven. They choose Enkidu, who soon grows sick. He has a dream of the Underworld, and then dies. Tablet VIII describes Gilgamesh's inconsolable grief for his friend and the details of Enkidu's funeral. Tablets IX through XI relate how Gilgamesh, driven by grief and fear of his own mortality, travels a great distance and overcomes many obstacles to find the home of Utnapishtim, the sole survivor of the Great Flood, who was rewarded with immortality by the gods.

The journey to Utnapishtim involves a series of episodic challenges, which probably originated as major independent adventures, but, in the epic, they are reduced to what Joseph Eddy Fontenrose calls "fairly harmless incidents." First, Gilgamesh encounters and slays lions in the mountain pass. Upon reaching the mountain of Mashu, Gilgamesh encounters a scorpion man and his wife; their bodies flash with terrifying radiance, but once Gilgamesh tells them his purpose, they allow him to pass. Gilgamesh wanders through darkness for twelve days before he finally comes into the light. He finds a beautiful garden by the sea in which he meets Siduri, the divine Alewife. At first, she tries to prevent Gilgamesh from entering the garden, and then attempts to persuade him to accept death as inevitable and not journey beyond the waters. When Gilgamesh persists in his quest, she directs him to Urshanabi, the ferryman of the gods, who takes Gilgamesh across the sea to Utnapishtim. When Gilgamesh finally arrives at Utnapishtim's home, Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that, to become immortal, he must defy sleep. Gilgamesh attempts this, but fails and falls into a seven-day sleep.

Next, Utnapishtim tells him that, even if he cannot obtain immortality, he can restore his youth with a rejuvenating herb. Gilgamesh takes the plant, but leaves it on the shore while swimming and a snake steals it, explaining why snakes shed their skins. Despondent at this loss, Gilgamesh returns to Uruk, and shows his city to the ferryman Urshanabi. At this point the continuous narrative ends. Tablet XII is an appendix corresponding to the Sumerian poem of Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld describing the loss of the pikku and mikku.

Numerous elements reveal a lack of continuity with the earlier portions of the epic. At the beginning of Tablet XII, Enkidu is still alive, despite having previously died in Tablet VII, and Gilgamesh is kind to Ishtar, despite the violent rivalry between them in Tablet VI. Also, while most of the parts of the epic are free adaptations of their respective Sumerian predecessors, Tablet XII is a literal, word-for-word translation of the last part of Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld, and was probably relegated to the end because it did not fit the larger epic narrative. In it, Gilgamesh sees a vision of Enkidu's ghost, who promises to recover the lost items and describes to his friend the abysmal condition of the Underworld.

In Mesopotamian art
Although stories about Gilgamesh were wildly popular throughout ancient Mesopotamia, authentic representations of him in ancient art are uncommon. Popular works often identify depictions of a hero with long hair, containing four or six curls, as representations of Gilgamesh, but this identification is known to be incorrect. A few genuine ancient Mesopotamian representations of Gilgamesh do exist, however. These representations are mostly found on clay plaques and cylinder seals. Generally, it is only possible to identify a figure as Gilgamesh if the work clearly depicts a scene from the Epic of Gilgamesh itself. One set of representations of Gilgamesh is found in scenes of two heroes fighting a demonic giant, clearly Humbaba. Another set is found in scenes showing a similar pair of heroes confronting a giant winged bull, clearly the Bull of Heaven.

In antiquity
The Epic of Gilgamesh exerted substantial influence on the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Homeric epic poems written in ancient Greek during the eighth century BC. According to classics scholar Barry B. Powell, early Greeks were probably exposed to and influenced by Mesopotamian oral traditions through their extensive connections to the civilizations of the ancient Near East. German classicist Walter Burkert observes that the scene in Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh in which Gilgamesh rejects Ishtar's advances and she complains before her mother Antu, but is mildly rebuked by her father Anu, is directly paralleled in Book V of the Iliad. In this scene, Aphrodite, the Greek adaptation of Ishtar, is wounded by the hero Diomedes and flees to Mount Olympus, where she cries to her mother Dione and is mildly rebuked by her father Zeus.

Powell observes that the opening lines of the Odyssey seem to echo the opening lines of the Epic of Gilgamesh, both praising and pitying their heroes. The storyline of the Odyssey likewise bears many similarities to the Epic of Gilgamesh. Both Gilgamesh and Odysseus encounter a woman who can turn men into animals: Ishtar (for Gilgamesh) and Circe (for Odysseus). Odysseus blinds the giant cyclops Polyphemus, while Gilgamesh slays of Humbaba. Both heroes visit the Underworld and both find themselves unhappy while living in an otherworldly paradise in the company of a seductive sorceress: Siduri (for Gilgamesh) and Calypso (for Odysseus). Finally, both have a missed opportunity for immortality, Gilgamesh when he loses the plant, and Odysseus when he leaves Calypso's island.

In the Qumran scroll the Book of Giants (c. 100 BC) the names of Gilgamesh and Humbaba appear as two of the antediluvian giants, rendered (in consonantal form) as glgmš and ḩwbbyš. This same text was later used in the Middle East by the Manichaean sects, and the Arabic form Gilgamish/Jiljamish survives as the name of a demon according to the Egyptian cleric Al-Suyuti (c. 1500).

