Recap / Film Reroll Galaxy Quest

A little known tidbit from the filming of Galaxy Quest^note with credit to Reddit user crazy56u

The gang pretend to be actors in a movie portraying actors in a tv show who think they’re in a tv show when they’re really in real life.

Episodes 143-145, 147-148 of Film Reroll. Based on, per George Takei, a "chilling documentary" about the hit sci-fi series Star Trek.

The year is 1999. Eighteen years have passed since the cancellation of the hit sci-fi series Galaxy Quest, and although the show maintains a steady fanbase to the point of there still being a long-running fan convention, only the main lead Jason Nesmith is riding the high of having been on the show. Guy Fleegman is the only other one clinging to the show like a liferaft, despite only being on one episode (where he died). The rest of the crew? They absolutely despise both the show, and their leading man.

But they would have even more reason to hate Jason if they found out what he's been doing on the side: He's been accepting offers from more lucrative fans of the show to go and act out scenes for them on some sets they have personally set up. And, in fact, at this very convention, a group referring to themselves as the "Thermians" request his aid for some particularly "dire" circumstances.

Well, what would be the harm in that?

Starring Paulo Quiros as Jason Nesmith, Kara Strait as Sir Alexander Dane, Joz Vammer as Gwen DeMarco, Andy Hoover as Fred Kwan, Anyone as Guy Fleegman^note The campaign's "Guest NPC"; the people who have played Guy include: Alex Demers, Jon Miller and Jon Miller as the Dungeon Master.

Intercepted by It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

---

Tropes:

• Acquaintance Denial: While talking to Arthur over the phone, Sir Alexander claims that Guy (who is constantly trying to break into the conversation) is just some voice on the radio.
• Actor Allusion:
  • As Joz points out, and Jon admits to having intentionally done, this is the third time she has played Sigourney Weaver.
  • When Jason takes to the convention's stage, Paulo just blatantly reuses his own intro:
    Jason: Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Galaxy Quest convention!
• Actor-Inspired Element: In-Universe, the bottles in the captain’s bathroom in the Show Within a Show were made by Jason’s then-girlfriend, a professional glass blower.
• Adaptation Expansion: Invoked: Due to still thinking he's actually in the show, Jason decides to try and explore the Protector and see if there's anywhere on the ship that would be new to him, as "[they] only had, like, six sets, total".
• Affably Evil: Variation: During his extended intro to the convention, Jason realizes he was the only one who got invited on stage. As such, he decides to take advantage of the situation and personally invite Fred and Tommy on stage, just to get more adoration for himself.
• All Part of the Show: Richard Chesterton, Gwen and Sir Alexander manage to successfully play off the sudden presence of two cops attempting to remove people and arrest another as being part of the play.
• Alternate Timeline: As a by-product of the Lotus-Eater Machine, Broms winds up creating a fantasy for Jason where, shortly after Galaxy Quest got cancelled, he and Gwen were about to part ways. In that moment, Jason (seemingly thinking he was genuinely sent back in time) decides he wants to "rewrite the script" and, rather than go film the movie he had done in reality, go and help Gwen get her own script made. By alt!1986^note as the fantasy started, per "Gwen"'s words, in 1984; this might in-and-of itself be a different timeline, as Galaxy Quest originally ended in 1982, the script never really got off the ground, Jason's agent stopped calling him, and he kept in closer touch with everyone than he did before.
• Ambiguous Situation: When forced by Paulo to plug something at the end of Part 4, Jon decides to plug the subreddit, calling to attention the various posts and fan theories being made about this campaign... and also confirms that one fan theory is correct. There is no further clarification.
  Kara: Yeah, is it the fan theory that you're real? Because I don't believe that one.
• Anachronic Order: As Paulo admits when he starts to do a mailbag segment at the end of Part 1, at the time of recording, Rogue Two was still in-progress.
• Anachronism Stew:
  • When talking about the film quality of the Galaxy Quest show in-universe, Jon mentions that the show has recently gotten an "upscaled, 4K Blu-Ray" release... in 1999.^note Kara says "1997", and later they remember it's 1999.
  • When Broms creates the fantasy scenario of Jason being on the set of Galaxy Quest the day filming ended, "Gwen" mentions it's 1984; in the movie, it's stablished the show got cancelled in 1982.
  • Discussed: When Paulo asks if Jason and Tommy had seen The Matrix by the events of the movie, Kara tries to argue that Galaxy Quest was set when they filmed it, only for Jon to point out it takes place in the summer of 1999, while Andy puts the argument to bed by finding out The Matrix came out in March.
• And a Diet Coke: Upon arriving almost two hours late to the convention, Jason asks for a Diet Coke as soon as he makes into the green room, prompting Kara to remark that he's already gone through character development.
• Artistic License – Geography: Parodied: Apparently, only New York has tacos.
• Badass Boast: When a cop attempts to grab Sir Alexander while he's on stage, Kara's successful Acting roll and Jon's failed Fright Check roll causes the cop to pass out from fright. Upon noticing the second cop, Sir Alexander decides to goad him:
  Sir Alexander: Will you be brave enough to walk into the pit that your compatriat tumbled into?
  • And as the cop decides to drag his partner offstage, vowing his return:
    Sir Alexander: Of course you'll be back! The rats always come back, for every one you kill, there's thousands in the walls... Of course you'll be back, and the dogs will be waiting...
• Bad Liar: When Joz decides to roll Acting to muster up a tear for Sir Alexander Dane's Henry the 9th performance, it's revealed it's a 14, meaning he didn't buy it. Luckily, rather than be upset, he just uses this to convince Gwen that she should just leave with him.
• Bait-and-Switch: When the theater critic, Addison DeWitt, starts to ask where Sir Alexander Dane is during the Spirit Gum Theater's rehearsal^note as he spent the previous night drinking and getting high, and so he's late, with it being clear she isn't buying the theater troupe's lie that he's just sick, Joz decides to roll Sex Appeal to have Gwen distract her. When Joz tries to explain she wants to roll first before deciding how Gwen is going to approach her, Jon (having already rolled himself) just bluntly tells her to roll then and there, causing everyone to worry about what Jon just rolled. After Joz announces she succeeded by 6, Jon admits he rolled to see if Addison was going to resist... and got a Crit Fail.
  Kara: (nervous) Well, what did Jon already roll?
  Jon: (chagrined) Jon already rolled... Addison's, uh, resistance. It did not go well.
• Becoming the Mask:
  • When Richard Chesterton, a British professional actor, shows up for his audition, Sir Alexander (due to knowing who he is) demands to be shown his real heart. In response, "Richard Chesterton" becomes Brian Renfold, an actor from New Jersey that adopted a fancier persona due to entering the world of New York theater, and because being Brian Renfold makes him uncomfortable.
  • Eventually, Sir Alexander concludes that the only true way to deal with how wretched he had been feeling is to embrace it, and decides to use the Ghost Dog role Gwen gave him (partially out of pity) to do so. Or, as Kara explains, he's going to become this generation's answer to Lon Chaney.
• Bile Fascination: In-Universe, Sir Alexander’s play gets some of its publicity simply because of industry people wondering how the heck him directing avant garde theatre will turn out.
• Bittersweet Ending: Bordering on Downer Ending: Jason, Fred and Tommy decide to stay in the Lotus-Eater Machine, and get the remaining Thermians to get roped into the deal as well, Broms is planning on continuing to expand her reach across the galaxy, Sarris is still out there, Guy is revealed to have been killed by a mugger in Part 3, and Gwen and Sir Alexander (along with the audience at Spirit Gum Theater's major performance) get mowed down by the police. But, Addison DeWitt was able to publish a review from prison... and it's glowing.
• Blame Game: After a point in Part 2, everyone starts pointing fingers as for who is at fault for the campaign no longer having a plot.
  Joz: I just feel so good because I'm not gonna get dinged in this one for trying to break the plot. And that feels so fucking good.
  Jon: (fed up) There's not- There's no plot to break, Joz! This is- they're stuck, and they're not even...
• Blasphemous Boast: When Sir Alexander finds a plastic surgeon, and immediately clocks that he is already thinking of what he wants to fix, the surgeon tries to forgive himself, only to get cut off:
  Sir Alexander: It is not mine to forgive, Doctor, I am not the Lord! If indeed he is still alive...
• Blatant Lies: Variation: When Jason finally shows up, Guy abruptly announces to the crowd that everyone's here... despite Sir Alexander Dane having left, something he only finds out after Gwen leaves to get him.
