Secondary Character: Alan Rickman; Alexander Dane — Galaxy Quest

Who: Alexander Dane / Dr. Lazarus

From: Galaxy Quest

Alexander Dane was a stage actor famous for his portrayal of Richard III, for which he received five curtain calls. He then took a job portraying Dr. Lazarus on the ’80s TV show “Galaxy Quest,” a space-travel story about an intrepid crew and their travels across the universe. The TV show was cancelled and the GQ actors have been reduced to living off their fame by attending sci-fi conventions, presiding at the opening of new stores, and allowing rabid fans to film interviews in their garages and basements… [IMDb]

By: David Howard

Produced: 1999

Pros: Dedicated to his craft. Has a cool catch phrase –“By Grabthar’s hammer, by the suns of Warvan, you shall be avenged!” Shakespearian trained actor. Awesome latex headpiece.

Cons: Jealous of his co-star, Jason Nesmith, who played the Cmdr. Peter Quincy, the captain of the Protector on the show.  Hates his cool catch phrase. Generally wallows in misery and self-pity.  Full of himself.

Most Shining Moment: Loosing his ego and embracing his character in order to comfort dying Quellek, an alien who idolizes his character Dr. Lazarus.

Why Rickman is so good in this movie: Rickman is deliciously snarky and sarcastic in this movie. It is one of his best comic roles and he gives it 100%. [For another dark comedic Rickman role, you should also see him in Dogma, but his role there is much smaller there… more of a Tertiary Thursday Character than a Secondary Saturday Character.) As much as Alexander Dane, the actor, has a certain snobbishness towards his role of Dr. Lazzrus, you can see that Rickman is having a ton of fun throwing himself at his role as the actor-playing-an-alien — especially when his prosthetic rubber headpiece starts to fall apart.

Why I Picked Galaxy Quest: As you may have guessed from this week’s bioBLOGS on Leonard Niimoy  (Mr. Spock of Star Trek) and  Nathan Fillion (Captain Mal Reynolds of Firefly) I rather enjoy my Science Fiction, and Galaxy Quest is a terrific send up on the sometimes too serious take on the medium. (Although Firefly/Serenity never took itself too seriously, Star Trek — especially the Star Trek movies — could get a bit big for its britches.) So A) I like the movie. B) Rickman is hilarious in it. And C) it was requested by one of my most loyal readers.

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Well, I guess that’s about it for our month of Alan Rickman Secondary Character studies. I hope this little salute has inspired you to put one or two Rickman movies in your queue. Cheers, Rita