The story of Gilgamesh's birth is not recorded in any extant Sumerian or Akkadian text, but a version of it is described in De Natura Animalium (On the Nature of Animals) 12.21, a commonplace book written in Greek around 200 AD by the Hellenized Roman orator Aelian. According to Aelian, an oracle told King Seuechoros (Σευεχορος) of the Babylonians that his grandson Gilgamos would overthrow him. To prevent this, Seuechoros kept his only daughter under close guard at the Acropolis of Babylon, but she became pregnant nonetheless. Fearing the king's wrath, the guards hurled the infant off the top of a tall tower. An eagle rescued the boy in mid-flight and set him down in a distant orchard. The caretaker found the boy and raised him, naming him Gilgamos (Γίλγαμος). Eventually, Gilgamos returned to Babylon and overthrew his grandfather, proclaiming himself king. This birth narrative is in the same tradition as other Near Eastern birth legends, such as those of Sargon, Moses, and Cyrus. The Syriac writer Theodore Bar Konai (c. AD 600) also mentions a king Gligmos, Gmigmos or Gamigos as the last of a line of twelve kings contemporaneous with the patriarchs from Peleg to Abraham.

Modern rediscovery
The Akkadian text of the Epic of Gilgamesh was first discovered in 1849 AD by the English archaeologist Austen Henry Layard in the Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh. Layard was seeking evidence to confirm the historicity of the events described in the Hebrew Bible, i.e. the Christian Old Testament, which was believed to contain the oldest texts in the world. Instead, his and later excavations unearthed much older Mesopotamian texts and showed that many of the stories in the Old Testament may be derived from earlier myths told throughout the ancient Near East. The first translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh was produced in the early 1870s by George Smith, a scholar at the British Museum, who published the Flood story from Tablet XI in 1880 under the title The Chaldean Account of Genesis. Gilgamesh's name was originally misread as Izdubar.

Early interest in the Epic of Gilgamesh was almost exclusively on account of the flood story from Tablet XI. It attracted enormous public attention and drew widespread scholarly controversy, while the rest of the epic was largely ignored. Most attention towards the Epic of Gilgamesh in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries came from German-speaking countries, where controversy raged over the relationship between Babel und Bibel ("Babylon and Bible").

In January 1902, the German Assyriologist Friedrich Delitzsch gave a lecture at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin before the Kaiser and his wife, in which he argued that the Flood story in the Book of Genesis was directly copied from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Delitzsch's lecture was so controversial that, by September 1903, he had managed to collect thousands of articles and pamphlets criticizing this lecture about the Flood another about the relationship between the Code of Hammurabi and the biblical Law of Moses. The Kaiser distanced himself from Delitzsch and his radical views and by the fall of 1904, Delitzsch was reduced to giving his third lecture in Cologne and Frankfurt am Main rather than in Berlin. The putative relationship between the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Hebrew Bible later became a major part of Delitzsch's argument in his 1920–21 book Die große Täuschung (The Great Deception) that the Hebrew Bible was irredeemably "contaminated" by Babylonian influence and that only by eliminating the human Old Testament entirely could Christians finally believe in the true, Aryan message of the New Testament.

Early modern interpretations

The first modern literary adaptation of the Epic of Gilgamesh was Ishtar and Izdubar (1884) by Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton, an American lawyer and businessman. Hamilton had rudimentary knowledge of Akkadian, which he had learned from Archibald Sayce's 1872 Assyrian Grammar for Comparative Purposes. Hamilton's book relied heavily on Smith's translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh, but also made major changes. For instance, Hamilton omitted the famous flood story entirely and instead focused on the romantic relationship between Ishtar and Gilgamesh. Ishtar and Izdubar expanded the original roughly 3,000 lines of the Epic of Gilgamesh to roughly 6,000 lines of rhyming couplets grouped into forty-eight cantos. Hamilton significantly altered most of the characters and introduced entirely new episodes not found in the original epic. Significantly influenced by Edward FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and Edwin Arnold's The Light of Asia, Hamilton's characters dress more like nineteenth-century Turks than ancient Babylonians. Hamilton also changed the tone of the epic from the "grim realism" and "ironic tragedy" of the original to a "cheery optimism" filled with "the sweet strains of love and harmony".