• Bloody Hilarious: Due to opening the front door the wrong way at Dairy Queen, Guy winds up giving himself a bloody nose. After enough time passes, the rest of the cast decides that Guy's nose hasn't stopped bleeding; not only, per Jon's description, does he wind up practically shoving an entire napkin dispenser up his nose, but he winds up starting to feel the affects of blood loss^note not to an extreme level, but rather he briefly blacks out, and needs some sugar to perk back up.
• Bolivian Army Ending: As Gwen and Sir Alexander decide to run headfirst into the swarm of cops, Paulo openly compares it to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Cue Jon openly narrating that they go down in a hail of bullets.
• Born Lucky:
  • Paulo manages to Crit Success the acting roll required to do Jason's intro to the convention, and as such wins over the crowd despite being an hour and 45 minutes late.
  • When Jason decides to take some tranquilizers before climbing into a random Jefferies tube, Jon has Paulo roll for HT... which he Crit Succeeds.
    Kara: This is what we call... the wrong kind of positive reinforcement.
• Brick Joke:
  • At the start of the first episode, Alex Demers pre-emptively apologizes for being brought into the campaign. By the end of the episode, after half of the cast wind up going on a road trip to New York, he decides he's taking that apology back.
  • Across the first two episodes, the Protector's view-screen, with the moving Federation logo, is openly compared to the bouncing DVD logo.^note Note that Kara brought that up in Part 2 having forgotten they did so in Part 1.
  • Early in the campaign, Andy voices a hope that there's a holodeck on the Protector, so that they can eventually wind up recreating the convention hall from the beginning, just to cause a further Mind Screw about the reality of the situation. By the end of the campaign, Andy more or less gets his wish as Jason's Alternate Timeline fantasy eventually brings him to a similar convention in the late 1980s.
• Call-Back:
  • After Andy states a hope that the campaign gets into Mind Screw territory about what movie they're really doing, Kara cracks "Summerspace".
  • When Joz points out the show's history for rolling for hangovers, Gordon Bombay inevitably gets brought up.
  • After one too many instances of Jon trying to maintain the illusion that the Thermians are just ordinary fans even after it was stated multiple times they were aliens, Kara brings up "It's a car."
    • After Paulo gets a Crit Success IQ roll after the "set" lurches, Jon asks if he thinks it's a car.
    • When one of the Thermians gets shredded when their console explodes, Jon mentioning "blue goo" causes Kara to point out the show never had a good history with that...
    • "You ever heard of a guy named 'Eetee'?"
  • When Arthur informs Sir Alexander Dane that he managed to get "some of the old group", Kara immediately asks if Isaac Caesar is about to enter the room.
  • After Jon announces Jason threw out his back, Paulo accuses Jon of waiting for that revenge.
    • Likewise, when Kara admits she thought Jon was about to announce Jason lost a leg going through the obstacle course, Paulo cracks "Revenge for Jaws".
  • In response to her rolling a Crit Fail on Acting in regards to Sir Alexander Dane's monologue to Mort about just wanting to act, Kara (in part because of Paulo asking her what she rolled^note given how not only did Jon confirm it was before hand, but the meltdown she had in response made it clear that was the case, it's unclear if Paulo was genuinely asking or not) almost violently tells Paulo "I SHOT THE PRESIDENT IN THE GODDAMN FACE!"
  • When Gwen gives Sir Alexander Dane the Ghost Dog costume, Jon reveals to Kara that it gives plus one to all theater-related rolls. Or, in other words, it's ruby slippers.
  • After Mort accidentally makes the cops think Sir Alexander is a murderer, Kara calls out Jon for once again railroading her into going to jail, as DM or not. When Jon protests that that was one time, Paulo brings up when Kara briefly played Tom.
  • As Sir Alexander and Gwen go down in the hail of gunfire, the obvious connections are drawn by Kara and Joz.
• Captain Obvious: Played for laughs: In the middle of Kara's meltdown over Crit Failing her Acting roll, Andy calmly tries to get clarification that she did in fact roll a Crit Fail, just so everyone could be in agreement.
• Cerebus Call-Back: The extended discussion about The Matrix from Part 3 comes back into play in Part 5 as Jason, having seen The Matrix himself, fully decides to "eat the steak", and accept Broms' offer to not only stay in the Lotus-Eater Machine, but to also meet her creators.
• Cigarette of Anxiety: When Gwen fails the Will roll required to put up being in the same vehicle with Guy for four straight days, Guy just bluntly offers her a pack of cigarettes.
• Cliffhanger:
  • By the end of Part 1, Jason, Fred and Tommy are stuck on the Protector, with Sarris undeniably on his way to find where they ran off to, with the ship needing severe repairs and Jason mistakenly concluding they are actually in the show itself, while Sir Alexander Dane, Gwen and Guy have decided to take a road trip to New York to try and enter the theater world.
  • By the end of Part 2, the Protector doesn't get any much farther, having gotten stuck in the Ovidian Morass, while the Spirit Gum Theater is due to have a private showing for some theater critics... while Gwen and Sir Alexander Dane are now at each other's throats.
  • By the end of Part 3, Kara's attempts at giving Sir Alexander Dane a redemption arc have (thanks to some bad rolls) only resulted in him losing his confidence in acting in front of a live audience, and has been torn to shreds in the paper by Addison DeWitt, while Gwen has outshined him on all fronts, causing him to start to doubt he has much time left in the acting field. Meanwhile, the Protector is about to get absorbed into a Lotus-Eater Machine (with Jason and Tommy already being claimed), with the ship's last hope seemingly being Jason's ability to seduce the morass itself in order to let them leave.
  • By the end of Part 4, Fred has also been sucked into the Lotus-Eater Machine, Jason is stuck experiencing an Alternate Timeline where he more-or-less blew off his career following the cancellation of Galaxy Quest in order to stay in touch with Gwen, and Arthur more-or-less has a breakdown and, following an explosive arguement with Sir Alexander, storms out of Spirit Gum Theater the day before their big performance. Also, Gwen and Sir Alexander are starting to be suspected by the cops of having an involvement with Jason, Tommy and Fred's disappearance.
• Compliment Backfire: When Kara commends Jon for how he's playing the Thermians, acknowledging she usually gives him shit for "being too cool for school", she states she appreciates how committed he is, "credit where it's rarely due".
  Joz: How do you manage to complement and bitch-slap at the same time?!
  Kara: I'm a- It's my gift!
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: invoked After Jon reveals that Sir Alexander was supected of killing Guy, and that was in part why the cops swarmed Spirit Gum Theater, Kara remarks (and everyone agrees) that he could've walked away from that, as the DNA evidence would've cleared him. Too bad the commitment to keeping the show going resulted in a lot of deaths...
• *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": At one point during Part 2, Jason throws his back out trying to open a door. It is then pointed out that Jon finally got his revenge.
• Creator In-Joke:
  • The theater sub-plot Kara, Joz and Alex Demers wind up adding to the campaign is more or less a tribute to their own experiences in the acting field.
    Kara: We should call our theater company "Inside Baseball", 'cause that's what the show is now.
    • When Jon decides to ask what Sir Alexander Dane is going to name their theater group, it causes Kara "flashback trauma" of when she had to do so "back in 2016", and needed a month to do so.
• Cutting the Knot:
  • When faced with having to name the in-campaign startup theater group, Kara mentally picks a name out of a hat and goes with "Spirit Gum"^note implied that she got the idea from them mentioning Sir Alexander Dane still had spirit gum on his face earlier in the scene.
  • Gwen and Billy complaining about Sir Alexander Dane not showing up on time for rehearsals causes Kara to start complaining that she wasn't allowed to roll for Acting, causing Jon to counter that their discussion isn't about the performance, but rather the process required for it. Later on in the scene, when Gwen decides to confront Sir Alexander Dane directly about this, Kara rolls Acting, and gets a 9. As such, she and Jon decide to retcon in their earlier argument into this point, rather than redo it verbatim.
• Dare to Be Badass: As Gwen causes some chaos by openly resisting arrest, Sir Alexander decides to rile up the crowd enough to go after the cops (which results in Addison DeWitt going on stage to beat up a downed cop):
  Sir Alexander: Are you willing to stand by for the death of art?! Or are you going to stand up for the one thing that keeps us human?!
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Sir Alexander and Gwen wind up being gunned down by the cops.
  • Jon ultimately reveals that Guy got killed by a mugger between Part 2 and Part 3.
• Delayed Reaction:
  • When Arthur, after talking to the NYPD officer that was visiting Spirit Gum Theater as "a favor" to the LAPD officer Gwen had talked to, repeatedly assures her that everything is fine, and the officer was just asking about her and Sir Alexander, it only then hits Gwen that the cops are starting to suspect she might have had a role in the disappearances of Jason, Fred and Tommy.
  • It's only once he's outside and sees all of the cops around Spirit Gum Theater that Mort realizes Sir Alexander is in real bad trouble.
