Galaxy Quest
proposed flipping a Science Fiction TV show into a reality that even the cast didn't expect. This project is a reality that most of the world is unaware of. Suppose you launch a story about a group of dreamers putting a space venture together. As the story progresses viewers might begin to notice a familiar pattern as ideas they have heard about...somewhere. As the story progresses the characters are revealed to be not as fictional as initially presented. Now it may become clear that this is NOT science fiction, but fact...a documentary about this very venture. Social adventures only dreamed of on Star Trek
combines with evolving technologies that open the door to make that reality. Your cast may be unaware of the plan too, thinking this to be a documentary. This reality show cannot be micro-managed like current TV shows as these people have real work to do. But witnessing this all become reality is a real adventure, and that revelation may provide some real excitement. But remember, even NASA experienced a love triangle issue, so keep shields up in case of real misadventures too!
Responses
This sounds very intriguing!! I would like to see something of this sort, although I don't know if that would ever work in real life! But a tv series about a reality documentary pretending to be a tv series - that I would pay to watch!! Or read, it would make a great book too!
I never watched Galaxy Quest, should I start now?
Galaxy Quest is out there on the web or on DVDs. A Star Trek parody where the aliens turn out to be real, and THEY built a REAL starship per the TV show. Do the actors know how to handle the real thing? They didn't know this was actually going to HAPPEN!
Fun Fact: Galaxy Quest most likely borrowed the idea from a short story written for a Star Trek anthology... by Dorothy Fontana herself (famous Trek script- and book- writer), if I remember correctly (it was one of the regular Trek writers). In the story, members of the crew of the Enterprise get swapped with their alternate-reality 20th century actors from the Star Trek series.
It sounds like a fun idea, but I think I see a possible hiccough in the idea: credits. Fiction media are required to list credits of all actors with speaking roles. Even if the character
names are not given, I am sure that someone would notice that all the main characters use the real names of the actors
. That, and I am certain our real activities are bound to get noticed. I also wonder how you are going to keep the cast from noticing that their documentary
is being presented as a sci-fi show.
There is also the risk that the audience might lose interest when they don't get enough movement in the plot. The fiction audience has come to expect certain features from a programme, that I am not certain we could deliver in real life.
Again, I like the idea, but we do not have the plot device
that we would need to make the idea work. Galaxy Quest had aliens who saw the series in radio transmissions that they thought were real events. What kind of device could we use?
I have actually been exploring this very concept myself and had been planning it around the work that I am personally doing along with a group of like-minded folks that I'm slowly assembling around the world.
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