captain Jack Blessing as Cos, an inexperienced, frightened crewman Production James Cameron While known as a "B movie king", Roger Corman has started the careers of many prominent Hollywood people with his films. Galaxy of Terror was one of the earliest films to feature the work of James Cameron, who served as Production Designer and Second Unit Director on the film. It was the second Corman film on which Cameron worked as a crewman, the first being Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). Working on a tight budget, Cameron's innovative filmmaking techniques came to the forefront. In one scene, Cameron was able to figure out a way to get maggots to wiggle on cue by developing a metal plate onto which the maggots were placed, then ran an electric current through the plate whenever filming began, causing the maggots to move energetically about. His ability to find low-tech solutions to such problems reportedly made him a favorite of Corman and eventually allowed him to pursue more ambitious projects. Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) was an important inspiration for Galaxy of Terror and Cameron would later direct the sequel, Aliens (1986). Optical FX Supervisor Tony Randel, who worked with Cameron on Galaxy of Terror, commented on the Shout! Factory DVD release that Aliens looks like Galaxy of Terror in many ways. Taaffe O'Connell and "the worm scene" The commentary on the 2010 Shout! Factory DVD release includes R.J. Kizer, one of three editors of the film. Kizer reveals that the originally scripted version of O'Connell's "Dameia" character would see her die topless while being stripped and consumed by a monster. Producer Roger Corman, however, had promised financial backers of the movie a sex scene involving O'Connell. This led to Corman re-writing her death so that Dameia would be confronted by an "id monster" from her own mind, in this case a long maggot complete with slime and tentacles. The re-write included full nudity and far more explicit sexual content, including simulated sexual intercourse during which Dameia, lying underneath the giant worm and covered in excreted slime, can be seen and heard reacting first with terror, then forced sexual arousal, to the monster raping her. Helpless and betrayed by her own mind and body, Dameia perishes as she's driven to a fatally intense orgasm. After informing director Clark and actress O'Connell about the changes and having both of them balk, Corman decided to direct