  • When a cop follows Richard Chesterton on stage in order to get him out of the theater, he abruptly realizes the show is currently live.
• Demoted to Extra: Because Paulo couldn't get a guest for Part 2, Guy devolves into a regular NPC role, and as such only has one minor appearance in the episode.
• Derivative Differentiation: Discussed by the Rerollers in the first part, where they point out that the titular Show Within a Show seems to have been more of a modest Cult Classic rather than the phenomenon that Star Trek was.
• Didn't See That Coming: After getting stuck in the Morass, the crew of the Protector launch a missile hoping that its shockwave will launch the ship out of the Negative Space Wedgie and not blow it apart in the process. Nobody expects the Morass to freeze the fireball in place, which is what actually happens.
• Disaster Dominoes: The opening set-piece at the convention, thanks in part to Jason showing up almost two hours late: Sir Alexander Dane decides to leave, Gwen tries to talk him out of it, only to instead be talked into going with him to Dairy Queen, and Guy tries to follow after them... on a mobility scooter.
• Dissonant Serenity: When Jason (already riding a buzz from some tranquilizers) tries to pull open a closed bulkhead door, a failed Strength roll causes him to throw out his back, which Paulo takes in stride:
  Paulo: Good for the door.
  Andy: (loses it)
  Kara: Paulo, are you high now?
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: invoked After Andy and Kara reach the same conclusion, Jon comes out and admits that yes, Addison DeWitt is basically just a Gender Flip of Anton Ego.
• Double-Blind What-If: invoked Joz openly describes the original movie feeling like a reroll in and of itself, due to everyone acting like idiots.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • After the subplot of Sir Alexander Dane, Gwen, and Guy going off to do their own production is established, Kara remarks a hope this is as outlandish as the campaign gets, and it turns into a one-parter. This episode has a clearly labeled "(Part 1)" in the title.
  • After Mort blows his scene, and leaves the stage, everyone assumes things will be okay now with the performance, having noticed "a stagehand" take him outside... And shortly thereafter, Gwen and Richard notice two cops backstage...
• Epic Fail: On the topic of what Jason's voicemail message sounds like, Paulo decides that it's the maximum length allowed for the recording, not only because he seemingly did it in public, but he also had trouble trying to end the recording.
• "Eureka!" Moment:
  • When Joz admits she was hoping the costume Gwen found for Sir Alexander to get him back into the play was a giant Nana costume^note and that, given they play they are performing is a Carol Churchill work, it could be a talking dog, Paulo cracking "Whose bones do you think those are?" causes Jon to decide on the spot that the character that goes with that costume is the Ghost Dog.
  • Upon receiving the costume and its attendant flat bonus to all Acting rolls, Sir Alexander realizes the reason why he was having such shit luck getting back into theater was because he had taken off his prosthetics, and that he needs to put more on. He then starts to look into finding a plastic surgeon.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: After Sarris decides to attack the ship, and with him suddenly realizing they are actually in space, Jason tries to quietly get Fred to realize the same thing... only to then loudly tell the others to dodge. As it happens, while they were talking, Jon was silently counting down from 5 with his hand. "BOOM!"
• Food as Bribe:
  • In order to get the crowd back on his side, Guy decides to offer free soft drinks to the audience. It very quickly falls apart when no one is given said drinks.
  • When Gwen tries to talk Sir Alexander Dane into coming back inside to the convention, he instead proposes the two of them go to Dairy Queen instead. To Kara's delight, Joz decides to accept.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the intro of Part 3, Jon being informed that "a fish rots from the head" results in him trying to pin the blame for Part 2 on Paulo. At the end of the campaign, it turns out Jon legitimately had decided to blame Paulo for something. Namely, indirectly influencing what became of Guy by failing to get Alex Demers to return.
  • During Part 4, a NYPD cop shows up at Spirit Gum Theater; Arthur goes to talk to him, and he reveals to Gwen that he was asking about her and Sir Alexander. While everyone clocks that was in regards to Jason, Fred and Tommy's disappearances, at the end of the campaign, Jon reveals it was actually in regards to Guy getting murdered by a mugger.
• Fridge Horror: invoked
  • When Jon explains that the Thermians' plan to go through the morass without the ship's plasma armor being active hinges on Fred's "skills" as the ship's Tech Sergeant, Paulo breaks character^note while also making it clear that Jason is completely onboard despite not knowing the Technobabble at play and admits his interpretation of the situation is that they are fucked:
    Paulo: (to Andy) Not speaking as Jason, who has full confidence in this, but I think God is telling us they think that this will kill us, but they think it won't kill us, 'cause you said it, and you're a genius... but... you're not a genius, so this is gonna kill us.
  • invoked When Jason winds up directly communicating with the morass, Kara uneasily asks a question that everyone admits they want to disagree with:
    Kara: If the morass is sentient, is this a vore scene?
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Discussed: Kara brings up a dream of hers to have a staged fight go bad, with an actor playing the theater manager coming out to break up the "fight".
• Green-Eyed Monster: Addison DeWitt's write-up of the Spirit Gum Theater's rehearsal opens by shit-talking Sir Alexander Dane, complementing the other actors, and spends about 60% of the piece openly praising Gwen's performance. As such, when Arthur decides to go "whole hog" with Gwen at the center of the production, Sir Alexander can't help but be jealous.
• Glitch Entity: When Jason uses the helmet in the Communications Suite to talk to the morass directly^note which causes Jason to be "sent" to a black void, it (upon clarifying they prefer to be called "Broms") takes on a humanoid form that, per Jon's description, is "sightly pixelated" due to having not enough polygons to be properly rendered via the helmet.
  • Later on, Fred learns that the Communications Suite is experiencing "higher-than-normal Bandwidth demands"^note "It's yellow-lining, not quite red." as a result of Jason interfacing with Broms.
• A Glitch in the Matrix: When Jason's Alternate Timeline fantasy hits the late 1980s, as the cast is hanging out at a hotel before a fan convention, he talks with Tommy... who then abruptly shifts into his present day self midconversation after mentioning being a kid. And then he brings up how they've been doing these conventions for 15 years, despite it "currently" being 1988.
• Goal in Life: Guy comes to realize that his major dreams for his life are "owning the Southern California live theater scene", having access to both a pristine rehearsal space and rehearsal block, and doing a script he and his fellow actors can rally behind that has the power of changing the universe.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: During the extended scene of Jason trying to talk Fred into doing tranquilizers in Part 2, Joz asks Jon if he envisioned the campaign becoming this... causing him to break character, and admit he doesn't know what went wrong.
  Joz: Jon, is this how you envisioned- is this what you were-
  Jon: (near-pleading) No! No! What is happening?!
• Guest-Star Party Member: Per Jon's intro at the start of the campaign, Guy is the "Guest NPC" this go around. The first guest to play him is Alex Demers, who last appeared in Memento.
• Heel Realization: After his fight with Gwen at the end of Part 2, Sir Alexander spent the night hanging out with some local theater actors, which helped him reevaluate how he was handling himself at Spirit Gum, and that he wanted to act for the sake of acting. And if not for a very bad roll on Kara’s part, this would have led to a legitimate redemption arc...
• Here We Go Again!: When Jason is trying to get Broms to understand that her creators wanted to to give her charges what they wanted, not what she thinks they wanted, Jon announces that Jason suddenly finds himself in his bathtub^note in reality, it's a near-perfect replication, with the colors brighter, and the sensations more potent.
  Kara: NO! NO! WE WORKED SO HARD!
  • In Part 5, after Jason snaps out of his Alternate Timeline fantasy, Broms realizes he isn't happy, and decides to move Jason to a place where he's most comfortable. No points for guessing where that is. However, because Tommy was with him, Broms accidentally takes Tommy there as well for a brief moment.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: When trying to talk Gwen and Sir Alexander Dane into leaving Dairy Queen and going back to the convention, Guy states he's there since no one cares about him.
• Heroic BSoD: Tommy goes into a near-mental breakdown after realizing they are in the middle of a real space battle, to the point where Jason decides Tommy needs a tranquilizer.
• Hero Stole My Bike: In order to chase after Gwen and Sir Alexander Dane, Guy attempts to steal a moped, only to instead steal a mobility scooter.
• He's Back!: Variation: At the end of Part 3, Jon states he has regained his drive to run the campaign, most likely because (due to Jason directly encountering Broms, and Kara botching Sir Alexander Dane's redemption arc) they finally have a plot again.
• Hope Spot: At a critical juncture in Part 5, Fred manages to regain enough sense to realize he's stuck in a Lotus-Eater Machine... but rather than try and break out, he instead asks Broms if he has some form of control over his fantasy and, if he wants to, end his life. When Broms assures him he doesn't need to feel like wanting to die, Fred fully buys in.
