''Galaxina'' is a

low-budget A low-budget film or low-budget movie is a motion picture shot with little to no funding from a major film studio or private investor. Many independent films are made on low budgets, but films made on the mainstream circuit with inexperienced or ...

1980 American

science fantasy Science fantasy is a hybrid genre within speculative fiction that simultaneously draws upon or combines tropes and elements from both science fiction and fantasy. In a conventional science fiction story, the world is presented as being scientif ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

written and directed by

William Sachs William Sachs is an American film director/producer and writer. Besides his work as a writer and director, since working on '' Joe'', Sachs has been particularly noted for successfully doctoring others' films prior to release in order to confor ...

. The film stars 1980 ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

Playmate of the Year This is a list of models who were chosen as a Playboy Playmate of the Year for the American edition of ''Playboy'' magazine. List of Playmates of the Year *1953: Marilyn Monroe *1954: *1955: *1956: *1957: *1958: *1959: *1960: Ellen Stratton ...

Dorothy Stratten Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten (February 28, 1960 – August 14, 1980), known professionally as Dorothy Stratten, was a Playboy Playmate and actress, originally from Canada. Stratten was the ''Playboy'' Playmate of the Month for August 1979 and Playm ...

, who was murdered by her husband shortly after the film's release.Corry, John (1981-03-01). Silliness In Space. New York Times, 1 March 1981. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C06E7DF153BF932A35750C0A967948260. Besides its homages to and parodies of science fiction mainstays ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

'' (1966), ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' (1977) and ''

Alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...

'' (1979), this film also pokes fun at the

Western genre The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

. It won the

Audience Award An audience award is typically an award at a film festival (or some other type of cultural festival or similar competition) which is selected by the audience attending the festival, rather than by the festival jury or a group of critics. Example ...

at the 1983

Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film The Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFFF), previously named Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film (french: Festival international du film fantastique de Bruxelles, nl, Internationaal Festival van de Fantastische Fil ...

. A film viewed by the characters in ''Galaxina'' is a clip from the 1960

Eastern bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

sci-fi film, ''

First Spaceship on Venus ''Milcząca Gwiazda'' (german: Der schweigende Stern), literal English translation ''The Silent Star'', is a 1960 East German/Polish color science fiction film based on the 1951 science fiction novel ''The Astronauts'' by Polish science fiction wri ...

''. The clip is used because ''First Spaceship on Venus'' was a Crown International Picture when first released in the United States in 1962.

Plot

In 3008, the crew of the Intergalactic Space Police cruiser ''Infinity'' is on patrol duty in deep space. The ship is captained by the incompetent Cornelius Butt (

Avery Schreiber Avery Lawrence Schreiber (April 9, 1935 – January 7, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. He was a veteran of stage, television, and movies who came to prominence in the 1960s in a comedy duo with Jack Burns. He acted in an array of roles ...

) and his crewmen: his first officer, Sgt. Thor (

Stephen Macht Stephen Robert Macht (born May 1, 1942) is an American television and film actor. As the father of actor Gabriel Macht, he portrayed Henry Gerard, a Harvard University, Harvard professor in the US legal drama ''Suits (American TV series), Suit ...

); pilot "space-cowboy" Pvt. Robert "Buzz" McHenry (J.D. Hinton); Maurice (Lionel Mark Smith), a black humanoid alien with pointy ears and bat wings; and Sam (

Tad Horino Tadashi Horino (August 14, 1921 — October 3, 2002) was an American film and television actor. Career Selected filmography Tadashi Horino had an impressive career in film and television. He appeared in such films as ''The Kentucky Fried Mov ...

), an Asian man who quotes

Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...

. Also aboard is Galaxina (

), a voluptuous blonde android servant, and Rock-Eater, a rock-eating alien prisoner confined to the brig. While the ''Infinity'' hides behind an

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

, a suspicious-looking, bird-like ship flies by, and Buzz decides to pursue it. They try to question the ship's pilot, a mysterious masked figure who rudely terminates communications. The two ships exchange laser fire, but the bird-ship gets away. After the encounter, Galaxina serves a dinner of chicken-flavored food pills to Captain Butt, Thor, and Buzz. The three men are stunned by her beauty, and Thor receives an electric shock when he slaps her buttocks. Tired of the pill-food, Captain Butt decides to eat an alien egg confiscated from the rock eater prisoner. The egg sickens him, and, on top of the dinner table mimicking the scene from the movie ''

'', he coughs up a baby alien creature that quickly scurries away. Later, the crew receive orders to proceed to the prison planet Altair One to recover a priceless stolen gemstone called the Blue Star; every time the stone is mentioned, an invisible heavenly chorus is heard by the characters. The trip will take the ''Infinity'' 27 years to complete, requiring that the crew enter cryogenic sleep. Before doing so, they make a quick stop at an asteroid

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...

