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Episode Studies by Clayton Barr

enik1138
-at-popapostle-dot-com
Galaxy Quest: The End of the Journey "The End of the Journey"
Galaxy Quest: The Journey Continues #4
IDW
Writer: Erik Burnham
Artist: Nacho Arranz
Cover by Nacho Arranz
April 2015

The crew reaches the Drythan city of Kanwhey.

 

Story Summary

 

The crew reaches the Drythan city of Kanwhey and must enter through the alien sewers to get close to the control station for the Ikaara beam.

 

Back on the Protector, Tommy is released from the healing pod in the medical bay, to find that, besides healing him, it rebuilt his body to perfection, giving him six-pack abs!

 

On Earth, the Drythans impersonating the missing actors at the convention cause a bit more trouble for Guy.

 

Back on Dryth, the crew and Qint infiltrate the control station, but Brandon gets tagged by a laser tripwire, allowing the Ikaara beam satellite to lock onto his genetic structure and shoot him. But he emerges from the aftermath relatively unscathed, finding that the beam apparently is not capable of pulling apart humans the way it does Drythans. Reaching the main control room for the Ikaara beam, Brandon sets the built-in self-destruct and blows the building up, while the Protector grabs them and all nearby Drythans up by digitizer to prevent killing anyone. The crew has repaid its debt to the Drythan rebels and are able to return to Earth to resume their lives.

 

18 months later, Nesmith is visited by representatives of the formerly-ruling Technocracy sect of Dryth and they tell him they've decided to leave Dryth to the rebel sect and settle a world of their own and they would like to hire the Protector and its crew to find a suitable world.

 

THE BEGINNING

 

Notes from the Galaxy Quest Chronology

 

This issue takes place immediately after the previous ("The Song of the Arbu") and then has an epilogue taking place 18 months later.

 

Didja Notice?

 

On page 5, Alexander claims that his Lear made the queen weep. This would be a reference to portraying King Lear in Shakespeare's play of the same name.

 

Qint explains that to stop the Ikaara death ray that targets enemies of the Technocracy in Kanwey, they must break into a guarded control station and destroy the electronic brain of the targeting computer. Nesmith sarcastically asks, "You sure we can't just shoot an exhaust port or something?" The reference to shooting an exhaust port is to the rebels' means of destroying the Death Star in Star Wars: A New Hope.

 

The healing pod Tommy was placed into after his encounter with the arbu in "The Song of the Arbu" is reminiscent of the bacta tank Luke Skywalker was placed in after his encounter with the Wampa and extreme cold on Hoth in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

 

Laliari refers to the healing pod as a "meditank" here.

 

On page 8, the Drythan impersonating Alexander pinches a nerve cluster in the neck of an annoying fan, dropping him into unconsciousness. This is borrowed from the Vulcan nerve pinch often used by Spock in Star Trek, especially appropriate as Alexander's GQ character of Dr. Lazarus is akin to Mr. Spock.

 

The dialog Alexander and Gwen use to distract the guards on page 12 is from the aforementioned King Lear.

 

On page 12, Alexander refers to Nesmith as Philistine. "Philistine" has taken on a modern meaning of someone who is uninformed or disrespectful of a particular area of knowledge, in this case acting.

 

Inside the control station corridor, after Brandon sets off a laser tripwire and gets shot by the Ikaara beam, he survives it and the whole group continues down the corridor unimpeded. But shouldn't the others all trip off the beams as well? There seems to be quite a number of them crisscrossing the floor!

 

On page 19, Nesmith introduces himself to the Technocracy leader as Commander Taggart. But "The Journey Continues" implies he is now a commodore in the context of his role on the new TV series.

 

The issue ends with an epilogue set 18 months after the main story. In it, representatives of the Technocracy sect of Dryth visit Nesmith at his house and tell him they've decided to leave Dryth to the rebel sect and settle a world of their own and they would like to hire the Protector and its crew to find a suitable world. Instead of ending with "The End", the story ends with "The Beginning." Possibly, this meant IDW planned to publish another Galaxy Quest mini-series, though another has not been announced in the years since this series was published.

 

Unanswered Questions

 

Why can the Ikaara beam satellite not be shot by the Protector in space and save a lot of trouble? Supposedly Qint has reasons they can't do that, but it's never revealed!

 

In what year does this story take place?

 

Did Fred and Laliari ever have a baby together as they were trying to do in the Global Warning mini-series? It's not mentioned at all in the current series.

 

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