• Hypothetical Casting: invoked
  • Thanks to a joke from Andy, it's decided that Richard Burton guest-starred in an episode of Galaxy Quest.
  • When bemoaning how badly the campaign had derailed and how the plot is gone, Jon lets it slip that he was anticipating Andy running My Dinner with Andre.
  • invoked Inspired by the topic of Tim Allen playing Neo, Jon decides that Addison DeWitt is played by Allison Janney, with Paulo instead suggesting Tilda Swinton.
    • Meanwhile, while still on the "Tim Allen is Neo" hypothetical, Kara decides that Wilson would play Morpheus, Al is Agent Smith, and Pamela Anderson is Trinity "until the second movie, and then she's someone else".
• Ice-Cream Koan: Thanks to the discussion at the top of Part 3, we have two new takes on "A fish rots from the head."
  Paulo: You teach a man to fish, and he rots from the head.
  Joz: You can lead a horse to a fish...
  Paulo: But you can't make him rot.
  Kara: And you'll start a love story for the ages.
• Inept Mage: In-Universe. Mort Goldstein (Andy Hoover) performs a scene from a fictional play — supposedly by Christopher Marlowe — called The Alchemist’s Mistake as part of his audition for Sir Alexander’s play.
• Ironic Echo: Discussed: At the end of Part 2, after storming out following an argument with Sir Alexander Dane, and having a phone call with Billy about a preview their theater is about to put on for the press, Gwen decides to go take a bath... prompting Joz to almost aggressively ask why the others let that moment slide, as Paulo decided to have Jason take multiple baths that episode. As everyone explains, Gwen doing that was a meaningful moment in the scene, and Paulo's "a piece of shit".
• Kick the Dog:
  • When discussing his recent audition for a Quentin Tarantino movie, Sir Alexander Dane mentions he was asked to recite his Character Catchphrase from Galaxy Quest, which convinces him they never actually intended him for the part, and were just fans.
  • When Fred decides to take part in in Jason's "side-gig", he mentions his rate is "half of what Jason gets", prompting Jason to blatantly sarcastically agree:
    Paulo: "Yep, that's right, half," I say, and wink.
  • The way Fred decides to reveal to Mathesar that Galaxy Quest was just a show, and the crew were actors isn't particularly kindhearted, with him bringing up the concept of people pretending to be other people for entertainment, and openly asking if he noticed any lists of names^note meaning the credits in the "historical documents". Kara openly compares this to someone trying to justify cheating on their spouse. "She knew what she was signing on for!"
    • It only gets worse when Fred openly decides to fully submit to the Lotus-Eater Machine, and rope the remaining Thermians into it, and implicitly letting Sarris to continue rampaging unabated. The last time Fred sees Mathesar, there is a fleeting look of betrayal on his face.
• Jizzed in My Pants: It doesn't take long for Jon to decide that Jason's excellent intro for the convention was successful enough to literally cause the audience to jizz themselves.
• Lame Pun Reaction:
  • "Alright C'had, I like the cut of your j'ib." causes Kara to start vehemently protesting what Paulo said.
    Kara: (actually mad) No, no, no, NO. NO! A bridge too far! A b'ridge too f'ar!
  • Joz realizing that Sir Alexander Dane's "Great Dane" acting style is now "the Melancholy Dane" makes Kara admit she wishes she was dead twice.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Alex Demers abruptly decides his mic peaking as he announces Jason's arrival to the con is happening in-universe for Guy. As such, after he turns it down, it's decided Guy's mic got cut.
  • Discussed: During Jason's extended conversation with Tommy about having to play their roles from the show, and they need to work together and get the ship through the morass^note and in particular, Jason decided to do a "hands in" when, as Tommy points out, it's just the two of them, Jason brings up an episode where it was just the two of them traveling to a pirate outpost, causing Tommy to point out he remembered that episode being shit. Kara decides to hijack Tommy to voice some opinions:
    Kara: (as Tommy) The party was split... They couldn't stay with the main plot for some reason...
    • Eventually, Jason and Tommy's discussion goes on for long enough that Kara decides to point blank ask Andy the "Vegas odds" if Paulo is doing this intentionally. Andy (and Joz) legitimately don't know, as they think Paulo is indirectly trying to ask the DM for help, while Kara makes it clear that Paulo isn't doing that, but rather it's coming off as Jon trying to (more or less) point out that the only way to fix the campaign is for the rest of the crew to get picked up.
      Kara: Because what I heard... What I heard was Jon was like "Man, I just, you kno- I feel like to do what you want to do, we need, I don't know, the rest of the crew," and Paulo is like "Do you remember that episode where it was just the two of us, and not the rest of the crew?"
• Leave the Camera Running:
  • Part of the reason why Guy winds up floundering so poorly with the convention's crowd at the start of the campaign is that Jon almost pointedly refused to cut away from that scene.
  • When Fred is talking to one of the Thermians when trying to get repairs done for the ship, Andy decides that Fred is going to talk with him about his character's background information from the show. Andy refuses to feel bad about letting the scene drag on, as Jon won't cut away.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • "Demers, you remember blue goo, right?" "No."
  • Broms winds up needing to be the one to drop the bombshell on Jason that the Thermians' planet is dead, and those on the ship were all that was left.
• Loophole Abuse: Since he "sees himself" in Link, Fred decides to use his higher ranking to have him help finish repairing the Protector... by repeatedly deferring to his judgement, under the guise of this being a test. Despite Andy failing his Acting roll by 2, this works.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: It eventually turns out that the morass the Protector entered is one, and she (identifying as "Broms" to Jason) wishes to "take care" of her new charges. This is shown when she renders Jason and Tommy unconscious^note Fred learning about from We'ek that Tommy fell unconscious, shortly after Broms brought him into the same unknown location Jason was currently in, indirectly confirms the same happened to Jason, and begins to "catalogue" the ship (by slowly causing all of the systems to go offline).
  • It only gets worse in Part 4, when Broms starts putting Jason (and later Fred, who used the VR headset to try and get Jason out) in way too vividly-realistic fantasies geared to what they would desire most. By the end of the episode, Fred is getting high with Broms at his cliffside house, with plans of catching a meteor shower later that night, while Jason is stuck in an Alternate Timeline where, shortly after the cancellation of Galaxy Quest, he got together with Gwen to try and get the script she was working on at the time made.
• Mathematician's Answer: Inverted: When Kara tries to ask if the Protector's food-replicator replicate water, Jon just shuts her down with "Miles away".
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: invoked After Jason brushes past the fact that Tommy and Fred saw him agree to meet with the Thermians for their "side-gig", Kara points out to Paulo that he plays a Jerkass so well, she's starting to like him less.
• Meaningful Name: “Broms” means “brake” in Swedish, i.e. the thing you would use to stop a moving vehicle.
• Meta Fiction:
  • While this trope was already present in the original movie, the campaign winds up ramping it up by the end of Part 1: Jason, Fred and Tommy wind up becoming convinced they are actually in an episode of Galaxy Quest, while Sir Alexander Dane, Gwen and Guy decide to go to New York to start a theater group.
    • It only gets worse in Part 2, when Jon decides to actually show the audition process, having Andy and Paulo roll and actually do the auditions, before calling the scene.
• Money, Dear Boy: invoked When Tommy is pissed that Jason managed to win the crowd over with his speech despite being almost two hours late, Fred calmly points out that this just means an opportunity to make bank at the autograph signing table.
• Moving the Goalposts: Inverted: When faced with the prospect of doing his Character Catchphrase at the Dairy Queen, Kara decides to roll Will to see if Sir Alexander Dane can resist:
  Kara: I mean, it's only- That's like, basically- it's a failure by one. It's failure by two. Alright, it's a Crit Fail.
• Mistaken for Murderer:
  • Eventually, Gwen gets so worried about what happened to Jason, Fred, and Tommy, she asks a detective from the LAPD to look into their disappearance. That detective later gets in touch with one from the NYPD, and he starts to dig into what Gwen and Sir Alexander had been doing since leaving California. The reason being? It's starting to look like Gwen is the reason they went missing.
  • By Part 5, it turns out that Sir Alexander was the real one suspected of these "disappearances"... including, as Jon reveals after the campaign wraps, Guy's.^note Although that was in part due to Arthur deciding to lie to the cops about Sir Alexander's involvement after the events of Part 4.
• Multiple Gunshot Death: Eventually, the cops wind up opening fire into the audience of Spirit Gum Theater as Gwen and Sir Alexander escape. And although they manage to dodge that, the second they try to outrun all of the cops outside, that is where they die.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Joz is noticeably taken aback once Jon narrates the cops gunning down the Spirit Gum Theater's audience.