In his 1904 book Das Alte Testament im Lichte des alten Orients, the German Assyriologist Alfred Jeremias equated Gilgamesh with the king Nimrod from the Book of Genesis and argued Gilgamesh's strength must come from his hair, like the hero Samson in the Book of Judges, and that he must have performed Twelve Labors like the hero Heracles in Greek mythology. In his 1906 book Das Gilgamesch-Epos in der Weltliteratur, the Orientalist Peter Jensen declared that the Epic of Gilgamesh was the source behind nearly all the stories in the Old Testament, arguing that Moses is "the Gilgamesh of Exodus who saves the children of Israel from precisely the same situation faced by the inhabitants of Erech at the beginning of the Babylonian epic." He then proceeded to argue that Abraham, Isaac, Samson, David, and various other biblical figures are all nothing more than exact copies of Gilgamesh. Finally, he declared that even Jesus is "nothing but an Israelite Gilgamesh. Nothing but an adjunct to Abraham, Moses, and countless other figures in the saga." This ideology became known as Panbabylonianism and was almost immediately rejected by mainstream scholars. The most stalwart critics of Panbabylonianism were those associated with the emerging Religionsgeschichtliche Schule. Hermann Gunkel dismissed most of Jensen's purported parallels between Gilgamesh and biblical figures as mere baseless sensationalism. He concluded that Jensen and other Assyriologists like him had failed to understand the complexities of Old Testament scholarship and had confused scholars with "conspicuous mistakes and remarkable aberrations".

In English-speaking countries, the prevailing scholarly interpretation during the early twentieth century was one originally proposed by Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, which held that Gilgamesh is a "solar hero", whose actions represent the movements of the sun, and that the twelve tablets of his epic represent the twelve signs of the Babylonian zodiac. The Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, drawing on the theories of James George Frazer and Paul Ehrenreich, interpreted Gilgamesh and Eabani (the earlier misreading for Enkidu) as representing "man" and "crude sensuality" respectively. He compared them to other brother-figures in world mythology, remarking, "One is always weaker than the other and dies sooner. In Gilgamesh this ages-old motif of the unequal pair of brothers served to represent the relationship between a man and his libido." He also saw Enkidu as representing the placenta, the "weaker twin" who dies shortly after birth. Freud's friend and pupil Carl Jung frequently discusses Gilgamesh in his early work Symbole der Wandlung (1911–1912). He, for instance, cites Ishtar's sexual attraction to Gilgamesh as an example of the mother's incestuous desire for her son, Humbaba as an example of an oppressive father-figure whom Gilgamesh must overcome, and Gilgamesh himself as an example of a man who forgets his dependence on the unconscious and is punished by the "gods", who represent it.

Modern interpretations and cultural significance

In the years following World War II, Gilgamesh, formerly an obscure figure known only by a few scholars, gradually became increasingly popular with modern audiences. The Epic of Gilgamesh's existential themes made it particularly appealing to German authors in the years following the war. In his 1947 existentialist novel Die Stadt hinter dem Strom, the German novelist Hermann Kasack adapted elements of the epic into a metaphor for the aftermath of the destruction of World War II in Germany, portraying the bombed-out city of Hamburg as resembling the frightening Underworld seen by Enkidu in his dream. In Hans Henny Jahnn's magnum opus River Without Shores (1949–1950), the middle section of the trilogy centers around a composer whose twenty-year-long homoerotic relationship with a friend mirrors that of Gilgamesh with Enkidu and whose masterpiece turns out to be a symphony about Gilgamesh.

The Quest of Gilgamesh, a 1953 radio play by Douglas Geoffrey Bridson, helped popularize the epic in Britain. In the United States, Charles Olson praised the epic in his poems and essays and Gregory Corso believed that it contained ancient virtues capable of curing what he viewed as modern moral degeneracy. The 1966 postfigurative novel Gilgamesch by Guido Bachmann became a classic of German "queer literature" and set a decades-long international literary trend of portraying Gilgamesh and Enkidu as homosexual lovers. This trend proved so popular that the Epic of Gilgamesh itself is included in The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature (1998) as a major early work of that genre. In the 1970s and 1980s, feminist literary critics analyzed the Epic of Gilgamesh as showing evidence for a transition from the original matriarchy of all humanity to modern patriarchy. As the Green Movement expanded in Europe, Gilgamesh's story began to be seen through an environmentalist lens, with Enkidu's death symbolizing man's separation from nature.

Theodore Ziolkowski, a scholar of modern literature, states, that "unlike most other figures from myth, literature, and history, Gilgamesh has established himself as an autonomous entity or simply a name, often independent of the epic context in which he originally became known. (As analogous examples one might think, for instance, of the Minotaur or Frankenstein's monster.)" The Epic of Gilgamesh has been translated into many major world languages and has become a staple of American world literature classes. Many contemporary authors and novelists have drawn inspiration from it, including an American avant-garde theater collective called "The Gilgamesh Group" and Joan London in her novel Gilgamesh (2001). The Great American Novel (1973) by Philip Roth features a character named "Gil Gamesh", who is the star pitcher of a fictional 1930s baseball team called the "Patriot League".

Starting in the late twentieth century, the Epic of Gilgamesh began to be read again in Iraq. Saddam Hussein, the former President of Iraq, had a lifelong fascination with Gilgamesh. Saddam's first novel Zabibah and the King (2000) is an allegory for the Gulf War set in ancient Assyria that blends elements of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the One Thousand and One Nights. Like Gilgamesh, the king at the beginning of the novel is a brutal tyrant who misuses his power and oppresses his people, but, through the aid of a commoner woman named Zabibah, he grows into a more just ruler. When the United States tried to pressure Saddam to step down in February 2003, Saddam gave a speech to a group of his generals posing the idea in a positive light by comparing himself to the epic hero.

