In the pantheon of alien-oriented sci-fi movies, a qualifier for true greatness is the caliber of the extraterrestrial. The more unique and strange they are, the more likely audiences will still be talking about them decades later.
Case in point: Galaxy Quest. Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the beloved satire of low-fi, space-exploration television shows and their egocentric human casts works for many reasons, including a brilliant script and pitch-perfect performances. But one of Galaxy Quest’s secret weapons is its wholly original alien species: the Thermians.
Bi-pedal cephalopods in their true form, they spend the majority of the movie in human guise, trying to awkwardly pull off a natural human gait and speech patterns. As led by the sweetly naïve Mathesar (Enrico Colantoni), the Thermians laugh, smile and unabashedly “fan-boy” around the original cast of the historical document they know as Galaxy Quest.