• Mythology Gag: When Jason decides to take a group photo with the Thermians at the convention, he ropes Tommy and Fred into it; as such, Andy announces Fred's become attracted to the lone female of the group.
• Never My Fault: During the intro to Part 3, everyone acknowledges the unavoidable fact that the previous episode was a borderline trainwreck. When Kara points out to Jon the saying "A fish rots from the head."^note Meaning the leader is the one to blame if something breaks down., Jon tries to use this to pin the blame on Paulo.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Although Jon is partially to blame because of the rolls he took in response to it, Jason's attempt to get the ship to go despite repairs still needing to be made causes the hallway to the bridge and the hallway out of engineering to collapse, trapping himself and Fred.
  • A particular example that Jon only reveals after the dust has settled at the end of the campaign: After getting fed up over Sir Alexander's unprofessionalism, and his refusal to leave Spirit Gum, Arthur (in part because of failing a Professionalism roll of his own) decided to leave himself... and go to the cops, and "confirm" that Sir Alexander was the one responsible for Guy's death in Part 3.
• Non-Indicative Title: invoked Discussed: As a result of the theater acting subplot, Kara gleefully admits that some of her favorite parts of the show are imagining the audience's reaction to seeing that their favorite movie is being run, but are unaware of how starkly-deviated from the plot things quickly became:
  Kara: (delighted) This is one of these moments- this is one of these moments where I am just, like, I love- I get so much glee at times like this, thinking of the listeners, who're like "Oh my God, they're doing Galaxy Quest! I can't wait for all the action in space, and-and-and-and the aliens, it's just the g-" It's just a seven-part series of us founding a non-profit theater company.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Sir Alexander Dane once murdered an extra on set, and it took a lot of money to bury the incident.
  • Apparently, Jason once unknowingly took up a gig from a dictator. But hey, he got to see the Balkans, at least...
  • In order to "dumb down" the situation with the Protector's handling for Jason, Fred brings up "that accident [he] got into in Geneva back in '92, with the car and the ice". And when Jason, upon hearing the engines are working, tries to push for going regardless, Fred brings up "that thing that happened to Alexander on the boat".
  • Jason's summary of how he got through the ship despite the hallways being collapsed^note "You just have to take a lil' somethin'-somethin', and waltz through a- some obstacle courses." causes Fred to summarize that being like "that time back in Barcelona".
• No Plot? No Problem!: Part 2 is a borderline trainwreck where nothing of real substance gets done, though that hardly detracts from the enjoyment. The Spirit Gum Theater Company gets so deep into the minutiae of getting started that they play out a decent chunk of the audition process, while the Protector is becalmed in the Ovidian Morass with Jason and Fred delegating aggressively to the Thermians and, in Jason's case, getting high. Following an extended scene of Jason and Fred talking shop about tranquilizers, Joz and Kara openly admit the campaign no longer has a plot.
  Kara: Yeah, I might accidentally inject some plot back into this movie, and I don't think we can have that.
  Joz: invoked This is awesome.
  Andy: I mean, just, any time we try-
  Kara: Do you understand how excited our audience has been for us to do Galaxy Quest for years?!
• No-Respect Guy: Guy is really put through the wringer when trying to placate the convention's crowd as he stalls until Jason shows up. He keeps getting demands for the more popular cast members, he keeps getting shit on for mentioning his previous/current roles (to the point where he gets mocked for mentioning he's working on a project that's being directed), and due to issues with his microphone, he winds up getting cut off when announcing Jason had arrived.
  • This ultimately extends into the Meta Fiction, as Guy's complete disappearance from the plot after Part 2 is only brought up in passing and only ever as a joke. Until the very end, that is.
• No-Sell: The day before Spirit Gum Theater's big performance, Arthur snaps, and reads Sir Alexander the riot act over his Ghost Dog schtick, and tries to fire him. When he refuses to leave, and instead starts to paint him as being the problem, Arthur snaps, and punches Sir Alexander in the face... only for Jon's damage roll to be 0. Kara spins this as the punch managing to knock Sir Alexander's head to the side, but not hurt him, which he uses as a power move against Arthur^note he slowly turns his head back, and says that punch carried as much weight as Arthur's words during their argument.
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Right as he's announcing that the hallway out of the bridge and the hallway out of the engineering bay have collapsed, Jon makes it clear he isn't joking when he says that because of the rolls he made on his own table, the rooms that the two players are in are now inaccessible.
• Not What It Looks Like: When Jason tries to explain to Tommy that the situation they're in is similar to The Matrix^note meaning they are being kept in simulations to enduce bliss so they can be used as batteries, only for Broms (becoming alarmed^note since she knows about the movie, as she knows what her charges know) to explain she isn't doing that.
• Obligatory Joke: Zig-zagged: Much to Kara's frustration, she failed to realize the running bit with Richard the 9th was prime for an Eight is Enough joke, something Andy winds up needing to make.
• Off the Rails: Thanks to a decision to go to Dairy Queen, Sir Alexander Dane, Gwen, and Guy wind up abandoning the plot of the movie in lieu of recapturing the magic of the avant-garde theater scene. By the end of the first episode, they are on their way to New York.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Despite Fred's best efforts via exploiting the automatic repair systems of the Protector, he is still asked to finish the repairs; not helping matters is that he tried and failed to sleep for three hours.
  • When Jason decides to directly communicate with the morass, who later identifies herself as "Broms", she makes it clear that she is holding the Protector because she sees the crew as being her charges, and she wants to take care of them... meaning putting them into human pod towers and "cataloging" the ship for preservation. Or, in other worse, Jason and the crew accidentally entered a Lotus-Eater Machine:
    Broms: My purpose is to safeguard all of my charges. No one ever leaves Heaven.
  • The literal second the LAPD cop Gwen got in contact with started to question why she left California shortly after the Galaxy Quest convention, Kara (horrified) realizes where this line of questioning is going.
    Kara: Oh no... Oh no... Oh no... Never talk to the cops!
• Once an Episode: Discussed: After Alex Demers announces Guy failed his Stealth roll to sneak into Dairy Queen, a skill Guy doesn't have, Andy just remarks that's a "rite of passage" for the show.
• Only the Author Can Save Them Now: invoked In regards to the Thermian's plan to get through the morass, Andy states that both he and Fred believe that everything is gonna work out, and that God (in Andy's case, meaning Jon) will help them not die.
• Only I Can Make It Go: After a bit of trial and error, it turns out that the ship's controls will only work when Tommy uses them, which is proven when he is the only one to make the turbo work.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Eventually, Kara's Alan Rickman voice just turns into her yelling in a deadpan tone.
• Out of Focus:
  • The second Jason, Fred and Tommy are taken aboard the Protector in Part 1, Sir Alexander Dane, Gwen, and Guy only show back up for one scene at the end of the episode. Likewise, they only get two (albeit extended) scenes in Part 2, while the majority of the episode is Jason and Fred trying to survive being on the Protector.
  • Tommy spends almost all of Part 2 unconscious due to being given tranquilizers.
  • As a result of Guy getting Demoted to Extra in Part 2, he's completely absent in Part 3. It turns out there's a reason for that...
• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • Attempted: When Addison DeWitt starts asking why Sir Alexander isn't at rehearsal (since she isn't buying the "he's sick" lie), the solution Mort proposes is to tell her he's Sir Alexander, which Gwen swiftly shoots down.
  • When she started to get in contact with the LAPD in order to find out what became of Jason, Fred and Tommy, Gwen decided against using her real name, and instead used the name of her character from Galaxy Quest.
    Kara: Yeah, the name that no one could ever trace back to you.
• Pass the Popcorn: While Fred and Broms discuss how the concept of mortality would work in her world, and if Fred is capable of dying should he wish, Joz interrupts the scene to call attention to the fact that Kara had decided to start eating a taco during it.
  Kara: (defensive) It's called "dinner and a show", Joz!
• Phlebotinum-Induced Stupidity: Jason noticeably becomes dumber once he's high on tranquilizers. Not only is his response to throwing out his back trying to open a door being complementing the door, but when encountering a hallway filled with radiation, he decides to test if its safe... by sticking his hand into it.
• Point of Divergence:
  • Because Jason wound up taking more time to arrive at the convention, Sir Alexander Dane decided to cut his losses and leave, resulting in him taking Gwen to Dairy Queen, with Guy following after them in an (ultimately failed) attempt at talking them into returning.
    • Early on in their visit to Dairy Queen, Gwen floats the idea of starting their own show in order to get back into active work. Guy winds up being swayed to their cause, and winds up becoming a more legitimate actor in the process, due to Sir Alexander Dane managing to give a particularly persuasive speech to get him to realize what he really wants to do with his life.