. Galaxina remains in charge of the ship while the crew is in stasis. While alone, she reprograms herself to become more human. She learns to talk and disables her electrical defense mechanism. She visits Thor's sleep chamber periodically, embracing it and telling the sleeping Thor that she loves him. Later, the baby alien visits Butt's chamber and tampers with the controls. When the crew awakens at their destination, Butt emerges from his pod an old man with shaggy gray hair. Thor is seduced by Galaxina and he falls in love with her. Although she lacks the proper hardware to have sex, she assures Thor that these components can be ordered from the android catalog. Thor can only fantasize about Galaxina until they return home and get her modifications. The ship reaches Altair One and lands. Knowing that the local aliens are hostile to humans, Galaxina volunteers to go look for the Blue Star while the others stay on the ship. She walks into town and enters a "human restaurant," and discovers that this means the restaurant serves humans as food to alien creatures. There, she finds Ordric, the masked figure the crew encountered earlier. Ordric possesses the Blue Star and Galaxina attacks him. Galaxina discovers Ordric is a

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be c ...

when she smashes his head open. Ordric is deactivated and Galaxina takes the Star. As she flees the town, she is captured by a gang of bikers, descendants of the first settlers of Altair One. Their leader announces that he will sacrifice Galaxina to their deity, " Harley-David-Son", and with the power of the Blue Star he will take control of the universe. Thor and Buzz, who have been looking for Galaxina, rescue her from the bikers and return to the ship. Ordric attacks and boards the ''Infinity'' as soon as they reach space. He takes back the Blue Star and confines everyone in the brig. The baby alien, now fully grown, sneaks onto the bridge and attacks Ordric. The creature, believing Butt to be its mother, goes to the brig and gives Butt the keys to the cell door. The crew escapes the brig and rushes the bridge, finding that Ordric has been torn to pieces. While contemplating the reward they will receive for returning the Blue Star, they notice that Rock-Eater has eaten it.

Cast

as Sgt. Thor *

as Captain Cornelius Butt * James David Hinton as Buzz *

as Galaxina *

Lionel Mark Smith Lionel Mark Smith (February 5, 1946 – February 13, 2008) was an American actor. He appeared in several movies including ''Galaxina'', '' Homicide'', '' Edmond'', ''State and Main'', ''Spartan'', and '' Treasure of Pirate's Point''. He also a ...

as Maurice *

as Sam Wo * Ronald J. Knight as Ordric *

Percy Rodrigues Percy Rodriguez (born Percy Rodrigues; June 13, 1918 – September 6, 2007) was a Canadian actor who appeared in many television shows and films from the 1950s to the 1980s. He was of Afro-Portuguese heritage and was born in the Saint-Henri neig ...

as Ordric's voice * Herb Kaplowitz as Rock Eater / Kitty / Ugly Alien Woman * Nancy McCauley as Elexia * Fred D. Scott as Commander Garrity * George Mather as Horn Man *

Susan Kiger Susan Lynn Kiger (born November 16, 1953 in Pasadena, California) is an American model and actress. Kiger was the ''Playboy'' Playmate of the Month for January 1977. Her centerfold was photographed by Pompeo Posar and Ken Marcus. In addition, sh ...

as Blue Girl *

Rhonda Shear Rhonda Honey Shear (born November 12, 1954) is an American television personality, comedian, actress, and entrepreneur. She is known for her role as a host in the 1990s USA Network's weekend B-movie show, ''USA Up All Night''. In 2001, she start ...

as Mime / Robot

Production

Originally, the film was supposed to be shot in 20 days. Due to unforeseen bad weather, some sets could not be used and so the production lost a few days of filming. As a result, the producers demanded that scenes be cut to keep the shoot on schedule. Because these scenes are missing from the final film, director William Sachs calls the final cut "too slow paced", as he would have edited it in a faster style had he been able to include the scenes that were never filmed..

References

External links

* * * *
Movie Trailer for TV
{{William Sachs 1980 films 1980s parody films 1980s science fiction comedy films 1980s Western (genre) science fiction films American Western (genre) science fiction films American science fiction comedy films American space adventure films American parody films Android (robot) films Crown International Pictures films Films set in the 31st century Films set on fictional planets Films set on spacecraft Space Western films 1980 comedy films 1980s English-language films Films directed by William Sachs 1980s American films