Galaxy Quest was a popular science fiction series that ran in
the early 1980s. It featured the epic adventures of the brave crew of the NESA
Protector, a powerful starship that cruised the galaxy. Captained by the brash
and bold Commander Taggart, who relied on advice from his friend and science
officer Dr. Lazarus, as well as the beautiful Lt. Tawny Madison, who basically
repeated whatever the ship’s computer said, but looks pretty darn good doing it.
Since the series’ cancellation, actor Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen), who played
Taggart, and the rest of the cast are now doing the science fiction convention
circuit, signing autographs and reliving a glory that’s long since faded. The
other cast members are annoyed at the patronizing attitude that Nesmith has
towards them; and the growing hatred for their lead actor is only fueled by the
latest news that Nesmith had secured a gig for himself in a fan-made film,
without even mentioning it to them.
At one such convention, Nesmith meets several rabid fans of the show--all
dressed in NESA Protector crew uniforms--who are persistent in asking him for
his help against the evil aliens from the Klatu Nebula. He simply waves them off
as being weird SF geeks. When they show up at his house the following day with a
limo, Nesmith assumes they’re the dudes making the fan flick. He falls asleep on
the ride over in the back of the limo, but when he wakes up, Nesmith finds
himself in a remarkably accurate set of the NESA Protector. He ad-libs his way
through a confrontational scene with an alien leader named Sarris, blithely
ordering an attack without a second thought. When he thinks he’s finished with
his scenes, Nesmith asks to be sent home, and he is--he’s shot through outer
space while encased in an energy cocoon!
Real aliens have received transmissions of the old TV show, and were just as
inspired as the SF geeks were on earth. Only the aliens thought the TV show was
a series of real factual documents of an actual crew, and when they’re
threatened by another, evil band of aliens, they built a working NESA Protector
in the hopes of recruiting the good Commander Taggart and his valiant crew into
helping them. To say that Galaxy Quest is based on Star Trek--both the series
itself, and its fans--is putting it very
mildly. Tim Allen out-Kirks William Shatner as both the fictional commander and
as the "real-life" glory-hogging Nesmith. Sigourney Weaver was an inspired
choice as the lone female member of the crew, who still stubbornly repeats
whatever the ship says in real life because that’s her job, damn it.
Alan Rickman is marvelous as Dr. Lazarus, the Mr. Spock-inspired character, who
is played by a bitter Shakespearean actor who constantly pines to return to the
theater. Sam Rockwell is very good as the "red-shirt" character--the one-episode
guest star who gets killed to prove how deadly that week’s threat is--who’s
always worried that he’s the first to be killed off whether he’s on the ship or
off. But it’s Tony Shalhoub (best known these days from Monk) who really shines as the Mr. Scott-inspired engineer
character. Played in a mellow, laid back manner where everything--from
interstellar battles to fixing an impossibly complex starship--is taken by him
in easy-going stride, Shalhoub easily steals every scene he’s in ("Group hug,
everybody!").
The special effects are superbly done by George Lucas’ ILM (who
even do a convincing job on the cheesy, ’70s TV show effects scenes) and Stan
Winston. The DVD special features include a lame, 10 minute behind the scenes
look at the film--which is nothing more than a studio-produced fluff piece--as
well as some very funny bits, such as the Omega 13 feature, and an audio
soundtrack where all the dialogue in the entire film is spoken in alien gibberish.
There are no audio commentaries. Slyly poking
fun at Star Trek and science fiction fandom while still maintaining the greatest
of respect for its subject matter, Galaxy Quest is just a great deal of fun.
--SF
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