  • Due to Paulo's Crit Success in Jason's acting roll for his intro to the convention, the autograph table gets swamped by fans. As such, Brandon doesn't get to properly talk to Jason before he's shoved away; this, plus, the below bit, all but spells his removal from the plot.
  • Because Paulo decided to portray Jason as not having been disillusioned with Galaxy Quest yet, when the Thermians approach him at the convention, he agrees to go with them right away after the signing wraps. However, Tommy notices this, and talks Fred into following after him, meaning they get an earlier introduction into the conflict with Sarris.
• Police Are Useless: A major contributing factor in how the Spirit Gum Theater subplot ends is the fact that people keep talking to the cops. While the cops take Mort to the station for his own safety (due to the potential threat Sir Alexander poses), it's the fact that Mort won't shut up that results in a massive bloodbath breaking out.
• Product Placement: Sir Alexander Dane manages to get a free Blizzard from Dairy Queen due to some clever repurposing of his Character Catchphrase, much to Kara's delight.
• Pyrrhic Victory: As Kara ultimately admits, Jason, Fred and Tommy staying in the Lotus-Eater Machine forever was the closest they were ever going to get to a happy ending with how this campaign played out.
• A Rare Sentence:
  • "Don't wreck the plotless plot, Kara!"
  • "You got the ruby slippers in an undead dog!"
• Rage Breaking Point: The argument Sir Alexander Dane and Gwen get into towards the end of Part 2 over his seeming lack of professionalism causes him to accuse Gwen of being the real problem (for the crime of asking him to be more professional), which causes Gwen to snap and throw both a full glass of cosmopolitan, and a pack of cigarettes, at him.
• Remember the New Guy?: In order to re-enter the world of theater, Sir Alexander Dane decides to get back in contact with an old theater contact, Arthur, who's "still in the game".
• Retcon:
  • Originally, Alex Demer's failed roll to acquire a moped just amounted to him not knowing how to turn it own. Once Paulo silently cracks that he grabbed a mobility scooter instead, Jon quickly leaps upon that in order to make it canon.
  • While hanging out with Billy after rehearsal, Gwen talks with him about his concerns over Sir Alexander Dane potentially being past his prime (given how he keeps showing up late for rehearsals), causing Kara to start complaining. After it's briefly assumed Sir Alexander Dane had followed Gwen and Billy, Kara explaining in-character how they would be able to know if he's in the scene causes Kara to decide mid-explanation that yes, Sir Alexander Dane did follow Gwen.
• Running Gag:
  • To everyone's disbelief, Alex Demers kept rolling 14 in the early portion of the first episode.
    Alex Demers: You want me to tell you what I rolled, or would you just wanna guess?
    • It's not just Alex. Almost everyone gets to roll 14 at least once in the episode.
      Kara: Thank you to Patreon supporter "Fourteen" for sponsoring this episode.
  • invoked When faced with the mental image of Guy puttering down the road on a mobility scooter, Kara gleefully declares "I know I say this every episode, but we don't even need to put this on the Internet!"
  • During Part 2, Paulo decides to have Jason take multiple baths.
• Running Over the Plot: Discussed: When Alex decides to try and have Guy prevent Sir Alexander Dane and Gwen from leaving the convention, he and Kara become convinced he's gonna get hit by the car. In reality, Guy makes it outside in time to see the car already leaving the parking lot.
• Sarcasm Mode: At the top of Part 2, Paulo admits that the Guest NPC role is absent this time, due to him failing to schedule it. Kara proceeds to then apologize to the audience for having to "put up with the original cast".
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: When appointing C’had and later Wiik to positions they aren’t authorized for, Jason reminds them that by promotions them he’s also giving them said authorization.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Thanks in part to Paulo fucking up the necessary roll to have Jason show up for the convention when he was already over an hour late, Sir Alexander Dane decides that his time is better spent at the bar, and leaves. Luckily, however, he opted to instead hide out in his car, so Gwen has the chance to talk him into returning... only to instead be talked into going to Dairy Queen with him.
  • When Serris starts attacking the Protector, and the others don't know how to fight back, Jason just decides they need to get the fuck away from the situation, a feat only accomplished when Tommy hits the Turbo button.
  • By Part 2, Fred openly admits to Jason that he wants off the Protector. Jason, while initially dismayed that Fred wants off "the ride of a lifetime", realizes that if they go back to Earth, they can get real spaceship experts for the ship.
    • However, once Fred discovers what else is aboard the ship (including a muliplex cinema and a drone racing track), Andy decides that Fred is now considering living on the ship from now on.
  • Part 2 ends where it does because Kara had a hard out, something she makes a point of announcing:
    Kara: Cliffhanger! I have to leave!
  • When the cops rush towards Sir Alexander on stage, and he manages to scare one of them into fainting, the other opts to instead grab his partner and leave, vowing to come back.
• Self-Deprecation:
  • After Kara makes a joke about the Reddit commenters bitching about Alex Demers "gumming up the works", Alex brings up how he actually did go on Reddit after his turn on Memento, in particular acknowledging the negative reaction to him throwing Leonard's notes away.
  • invoked As mentioned under Non-Indicative Title, Kara states she openly is anticipating the audience's reaction to seeing they are finally doing Galaxy Quest... only for there to be a prominent subplot about a theater startup.
  • Towards the end of Part 2, Kara openly starts yelling about how they have broken the movie so bad, they no longer have a plot.
• Serious Business:
  • invoked Kara gets legitimately upset when Jon tries saying Sir Alexander Dane and Gwen had gotten Frosties at Dairy Queen.
    Kara: THAT'S WENDY'S!
  • After Sir Alexander Dane manages to cause Guy to become a legitimate actor without realizing it, Kara pointedly remarks that Scott Aiello is going to "throw up from rage" once he hears this episode.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Upon "realizing" he traveled back in time to when the show got cancelled, Jason decides to try and "change the script" in order to patch up his relationships with the others, and try and get something worthwhile off the ground for all of them. After he and Tommy snap out of it "by" 1988, he openly admits he wanted to fix things, with Tommy admitting things weren't great for him back then.
• She Really Can Act: In-Universe, despite just having been Ms. Fanservice on the show and doing a less than stellar job during the play auditions, Gwen does eventually prove herself to be a capable dramatic actress.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Jason comes across mirrored text in one of the ready rooms (a perfect mirror image of the normal ready room set), Paulo rolls IQ to try and figure out what's going on. Jon greets his failure with "Doesn't look like anything to me," a phrase from Westworld that serves as the androids' stock response to seeing something they've been programmed not to see.
  • After Jason gets out of the bath and goes to the bridge, he (to himself) hopes what he thought was hair product actually was. Without hesitation, Kara asks if they aren't secretly rerolling There's Something About Mary.
  • Right before going into a Jefferies tube, on the hopes it will take him to his room, Jason decides to take some tranquilizers to mellow out, causing Andy to go:
    Andy: I'm Jason Nesmith, and welcome to Jackass.
  • During the extended conversation between Jason and Fred over the ship's tranquilizers, Joz openly draws a comparison to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
  • invoked Following Jon's description of the theater critic Addison DeWitt^note She has crafted the persona of being angry and sour, capable of making or breaking careers, and has no time for anyone other than herself., Andy asks "Is this a stealth-Ratatouille reroll?"
    Kara: THAT WAS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS GONNA SAY! It's Ant- She's Anton Ego!
    Jon: It's Ant- It's Female Anton Ego.
    • It's worth noting at the same time that Addison DeWitt is also a Gender Flip-transplant of a similar character from All About Eve.
  • When Broms shows Jason the "charges" she is taking care of, she shows him something Jon openly compares to the human pod towers from The Matrix.
    Joz: So Tim Allen is the next Neo.
  • When Addison DeWitt cheers Gwen on as she resists arrest, Kara and Joz contribute:
    Kara: You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!
    Joz: Newsies forever!
• Shout-Out to Shakespeare: As part of his audition, Richard Chesterton decides to recite a monologue from "William Shakespeare's Soul Calibur".
  Richard Chesterton: On martial winds from Ares’ keep is come
  The dread Cervantes, scourge of Christendom
  To Venice fair, where pirate laden seas
  That once we sailed out turned our enemies
  By one so well reviled tis claimed he feasts
  Upon the blood of thrice condemned beasts
  And more tis told at night past crier's call
  When drink doth waggles swords and tongues in all
  The dark pirate Cervantes is possessed
  By that which grips his arm and shields his breast
  The double-bladed Soul Edge, which is said
  Can rend the earth itself and raise the dead
  A weapon so impossible to find
  That merchant Vercci lost his wealth, his mind
  And last he lost his life in its p--
• The Show Must Go On:
  • invoked Richard Chesterton believes this whole-heartedly, and refuses to abandon the show... even after two cops tell him and Gwen that they need to leave the theater for their own safety. And when the two cops follow him on stage, Richard tries to act like they are part of the scene.