Scholars like Susan Ackerman and Wayne R. Dynes have noted that the language used to describe Gilgamesh's relationship with Enkidu seems to have homoerotic implications. Ackerman notes that, when Gilgamesh veils Enkidu's body, Enkidu is compared to a "bride". Ackerman states, "that Gilgamesh, according to both versions, will love Enkidu 'like a wife' may further imply sexual intercourse."

In 2000, a modern statue of Gilgamesh by the Assyrian sculptor Lewis Batros was unveiled at the University of Sydney in Australia.

The Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard recorded a song titled "Gilgamesh" as the fifth track of their October 2023 album The Silver Cord, with references to the epic in the song's lyrics.

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title: Gilgamesh


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Gluten

Gluten is a structural protein naturally found in certain cereal grains. The term gluten usually refers to the elastic network of a wheat grain's proteins, gliadin and glutenin primarily, that forms readily with the addition of water and often kneading in the case of bread dough. The types of grains that contain gluten include all species of wheat (common wheat, durum, spelt, khorasan, emmer and einkorn), and barley, rye, and some cultivars of oat; moreover, cross hybrids of any of these cereal grains also contain gluten, e.g. triticale. Gluten makes up 75–85% of the total protein in bread wheat.

Glutens, especially Triticeae glutens, have unique viscoelastic and adhesive properties, which give dough its elasticity, helping it rise and keep its shape and often leaving the final product with a chewy texture. These properties, and its relatively low cost, make gluten valuable to both food and non-food industries.

Wheat gluten is composed of mainly two types of proteins: the glutenins and the gliadins, which in turn can be divided into high molecular and low molecular glutenins and α/β, γ and Ω gliadins. Its homologous seed storage proteins, in barley, are referred to as hordeins, in rye, secalins, and in oats, avenins. These protein classes are collectively referred to as "gluten". The storage proteins in other grains, such as maize (zeins) and rice (rice protein), are sometimes called gluten, but they do not cause harmful effects in people with celiac disease.

Gluten can trigger adverse, inflammatory, immunological, and autoimmune reactions in some people. The spectrum of gluten related disorders includes celiac disease in 1–2% of the general population, non-celiac gluten sensitivity in 0.5–13% of the general population, as well as dermatitis herpetiformis, gluten ataxia and other neurological disorders. These disorders are treated by a gluten-free diet.

Bread products
Gluten forms when glutenin molecules cross-link via disulfide bonds to form a submicroscopic network attached to gliadin, which contributes viscosity (thickness) and extensibility to the mix. If this dough is leavened with yeast, fermentation produces carbon dioxide bubbles, which, trapped by the gluten network, cause the dough to rise. Baking coagulates the gluten, which, along with starch, stabilizes the shape of the final product. Gluten content has been implicated as a factor in the staling of bread, possibly because it binds water through hydration.

The formation of gluten affects the texture of the baked goods. Gluten's attainable elasticity is proportional to its content of glutenins with low molecular weights, as this portion contains the preponderance of the sulfur atoms responsible for the cross-linking in the gluten network. Using flour with higher gluten content leads to chewier doughs such as those found in pizza and bagels, while using flour with less gluten content yields tender baked goods such as pastry products.

Generally, bread flours are high in gluten (hard wheat); pastry flours have a lower gluten content. Kneading promotes the formation of gluten strands and cross-links, creating baked products that are chewier (as opposed to more brittle or crumbly). The "chewiness" increases as the dough is kneaded for longer times. An increased moisture content in the dough enhances gluten development, and very wet doughs left to rise for a long time require no kneading (see no-knead bread). Shortening inhibits formation of cross-links and is used, along with diminished water and less kneading, when a tender and flaky product, such as a pie crust, is desired.

The strength and elasticity of gluten in flour is measured in the baking industry using a farinograph. This gives the baker a measurement of quality for different varieties of flours when developing recipes for various baked goods.

Added gluten
In industrial production, a slurry of wheat flour is kneaded vigorously by machinery until the gluten agglomerates into a mass. This mass is collected by centrifugation, then transported through several stages integrated in a continuous process. About 65% of the water in the wet gluten is removed by means of a screw press; the remainder is sprayed through an atomizer nozzle into a drying chamber, where it remains at an elevated temperature for a short time to allow the water to evaporate without denaturing the gluten. The process yields a flour-like powder with a 7% moisture content, which is air cooled and pneumatically transported to a receiving vessel. In the final step, the processed gluten is sifted and milled to produce a uniform product.

This flour-like powder, when added to ordinary flour dough, may help improve the dough's ability to increase in volume. The resulting mixture also increases the bread's structural stability and chewiness. Gluten-added dough must be worked vigorously to induce it to rise to its full capacity; an automatic bread machine or food processor may be required for high-gluten kneading. Generally, higher gluten levels are associated with higher overall protein content.

