Even I, a more or less dedicated non-Star Trek fan, fell for Galaxy Quest. I didn’t just “like” it — I laughed and chortled and pretty much fell in love. Not when it opened on 12.25.99, but on cable a year or two later. I am therefore totally into Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary (Fathom Events, 11.26), a fan-propelled celebration of Galaxy Quest‘s 20th anniversary.

Boilerplate: “Featuring archival, behind-the-scenes footage and exclusive interviews with many Galaxy Quest cast members and produced by the people behind ScreenJunkies, Fandom and Honest Trailers, Never Surrender is an independently produced documentary that explores the growing fan community behind GQ, which was comically inspired by the Star Trek franchise and its passionate, core fanbase, yet has developed its own rabid fanbase over the years.”

In the trailer Galaxy Quest producer Mark Johnson notes that certain parties at DreamWorks, the distributor, didn’t really get what the movie was — not a kid-friendly thing but an inside-baseball, wink-wink comedy for semi-adult fans of the Star Trek TV series and feature films.

I never did any reporting on the backroom politics, but I’m presuming that this alleged “what the hell is this movie?” attitude came at least partly from DreamWorks honcho Walter Parkes.

I’m offering this supposition because Parkes didn’t get Cameron Crowe‘s Almost Famous either. He was the guy who pushed for several unwarranted cuts while the theatrical cut of Crowe’s film was being prepared; the longer Director’s Cut (or Untitled) version was a much more satisfying film iMHO.