    • It only gets worse when more cops show up, and fully interrupt the show to arrest Sir Alexander, and take Gwen and Richard Chesteron to safety... and Gwen instead punches a cop in the face.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • Inverted: After Addison DeWitt's write-up of the Spirit Gum Theater's rehearsal is published, Gwen makes it clear she's more concerned about the fact that Jason is still missing.
  • When the cops show up to break up the show at Spirit Gum Theater, Richard Chesteron refuses to leave, opting to instead learn Sir Alexander's lines (as he's being arrested). And once Gwen punches a cop, he includes her lines too.
    • It eventually gets to the point where the cop that was trying to get him out is forced to instead stay behind to protect him... and gets roped by Richard into reading lines for the play. In fact, it's decided that the post-credits scene is Richard and the cop resuming the play by themselves.
• Slipping a Mickey: Once the drinks Jason, Fred and Tommy are given hit, thanks to some failed HT rolls, Jon narrates that whatever it was "hits fast, and it hits hard". This, in addition to a failed Fright Check, causes Jason to think they got drugged.
• Something We Forgot:
  • It's only after Jon lists off the crew Arthur managed to gather for the theater group that it hits Kara that this is still meant to be Galaxy Quest.
  • Partway though Part 2, Jason discusses with Fred the possibility that, since they have taken the places of their characters on the show, their own characters have taken their places back on Earth... only to abruptly remember that the others were left behind, and floats the idea of getting Sir Alexander Dane, Gwen and Guy involved with the plot.
  • Sir Alexander Dane bringing up Jason during his argument with Gwen causes the two of them to abruptly remember they hadn't seen or heard anything from him after ditching the convention several weeks ago, with Gwen being the only one to care enough to leave a message on his voicemail.
  • In an almost poetic bit of coincidence, it's only when the LAPD cop Gwen is talking to is asking who else went with her to New York that everyone abruptly remembers that Guy is supposed to be in New York as well.
• Spotting the Thread: When 1988!Tommy abruptly shifts into 1999!Tommy, that causes Jason to realize he didn't travel back in time, but rather has been in an elaborate fantasy.
• Strange Minds Think Alike:
  • Both Andy and Kara almost immediately conclude that the theater critic, Addison DeWitt, was giving off some Ratatouille vibes.
  • After Paulo cracks that the Communications Suite looked "pretty sweet", Kara borderline-glumly admits she was about to make the exact same joke.
• Stylistic Suck: invoked Kara decides that, due to Joz having the slightly better roll for the Travel Montage, Sir Alexander Dane and Guy's portion of it has worse editing: Not only was there a Windows Movie Maker wipe randomly spliced in, but at one point, the boom mike is in shot.
• Suckiness Is Painful: While Kara makes sure to point out she still loves it^note "I can love something that is also objectively hurting me.", the longer Jason spends being high and obsessed with baths, the more she feels "nihilist ennui about life".
  • And when things devolve into Jason trying to talk Fred into taking "the good shit", Kara outright calls the scene a psyop.
• Take That!:
  • When Guy flounders on stage, he tries talking about his current projects, prompting Kara and Andy to play audience members shit-talking the one that's a low-budget indie movie about a time machine built in a storage unit.
  • When "that villain from season 3" is brought up by the con's audience, it's decided he's named Mitt Romney.
  • When Serris is demanding the Protector turn over the Omega 13, Kara decides to tack something on to his demands: "Release the Snyder Cut!"
  • "I will never sleep in a Motel 6 again. Motel 8 or higher only, Super or otherwise."
  • When Broms talks shop with Jason about The Matrix, she asks if if there's going to be a sequel, as they seemed to have been setting one up. Andy quickly responds "She's lying to you!"
• Tempting Fate:
  • When Jason takes to the stage to do his introduction, Alex Demers petulantly asks why Paulo's mic wasn't peaking. No sooner does he say this, Paulo announces Jason got a Crit Success on his acting, meaning he wins over the crowd handily.
  • Discussed: When Fred toys with partaking in "stuff" while in the limo, with it being decided after a crack from Kara that he's talking about ketamine, the Thermians give the trio some drinks (in reality, a substance to acclimate them to the transport onto the Protector). After it hits, and Jason mistakenly assumes they were drugged, he quietly wishes they hadn't had that ketamine discussion.
  • Jason decides to take the ship to a place nobody has come out of alive, since surviving such impossible odds was pretty much his character’s whole thing in the Galaxy Quest show.
• This Is Gonna Suck:
  • Alex Demers' first words upon being introduced by Jon? "You know, yo- you're not- you're not really supposed to start anything like this, but I'm so, so sorry."
  • The second Jason asks if there's any extra tranquilizers on the Protector, Kara becomes noticeably distressed. This only gets more pronounced when it's confirmed the replicators can spawn them.
• This Is Reality:
  • After Tommy causes the "set" to lurch, everyone is asked to roll IQ. Jason's Crit Success means he realizes that this is a real space ship.
  • When does it click for Fred and Tommy that they are aboard an actual spaceship and facing an actual alien threat? When Sarris attacks the Protector... and one of the Thermians is shredded, resulting in blue goo and a tentacle going flying.
  • When Jason tries to use The Matrix to convince Broms to let everyone go, Broms pointedly explains that that was a movie.
• This Is Unforgivable!: When Gwen tries to find out Jason's current location from his agent in Part 2, he instead goes off on her about how Jason has been no-showing the events he had been scheduled for (neither knowing it's because he's in space), and makes it clear that if Jason doesn't get in contact soon, he's gonna need a new agent.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: After Crit Failing her Acting roll during the Spirit Gum Theater's rehearsal, once she gets clarification that several more rehearsals have passed between then and the publishing of Addison DeWitt's write-up, Kara decides to roll Acting again to see if Sir Alexander Dane had better luck, and she manages to get a Crit Success. Jon decides that means he does better acting when no one is watching, and has lost confidence in acting in front of a live audience.
• Time Skip: While the Protector subplot is implied to be taking place over the course of a day or two, the Spirit Gum subplot is taking place over the course of a couple weeks.
• Time Stands Still: The Morass seems to induce this effect, as anything and anyone leaving the ship are frozen in place, and Broms claims that everyone assimilated into it become unaging immortals.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Alex Demers abruptly decides to blow his Luck roll early on in order to try and follow after Gwen and Sir Alexander Dane, only to be quickly talked out of it by Paulo.
  • In order to determine if a radiation-filled hallway is safe to enter, Jason decides to stick his hand into it, and if he gets "a suntan", he won't go in... and when Jon announces he doesn't, Jason goes right in.
  • While being held by the cops for questioning, Mort gets asked a bunch of questions about Sir Alexander. Specifically, his location for certain days, his relationship with Guy, and the reason why he decided to get plastic surgery. While the players quickly pick up on what the line of questioning pertains, Mort doesn't, and in fact the answers he gives winds up painting Sir Alexander in a worse light that he was originally, and is more focused on wanting to leave the station. Eventually, Jon breaks character and calls Mort out for openly talking to the cops, with Kara adding the only thing he should have been saying was "Lawyer."
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: invoked After mentioning he had installed a "stereo handcrank" in his car as a reward for doing the folio-version of Henry the 9th, Sir Alexander Dane stated it was "poorly attended, but highly reviewed".
• Trapped in TV Land: Discussed: Jason winds up incorrectly realizing that he, Fred and Tommy were transported into Galaxy Quest, and are actually in the roles of their characters. "We Neverending Story-ed it."
• Trash the Set: The first encounter with Sarris caused enough damage to the Protector that the armor is gone, the weapons are practically gone, the navigation systems are gone, and all technology-related rolls are at a -3 disadvantage. And no one knows how to fix it.
• Travel Montage: Jon actually outright has Kara and Joz roll for such a thing in order to speed through the road trip to New York; Kara's 10 and Joz's 8 means it's a "perfectly average road trip". Sir Alexander Dane's portion is just of talking with Guy, and filling up the gas tank, while Gwen's sees her stop at a taco stand in the middle of nowhere. Or, as Jon explains, it's the same montage, but from different perspectives.
• Troubled Production: invoked Parodied: Apparently, according to both him and Gwen, Sir Alexander Dane legitimately killed an extra during the show's production, and it was kept secret.