Imitation meats

Gluten, especially wheat gluten (seitan), is often the basis for imitation meats resembling beef, chicken, duck (see mock duck), fish and pork. When cooked in broth, gluten absorbs some of the surrounding liquid (including the flavor) and becomes firm to the bite. This use of gluten is a popular means of adding supplemental protein to many vegetarian diets. In home or restaurant cooking, wheat gluten is prepared from flour by kneading the flour under water, agglomerating the gluten into an elastic network known as a dough, and then washing out the starch.

Other consumer products
Gluten is often present in beer and soy sauce, and can be used as a stabilizing agent in more unexpected food products, such as ice cream and ketchup. Foods of this kind may therefore present problems for a small number of consumers because the hidden gluten constitutes a hazard for people with celiac disease and gluten sensitivities. The protein content of some pet foods may also be enhanced by adding gluten.

Gluten is also used in cosmetics, hair products and other dermatological preparations.

Disorders
"Gluten-related disorders" is the umbrella term for all diseases triggered by gluten, which include celiac disease (CD), non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), wheat allergy, gluten ataxia and dermatitis herpetiformis (DH).

Pathophysiological research
The gluten peptides are responsible for triggering gluten-related disorders. In people who have celiac disease, the peptides cause injury of the intestines, ranging from inflammation to partial or total destruction of the intestinal villi. To study mechanisms of this damage, laboratory experiments are done in vitro and in vivo. Among the gluten peptides, gliadin has been studied extensively.

In vitro and in vivo studies
In the context of celiac disease, gliadin peptides are classified in basic and clinical research as immunogenic, depending on their mechanism of action:

 * The peptides are those capable of directly affecting cells and intestinal preparations in vitro, producing cellular damage in vivo and eliciting the innate immune response. In vitro, the peptides promote cell apoptosis (a form of programmed cell death) and inhibit the synthesis of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) and proteins, reducing the viability of cells. Experiments in vivo with normal mice showed that they cause an increase in cell death and the production of interferon type I (an inflammatory mediator).  In vitro, gluten alters cellular morphology and motility, cytoskeleton organization, oxidative balance, and tight junctions.
 * The immunogenic peptides are those able to activate T cells in vitro.

At least 50 epitopes of gluten may produce cytotoxic, immunomodulatory, and gut-permeating activities.

The effect of oat peptides (avenins) in celiac people depends on the oat cultivar consumed because of prolamin genes, protein amino acid sequences, and the immunotoxicity of prolamins which vary among oat varieties. In addition, oat products may be cross-contaminated with the other gluten-containing cereals.

Incidence
, gluten-related disorders were increasing in frequency in different geographic areas. Some suggested explanations for this increase include the following: the growing westernization of diets, the increasing use of wheat-based foods included in the Mediterranean diet, the progressive replacement of rice by wheat in many countries in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, the higher content of gluten in bread and bakery products due to the reduction of dough fermentation time,  and the development in recent years of new types of wheat with a higher amount of cytotoxic gluten peptides,  However, a 2020 study that grew and analyzed 60 wheat cultivars from between 1891 and 2010 found no changes in albumin/globulin and gluten contents over time. "Overall, the harvest year had a more significant effect on protein composition than the cultivar. At the protein level, we found no evidence to support an increased immunostimulatory potential of modern winter wheat."

Celiac disease
Celiac disease (CD) is a chronic, multiple-organ autoimmune disorder primarily affecting the small intestine caused by the ingestion of wheat, barley, rye, oats, and derivatives, that appears in genetically predisposed people of all ages. CD is not only a gastrointestinal disease, because it may involve several organs and cause an extensive variety of non-gastrointestinal symptoms, and most importantly, it may be apparently asymptomatic. Many asymptomatic people become accustomed to living with a chronic bad health status as if it were normal, but they are able to recognize that they actually had symptoms related to celiac disease after starting a gluten-free diet and improvement occurs. Added difficulties for diagnosis are the fact that serological markers (anti-tissue transglutaminase [TG2]) are not always present and many people may have minor mucosal lesions, without atrophy of the intestinal villi.

CD affects approximately 1–2% of the general population, but most cases remain unrecognized, undiagnosed and untreated, and at risk for serious long-term health complications. People may suffer severe disease symptoms and be subjected to extensive investigations for many years, before a proper diagnosis is achieved. Untreated CD may cause malabsorption, reduced quality of life, iron deficiency, osteoporosis, an increased risk of intestinal lymphomas, and greater mortality. CD is associated with some other autoimmune diseases, such as diabetes mellitus type 1, thyroiditis, gluten ataxia, psoriasis, vitiligo, autoimmune hepatitis, dermatitis herpetiformis, primary sclerosing cholangitis, and more.

CD with "classic symptoms", which include gastrointestinal manifestations such as chronic diarrhea and abdominal distention, malabsorption, loss of appetite, and impaired growth, is currently the least common presentation form of the disease and affects predominantly small children generally younger than two years of age.

CD with "non-classic symptoms" is the most common clinical type and occurs in older children (over two years old), adolescents, and adults. It is characterized by milder or even absent gastrointestinal symptoms and a wide spectrum of non-intestinal manifestations that can involve any organ of the body, and very frequently may be completely asymptomatic both in children (at least in 43% of the cases ) and adults.

Asymptomatic CD (ACD) is present in the majority of affected patients and is characterized by the absence of classical gluten-intolerance signs, such as diarrhea, bloating, and abdominal pain. Nevertheless, these individuals very often develop diseases that can be related with gluten intake. Gluten can be degraded into several morphine-like substances, named gluten exorphins. These compounds have proven opioid effects and could mask the deleterious effects of gluten protein on gastrointestinal lining and function.

Non-celiac gluten sensitivity
Non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) is described as a condition of multiple symptoms that improves when switching to a gluten-free diet, after celiac disease and wheat allergy are excluded. Recognized since 2010, it is included among gluten-related disorders. Its pathogenesis is not yet well understood, but the activation of the innate immune system, the direct negative effects of gluten and probably other wheat components, are implicated.

NCGS is the most common syndrome of gluten intolerance, with a prevalence estimated to be 6-10%. NCGS is becoming a more common diagnosis, but its true prevalence is difficult to determine because many people self-diagnose and start a gluten-free diet, without having previously tested for celiac disease or having the dietary prescription from a physician. People with NCGS and gastrointestinal symptoms remain habitually in a "no man's land", without being recognized by the specialists and lacking the adequate medical care and treatment. Most of these people have a long history of health complaints and unsuccessful consultations with numerous physicians, trying to get a diagnosis of celiac disease, but they are only labeled as irritable bowel syndrome. A consistent although undefined number of people eliminate gluten because they identify it as responsible for their symptoms and these improve with the gluten-free diet, so they self-diagnose as NCGS.

People with NCGS may develop gastrointestinal symptoms, which resemble those of irritable bowel syndrome or wheat allergy, or a wide variety of non-gastrointestinal symptoms, such as headache, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, atopic diseases, allergies, neurological diseases, or psychiatric disorders, among others. The results of a 2017 study suggest that NCGS may be a chronic disorder, as is the case with celiac disease.

Besides gluten, additional components present in wheat, rye, barley, oats, and their derivatives, including other proteins called amylase-trypsin inhibitors (ATIs) and short-chain carbohydrates known as FODMAPs, may cause NCGS symptoms. As of 2019, reviews conclude that although FODMAPs present in wheat and related grains may play a role in non-celiac gluten sensitivity, they only explain certain gastrointestinal symptoms, such as bloating, but not the extra-digestive symptoms that people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity may develop, such as neurological disorders, fibromyalgia, psychological disturbances, and dermatitis. ATIs may cause toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)-mediated intestinal inflammation in humans.

Wheat allergy
People can also experience adverse effects of wheat as result of a wheat allergy. As with most allergies, a wheat allergy causes the immune system to respond abnormally to a component of wheat that it treats as a threatening foreign body. This immune response is often time-limited and does not cause lasting harm to body tissues. Wheat allergy and celiac disease are different disorders. Gastrointestinal symptoms of wheat allergy are similar to those of celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity, but there is a different interval between exposure to wheat and onset of symptoms. An allergic reaction to wheat has a fast onset (from minutes to hours) after the consumption of food containing wheat and could include anaphylaxis.

Gluten ataxia

Gluten ataxia is an autoimmune disease triggered by the ingestion of gluten. With gluten ataxia, damage takes place in the cerebellum, the balance center of the brain that controls coordination and complex movements like walking, speaking and swallowing, with loss of Purkinje cells. People with gluten ataxia usually present gait abnormality or incoordination and tremor of the upper limbs. Gaze-evoked nystagmus and other ocular signs of cerebellar dysfunction are common. Myoclonus, palatal tremor, and opsoclonus-myoclonus may also appear.

Early diagnosis and treatment with a gluten-free diet can improve ataxia and prevent its progression. The effectiveness of the treatment depends on the elapsed time from the onset of the ataxia until diagnosis, because the death of neurons in the cerebellum as a result of gluten exposure is irreversible.

Gluten ataxia accounts for 40% of ataxias of unknown origin and 15% of all ataxias. Less than 10% of people with gluten ataxia present any gastrointestinal symptom, yet about 40% have intestinal damage.

Other neurological disorders
In addition to gluten ataxia, gluten sensitivity can cause a wide spectrum of neurological disorders, which develop with or without the presence of digestive symptoms or intestinal damage. These include peripheral neuropathy, epilepsy, headache, encephalopathy, vascular dementia, and various movement disorders (restless legs syndrome, chorea, parkinsonism, Tourette syndrome, palatal tremor, myoclonus, dystonia, opsoclonus myoclonus syndrome, paroxysms, dyskinesia, myorhythmia, myokymia).

The diagnosis of underlying gluten sensitivity is complicated and delayed when there are no digestive symptoms. People who do experience gastrointestinal problems are more likely to receive a correct diagnosis and treatment. A strict gluten-free diet is the first-line treatment, which should be started as soon as possible. It is effective in most of these disorders. When dementia has progressed to an advanced degree, the diet has no beneficial effect. Cortical myoclonus appears to be treatment-resistant on both gluten-free diet and immunosuppression.