• Two First Names: A major issue Jon has in DMing the game right from the jump is this exact trope.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: Thanks to Kara and Joz, the campaign winds up being split in two in the first episode: Jason, Fred and Tommy wind up entering the Sarris conflict early, while Sir Alexander Dane, Gwen and Guy decide to enter the world of improv theater.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • After Sir Alexander's "I just want to act" monologue to Mort in Part 3, Jon has Kara roll Acting... only for it to be a Crit Fail. In response, Kara proceeds to glumly admit she had recently seen Lisa in person^note for the first time since recording the back half of Last Action Hero, and she had gifted her a custom-made pair of dice^note implied to be the same pair she just used... which Kara promptly tosses across the room in a rage, declaring them to be cursed.
    Kara: FUCK YOU, LISA! YOU'RE DEAD TO ME! (calm) Those are legitimately gone, I don't know where they went.
  • Early into Spirit Gum Theater's production at the start of Part 5, Mort winds up severely blowing his cue and enters early, and after a couple minutes of fumbling, he decides to leave... only to wind up running into a cop, who takes him outside to talk to a detective that is there to arrest Sir Alexander... and Mort's way of answering his questions only makes Sir Alexander look more like a criminal than originally suspected.
  • As Jon reveals at the end of the campaign, Paulo is the real reason why Guy vanished from the plot: Jon wanted Alex Demers to come back for Part 3, but the moment Paulo said he couldn't get him, Jon decided that Guy got killed by a mugger... and that Sir Alexander got blamed for it when Arthur decided to go to the cops about it.
• Very Special Episode: invoked Hitting upon the idea they need to communicate directly with the morass, Jason talks with Fred about an episode they did where the crew of the Protector encounter a sentient nebula that turned out to have been in love with another nebula. And as Fred brings up, that episode caused the show to get a lot of angry letters from churches in the South "for various reasons", something Jason admits wasn't uncommon. Jon decides that meant the nebuli were homosexuals.
  Fred: We used to be progressive, Jason, damnit! We used to be progressive. "The Gay Nebula Crisis", but no, we gotta, we gotta...
• Voice Changeling: While trapped in Broms' Lotus-Eater Machine in Part 4, Jason winds up thinking of Gwen; this causes Broms to not only take on her shape, but Jon decides to let Joz voice her, in order to sell the illusion that Jason is back on Earth, interacting with her on set the day they wrapped Galaxy Quest.
  • Not only that, but Andy and Kara decide to butt in as well as Fred and Sir Alexander, which Jon allows; but in regards to Andy, that's because (due to a failed Will roll) Jon has Fred get transplanted from his fantasy world into Jason's.
• Was It All a Lie?: When Fred meets back up with Mathesar in the Lotus-Eater Machine while at the former's cabin, the second he asks why Broms called him "Fred", Andy decides that Fred is going to break the illusion, and tell Mathesar the truth about Galaxy Quest. To say Mathesar becomes heartbroken would be an understatement:
  Jon: (to Andy) Roll to break Mathesar's heart.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Off-handily created as a joke at the start of Part 2, Ensign C'had winds up getting killed by another exploding console when Jason tries getting the ship to take off^note thanks in part from Jon's own roll on the matter.
• We Used to Be Friends: By Part 4, Arthur has basically given up on Sir Alexander, seeing him as being nothing but a hinderance to the play. But, given how Sir Alexander had found his second wind by adopting the Ghost Dog role/persona, he doesn't exactly care about his opinions. In fact, it eventually reaches the point where, the day before the big performance Spirit Gum is putting on, Arthur tries to fire Sir Alexander and get him to leave, but because Sir Alexander blows him off and refuses to take him seriously^note and also because by that point, everyone else was on Sir Alexander's side, Arthur is the one to walk out.
• Wham Line:
  • At the end of the campaign, Paulo openly demands that Jon reveal what happened to Guy.
    Jon: (bluntly) Guy died.
• What Could Have Been: invoked
  • The crew spends a couple minutes of the intro discussing how, since the previous year's Tulkon, the casting for this movie was been of "hot debate". Kara only found out she was playing Sir Alexander Dane five minutes before recording, a role Paulo assumed he was playing until weeks prior,^note not even counting how she was "out of the movie for several months", and there were originally three PCs.
  • Played for laughs: As Jon helpfully points out, had Paulo not gotten a Crit Success for Jason to take tranquilizers before entering a Jefferies tube, he would've spent the rest of the movie unconscious.
• Whatever Happened to the Mouse?:
  • By Part 4, everyone remembers that Guy is supposed to be in the theater subplot, and no one (not even Jon) knows where he went.
    • At the end of Part 5 (and also the campaign), Jon finally pulls back the curtain: Guy got killed by a mugger in Part 3. And this is because Paulo was unable to get Alex Demers to come back to play him.
  • Ironically, at the same time, Tommy is missing from Part 4, but no one notices.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • After Guy admits the mobility scooter (which he "borrowed") has a dead battery once he makes it to Dairy Queen, Gwen points out how this would negatively affect the scooter's owner. Guy's solution is to just repurpose his mom's mobility scooter, causing Sir Alexander Dane to point blank ask him where his morality stands. Cue Alex Demers rolling 14 for his morality.
  • When Fred decides to accept Broms' offer to remain in the Lotus-Eater Machine, he talks her into letting the remaining Thermians aboard the Protector in as well. Broms allows Fred to see Mathesar one last time, in his true squid form; for a brief moment, there is a look of sadness and betrayal on his squid face... before he's distracted by the visage of a female Thermian, and a bunch of baby Thermians. Fred is more annoyed with the silent accusation than anything else.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Due to only learning she was playing Sir Alexander Dane five minutes prior to recording, Kara didn't know how to do a near-emotionless accent. As such, she gets only about one-and-a-half sentences in when the time comes to play it before she starts aggressively telling people to shut up when they start laughing.
• Who's on First?: By Part 2, the naming convention the cast has taken for the Thermians soon devolves into this, thanks to the introduction of Ensign Weak, Ensign Strong, and Ensign C'had.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Once he fully realizes he's in a Lotus-Eater Machine, Fred voices a lingering hang-up he has: Is he going to stay the same forever and never age, or can he die if he wants to? Upon being asked this, Broms puts Fred into a psychiatrist's office and, acting as his therapist, asks if he's contemplating suicide. But once Broms stresses that there's no reason to die, or feel the negatives of life, Fred decides to stay.
• Wrong Genre Savvy:
  • While in the process of being taken to space, Jason just assumes he and the others got drugged by a group of fans.
  • When told the Thermians based the ship off of "historical documents", Jason is tasked with rolling IQ to fill in the blanks... and Paulo hits a Crit Fail. The conclusion he reaches? They are actually in an episode of Galaxy Quest.
    • After seeing how well Fred was doing fixing the ship, Jason decides this means Fred is merging with his character on the show, and the same is happening with himself.
  • After being told the Thermian's plan to get the Protector through the morass, Paulo makes it clear that while he immediately has picked up that they are most likely about to die, Jason's perspective is decidedly different: "We've got Plot Armor, baby, this is fiction, let's fucking do it!"
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: In deciding to talk Guy out of going back to the convention, Sir Alexander Dane delivers a monologue asking him what his dreams are, and what more he wants out of life than being shackled to his one-episode appearance on Galaxy Quest. As a result, Jon decides that Guy gets to remove his "Cowardice" disadvantage, and gets two bonus points in his Acting skill. Or, in other words, that speech caused Guy to become legit.
  Kara: I just gave a fucking master class!
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • This is Kara's (almost) verbatim response to Paulo and Andy's extended riff about trying to fix the Protector's navigation systems... which is swiftly deflated by Jon stating the rolls for those are at a minus one.
  • During Part 3, after it's decided that Sir Alexander Dane (after spending the prior night drinking and getting high with some local amateur theater actors, all while experiencing a malaise about his life) is going to show up late for the Spirit Gum Theater's rehearsal^note or, as Jon explains, Kara is going to miss an entire scene of the narrative, Kara practically almost has a breakdown as Jon keeps prolonging the length of the current scene^note It's the middle of rehearsal, and Gwen is talking with the critic, Addison DeWitt, about Sir Alexander's absence:
    Kara: OH MY GOD, HOW LONG IS A SCENE?! HOW LONG?! IS A SCENE?!
    • When Sir Alexander Dane actually does show up, Kara decides to try and implement a redemption arc for the guy, he makes it clear to Mort that all he wants to do is act, and he's willing to get over himself to make it work. Jon then tells Kara to roll Acting. As everyone assumes the expression on Kara's face after said roll means she's doing the math, Jon immediately clocks what the look actually means.
      Jon: Oh no... Kara...
      Kara: (defeated) No... no math is required.
      Jon: You rolled a Crit Fail...
    • Jon ultimately rules that the Crit Fail meant Sir Alexander "completely beefed" the rehearsal, but knows he did, so when Addison DeWitt's write up gets published, he decides he doesn't need to read it.