Labeling
People with gluten-related disorders have to remove gluten from their diet strictly, so they need clear labeling rules. The term "gluten-free" is generally used to indicate a supposed harmless level of gluten rather than a complete absence. The exact level at which gluten is harmless is uncertain and controversial. A 2008 systematic review tentatively concluded that consumption of less than 10 mg of gluten per day is unlikely to cause intestinal damage in people with celiac disease, although it noted that few reliable studies had been done. Regulation of the label "gluten-free" varies.

International standards
The Codex Alimentarius international standards for food labeling has a standard relating to the labeling of products as "gluten-free". It only applies to foods that would normally contain gluten.

Brazil
By law in Brazil, all food products must display labels clearly indicating whether or not they contain gluten.

Canada
Labels for all food products sold in Canada must clearly identify the presence of gluten if it is present at a level greater than 20 parts per million.

European Union & United Kingdom
In the European Union, all prepackaged foods and non-prepacked foods from a restaurant, take-out food wrapped just before sale, or unpackaged food served in institutions must be identified if gluten-free. "Gluten-free" is defined as 20 parts per million of gluten or less and "very low gluten" is 100 parts per million of gluten or less; only foods with cereal ingredients processed to remove gluten can claim "very low gluten" on labels. It is not allowed to label food as "gluten-free" when all similar food is naturally gluten-free, such as in the case of milk.

All foods containing gluten as an ingredient must be labelled accordingly as gluten is defined as one of the 14 recognised EU allergens.

United States
In the United States, gluten is not listed on labels unless added as a standalone ingredient. Wheat or other allergens are listed after the ingredient line. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has historically classified gluten as "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS). In August 2013, the FDA issued a final ruling, effective August 2014, that defined the term "gluten-free" for voluntary use in the labeling of foods as meaning that the amount of gluten contained in the food is below 20 parts per million.

title: Gluten


text:
Glen or Glenda

Glen or Glenda is a 1953 American independent exploitation film directed, written by and starring Ed Wood (credited in his starring role as "Daniel Davis"), and featuring Wood's then-girlfriend Dolores Fuller and Bela Lugosi. It was produced by George Weiss who also made the exploitation film Test Tube Babies that same year.

The film is a docudrama about cross-dressing and transvestism, and is semi-autobiographical in nature. Wood himself was a cross-dresser, and the film is a plea for tolerance. It was widely considered one of the worst films ever made upon release. However, it has since been reevaluated and has become a cult film due to its low-budget production values, idiosyncratic style, and early cinematic themes of transgender acceptance.

Plot
A police inspector investigating the suicide of a transvestite named Patrick/Patricia seeks the advice of Dr. Alton, who narrates for him the story of Glen/Glenda.

Glen started out by asking to wear his sister's dress for a Halloween party. The narrative explains that Glen is a transvestite, but not a homosexual. He hides his cross-dressing from his fiancée, Barbara, fearing that she will reject him. She voices her suspicion that there is another woman in his life, unaware that the woman is his feminine alter ego, Glenda.

Alton narrates that Glen is torn between the idea of being honest with Barbara before their wedding or waiting until after. Glen confides in a transvestite friend of his, John, whose wife left him after catching him wearing her clothes.

Glen/Glenda is caught in a storm. The sound of thunder drives him to collapse to the floor. An extended dream sequence begins, containing several vignettes symbolically depicting Glen's struggle with his sexuality. Glen/Glenda wakes and decides to tell Barbara the truth. She initially reacts with distress, but ultimately decides to stay with him. She offers him an angora sweater as a sign of acceptance.

Back in Dr. Alton's office, he relates another narrative, this one concerning a World War II veteran named Alan who underwent sex reassignment surgery to become "a lovely young woman" named Anne.

Cast

 * Bela Lugosi as Scientist/Spirit
 * Ed Wood as Glen/Glenda
 * Timothy Farrell as Dr. Alton/Narrator
 * Dolores Fuller as Barbara
 * 'Tommy' Haynes as Alan/Anne
 * Lyle Talbot as Inspector Warren
 * Charlie Crafts as Johnny
 * Conrad Brooks as Banker/Reporter/Pickup Artist/Bearded Drag
 * William M. A. deOrgler aka Captain DeZita as The Devil

Production
Shot in four days, the film was loosely inspired by the sex reassignment surgery of Christine Jorgensen, which made national headlines in the U.S. in 1952. George Weiss, a Hollywood producer of low-budget films, commissioned a movie to exploit the case. Originally Weiss made Jorgensen several offers to appear in the film, but these were turned down. Wood convinced Weiss that his own transvestism made him the perfect director despite his modest resume. Wood was given the job, but instead made a movie about transvestism. Nonetheless, posters for the film still claimed it was based on Jorgensen's case.

Wood persuaded Lugosi, at the time poor and drug-addicted, to appear in the movie. Lugosi's scenes were shot at the Jack Miles Studios in Los Angeles. He was reportedly paid $5000 for the role, although some stories state the actual amount was only $1000. Lugosi is credited as "The Scientist", a character whose purpose is unclear. He acts as a sort of narrator but gives no narration relevant to the plot; that job is reserved for the film's primary narrator, Timothy Farrell.

This was the only film Wood directed but did not also produce. Wood played the eponymous character, but under the pseudonym "Daniel Davis". His then-girlfriend, Dolores Fuller, played Glen's girlfriend/fiancée Barbara. Wood later returned to Glen or Glenda in his pulp novel Killer in Drag (1963). The plot features a transvestite called Glen whose alter-ego is called Glenda. He is executed in the sequel Death of a Transvestite (1967) after a struggle for the right to go to the electric chair dressed as Glenda.

The erotic-themed striptease/bondage vignettes were not created by Wood. They were reportedly added by producer George Weiss. He needed extra scenes to add to what he felt was an overly-short film. While not organic parts of the narrative, they seem to tell their own tales of gender dynamics and so fit in with the general themes of the film. The whipping scene suggests a master/slave relationship. That the man is dominant and the woman submissive, seems to reflect male chauvinism. The flirtatious and striptease-themed vignettes were typical of 1950s exploitation films, as was the rape scene. Wood’s original director’s cut of the film without those added scenes runs 65 minutes. The producer’s cut of film with the added scenes runs 71 minutes.

The film has deleted scenes. In the theatrical trailer, included in laserdisc and DVD editions, the scene in which Fuller hands over her angora sweater, is a different take than the one in the release version — in the trailer, she tosses it to Wood in a huff, while the release version shows her handing it over more acceptingly. There is also a shot of Wood in drag, mouthing the word "Cut!"

The second part of the film, titled Alan or Anne, is much shorter, told largely through stock footage, and was made to meet the distributor's demand for a sex change film. Alan is a pseudo-hermaphrodite who fights in World War II wearing women's underwear. After returning, Alan undergoes surgery to become a woman.

Release
Domestically, the film was limited in release, having been pre-sold to some theaters (under alternative titles such as I Led Two Lives, He or She? and I Changed My Sex). Internationally, the film was also limited, and in France and Belgium, the title was translated as Louis ou Louise and in Argentina as Yo Cambié Mi Sexo (I changed my sex); the film had a brief screening in the Republic of China. It was re-released to theaters in 1981 by Paramount.

According to Tim Dirks, the film was one of a wave of "cheap teen movies" released for the drive-in market. They consisted of "exploitative, cheap fare created especially for them [teens] in a newly-established teen/drive-in genre."

It was denied classification by the British Board of Film Classification upon submission on February 26, 1958.

The Image DVD release from 2000 was mastered from a censored print and is missing several salacious bits.

In 2009, Glen or Glenda became the final film to be restored and colorized by Legend Films, who subsequently released it on DVD.

Critical reception
Describing the film as "a half-mad old movie Paramount hasn't so much rescued as disinterred," critic Janet Maslin wrote in a 1981 review of the film in The New York Times that "it's dreadful enough to have a certain comic appeal," that the Lugosi character "presides over the action like some sex change deity," that it is "impassioned [and] incoherent," but noted that "there is plenty of inadvertent humor in Glen or Glenda, with its weirdo homilies, rotten acting and frequent talk of underwear." Writing in DVD Talk, critic Ian Jane wrote that "Wood throws in all manner of strange stock footage of Buffalo and bound women alongside clips of Bela Lugosi freaking out," that the film is "so utterly messed up that it borders on arthouse rather than simple b-movie exploitation," but that it "holds up immensely for multiple viewings due to its total incoherence." A review by Andrea LeVasseur in AllMovie described the film as a "showcase of Wood's infamous ineptitude," and noted that "the personal stories of two transvestites are spoken with ridiculous dialogue, terrible acting, and interspersed with irrelevant stock footage. Every so often, a drug-addicted Bela Lugosi would appear with some strange and pointless narration."

The critic Leonard Maltin names Glen or Glenda as "possibly the worst movie ever made". Richard Barrios describes Glen or Glenda as "one of the funniest and worst movies ever made".

Legacy
In 1980, Wood was posthumously given the accolade of 'Worst Director of All Time' at the Golden Turkey Awards, and a revival of interest in his work followed. This led to Glen or Glenda being reissued in 1982. This cut included six minutes of additional footage. One of the restored scenes features Glen rejecting a pass made to him by a man. At this point, the film was reviewed seriously, and reclaimed as a radical work, by Steve Jenkins in the Monthly Film Bulletin.

In his book Cult Movies 3, Danny Peary suggests this is actually a radical, if ineptly made, film that presents a far more personal story than is contained in films by more well-respected auteurs.

In 1994, Tim Burton chronicled the troubled production of Glen or Glenda in Ed Wood. The film includes re-creations of several key scenes, including Lugosi's narration and Glen's plea for his girlfriend's understanding at the end of the film.

The characters Glen and Glenda in the film Seed of Chucky, the fifth film in the Child's Play series, were named after the film.

Director David Lynch has named the film as one of his favorites.

The mascot of Plan 9 from Bell Labs (the name of which is also a reference to one of Wood's films, Plan 9 from Outer Space) is a bunny named "Glenda".

title: Glen or Glenda